Re: [tlug] Looking for Summer Internship in Japan

["Stephen J. Turnbull" <stephen@example.com>]

Benjamin Kowarsch writes:

 > You are assuming I am looking for dev work through headhunters.

I made no such assumption.

I don't know (and actually don't care) how *you* search for work.  I'm
telling you what I can easily observe around me: a lot of public
recruiting based on "drone qualifications", and successful job search
based on "true skills" and personal networks.

 > Nobody looks at the true skillset, no matter how you present it

Sorry, you're wrong.  In my personal experience, it's about 90% of
potential employers who look at true skillset.  I'm sure I've had more
than my share of good luck, but I'm also sure it's not close to nobody
in the "real world".

In both the cases I mentioned, both my would-be boss and his boss were
looking at important subsets of the true skillset.  The boss was
looking to offload certain aspects of catherding on me, and I had
significant relevant skills and experience.  The boss's boss was
looking at departmental work culture and my experience, which was
limited to a couple of decades of professoring, and worried that (a)
I'd need a lot of herding myself, and (b) that my lack of coding
experience and productivity would make it very difficult for me to
successfully influence coding practices "in the trenches".  I would
have been happy to work for those people, but the jobs on offer looked
like more -- and different -- work than I wanted to do.  It didn't
work out, but nobody was focused on irrelevant formal qualifications
(such as my PhD in Economics).

Another way to put it is "don't search for a good job, search for a
good boss".

 > When I have been introduced somewhere it was typically through
 > somebody I know who know somebody or knew somebody who knew
 > somebody. It makes little difference.

Yes, and that implies that finding good work is mainly a function of
one's ability to extend one's network.

 > The subject matter idiots have it.

Well, have it your way.  Somebody else will get the jobs that you
won't get offered!  Despite being far more qualified for them than the
successful candidate in many cases .... ;-)