Bill Baloglu

Maybe the last three startups you work for no longer exist.  Maybe you're one of the thousands whose job at that monolithic "solid" company no longer exists.  Or maybe you're still hanging on as one of four people in what used to be a department of 30. Regardless of situation, it's time to do something. As the high-tech industry and the national economy attempt to inch toward recovery, many tech professionals are taking a good hard look at their skills, defining new goals for their future, and using downtime to return to school. For junior or intermediate Java programmers, the path of least resistance may be to get Java certified through an online training program. These computer-based training programs can certainly help you expand and refine your skills, but Java certification doesn’t necessarily guarantee that new doors of opportunity will suddenly fly open for ... (more)

So You Want To Be A Senior Engineer

In recent columns we've discussed the current job market, rates and salaries, and different kinds of Java engineers: those who know Java and those who understand Java. What separates a good, solid engineer from a senior engineer who's on top of the industry and in the highest demand? It's the experience and skills in the hottest technologies. To become a senior engineer you need to have solid working experience with J2EE, XML, EJBs, and EJB-based application servers such as WebLogic, WebSphere, iPlanet, or Enhydra, as well as experience with servlets. This doesn't mean simply re... (more)

Playing Four Square

You're a senior Java engineer who's been working with J2EE on enterprise systems software and applications. You've got a résumé that reads like a who's who and what's what of current technologies. But when you apply for a job that looks like a perfect fit for your skills, you get a rejection letter. Or even worse, it seems as if your résumé was sucked into a black hole and you never hear anything back at all. What's going on, you wonder. Why don't these people realize how perfect I am for this position? Potential employers look at a résumé in a way that's fundamentally different... (more)

Follow a Career Path…

Since we started writing this column, we've gotten lots of inquiries from engineers who want to know the best way to reach the level of senior Java server-side engineer. The trouble that many engineers have in breaking through to this level typically has to do with a lack of key training and the right experience, and, most important, a résumé that doesn't show a clear career path. Some of this may have to do with a lack of solid career counseling in school. Perhaps aspiring engineers don't seek advice at an early enough stage, or the schools don't know enough about rapidly changi... (more)

Who's Hiring Now?

Since most of our past articles have dealt with Java jobs from the engineer's perspective, we decided to write this month's column from the hiring manager's point of view. A year ago you never would have been reading this article. At that time the battle for technical talent was fierce. Companies large and small were fighting tooth and nail for engineers. Recent college grads with no real-world experience were landing fat-salaried jobs. Companies couldn't get foreign-trained engineers into the United States fast enough. Money was no object. Diving into this gaping breech of opp... (more)