Blog Posts about Web Development

While, in general, I’d prefer to interview face-to-face, the phone screen interview does have its place during the initial selection process.  Here is how to use the phone screen interview process to your advantage as the candidate.

You don’t normally have to go looking for recruiters.  They usually find you.  Just place your resume at some of the most popular job boards and it’s “open season” on recruiters seeking you out to fill their contract jobs.  When you are unemployed, that can certainly be a good thing.  I’ve found, however, that not all recruiters are created equally.  Some are not worth your time and are just not a good match to help you.

When I lost my job at the end of November, I knew that it couldn’t have come at a worse time.  There were those that told me that there would be few opportunities through the end of the year, and as hard as I worked to try to prove them wrong, they weren’t.

As part of my severance package for the job that I lost at the end of 2012 the company provided to me a company to help me through the job transition.  I call the person assigned to me my Career Coach.  Her name is Carla and she has been terrific to work with.  Not only does her company provide group training sessions on such topics as interviewing and networking, but they also provide 1:1 guidance sessions.

Friends, I’ve come as close to NOT being unemployed any longer as I have recently.  About 2 weeks ago I interviewed with a company where they revealed to me that I was 1 of 3 final candidates and that they would make a decision the next day.  When I didn’t hear anything the next day, I was still undeterred.  It seems unlikely that a company would interview 3 candidates and make an immediate decision.  What transpired beyond that is a bit bizarre.

The 17 Days of Giveaways ran each weekday July 9-31. We gave our fans eBooks, Amazon gift cards, and more. Thank you to our fans, old and new, for participating. We hope that you had fun. Thanks for all the retweets, blog posts, and Facebook likes. We’re so sad we couldn’t give everyone a prize! Please sign up for our newsletter to stay updated on our latest news and product offerings, and maybe some upcoming contests with more opportunities to win!

Today is Day 13 of InformIT’s 17 Days of Giveaways. Three winners today will receive an Android Wireless Application Development Volume I: Android Essentials, Third Edition eBook by Lauren Darcey and Shane Conder.

For the twelfth day of giveaways, we are giving three winners an eBook copy of iOS Prgramming: The Big Nerd Ranch Guide, 3E by Joe Conway and Aaron Hillegass. These two instructors from the Big Nerd Ranch lead you through the essential concepts, tools, and techniques for developing iOS applications in this version updated and expanded to cover iOS 5 and Xcode 4.3.

We’ve reached the end of another week of giveaways. Today InformIT is giving three winners each an eBook of Elemental Design Patterns by Jason McC. Smith. In this book Jason addresses the difficulty that even experienced software professionals face in applying patterns. He helps developers, designers, architects, and analysts bring substantial value to their organizations by teaching to use patterns in a variety of languages, environments, and domains. The book is rich with examples in addition to being a helpful tutorial. He helps developers harness the true power of patterns, map them to real software implementations more cleanly and directly, and achieve far better results.

The Day 9 giveaway will add a nice touch to your bookshelf. We’re giving away sets of “GEEK” bookends from Etsy seller Knob Creek Metal Arts. They are perfect for keeping your software engineering books together!

For Day 3 of Software Engineering Week, we are giving three winners an eBook copy of Disciplined Agile Delivery: A Practitioner’s Guide to Agile Software Delivery in the Enterprise by Scott W. Ambler and Mark Lines. Mark (@Mark_Lines) concentrates on speeding execution and increasing quality in IT organizations by using agile and lean techniques in his career. Scott (@scottwambler) works as a software process improvement consultant. Together they teach the reader to supplement Scrum with agile and lean strategies for a competitive advantage over traditional approaches to building software. The goal of this book is to be an indispensable resource for every enterprise software leader and practitioner, whether they are seeking to optimize their existing agile/Scrum process or improve the agility of an iterative process.