Hello everyone, I haven't noticed much of a slowdown in this region (eastern Canada), and I still get emails from headhunters on pretty much a daily basis although it's been well over two years since I sent out a resume for any job. The companies that are taking the biggest beatings are the dotcoms that are exclusively web-based. I think business models that aren't at least 65-70% based on the bricks part of 'bricks & clicks' are still a few years away from being viable. Our company is web-based, but in a different sense. We have used Cold Fusion to build a suite of tools to fully manage the production of our magazine, the Ag Dealer (www.agdealer.com). We have built a series of web-based tools that handle everything from collecting information to exporting it to Quark for the pre-press layout. We currently publish 8 regional editions, and we will be launching 3 or 4 more in the very near future. We published our first magazine in April 1998, and we only moved into offices in April of this year. Working from home does not make you any less professional. If anything, it makes you more so. To me it says that the staff are motivated and disciplined, the company managers have an eye on the bottom line, and nobody buys into the old adage of 'high burn rate' for corporate financing. I don't think John really meant what he wrote as a slur against people who work from home. I think what he's talking about are people who work at Wal-Mart during the day, learned how to use MS FrontPage and call themselves professionals. At the same time, having any kind of certification doesn't mean jack to me when it comes to hiring. I don't know how many times I have received resumes from graduates of ITI (Information Technology Institute) who list three pages of 'work experience', when what they are listing are their projects they did at school. I agree that there are lots of posers who apply for CF jobs, and it's frustrating both from the standpoint of one who is competing for those jobs and one who is trying to hire someone who can actually do what they claim on their resume. As the one who is primarily responsible for recruiting and hiring web developers at our company, here are some hints that I would like to pass along to those looking for jobs: 1. If you're not 'the webmaster' for www.cnn.com, don't put it on your resume. The hiring manager will smell it, if not when they hire you, it won't be long before they do and you will probably get punted faster than you can say 'I'm an idiot'. It's a trust issue as much as anything else. If someone is going to lie to me in a job interview, I don't want them on my staff. 2. If there are some instructions for applying for the position, follow them to the letter. If the ad says email your resume in MS Word format, don't fax it and then follow up with a phone call. 3. Don't put sites for porn, religion, white supremacy, or any other controversial cause on your project history - you never know who you are going to offend. I once actually had someone ask me to ignore the fact that their site advertised 'underaged Thai hookers' and look at the excellent work with animated gifs. 4. Don't disparage your former employers in the job interview. Everyone has worked for a dickhead at some point, but keep it to yourself. 5. If you don't get the job, don't send a 'you-guys-are-assholes' letter. I know this sounds like trite advice, but I have received more than one of these. If you must make contact, send a polite 'thanks-for-considering-me' letter. There may not be any major reason for you not getting the job other than that there were 4 equally qualified people after the same spot. Who knows, you may be next in line. Besides, the HR people switch companies and talk to each other as much as you do; don't be surprised to find that you are burning more than one bridge. Finally, if there are any Ottawa-area developers with strong design skills and experience in Cold Fusion and you're looking for a job, please email me your resume in MS Word format. :) Merry Christmas, Philip Hunter Director - Internet Technology The Ag Dealer www.agdealer.com Tel: (613) 596-8022 Cell: (613) 223-7299 Fax: (613) 596-8088 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Structure your ColdFusion code with Fusebox. Get the official book at http://www.fusionauthority.com/bkinfo.cfm ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ To Unsubscribe visit http://www.houseoffusion.com/index.cfm?sidebar=lists&body=lists/cf_jobs or send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with 'unsubscribe' in the body.
