Re: programming job market in bay area in US

Finished asking about 3 jobs ads (1 on ba.jobs.offered, 2 on
craigslist), back to responding directly to what you posted:
> From: Christer Ericson <christer_ericson@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Make sure your resume is correctly written up to appeal to employers.

I have no idea how to do that. I don't have the ear of any employer to
where I could ask him/her for his/her opinion.

> Have friends or collegues look it over and give their _critical_
> review, then address the issues they bring up (rinse and repeat a few
> times).

Recipe for elephant stew: First get an elephant. (The rest is moot.)

I don't have any friends or collegues, and have no idea how to get any,
so your advice is impossible for me to implement. The only people who
might vaguely qualify as "collegues" are people on newsgroups whom I've
never met in person and probably never will, i.e. you-all reading this.

> Ideally you should custom-tailor your resume to each job
> you apply to, highlighting the skills you have that they are
> particularly interested in.

I've done that in a few cases. I went to that extreme effort
way back when there were specific jobs for which I thought I was
especially tailored:
Resume.927-Lucid
Resume.933-North
Resume.933-RSA
The only one that got an interview was the one for RSA, but all they
want to interview me about was the software I had already developed at
M.I.T. using MacLisp to (1) efficiently perform modular exponentiation
and (2) generate random large primes (see other thread for detailed
info about my algorithm), then had no intention of considering me for a
job, they just wanted to steal any ideas I might have then warn me away
from competing with them.

Then recently I figured out a less laborsome way to adapt my already
written resume by simply deleting parts grossly irrelevant to the
particular job and adding buzzwords for anything missing from my
general resume that I happened to do which they mentionned as wanting
or which is close to what they want:
2005.5.26.Res
2005.6.15.Res
2005.6.15b.Res
2005.6.15c.Res

All the resumes whose filenames are listed above and below, are on my
Macintosh in my apartment. If you come visit me I'll show them to you.

> If you feel you cannot do this, try to write N (for some N) different
> versions of your resume, highlighting different things, sending the
> most appropriate one to the particular job for which you're applying.

Writing custom resumes the way I did in 1992-93 was exhausting and
emotionally draining, and worthless toward getting a job, so I
abandoned that until a month ago when I came up with the new method.
But during the intervening years I created many specialized types of
resumes for particular general areas of possible work, and posted most
of them on ba.jobs.resumes from time to time intersperced with my
several versions of general resume. Here are the specific ones:
Resume.921-CAI
Resume.921-LISP
Resume.922-6502
Resume.924-HelpNet
Resume.92Mac
Resume.92Util
Resume.93Games
Resume.93Sci (unfinished, need help fleshing it out)
Resume.947-ISR
Resume.FailNet
Most of these have been uploaded to here:
http://members.tripod.com/~MaasInfo/SeekJob/Resumes.html#Language
http://members.tripod.com/~MaasInfo/SeekJob/Resumes.html#Platform
http://members.tripod.com/~MaasInfo/SeekJob/Resumes.html#SpecApp

I also have several appendices which give multi-page listings of
accomplishments in specific areas where the one-page resume just lists
the general areas of expertise. Come visit me if you want to see these
too. And while you're here, please browse my several megabytes of logs
of specific responses I've made to job ads. Several megabytes of
contacts does not constitute sitting on my ***, it constitutes
spending my last bit of energy and not getting even one interview in
years.

If you want to compare with my attempts at a general resume:
http://members.tripod.com/~MaasInfo/SeekJob/Resumes.html#General

I have a shitload of different resumes to send out, just no ads for
jobs I qualify for since the job at RSA in 1993.Mar.

> Find a directory over companies that employ people with your
>general skillset. Locate their websites, ...

I have no idea where to find such a directory. Please look over my
specialized areas of expertise, either by looking at buzzwords or
topics in general resume, or by looking at titles of specialized
resumes listed above, and tell me where there's a directory for each of
those specialized areas.

Or do you know of a directory that lists *all* companies that hire
computer software programmers within an hours commute of where I live
in Sunnyvale, Calif.?
.