If it isnt the pay thats important to you, you may want to consider a balance, maintianing much of your free time yet finding new exciting projects to keep you busy where you are part of a team, and expected to fulfill your role in that team.
look into a few things like your local LUG (linux users group) or http://sourceforge.net/. both are places always looking for help, and both are worthwhile causes, linux users groups because you can be part of your community, get out and be involved, and still write code for them. Sourceforge for becomming part of a team working on a new upcomming project, maybe they need exactly someone with your skill set and you'll help write the next apache. Sourceforge would probably be my second choice even though it is more directly related to writing code, because the LUG will find a person who knows what they are doing and is willing to help others around them as an invaluable asset, so you'll get that good feeling of helping your local community as well as still getting to code some.
First off, good luck on the transition. I performed the same transition at the end of 2001. I left the Marines after 9 years of service and began looking for jobs in the civlian market.
Since that time I have found that politics plays an important role in every business. no business is based solely on merit alone, at least none I have ever worked for. initially it was tough securing a position to which my skills applied, you learn so much through experience alone in the military, and the formal education you have simply doesn't cover it all. The best advice I can give is to quickly grab a bacchelors degree from a university and go with it. Schools like http://wgu.edu/ should help you a lot since they are comeptency based and not class attendance based. Once you've gotten that degree many more doors will simply open you will be amazed. I have found the civilian market doesnt value military education as highly as it values its civilian counterpart. It is up to you to translate how those things do apply to the career your looking for and to integrate them into your resume so they are easily seen and that they get the attention they deserve. This was probably the single hardest thing for me, was making it all translate to something the average HR person would understand when they gave my resume that 15 seconds before moving to the next. Once I got the hang of that I havent been out of work since and have secured some very good positions.
Look for jobs in the Middle East, currently the job market in Iraq is booming with contractors, and they value good IT experience. Some of the highest paid positions are over here.
Use your experience to grab a few certifications, if your a router / switch guy, start with the CCNa and move to the CCNP, if your a sys admin guy, grab the MCSE or the certs for linux. these have also been good in getting my resume a second look.
I have found that once i got the degree and grabbed the certs, I more times than not, have at least been in the final running for the positions I have sought out.
These guys do a good job of stereotyping gamers across the board. Yeah I am a gamer, but I also work as a civlian contractor for a convoy security company in Iraq currently.
I'm a geek/nerd or anything else you want to call it and i know it, and more and more with the progression of the internet age people are becomming geeks and not caring about it.
cant be anything but good for the world!
Giving the Chinese people another option from which to search is doing good overall for the chinese people. The ideas of the Chinese govt. is hardly the topis here. The fact of the matter is that the Chinese Govt. can completely ban google or any other company they wish to limit their people from using or having access to.
Some of these other countries that we believe we know so much about are in fact going to do business as they please and are not going to give into American pressure. So, are we to hate Google simply because they want part of a several billion dollar market? Overall this is good for the American economy. The money that google collects from the chinese advertisers and such will come into an American corporation, thus bolstering our economy.
The fact that I currently post from a German provider while I am in Iraq leads me to a certain point of knowledge. I can access the american content simply by using an american proxy address in my browser. By doing this Googles servers see the request from an American address and process the search as such. The Chinese are smart and will do the same.
Slashdot Mirror
Practicing the finest abuses of perceived power man has ever known.
If it isnt the pay thats important to you, you may want to consider a balance, maintianing much of your free time yet finding new exciting projects to keep you busy where you are part of a team, and expected to fulfill your role in that team. look into a few things like your local LUG (linux users group) or http://sourceforge.net/. both are places always looking for help, and both are worthwhile causes, linux users groups because you can be part of your community, get out and be involved, and still write code for them. Sourceforge for becomming part of a team working on a new upcomming project, maybe they need exactly someone with your skill set and you'll help write the next apache. Sourceforge would probably be my second choice even though it is more directly related to writing code, because the LUG will find a person who knows what they are doing and is willing to help others around them as an invaluable asset, so you'll get that good feeling of helping your local community as well as still getting to code some.
First off, good luck on the transition. I performed the same transition at the end of 2001. I left the Marines after 9 years of service and began looking for jobs in the civlian market. Since that time I have found that politics plays an important role in every business. no business is based solely on merit alone, at least none I have ever worked for. initially it was tough securing a position to which my skills applied, you learn so much through experience alone in the military, and the formal education you have simply doesn't cover it all. The best advice I can give is to quickly grab a bacchelors degree from a university and go with it. Schools like http://wgu.edu/ should help you a lot since they are comeptency based and not class attendance based. Once you've gotten that degree many more doors will simply open you will be amazed. I have found the civilian market doesnt value military education as highly as it values its civilian counterpart. It is up to you to translate how those things do apply to the career your looking for and to integrate them into your resume so they are easily seen and that they get the attention they deserve. This was probably the single hardest thing for me, was making it all translate to something the average HR person would understand when they gave my resume that 15 seconds before moving to the next. Once I got the hang of that I havent been out of work since and have secured some very good positions. Look for jobs in the Middle East, currently the job market in Iraq is booming with contractors, and they value good IT experience. Some of the highest paid positions are over here. Use your experience to grab a few certifications, if your a router / switch guy, start with the CCNa and move to the CCNP, if your a sys admin guy, grab the MCSE or the certs for linux. these have also been good in getting my resume a second look. I have found that once i got the degree and grabbed the certs, I more times than not, have at least been in the final running for the positions I have sought out.
These guys do a good job of stereotyping gamers across the board. Yeah I am a gamer, but I also work as a civlian contractor for a convoy security company in Iraq currently. I'm a geek/nerd or anything else you want to call it and i know it, and more and more with the progression of the internet age people are becomming geeks and not caring about it. cant be anything but good for the world!
Giving the Chinese people another option from which to search is doing good overall for the chinese people. The ideas of the Chinese govt. is hardly the topis here. The fact of the matter is that the Chinese Govt. can completely ban google or any other company they wish to limit their people from using or having access to. Some of these other countries that we believe we know so much about are in fact going to do business as they please and are not going to give into American pressure. So, are we to hate Google simply because they want part of a several billion dollar market? Overall this is good for the American economy. The money that google collects from the chinese advertisers and such will come into an American corporation, thus bolstering our economy. The fact that I currently post from a German provider while I am in Iraq leads me to a certain point of knowledge. I can access the american content simply by using an american proxy address in my browser. By doing this Googles servers see the request from an American address and process the search as such. The Chinese are smart and will do the same.