I'm a tech lead developer. But the past couple of years I've been looking high and low for sustainable work. The most I've gotten is projects people pulled from their back pocket because they felt sorry for me.
I've been at this opportunity search for years now...not just months. I can't pay for my health insurance anymore and my diet is 90% peanut butter sandwiches.
What hasn't worked: following the "formula" everyone tells you to follow. Reach out to the recruiter, talk to the hiring manager, get a take-home assessment (I always decline these), then maybe get hired. Perhaps it's because my mind tends to work more like a business owner--the closer I can get to taking ownership of projects the happier I am.
For the longest time I didn't talk to recruiters. They'd be the first step in a company wasting my time. I realized this is because the employer is paying for the recruiter. The recruiter is getting paid by the employer and could be completely blind to how much of a jerk the employer is.
So I decided, you know what? Tech pays a boat load of money. Even if half my paycheck were spent on someone I'd still have a heck of a lot left for savings. What if I worked with a reverse recruiter.
Better yet, several!
So I've started the rounds. I am hiring recruiters to work for me. I was very transparent with the fact that I'm talking with others, and said whoever gets me a position first wins and gets the royalty.
I'll even generate more competition further down the line. Once I'm financially stable I'll continue to work with the recruiters and offer to pay them again for yet another position. Generate competition with my current employer.
I'm sick of being looked over. It's about time I took the reigns.
Yup, I have a connection of thousands of people in tech, hundreds of CEOs, founders, and presidents; I check in with them regularly. I've been to physical meetups. I ask what the need. I see if they need help.
For the past 3 years it's been, "Yeah, we might have something down the line soon."
I have a very active presence on LinkedIn. For the past 5-7 years I've been interacting with people. Publishing tech articles to help enterprise businesses for the last 2-3. I check in monthly with my higher ups by messaging them, and usually the messages go unanswered.
I've built my network over time. My network is a bunch of employed people and a bunch of unemployed people. Nobody actually hiring. I've been stuck in that rut for years. Again, the most success I've gotten is people pulling out random projects from their back pockets. Some of them I'm able to stay in contact with. Most of them I never hear from again.
SOMETHING HAS TO WORK! I WILL NOT FAIL! PEOPLE ARE DEPENDING ON ME TO SUCCEED!