[luke_s]

If you are looking for a job, I cannot recommend giving technical presentations at user groups highly enough...

As you have pointed out the dynamic of interviews sucks. A potential employer will be seeing dozens of people for a position and comparing you to all of them. You will be talking on a topic decided by the employer which you may or may not know anything about.

Giving technical presentations inverts this dynamic beautifully. Instead of one position and many candidates, there is one of you and potentially dozens of people in the room looking to hire. Instead of doing white board problems in a domain you may not know about, you will be talking on a topic that you KNOW MORE ABOUT than anybody else in the room! Instead of speaking off the cuff in an interview, you can polish your presentation for weeks in advance.

I am a freelancer. Every time I have done a technical presentation at a users group I have picked up at least one job out of it. Many of the people at the users group are looking for employees. They are always disappointed to find out I'm not looking for a full time position.

[sbfeibish]

Writing a book is another way to raise your profile. Just don't expect to make a fortune from publishing the book. Making YouTube videos is along those same lines. See Derek Banas or SlideNerd on YouTube.

[sbfeibish]

Just wanted to add. With the videos. Don't give it all away. "Make them pay for what they can't get for free."

[RestlessMind]

How do you go around giving technical presentations? Where do you find the audience? Can you please share links to some of your presentations?

[sulam]

If you live in the SF Bay Area this is pretty trivial fwiw. There's tons of user groups / meetups / conferences. Pick something you're interested in, invest 3-6 months in working all the angles, and you will absolutely be worth listening to for 30 minutes on that subject.

[bayonetz]

Can confirm! Have been offered several jobs this way.