[rdouble]

It's particular to the New York startup scene. There is a lot of money sloshing around and startups have a different hiring strategy than in Silicon Valley. It's quick to hire, quick to fire. I've had six figure offers without even going through a real interview. This leads to a lot of churn. One place I worked at ran through three almost entirely different engineering teams in 18 months. It will be interesting to read if the author of this article still has the same job in the fall.

Silicon Valley is a bit different. There is usually a gauntlet of multi-day interviews even for the lowliest position at a startup nobody has heard of. It's even more of a gauntlet at the large, established companies. I've heard of someone doing 10 days of interviews at amazon.com, and they are a company most want to avoid. Companies are very afraid of hiring the wrong person.

As you have noted, most everywhere else the developer is made to feel lucky to work at a folding table in an unheated area next to the men's room.

[bennyg]

Not necessarily true. I think if you aren't in those tech places (beyond SV and NYC, there are other hotbeds too), you have to get known amongst a tech community and this is where social shines. I've been open sourcing software fairly frequently lately and was contacted by potential future bosses at three very well-known companies for software engineer roles, two in California and one smack-dab in Manhattan. I've also been leveraging things like Show HN and putting stuff in appropriate subreddits to get an initial jump. Once you break the trending barrier in your language of choice on Github, it's practically smooth sailing. Getting on the most-starred today (just on Objective-C) has resulted in two extra days of blog posts, tweets and mentions from all over the internet that I didn't even solicit at all. Two of my open-sourced repositories ended up trending number one overall on Github for a day each. I think if you make stuff that helps coders, and position it correctly on sites that care about that, then it's easier to get noticed and technical directors are more willing to consider you for a job (why wouldn't they hire someone that makes their team more productive).

I have a BA in Art with a minor in Advertising. If I can get noticed using these tactics, then surely people with CS or EE degrees can too.

[markkanof]

Given your educational background, I think it could be argued that you are better prepared to do this type of personal promotion than others who have a purely technical background. In most cases, raw technical talent isn't as important (thought technical folks usually think it's all that matters) as being able to do the job at hand and being able to convince others that you can do that job.

Good for you for realizing that "marketing" doesn't have to be a dirty word and hopefully others can learn from your example.

[bennyg]

True. People shouldn't shy away from personal promotion, just do it at appropriate times and in appropriate places. I hated advertising in school, but thought it was the only way I could make money with a graphic design degree. Turns out coding with a graphic design degree is a lot more rewarding (for me at least, I'm a builder by nature).

[codva]

I did 10 interviews at Amazon, for a freaking sales job. 3 on the phone and then they flew me from DC to Seattle for a 7 more interviews in one day. After all that I didn't get an offer.

[jimmaswell]

I didn't know New York had a startup scene. Is it exclusive to the city?

[hablahaha]

Bbbbbrooklyn!