the art of tech job hunting in vancouver
It’s quite often that I find myself the target of questions relating to finding work in the tech industry in Vancouver. I’m not sure why, considering I’ve been working in the industry here for almost nine years and I’ve only worked for three different companies, but I guess people are under the assumption that having been around the block for a while, I must know what I’m talking about (a scary thought…)
Attitudes towards technology job hunting in Vancouver seem to have changed over the last few years and the techniques I used to use years ago have evolved to the point they’re there much more clear-cut and refined than they used to be. Superficially, it looks like less work is involved, but when it comes down to it, I’d say it’s actually more of a complex task because it requires a lot more industry savvy and self-marketing skills to find work in Vancouver now than it used to in the late ’90s.
A friend of mine dropped this question on me yesterday and I sat down and gave it some serious thought:
Is there a certain industry job posting board for web project managers? Or somewhere you can search for the top web shops to work for? And where would they find industry-related mags now?
Chapters sucks, and the Granville Book Company is closed…
I figured that since I was putting a decent amount of effort into a reply, I may as well make this available for others to read, too; maybe someone else in Vancouver can benefit from my hard-learned lessons. :)
Going the online job site route, your best bets are Monster.ca (or .com), Workopolis, HotJobs, Working.com, or Dice.com (if you’re looking for work stateside.) Also having your resume up somewhere visible — like a blog or personal portfolio site — is a good idea. Most of the leads I get are off my blog, and a lot of recruiters hit me up via Monster or Workopolis. As a corollary to that, if you want to avoid recruiters, you may not want to have a resume posted on on those job sites. ;)
Locally, you can always check out T-Net BC: they always carry local job openings and most Vancouver-based technology firms tend to post new job listings up there quite regularly. There’s also a good tech industry job board over at 37signals that’s worth checking out. It’s pretty high-profile and the jobs listed are spread out all over the place, but I’ve noticed some interesting stuff on there. Sites like Craigslist are also an option, but you need to know where to look: for instance, under the not-so-obvious categories of web/info design, or internet engineering.
People tend to underestimate the value of having an online presence, be it a blog or just having your resume up somewhere where search engines can get at it. I get a lot of leads/interest solely from people hitting Google and looking for certain types of developers in Vancouver. Having a blog (as much work as it is to maintain), or at least having a portfolio of some sort online is a very valuable commodity. Extra sets of eyeballs looking at your work never hurts, so spend a little time and give them the option. Just be sure to keep your resume reasonably up-to-date, or you’ll get constant spam from people desperately looking for bodies to work with obscure or dated technologies that you may be trying to avoid… (!)
Getting a profile up on LinkedIn is also a excellent idea. Connect to your existing industry contacts, fill out your resume, get some endorsements, and your odds of getting jobs (or at least contract work) will go up pretty nicely. I’ve even re-connected with several people I hadn’t talked to in years on LinkedIn; it’s definitely a worthwhile service, and it doesn’t cost you anything just to use the basic functionality. You can check out my LinkedIn profile if you want an example.
Of course, the other option is simply to stalk companies that interest you and check their careers sections out on a regular basis. Some of them are smart enough to have RSS job feeds that you can subscribe to, which makes your life a little easier. Of course, word of mouth is always the best way to get into an organization, but that takes a lot of luck and good contacts… not always easily accomplished. Talk to your friends in town, be they techies or not, and see what’s available. Sometimes a little initiative goes a long way — you won’t know what’s out there until you ask.
Another good way to make contacts is to go to networking events and conferences, join technology user groups or attend seminars put on by various organizations in town. There are several regular events out there, as well as new events such as the recent BarCamp Vancouver. You can also go out on a limb a bit (well, that’s my opinion :) and join local industry organizations like New Media BC or TechVibes and try and cultivate contacts that way.
Switching gears a little, when it comes to technology magazines and publications — well, I just tend to read a lot of different sites/blogs that are industry-related. Just takes a while to build up a nice list, using a good RSS reader like Rojo, Newsgator, or Kinja (I prefer this as my digest reader), etc. Dig around, you’ll find something you like. Then you can focus on building up your OPML library of RSS feeds.
Chapters still has a decent amount of industry mags, but in the last couple of years they’ve dropped off the map when it comes to carrying good tech books in-store. I tend to buy my books online at Amazon.ca because they almost always have 30%+ discount, and if your order is over $39, shipping is usually free. The only bitch is that you can’t really browse books anymore for the most part… so you need to read the customer reviews ahead of time and see if it’s worth buying a book sight-unseen.
Back to the question at hand; there are definitely options out there on both fronts. This may not be as plain and simple as it used to be (post resume on job board, rinse, repeat), but I’d go so far as to say that it’s a lot more empowering to the job hunter now that there are many more avenues available.
I’d like to hear any feedback you guys may have — it’s been a while since I’ve actively looked for work and perhaps a third party could shed some light on alternatives I haven’t considered.
Edit 09/18/2006:
Added a reference to T-Net BC - not sure how I forgot those guys, but a reference made in this morning’s staff meeting at my office reminded me of ‘em.
Having been a recruiter for 6 years, and also personally hired over 150 people in the last 7 years, perhaps I can add some tips to this. Going through the Job resource sites is important. However, sometimes you want to get a leg up on the competition. You can do this by following the industry locally. So the news you find on http://www.bctechnology.com is valuable as you can see who has acquired new contracts (meaning they will potentially need people). You can see who has been appointed to key positions, and a possible contact in the company. Knowing something about the company, you can then call them and have a tie-in to your call other than, “DO you have any openings” or “I wish to apply for the posted job” As well, Business in Vancouver is a great resource in seeing which company is doing what and who are the key people you might want to contact.
Thanks for the tips, George. Jared Shaw also dropped me a note today mentioning he has some similar tips on his site up here:
http://www.asktherecruiter.ca/findajob/jobsearch.html
Be sure to check out the rest of his site if you’re on the hunt for work in town.
It’s a bit late to comment on this, but I think by far the best bets for job search are the vertical search engines. Try
http://www.wowjobs.ca or http://www.jobvolume.com