Life updates

[DOSGuy]

Hi folks.

I haven't posted in a really long time, and I'm sorry about that. In the fall of 2015, I was working as a web application developer for the Government of Canada, and I had no possibility of job advancement because I had no post-secondary education. I got permission to take a two-year college program called Internet Applications and Web Development because the description closely matched the job I was doing, so I was able to argue that it would make me better at my current job. My true motivation was to get a better job.

After three of four of semesters, I returned to work during the gap between semesters and learned that I was no longer an application developer; I had been transferred to another team that was shortstaffed. This team did no programming; they developed requirements and gave them to the programmers. Since I was the only unilingual member of the team, the meetings were conducted in French, and I got to sit there and look pretty. Worst of all, my request to return to school for my final semester was denied. I chose to quit my job to continue my education, and I've been unemployed ever since.

Anyway, I finished my last semester at the end of April 2017 and graduated with Honours! I can now call myself a Web Developer.

Then I applied for the job pool for the type of job that I really wanted, and I got in. Then the waiting game began, and never ended. The job pool is available to any manager who needs to fill a position, and it lasts for a year. Over the last year, I've had many interviews, and they've picked someone else every time. I realized, by the end of the summer, that I could be unemployed for a while, and thought about what to do with my spare time. I noticed that there was considerable overlap between the program I had graduated from and a program called Computer Programmer. I applied for, and received, advanced standing, and I started the program in September 2017. I had to take an extra course in each semester, but it was actually possible (though not wise) to complete the two-year diploma in one year. I finished the program a few days ago, and I can now call myself a Computer Programmer.

I had intended to use what I had learned in IAWD to improve the site, but I went back to school almost immediately and had to work even harder than I did in the previous program. Now I know how to do all kinds of crazy things in Java and Android and COBOL and Ruby... none of which are likely to be useful to the site. But, there's a possibility that I now have time to do what I had intended to do. I have two job interviews on Monday and could be hired at any time, so I still can't make any promises. But, with school over for the moment, I should at least be more available than I have been.

[Malvineous]

I know all about making promises and then not having enough time to fulfil them, so don't worry if you run out of time. Congrats on finishing your courses!

Have you considered looking at Stack Overflow jobs? I keep getting e-mails from them about jobs that don't sound half bad - many of them full time working from home - which I would be tempted to take them up on if I didn't already have a job I was happy with. I can't comment on what the application process is like, but the idea is you fill out your skills, interests and location (or desire to work from home) and they match you to jobs that hopefully fit your skill set.

In many ways you're in the perfect position to get one of these trendy work-from-home jobs that everyone raves about, so it might be worth a shot!