IT Guys - Was Technical Interview Advice - Now Life as a Government contractor (1 Viewer)

[JaxBill]

After a long time with one company, I am looking for work as a Java developer. I have had people look at my resume and help there.  The problem is I get technical interviews and I flub them.

Part of it is psychological I think. I will answer a couple questions cold then when I don't know an answer  I panic. Here we go again, yadda yadda yadda.

Part of it is the breadth if my resume. Java, Web services,  MVC HTML, Bootstrap JQuery Oracle, etc. I've gone from writing Web services that pull from the mainframe to writing server side code and also doing consumer facing pages.  Jack of All Trades, master of none and it provides for a huge amount of material to review. 

Last part is that technical seems to involve at least one but usually multiple people who were born in India. Sometimes I have problems understanding their questions and I'll  ask to repeat and then if I still don't understand,  I'll try to repeat what I think the question is. Often I'm way off on what their question is.

Anybody have any advice or websites/books that are beneficial ?

 

[NutterButter]

Do you have an example?   I'm a full stack guy as well, but with Microsoft.   You talking about something where maybe you know angular and they're asking about react or you know servicestack and they're asking about asp.net web api?  So questions about analogous implementations of the same concept.

 

[Baloney Sandwich]

Learn Hindi

 

[RokNRole]

Have you tried turning the interviewer off and then back on?

 

[RokNRole]

Learn Hindi

Andchange your name to Mike Smith.

 

[JaxBill]

Do you have an example?   I'm a full stack guy as well, but with Microsoft.   You talking about something where maybe you know angular and they're asking about react or you know servicestack and they're asking about asp.net web api?  So questions about analogous implementations of the same concept.

Some of the stuff is basic that I know but isn't something you think about every day (like encapsulation).

Some of it are specific detailed questions that I don't have memorized (lifecycle of a JSF bean/ how would you make your web service stateless).

Some of it is jumping around to different technologies or frameworks, some of which I haven't used in a decade( Java / JSF / Struts/ Spring MVC / JQuery )

 

[NutterButter]

Some of the stuff is basic that I know but isn't something you think about every day (like encapsulation).

Some of it are specific detailed questions that I don't have memorized (lifecycle of a JSF bean/ how would you make your web service stateless).

Some of it is jumping around to different technologies or frameworks, some of which I haven't used in a decade( Java / JSF / Struts/ Spring MVC / JQuery )

gotcha.   the one thing i do which i think is essential to do in one form or another if you want to ensure you'll always been in a very employable state is I watch videos during work on pluralsight.  My company pays for the license, but I think I'd probably get one even if they didn't.   I maybe watch 3 hours a week.  I used to read apress books a lot b/c they came in pdf so I could read at work but i like these videos a lot more.   Even when presenting a particular framework they'll always be glossing over other technologies and concepts so it has multiple purposes of doing a deep dive into a particular technology while at the same time hearing about other unknown technologies as well as a refresher on other concepts and technologies you may already know. so in your case, if you need to brush up on your oop principles, you could watch this course.  

 

[top dog]

gotcha.   the one thing i do which i think is essential to do in one form or another if you want to ensure you'll always been in a very employable state is I watch videos during work on pluralsight.  My company pays for the license, but I think I'd probably get one even if they didn't.   I maybe watch 3 hours a week.  I used to read apress books a lot b/c they came in pdf so I could read at work but i like these videos a lot more.   Even when presenting a particular framework they'll always be glossing over other technologies and concepts so it has multiple purposes of doing a deep dive into a particular technology while at the same time hearing about other unknown technologies as well as a refresher on other concepts and technologies you may already know. so in your case, if you need to brush up on your oop principles, you could watch this course.  

Big fan of pluralsight. They have coupons out there to bring the annual cost down as well.

 

[sbonomo]

gotcha.   the one thing i do which i think is essential to do in one form or another if you want to ensure you'll always been in a very employable state is I watch videos during work on pluralsight.  My company pays for the license, but I think I'd probably get one even if they didn't.   I maybe watch 3 hours a week.  I used to read apress books a lot b/c they came in pdf so I could read at work but i like these videos a lot more.   Even when presenting a particular framework they'll always be glossing over other technologies and concepts so it has multiple purposes of doing a deep dive into a particular technology while at the same time hearing about other unknown technologies as well as a refresher on other concepts and technologies you may already know. so in your case, if you need to brush up on your oop principles, you could watch this course.  

I feel very inadequate right now.  I really don't understand a word you all are talking about.  

 

[JaxBill]

gotcha.   the one thing i do which i think is essential to do in one form or another if you want to ensure you'll always been in a very employable state is I watch videos during work on pluralsight.  My company pays for the license, but I think I'd probably get one even if they didn't.   I maybe watch 3 hours a week.  I used to read apress books a lot b/c they came in pdf so I could read at work but i like these videos a lot more.   Even when presenting a particular framework they'll always be glossing over other technologies and concepts so it has multiple purposes of doing a deep dive into a particular technology while at the same time hearing about other unknown technologies as well as a refresher on other concepts and technologies you may already know. so in your case, if you need to brush up on your oop principles, you could watch this course.  

Thanks for the heads-up on pluralsight. I'm still looking but think I'm close. I have a second inperson interview at a Jacksonville web-hosting business (hint: They sponsor the PGA minor league domestic tour).

Part of the interview is an online java test.

Aside from pluralsight or hackerrank, are there any good self-testing sites out there?

 

[Scoresman]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JfsVTGmBpoY

 

[mr. furley]

i'd say most interviewers want to know how you'll fit in to their culture. they want skilled employees but also people that are going to work well with their current group.

given my experience with IT over the last 20 or so years i'd say if you show up an hour and a half late for the interview with a Starbucks cup in hand, 2 laptop bags, a brown bag lunch, 2 Mountain Dews in the other hand, reeking of smoke, with a horrible haircut, goatee, carpenter khakis, a 3XL Chaps shirt (even though you wear a large), black dress shoes that are at least 20 years old with holes in the soles... sit down at the interview desk, pull out your phone, kill another 30 minutes before acknowledging the process and then wait 2-3 days before responding to any questions with mostly smarmy, unhelpful answers that are dripping with disgust... you will nail 95% of IT interviews

 

[ChiefD]

I would just say this the next time you are asked a question you are unsure about:

"Well, that sounds like an ID 10 T error to me."

 

[mr. furley]

you sound bitter

or like a guy who has worked with IT for 20+ years

 

[ffldrew]

Make sure to sprinkle a lot of OKs in the middle of your answers ...OK......because that is the way you might understand...OK....and then you save the file OK .....and then you ...OK....I hope you got it OK.

 

[JaxBill]

Well to answer my own question,  I found the hacker rank Cracking the coding Interview to be helpful. The exercises are good and even if you just watch the video you can get something out of it. (Although the author can be annoying)

Had a second in person interview yesterday that went well. I spent about 30 minutes white boarding an answer. The Manager was pleased. Hoping to hear back next week.

 

[Johnny Rock]

Have you tried turning the interviewer off and then back on?

How about hanging up and calling back? Rinse and repeat until you get an American call center.

 

[JaxBill]

Well to answer my own question,  I found the hacker rank Cracking the coding Interview to be helpful. The exercises are good and even if you just watch the video you can get something out of it. (Although the author can be annoying)

Had a second in person interview yesterday that went well. I spent about 30 minutes white boarding an answer. The Manager was pleased. Hoping to hear back next week.

So I am in waiting limbo and I think this job opportunity is gone. Here is my timeline so far:

- In-person white board interview with positive feedback afterwards from interviewer. He said I should I should hear back next week. This was Friday 10/20.

- The following Wednesday I sent a belated Thank You email to the HR guy and asked if there was any feedback. He replied "No, I haven't heard back yet. I'll let you know when I do."

- The Wednesday after that I emailed back asking if there was any timeline for receiving feedback and teh HR guy never returned the Email.

- Radio silence since. The job I interviewed for is still open. There were 2 other positions that I applied for that I have never heard from the company.

At this point, I am under the assumption that they are going with somebody better or younger or cheaper. I am reluctant to ping the HR guy again for fear of dooming the other two potential matches.

Meanwhile, desperation is starting to sink in as the calendar advances closer to the holiday season. If I don't receive a job offer in next few week, it  won't be until end of January. I have started applying to jobs in Tampa and putting relocation on the table.

Sigh.

 

[ThreeThousand]

If you're starting to think about relocation and are willing to move to Atlanta, send me your resume.  We're looking for a Java person.

 

[JaxBill]

Update: Just as I started to get the wheels in motion for Tampa, I interviewed for a local job (here in Jax) with a large national financial corporation.

I have received a job offer for Contract-to-Hire where I would work for recruiting firm for 4 months then go fulltime with mega corp.

The lengthy background check has been started. Drug test approved. Waiting on appointment to give fingerprints. I'm about 10 days in to the background check and have no firm Hire Date. Originally quoted 12/18 but that is in doubt.

Meantime, another job opportunity was presented to me. Small trucking/logisitics company looking for developer/jack of all trades guy. They are looking for local person to handle their needs that is currently carried about by corporate. Contract job with open-ended end date. Supposedly large backlog of work. Interview is tomorrow and it is going to be multiple steps in one interview(They brought in IT folks from out of state corporate for the interview). Money is similar but mega corp would eventually offer better benefits. (Currently using wife's benefits), I am told that I am one of 3 candidates. Supposedly they want somebody to start immediately. One advantage is possibility of working from home and it looks like I would be the only one reporting to the local IT "Manager".

So there is the possibility that I might have a difficult decision to make.

 

[Osaurus]

Let the beer bring you here 

 

[JaxBill]

Update: Just as I started to get the wheels in motion for Tampa, I interviewed for a local job (here in Jax) with a large national financial corporation.

I have received a job offer for Contract-to-Hire where I would work for recruiting firm for 4 months then go fulltime with mega corp.

The lengthy background check has been started. Drug test approved. Waiting on appointment to give fingerprints. I'm about 10 days in to the background check and have no firm Hire Date. Originally quoted 12/18 but that is in doubt.

Meantime, another job opportunity was presented to me. Small trucking/logisitics company looking for developer/jack of all trades guy. They are looking for local person to handle their needs that is currently carried about by corporate. Contract job with open-ended end date. Supposedly large backlog of work. Interview is tomorrow and it is going to be multiple steps in one interview(They brought in IT folks from out of state corporate for the interview). Money is similar but mega corp would eventually offer better benefits. (Currently using wife's benefits), I am told that I am one of 3 candidates. Supposedly they want somebody to start immediately. One advantage is possibility of working from home and it looks like I would be the only one reporting to the local IT "Manager".

So there is the possibility that I might have a difficult decision to make.

Update:

I ended up starting at Mega Corp on January 2nd. Weird situation in that the development team for this project is like 7 contractors (including myself) with 2 full time employees reporting to a local manager who reports to somebody in MegaCorp tax haven of Delaware. Also working on project is team of FTE based in India who are extremely threatened by our existence and go out of their way to steal assignments and brown nose the business folks. Overall a positive experience in that I have been exposed to cloud computing, React and NOSQL.

However, my contract is from 4 to 18 months. Any time after 4 months they can roll me perm. I have received glowing reviews and have been tasked with data modeling on the project. People look to me for advice on how to carry out assignments. But when I talk to my boss about my future, I get a bunch of "I don't know. I have to ask Delaware." My recruiting company is equally clueless and probably doesn't want to tick off a big fish of a client. My 4 months was up last week. My contract was supposed to end June 3rd. When I raised this point yet again, they extended my contract - to June 30th.(Thanks for the 27 days.)

I'm at the point where I think their end game is to string out the contractors until August, when first cut of project is supposed to be in QA, then make decisions as to who they want to keep (if anybody). To me, it's not out of the realm of possibility that they say, "Thanks for laying the foundation, we're going to turn it over to the FTE." It really bothers me that nobody can give me any timeframe to receiving perm offer or giving me a performance review that says "You need to work on a,b,and c to receive perm offer."

I've started to look again, just in case. I have passed the first round of phone screens and have an in-person interview later this week with a different company. This would be contract to hire working for a government contractor  (Naval plane repair and logisitics).  It's a decent raise over my current contract (18%) but the technology stack is not as glamorous (Java, GWT, Oracle). Contract is supposed to be 6 months contract to hire. Downside is that due to nature of work, there is no Work From Home allowed at all.

Thoughts?

 

[JaxBill]

Monday morning bump

 

[Keerock]

My company has an office in Jax... if you want to forward me your resume, I'll see what's available.

 

[JaxBill]

Thanks for the offer @Keerock.

If this opportunity falls thru, I will take you up on it.

 

[JaxBill]

Update- I passed the phone screen for the government contractor and had my in person tech interview yesterday. 

I thought it went well and waiting on next steps. 

Sucks to walk away from an opportunity at a large corporation but all signs are they just want to keep me on rolling 60 day contract.

 

[JaxBill]

Friday after lunch, I found out that I had the job at the defense contractor.  I told my current staffing company and they did some scrambling. I talked to my current boss and he was trying to keep me. Every sentence started with a What If....and I told him that I was looking for something definite so I was taking the other job. Somewhat surprised I didn't hear a peep this morning.  Not sure how many other team members know.

Looks like the 25th is my last day at current job. I start Tuesday after Memorial Day at new gig. Every rumor I'm hearing makes it seem like great timing since it seems like future of this team might be short lived after August/September. 

 

[JaxBill]

So the past week was interesting.  Some of the bosses from Wilmington were down to visit. My boss's boss ( call him Tommy) came to me directly and asked what they could do to keep me. I told him that it was too late.  He told me that my boss had never passed on my questions up the chain to Tommy.

It turns out that Tommy's boss is furious that he was never told that a key part of this project was unhappy and is leaving.

As a result the other contractors that they planned on keeping received emails from Tommy detailing their interest and general guidelines.  Less than half the contractors across 2 teams received this email.

My boss came to me and asked me again to stay. I refused. One if the team leads, who got the email, asked me to stay. I refused. 

I plan on staying thru the end of this week. I start the new job on the 29th.

 

[belljr]

lol - good luck.

Sounds like someone else will be looking for a job

 

[JaxBill]

Update-

Closing in on 8 weeks in new gig and I'm starting to get accustomed to the government timeline. So far the number of lines of code that I have written is approximately *checks notes* umm, zero.

First week they were waiting for my initial clearance to come back to issue my badge to get me past the guard and the card for my computer. 

Second week i had those cards but i had to wait for the actual certs for my computer card to be approved. It took another 10 days before i was able to turn on my computer and do anything.

Then i had to get database clearance before i could actually connect to a database. Since then i have been trying to set up a sandbox which is difficult for a number of reasons. The sandbox setup is not documented and the other developers on my project are remote contractors. The strict firewalls make mundane things like webex and emailing screen prints difficult. This other developers inhouse work for other projects and have different dev setups. What i have found is that i must approach them with a single specific question and they'll answer that willingly - but don't expect anything more. 

I am in offsite Advanced Java8 training this week so i haven't even been in the office.

The other folks in the office who are on the team are testers/BA/product owner and they're nice. The team does the govt compressed work schedules of 9 hrs Mon -Thurs and 8 on Fri with alternate Friday off. Working in a windowless converted airplane hangar is a little different.  Every once in a while you hear the rumble of a plane taking off. Unless it's 230 in which case it's thunder since this is Florida.

Overall I'm very happy with the move. More pay and less work. I'll be happier once I'm up and running though. The commute is only few minutes more than my previous contract despite being more than 2x distance (interstate plus commuting against most travelers)

 

[[scooter]]

Have you heard anything from your former job? Sounds like A) your direct boss really screwed up by not communicating with Tommy or anyone else, and B) the entire corporate culture was designed to push away guys like you in the first place. So, eff 'em!

 

[JaxBill]

Have you heard anything from your former job? Sounds like A) your direct boss really screwed up by not communicating with Tommy or anyone else, and B) the entire corporate culture was designed to push away guys like you in the first place. So, eff 'em!

Not really. My recruiter for that job called me this week to check in to see how i was liking the new contract but she didn't give an update and i didnt ask or care.

The culture of that team was to bring in a bunch of contractors for an extended trial and push out a preliminary product, weeding out the poor employees on the way. Yeah my boss dropped the ball bigtime.

 

[The Commish]

Update-

Closing in on 8 weeks in new gig and I'm starting to get accustomed to the government timeline. So far the number of lines of code that I have written is approximately *checks notes* umm, zero.

First week they were waiting for my initial clearance to come back to issue my badge to get me past the guard and the card for my computer. 

Second week i had those cards but i had to wait for the actual certs for my computer card to be approved. It took another 10 days before i was able to turn on my computer and do anything.

Then i had to get database clearance before i could actually connect to a database. Since then i have been trying to set up a sandbox which is difficult for a number of reasons. The sandbox setup is not documented and the other developers on my project are remote contractors. The strict firewalls make mundane things like webex and emailing screen prints difficult. This other developers inhouse work for other projects and have different dev setups. What i have found is that i must approach them with a single specific question and they'll answer that willingly - but don't expect anything more. 

I am in offsite Advanced Java8 training this week so i haven't even been in the office.

The other folks in the office who are on the team are testers/BA/product owner and they're nice. The team does the govt compressed work schedules of 9 hrs Mon -Thurs and 8 on Fri with alternate Friday off. Working in a windowless converted airplane hangar is a little different.  Every once in a while you hear the rumble of a plane taking off. Unless it's 230 in which case it's thunder since this is Florida.

Overall I'm very happy with the move. More pay and less work. I'll be happier once I'm up and running though. The commute is only few minutes more than my previous contract despite being more than 2x distance (interstate plus commuting against most travelers)

This is the part I could never get accustom to with government contracts.  I couldn't take it.  I'm a "fix it" sort of person.  I see the problem, look for solution and go at it.  I had four different contracts early in my career and it was like working with literal sloths.  All really nice people and some pretty smart people, but the pace was excruciating for me.  My days felt like they were 30 hours long.

 

[JaxBill]

This is the part I could never get accustom to with government contracts.  I couldn't take it.  I'm a "fix it" sort of person.  I see the problem, look for solution and go at it.  I had four different contracts early in my career and it was like working with literal sloths.  All really nice people and some pretty smart people, but the pace was excruciating for me.  My days felt like they were 30 hours long.

Yeah, many years ago my first IT job was programming for the City of Philadelphia. I saw that there were about 3 people doing the work in a department of 10 people.  I got out after 5 years because i didn't want to turn into an automaton ( and cost of living and other reasons).

I feel like the corporate world has chewed me up the last 25 or so years and I'm more than willing to down shift a little. 

 

[The Commish]

Yeah, many years ago my first IT job was programming for the City of Philadelphia. I saw that there were about 3 people doing the work in a department of 10 people.  I got out after 5 years because i didn't want to turn into an automaton ( and cost of living and other reasons).

I feel like the corporate world has chewed me up the last 25 or so years and I'm more than willing to down shift a little. 

Once I had kids, I got out of the jobs where I had to carry a pager (yeah, dating myself a bit there).  I can walk out of my office at 5pm every day and not go back in until the next morning now.  I made that switch about 8 years ago.  I too felt like the hamster on the exercise wheel.  I did it for about 12 years and had enough.  Life's too short to live that way, so I can relate.  But let's be honest, you have gone from fifth gear all the way down to first  

 

[Keerock]

Once I had kids, I got out of the jobs where I had to carry a pager (yeah, dating myself a bit there).  I can walk out of my office at 5pm every day and not go back in until the next morning now.  I made that switch about 8 years ago.  I too felt like the hamster on the exercise wheel.  I did it for about 12 years and had enough.  Life's too short to live that way, so I can relate.  But let's be honest, you have gone from fifth gear all the way down to first  

Yeah... I'm too old for this ####.  I work with people in Europe, California, and everywhere in between.  Seems like I'm engaged from 6am to midnight every day.  I need a nice severance package.

 

[TheFanatic]

This is the part I could never get accustom to with government contracts.  I couldn't take it.  I'm a "fix it" sort of person.  I see the problem, look for solution and go at it.  I had four different contracts early in my career and it was like working with literal sloths.  All really nice people and some pretty smart people, but the pace was excruciating for me.  My days felt like they were 30 hours long.

I spent 2 years working for the VA. Same deal. The amount of handcuffs that really did nothing but in terms of better security which they were always striving for were too many to count. The security was a joke. I likened it to a house that had a giant gate, moat, and barbed wire in front. But the side door was a screen door only secured by one of those little metal hooks. And the purchasing process? We bought a bunch of crap we didn't need and then had no money for stuff we did. 

 

[JaxBill]

Just wanted to update this after seeing Lehighs thread.

I'm still working as a govt contractor at same workplace but went fulltime with hiring company.  Now getting paid hourly but with a decent health care plan, some PTO, and healthy IRA.

Rumors swirling that govt bosses want to hire me to work for feds.  We'll see what kind of offer I get. They have a couple open positions but I'm waiting to see if they'll negotiate the payscale to make sense for me.

Oh and my permanent clearance is still in the works.

 

[JaxBill]

Update - things are still going relatively good. Government wanted to bring me in at much lower grade because "that's how we do things". I declined the 20,000+ pay cut.  

Project has about a year and a half on it. And that's just to deliver the 1.0 version to prod. The paperwork for the contracting company has become a mess for them. They're trying to find right bucket for the cash. ( I suspect that funds on the Navy side might have been reappropriated for the Wall). My company has said that if there is a gap after current funding (expires 7/31/19)  they'll bring me in house to work on other projects.

Meanwhile I have been approached unsolicited by a large insurance company out of Newark about a job locally. Team lead working on microservices. I would have microservices and cloud computing on my resume. It would be slight pay increase with possible signing bonus and possible lucrative annual bonus. Other benefit is commute would be shorter and less harrowing.  Downside is return to corporate grind and loss of alternate Fridays off. ( If current company pulled me in house I would lose the Fridays as well). And I would be tempted every afternoon drive home to pull into Aardwolf

Phone screen went well. Waiting on feedback and maybe in person interview.

Oh and my clearance came back. I know the application was for Secret but I guess the role only requires Public Trust so that's what they gave me after almost 11 months.

 

[JaxBill]

Update - Still at the government contracting job.

Pros: good pay, easy work, love the schedule.  

Cons: every 6 to 12 months waiting on contract news, commute is bad, older technology, tech lead is brilliant but a terrible people person. 

The location I am at is moving to new technology but it is at least 18 months out and who knows if they open the training to contractors?

Current private industry job I am eyeing is attractive to me because it would not only use newer technology (entire app is cloud based) but it would be a different role for me. For the past dozen years I've been a Senior Software Engineer or some comparable title. This would be something similar to a Solution Architect but their title is Partner Integration Engineer. Roughly half of the time spent would be client facing and researching their requirements . Other perk is I could work remote and come into office when necessary. Downside is it would be almost identical pay for more work. But that added work would make this fifty-something more employable down the road.

 

[JaxBill]

Update - Still at the government contracting job.

Pros: good pay, easy work, love the schedule.  

Cons: every 6 to 12 months waiting on contract news, commute is bad, older technology, tech lead is brilliant but a terrible people person. 

The location I am at is moving to new technology but it is at least 18 months out and who knows if they open the training to contractors?

Current private industry job I am eyeing is attractive to me because it would not only use newer technology (entire app is cloud based) but it would be a different role for me. For the past dozen years I've been a Senior Software Engineer or some comparable title. This would be something similar to a Solution Architect but their title is Partner Integration Engineer. Roughly half of the time spent would be client facing and researching their requirements . Other perk is I could work remote and come into office when necessary. Downside is it would be almost identical pay for more work. But that added work would make this fifty-something more employable down the road.

Bump...latest update.

Government contract officially approved.  I picked up my Common Access Card valid thru 02/ 2021. Company I work for disbursed a profit sharing bonus dependent on salary and time at company. My bonus=1% of my 2019 salary to the penny. Thankful for free money but still a little disappointed.

Monday I finally have a phone interview with hiring manager at Partner Integration Engineer above.This is the job I'm most looking forward to due to remote nature.

In the last week I've had another company come at me hard for a lead developer position. They're an insurance company that is actually a state govt entity. Pay would be about 2k less but benefits are better and they offer tuition / certification reimbursement.  So not only would i be a Lead involved with converting them to cloud but I could get a much needed cert out of it ( currently have none). Job would be downtown with slightly shorter commute but they WFH every Friday and there are multiple bridges/routes home in case of backup. (Currently I am at the mercy of a dangerous stretch of interstate and a 4 mile long bridge). In the space of a week I've talked to two different corporate recruiters and the hiring manager. I have an online tech interview set up for Tuesday afternoon. 

Also have a headhunter presenting me to another private insurance company. This job would be a much shorter commute . The pay would be comparable but it would be contract to hire. I haven't heard anything back nor talked to their hiring manager.  This job has sunk from #2 to #3 on the list.

TLDR; Still frustrated and looking. Recruiters are very active.

 

[belljr]

Bump...latest update.

Government contract officially approved.  I picked up my Common Access Card valid thru 02/ 2021. Company I work for disbursed a profit sharing bonus dependent on salary and time at company. My bonus=1% of my 2019 salary to the penny. Thankful for free money but still a little disappointed.

Monday I finally have a phone interview with hiring manager at Partner Integration Engineer above.This is the job I'm most looking forward to due to remote nature.

In the last week I've had another company come at me hard for a lead developer position. They're an insurance company that is actually a state govt entity. Pay would be about 2k less but benefits are better and they offer tuition / certification reimbursement.  So not only would i be a Lead involved with converting them to cloud but I could get a much needed cert out of it ( currently have none). Job would be downtown with slightly shorter commute but they WFH every Friday and there are multiple bridges/routes home in case of backup. (Currently I am at the mercy of a dangerous stretch of interstate and a 4 mile long bridge). In the space of a week I've talked to two different corporate recruiters and the hiring manager. I have an online tech interview set up for Tuesday afternoon. 

Also have a headhunter presenting me to another private insurance company. This job would be a much shorter commute . The pay would be comparable but it would be contract to hire. I haven't heard anything back nor talked to their hiring manager.  This job has sunk from #2 to #3 on the list.

TLDR; Still frustrated and looking. Recruiters are very active.

Any chance of flipping to gubberment

 

[JaxBill]

Any chance of flipping to gubberment

Yeah but that's not very appealing to me.  It would be a paycut and i know the benefits would be better but I'm mid-fifties. I dont have that many years to accrue a pension. And I'd still have the same lousy commute and older technology (for now).

Current job they full  match 6% of my IRA. I think I'm better off dumping as much as i can into an IRA for next dozen years than starting on the Fed merry go round. Different story if I'm 10 years younger.

 

[belljr]

Yeah but that's not very appealing to me.  It would be a paycut and i know the benefits would be better but I'm mid-fifties. I dont have that many years to accrue a pension. And I'd still have the same lousy commute and older technology (for now).

Current job they full  match 6% of my IRA. I think I'm better off dumping as much as i can into an IRA for next dozen years than starting on the Fed merry go round. Different story if I'm 10 years younger.

I flipped 4 years ago when I was (44)... Got a raise though.   I was worried at first but glad I did for me

 

[JaxBill]

Update - Inventory project successfully went to production in October. While preparing for further changes for installation at second site, client swapped me to back-end service project to link 2 different systems.

Been WFH since Pandemic

 Went to base 3x since (CAC renewal once, Covid shots 2x)

During the pandemic, I earned several AWS certs (CCP, Solution Architect Associate,  Developer Associate). I have spent last few months trying to land right (cleared) job to get hands-on cloud experience.

I found one starting July 5th. It's contract to hire. Not thrilled about working for headhunter for 6 montbs but the opportunity and 15% raise are too good to pass up.  It's working on a contract for National Background Investigation Services. Totally remote, continue to WFH. Basically they're totally revamping system used for DOD background and clearances. Supposed to be a 5 year contract.Still working as a Java developer but I'll get to play with AWS lambda and serverless computing. Larger company and given sensitive nature of project, there's a good chance my Secret clearance gets upgraded.