Programming Interviews Exposed: Secrets to Landing Your Next Job, Second Edition

1.2. Know the Market

Knowing what you'd like to do is great, but don't box yourself in too narrowly. You also need to understand the current job market and how it constrains your search for the "ideal" job, especially during an economic downturn like the one that burst the original Internet bubble of the late '90s.

1.2.1. Basic Market Information

There are a number of sources of information about what's hot and what's not in the developer job market, including the following:

• Online job listings — Large job sites such as Dice (which specializes in technology-related career listings), Monster, and HotJobs are your first line of research into what companies want.

• Bookstores — Even though more and more programmer documentation is available online, printed books are still a significant market for technical publishers. The number of books published on any given topic is a good indication of the degree to which skills related to that topic are valued by potential employers. Look out especially for niche topics that are suddenly going mainstream.

• Social networking and bookmarking sites — Some of these sites enable you to find potential employers, or enable them to find you. Others provide an indirect "pulse" of the market by the bookmarks and comments other programmers leave about various technologies and employers.

• Professional development courses — Colleges and universities try to keep abreast of what companies want, and create professional development courses around those needs.

If you're ...