[sockypuppy]

I've had something of an unusual career path, and I've found out first-hand that a lot of companies don't like people with weak resumes / references, and it's hard to build these up (especially references).

I always try to convince companies I'm interviewing with to do a "try-before-you-buy". Of course, it's a lot easier to do the trial week as an employee if you're starting out from a position of being unemployed, rather than taking vacation to do this.

[michaelochurch]

I understand weak resumes, but what is your reference problem? Lack thereof, or bad ones?

You can get more references by doing freelance projects, but if you have a bad reference, then you need to fix it. Contact me offline (michael.o.church at Google's email service) and I'll explain the decision-tree for that game.