Am I even hirable?

Fenster

I've begun a move from small freelance work to into a job hunt. I've seen what and who I am up against the job market-the younger and college educated, and it's led to a huge crisis of faith in myself.

I'm almost into my mid-30's, I've only seriously skilled-up in the past few years, and all my work has been restricted to small once-off pieces. I haven't even sent out many C.V.s and I already feel outclassed, underskilled and over the hill.

Am I just crazy talking?

jonster

I completely understand your sentiment and this is coming from one of those that you probably consider competition, having just completed an Honours CS degree.

Almost everyone's in the same boat, there's always someone who's younger/more skilled, in every job for which we apply.

...however (now that I've killed all hope) companies are not only interested in the our Hard Skills but equally in our Soft Skills; those type of traits that only develop through life experience rather than experience from working within a certain framework for x number of years.

I think willingness/eagerness to learn and developing an up to to date professional portfolio are two of the things that will separate yourself from the rest and ensuring you sell yourself anytime you have an opportunity to get a position which you would enjoy/perform well in.

Loltube

I've just finished a software degree and expecting to get a GPA of 70+ in it, yet I feel the exact same as you.

Looking at job descriptions it feels as if I've no chance whatsoever pretty much, because they seem to want it all. 5 years experience in this, years of experience with something that has just arrived on the scene etc.

Don't go too hard on yourself because I think a lot of people (graduates included) feel the same. I know all of my friends from college are in the same boat as me too.

L.Jenkins

Hey Fenster, I feel like I'm in the same boat. I have a Software Degree and have only been getting short contracts as of late. What I am planning now is to move into an App/Tech Support role where I can use what coding skills I have, improve on them and eventually progress into a Dev role if the Company I gain work with can facilitate such a move.

What I would say is, go get Professional Certifications in Java (Associate and Professional), Oracle and Microsoft also. I would throw in a Database technology for good measure.

http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en-us/certification-overview.aspx

http://education.oracle.com/pls/web_prod-plq-dad/db_pages.getpage?page_id=39

You could also develop a portfolio of your own and contribute to a few projects on Github. All is not lost, just requires some effort on your behalf.

ChRoMe

Itzy wrote: »

What I am planning now is to move into an App/Tech Support role where I can use what coding skills I have, improve on them and eventually progress into a Dev role if the Company I gain work with can facilitate such a move.

That will be extremely difficult if not impossible. You won't get to use your development skills doing support.

CreepingDeath

ChRoMe wrote: »

That will be extremely difficult if not impossible. You won't get to use your development skills doing support.

+1

In the 15 years I worked for a large multinational, no customer support engineer ever transferred to software development ( at least not internally in the company, they had to leave to another role ).

Fenster wrote: »

I'm almost into my mid-30's, I've only seriously skilled-up in the past few years, and all my work has been restricted to small once-off pieces.

What does "seriously skilled-up" mean ?
Actual experience is everything.
For each keyword you drop on your CV can you talk fluently about your previous experience on a real life project ?

A lot of the time contractors tend to have a better breadth of knowledge than permanent employees, but not necessarily the depth of knowledge nor appreciation of how to maintain and develop an existing product in the long term ( design skills, documentation, backward compatibility, refactoring existing code ).