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In general I'm interested in development of high-performance network applications or something connected with intensive calculations. In these areas C++ is a reliable choice, and I want to improve my skills with it to be able to apply for positions that requires experience.

[laarc]

Ah, I see. In that case, the financial sector may be the way to go. They're always looking for people to improve throughput, and there are a variety of fun tasks to do related to low latency market data processing.

I would say your best bet is to focus on skill. If you can dive into a large C++ codebase and solve a crash, you're skilled, and people will find your contributions helpful once you're there. So that's really not such a high bar to aim for.

In terms of experience, this tends not to matter too much. Use a talent agency to place you in the field. They will take a chunk of whatever value you would have otherwise pocketed in salary. But it's a way of getting in to the industry that I know from experience works. It's much more effective than trying to send resumes or cold call managers, which is why it might have seemed like "experience" is a necessary requirement.

Experience is just a proxy for skill, so if you have skill, you're fine. A portfolio is helpful, and I'm sorry to say I can't think of specific projects that you might like to work on. But I know that if you can optimize a trading company's firewall-to-firewall time, you're highly valuable to them.

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Thank you, I understood your point.

The financial sector is what I'm thinking about, but I've always though thought that it is hard to find a job in this sector without a solid experience. So the idea about a talent agency seems to be helpful.

BTW I'd like to ask about a relocation. Is it right that it is easier to find a position that offers relocation (I mean H1B visa) in some financial institution rather than in an internet company?

[laarc]

I'm not sure, to be honest.

That would be an interesting Ask HN question. I think a lot of people would like to know.

One reason the financial sector might be easier for H1B visas is that they sometimes treat their employees very poorly. But I know of good companies as well, so it depends entirely on the company.