It’s 2024! With new found inspiration, and a lot of time perusing LinkedIn lately, I’ve found myself coming to many realizations and conclusions about the state of the market, jobs and careers, particularly in software and IT.
Ive decided to put myself out there and share them here. This isn’t going to be pretty, but I’m hoping that it’s real enough that it gets appreciated. I’m not marketing or selling anything, and I feel there should be more openness and honesty on LinkedIn. It should be more fun, more organic, more ‘punk rock’, but of course that’s nowhere near the mirage of ‘professional branding’ LinkedIn would ever portray - if that makes sense. Actually, I am selling something but I’m not selling it here in this post. I’m writing this for fun, for my own good and others.
I’m writing this because it’s 2024, I turned 40 last September, and IDGAF if I’m professional or not. I know what I’m good at and not. I’m not great at writing, but I’m writing. I’m putting myself out there.
That brings me to my first point, is that it has become nearly impossible to not put yourself out there, especially if looking for a new career move (or just a job.) This post isn’t advice, it’s more of a stream of thoughts related to #opentowork, and LinkedIn.
Aside, just last night I checked if the domain name “unlinked” is registered, which of course it is. That’s my second breadcrumb (not advice), is that maybe somewhere along the line many of us are a little too “linked in”.
When it comes to the software industry and the current job market, it seems there’s a deluge of talent out of work or amidst career changes. What I’ve realized is that it is difficult enough to even land an interview or get a foot in the door, let alone compete against hundreds or more of other applicants. Job seekers seem desperate, recruiters seem desperate, but yet the companies are desperate for solid talent. Will a data scientist/machine learning expert/psychologist please make some sense of all this to me, please!
After working from home for almost 5 years I experienced extreme burnout as a developer. I took about a year and a half off and didn’t touch a single line of code for about 6 months. I actually swallowed my pride and worked at a convenient store for almost a year, around people! It was an extremely insightful experience after being at a desk all day everyday in my home office for 5 years!
Eventually, the burnout wore off and I started to tinker with code again. I learned some new libraries and frameworks, played with some game dev toolkits, tried out different Linux distros I hadn’t heard of. I got a few old laptops (10 years or older) out of my closet and started putting Linux distros on them, playing with networking and containers, and remembering why I loved computing, software development, and just having fun and writing code for the love of it as a hobby!
All that said, yes I am #opentowork, but here’s what I’m really open to and I think others should be to. I’m open to code. I’m open to create. I’m open to solve problems. It doesn’t have to be a job. I have nothing but time on my hands for the next two months and will be at my desk for 14-16 hours a day anyway.
So, why not? Send me an open source project that needs help. Send me a Github issue. Send me a problem you’re working on that’s interesting and I’ll surely take a look. Send me a volunteer opportunity! Need some code written? Just shoot me a message. I’ll be sitting around writing code anyway.
I’ve found it much more valuable to spin up a bunch of hobby projects, proof of concepts for possible ventures, and get my hands dirty than to easy apply to another job on LinkedIn. I’m convinced by Steven King’s quote along the lines of, “If you want to be a writer, write a lot.”
That said, I’ll be writing code, creating things, posting about how I hate LinkedIn - on LinkedIn, while running my thoughts through ChatGPT because I don’t have time to craft a meticulously poerfect, ;) edited rant because I’m to busy loving life again, loving what I do again, not my employer.
Some careers are the type that you go in, work, go home and leave your brief case at the door. A lot of us in the tech industry don’t allow ourselves that luxury. We’re expected to have mastered and upgraded to the latest release of XYZ framework that just came out last week, that had breaking changes where your company’s flagship application’s dependencies just got completely bjorked because of a late Friday deployment and eg: exaggeration I know, you then missed your anniversary, your mother’s birthday and your grandmothers funeral. Okay, maybe that’s too far.
Be open to work, but first be open to love what you do. Put yourself out there. LinkedIn is extremely full right now of “it’s 2024 I’m gonna have this go-getter can do attitude and spend all day long taking other people’s advice”, especially from all the “gurus”, recruiters and career coaches out there.
Listen, you know who you are. You know what you can do. Get out there and do it. Don’t let LinkedIn bring you down. If you write code, write a lot of code and do it with other people and I guarantee you’ll find work.
For anyone who read all this and either enjoyed or hated it, let me know. I just spun up a new personal website for my software projects, articles, notes, rants, art, etc. and I’ll be adding and revising this post to it by this weekend.
If you’re an editor that is #opentowork and would like to edit some of my writing for me, shoot me a message. If you’re an #opentowork software developer who wants to work on open source code with me, shoot me a message. If you’re an #opentowork graphic artist who wants to volunteer, definitely shoot me a message.
Again, it’s 2024! If you’re #opentowork, I know it’s frustrating, but get out there and kick some a** at what you’re great at, at something you love!