[Q]Best way to hunt for a job

[blueren]

Hello all!

It's been 3 years now, in my current company and I always keep hearing that 3 years is the prime time to make a quick jump for all the profitz. I'd like to seek help from all the Gurus here to shed some light on the entire process.

Here's a quick backgroung of what I do:

Education:
BE, Ongoing MTech from BITS [Work Integrated program]

Work:
Although I was initially spearheaded for Java, I was put into the field of Maintenance / support engineer - Exp in C++, unix, shell jargon amongst a few others, in an attempt to instill some more life into dying applications built in the 90s -- for a cut throat investment banking client.

Now given that you're into maint and support, you don't really get to do mainstream "coding". What you get at best, is reverse engineering a code to see what exactly went wrong / doing adhoc changes to keep things working and getting all this done in a very time conservative space. Things are real-time and you don't have scope to take all the time you want. [Share market = money]

This has pretty much made me.. Jack of few, ace of none over the last couple of years. On the plus side, it's made me very good when it comes to communication and understanding.. something that's more people oriented. Voices in my head think it's about time to move away from it all.

Given this profile (although I honestly think that I'm understating myself here) what kind of companies could I try my hand at? And how? Will the popular job portals help? I do have my resume all buffed up, but given it's contents, I fear that there is a good chance of openings for the exact same job I do.

Here's something I'm looking for:

• Job that's well worth the time. I've trained myself to lean towards time than money.
• Better pay of course [No, this isn't contradicting to the previous point ]
• Any sort of on-site opportunities. Who wouldn't! [I've always fancied travelling east than west - SG/JP]

Please do let me know if any more details are required.

Thanks~!

 

[v.Na5h]

Following the thread

 

[abhi1984]

Ok here's my two cents. I worked for a bank just like you supporting mid range mainframes and even older version of apps - built back in 1980s. I moved out of it because it was a niche skill.

Now what I gather from your description, the word you are looking for is "production support". There too you have time bound need to reverse engineer code and fix issues. So what you are looking at is finding companies with "production support" which utilise C++, Unix etc. Believe me there are many and role is not so specific as you may think. Though you will find some might require you to know java or some other combinations. Given the need companies will hire you on some specific skill while ignoring others. So that take cares of your first requirement.

Secondly, there are prod support jobs at Amazon, cisco et al. Do they utilise all your skills or will you get a call? Difficult to say but if you get through you will be well paid. Interviews will be tough though.

Onsites are really job and team specific. Mainly in support (as far as I have seen), people lower than TL rarely get to travel. So it really depends.

 

[avi]

^product support interviews at Amazon are ain't tough.

 

[booo]

product development requires any and all means of coding to get the things done. "getting the things done" is the key here. being that said, the technical requirements in my team are very tough and if you can get through, I can promise that it would be awesome. We have been looking for people for our team in hyd and blore. so @blueren get in touch with me if you are interested. btw, the domain would be storage and c++ is just one tool to "get the things done"

 

[abhi1984]

^product support interviews at Amazon are ain't tough.

Well dint know that as don't have skills to appear for "amazon interview". Anyways the context was companies which pay good package and services like TCS, Infy wont pay much. Hence made a reference to "amazon, cisco et al".

 

[abhi1984]

product development requires any and all means of coding to get the things done. "getting the things done" is the key here. being that said, the technical requirements in my team are very tough and if you can get through, I can promise that it would be awesome. We have been looking for people for our team in hyd and blore. so @blueren get in touch with me if you are interested. btw, the domain would be storage and c++ is just one tool to "get the things done"

which company? amazon?

 

[blueren]

^product support interviews at Amazon are ain't tough.

Given the chance, I'd like to move away from prod support completely. One main reason being that it involves working at ungodly hours (shifts) forgoing holidays n vacations

product development requires any and all means of coding to get the things done. "getting the things done" is the key here.

A support engineer's worst nightmare when things go wrong. Haha!

the technical requirements in my team are very tough and if you can get through

Thank you for showing interest in helping out But it does seem quite scary when you say getting through is very tough, specially given the fact that it's been quite a good while since I "wrote" any code

Well dint know that as don't have skills to appear for "amazon interview". Anyways the context was companies which pay good package and services like TCS, Infy wont pay much. Hence made a reference to "amazon, cisco et al".

So.. what exactly is amazon's prod support work? I'm hoping it's not some crappy ticket assigning work which I hear about.

 

[avi]

^all suport works are shitty.

 

[abhi1984]

So.. what exactly is amazon's prod support work? I'm hoping it's not some crappy ticket assigning work which I hear about.

I don't really know. My skills were more on the mainframes side. I spent 2 yrs looking for a job because my skills were pretty finance centric. When I dint get one, I took steps to change my stream. Now I am into data engineering.

Given the chance, I'd like to move away from prod support completely. One main reason being that it involves working at ungodly hours (shifts) forgoing holidays n vacations

A support engineer's worst nightmare when things go wrong. Haha!

Thank you for showing interest in helping out But it does seem quite scary when you say getting through is very tough, specially given the fact that it's been quite a good while since I "wrote" any code

Here's the thing, if you want to move out from support then you need to take a bold step. Being scared because you haven't written code for sometime is not really an excuse. Better take out time from your off office hours and practice more. Once you are comfortable then get in touch with @booo
One of my friends used to work at a 3rd party consultant in US (ie a company which gets work outsourced by even Infy, Wipro etc). He struggled a lot. So he spent time learning and polishing his skills on coursera etc. Now he works at Walmart earning above median salary. So change is possible just be sure of what you want to do.

^all suport works are shitty.

And most IT work in India is support only

 

[booo]

A support engineer's worst nightmare when things go wrong. Haha!

getting the things done is different from taking shortcuts.

But it does seem quite scary when you say getting through is very tough, specially given the fact that it's been quite a good while since I "wrote" any code

havnt written code, is not an excuse. you should know c++ and OS very well. thats the requirement. btw, to give you an idea, one of the guys with 4 years exp joined in the support team. he said he is interested in coding. we tasked him to write an app in python (python because he said he knew python) and then after that we tasked him to write a linux device driver.

which company? amazon?

we are bigger than amazon.

 

[avi]

Google or MS?

since you say C++, my bet would be on Google.