53 and looking for 7 months. You gotta do what’s good for your situation. Rather than posting objections and the reasons why you cannot find work, as owel said above, get anything. I’m doing odd jobs to pay bills while learning and transitioning. You have to keep going. There are millions of unemployed folks and you have to persevere if this is your chosen path. Right now, you need cash flow so get anything to keep you afloat and on weekends assess and adjust as needed.
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My experience has not been a ton of corporate networking events, like ones you mentioned, rather they have been more grassroot, community driven events, so the interaction has been more organic. I did find my bootcamp through one of those type of events, which fortunately help me greatly in getting me into the tech industry. However, I really don’t have a “good strategy” to get actual jobs. That is really up to you and the people you meet.
It’s a lot of pressure to go into the kind of events I am talking about asking for a job, both for you and the people you meet. Your number one goal going into these tech meetup should really be learning, coding and finding people who are willing to do both with you, especially since your technical knowledge right now doesn’t meet a lot of job demands. It’s also a good place for you to share your frustration and experiences. Code and make yourself job ready first.
I am sorry you had a bad experience with meetups, but they are probably the most organic resource you have to connect with others. When you first attend meet ups, it is a good ideas to first introduce yourself to the organizers and build a rapport with them. Most meet up have good organizers that will do something if someone harasses you. A lot of people have good intentions, so don’t let a creep ruin your chance to meet those other people. Most of the meet ups I have attended were actually organized by tech consulting firms, so the organizers were actually very helpful in giving me insight into the industry and jobs, even if they couldn’t offer me a job directly.
If you feel like you are job ready and itching to showcase your skills. Go look for hackathons, or civic coding project that you can contribute, as well as open source.
The only advice I can give you in networking is to push beyond your comfort zone. I’m not an extrovert by any means, but I understand that to have meaningful connection with someone, I have to have conversations with them, and I have to be able give them an idea of who I am and my intentions. I have to initiate these actions. The more practice you get, the better you will get, and less awkward it will be. Don’t box yourself in as an introvert and hide behind a tag.
It can be completely random. I have been offered interview because someone started a conversation with me due to a coding T-shirt I was wearing and it turned out I knew someone on their team and what they do. If I wasn’t in attendance at all, it wouldn’t have happened.
In the meantime, there is no shame in finding a job supporting yourself. The stability of having a job can be part of a lot of people’s sense of self-worth, and some cash inflow doesn’t hurt. It doesn’t really matter if it has nothing to do with tech. Plenty of people transition into technology withou relevant prior job experiences. There are still value in those transferable soft skills.
I wish I could tell you that this is something you can simply do quickly and without frustration, but it is a frustrating process. All you can do is to steel yourself and prepare well, so that when an opportunity emerges, you can seize it.
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Lots of great advice here, I just wanted to interject by saying this: Give yourself a big ole pat on the back. You’ve done amazing to get as far as you have, with such little or no support. You should be proud, and you just have to realize how strong you are! Don’t let disgusting people like that guy get to you, it sucks, but you’re the one who’s going to be firing guys like him once you get to where you’re going. New environments can be daunting on their own, so remember that you should find an outing to vent your feelings. Whether that’s a hobby, running, playing video games, or even just staying home with a nice cup of tea and some tv/books (introverts unite!), just remember to live the way you want to today, dont just wait for tomorrow.
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Thanks.
I like nature and hiking but this winter was really cold in Toronto. didn’t have the chance to get out much and this contributed to more depression. plan to move to some place warm in the future cause I hate the cold weather. a nice cup of tea and a good book gives me 10X of energy rather than mingling with strangers but it seems the way in here is to mingle and network so i have to adapt myself to survive.
right now I’m reading this book called How to Talk to Anyone: 92 Little Tricks for Big Success in Relationships.
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Strangers are just friends you haven’t met yet(and axe murders, but try to avoid those) .
The reason we encourage you to network and mingle is that you have a greater probability of getting a response from a person. You can send hundreds to thousands of application and get back single digit responses. Most of the time companies won’t even bother to send you an automated rejection email. The uncertainty can generate a lot of anxiety and doubt, of which there is no releases because it’s unlikely to get any closure. With a person, you at least have somebody you can ask, give you feedback and a sense of conclusion.
It also just helps to have people support you and keep you accountable on your path of learning and pursuing a career. I know it probably would have taken me much longer to learn and get a job if I didn’t have an environment and peers that kept me progressing.
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Axe murderers can be friends too
You’ve got a tough road ahead of you. There is no denying this fact.
However…
Get yourself over to meetup dot com and start looking for local meetups regarding web development or anything remotely tied to your area of interest.
Next, ArielLeslie already pointed out that opensource is bestsource. I believe there are a number of opportunities out there to cut your teeth on. Last… Why don’t you look around your local area at small nonprofits. See what they have in the way of websites. See what you can do for them?
Now, what I’m proposing may require volunteer labor on your part, but at least this labor can be A) demonstrably seen by others rather than bundled up into a larger project.
It can also be used in your portfolio.
And here is the banger… references and recommendations. These people are having their crummy website overhauled for free or at serious discount prices? You know you’ll be able to get a good reference from them.
You are going to have to hustle… work… sweat… and work… and learn… and hustle… and work… and learn. What I would really encourage you to do is get a job… any job… Just so long as it doesn’t eat up too much of your time. Being employed… temporarily… in anything… shows you have hustle.
I mean yeah try to get it as near as you can to what you’d like to do, but at the end of the day, work is work.
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