What the heck is up with the guy in a suit with a briefcase holding a sign that says "will code for food"? That's me, Mark - and I'm serious - I want a job! I was a victim of the .com crash and like many of the 20,000+ other unemployed techies in the Seattle area was having an incredibly difficult time finding a job. With that many people in 1 field unemployed in the same area applying for a job would typically mean sending in a resume via email (1 of 100's to be received by the potential employer) that would be unlikely to even be read among the sea of other resumes. I've sent out 1000's of these faceless resumes to companies with little success.

A different approach is needed in such dire times. A more direct approach, one that makes you stand out is necessary. How better to make sure that someone reads your resume than to hand it to them yourself? After much planning and gathering of moral fiber, I set out to hand my resume to as many people as I could! I made my sign, dressed as I would for an interview, and set out for busy places to hawk my skills from. Add to this a website like this one to make getting my resume to anyone I can hand a card to, and hopefully the end result will be a job!

Well, today I started work for Greythorn! I am working for them as a full time recruiter specializing in .NET technologies. I really think that I have found my niche with Greythorn in that I finally have a job where my technical skills are useful but I get to deal with people. I enjoy that I'm helping others find work now and think of it as my contribution to the countless .bomb victims.
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Additional notes: Komo did a nice follow up on the story. You can check it out by clicking here or you can watch the video here.

Today was filled with meetings and interviews. My brother and I talked to a local business man about automating some of his business processes and I had an informational interview via the phone with some more folks at Microsoft. The next few months are going to be hectic.

Today was great! I had several interviews with Microsoft. Both of the interviews went well, and I got a chance to meet some very interesting people. I also landed a side contract with a music promotion company, and that will help bring in a little cash to pay those bills!

The past few days have been slightly slower for me. Thursday I had a single phone interview and got to spend the rest of the day taking care of chores around the house and continuing learning c#. Today was a bit more busy. I had 1 in person interview in the morning and 2 phone interviews in the afternoon. All in all I'm very happy with the way project code for food has turned out. This weekend I'm going to study c# and read a few books on project management to help prepare for the big 2nd interviews on Monday and Tuesday.

I got my first offer today! It's not really a job that would challenge me or by any way comes close to my skill level, but Greythorn has offered me a job in the interim while I continue to look for work more suited to my skills. I still have quite a few interviews ahead of me this week, but if none of them turn into more challenging offers, I do indeed have work. One advantage to doing a job at Greythorn is that as a consulting company this job will give me lots of opportunities to get placed in a job more tuned to my skills!

Today was yet another day of phone calls, interviews, and emails. Progress is slow and seemingly unrewarding at this point, but I just have to stick with it and I'll have a job in no time. My interview schedule has now grown out into the middle of next week.

Well, it's definitely starting to work. I have a few pretty solid interviews, lunches, and phone calls with perspective employers this week. I will not be holding the sign again unless no offers come about from these interviews. I'm not going to go into much detail about the interview process until I get a good offer, then I might go back and give some more details about that particular interview process. Wish me luck!

Today was a beautiful day - except in Bellevue. I started out my morning in Bellevue at in front of the Hyatt at 7:00AM only to be greeted by the rudest, least supportive group of people imaginable! Not a single person smiled, few said hello, or even acknowledge I existed with more than a grunt except the person that told me to "go home". I took part of her advice and left, but I didn't go home, preferring instead to go to the Red West campus of Microsoft. Was it just because it was early in the morning and they hadn't had their latte yet?

Things went better than I expected at Red West! People loved the concept, and admired the approach. The day was nice, so I was feeling chipper all day. It's a lot easier to stand on a corner for many hours if you are doing it in beautiful weather (although my pale geek skin hates the sun and I got a mild sunburn on my face). Things started out well, and I got a lot of smiles from people arriving to work. After about an hour people started to trickle out of the campus to come meet me and ask me questions about skills. A surprising mix of developers and operations managers took interest, and all wanted resumes.

At about 10:30 MSN CarPoint asked me to come into an interview, and I gladly complied. The interview was fairly short, as they just wanted to do a basic skill assessment. I should hear back from them early next week if they want to do further interviewing.

My day ended when a friend of mine was leaving, and offered me a ride. Seeing as how I was out of resumes (all gone to good hands), I hopped in and left about 45 minutes earlier than I had planned. I think that 31 hours of standing on street corners is enough for 3 days, and my legs were only to happy to agree! After handing out 450 resumes, about 600 cards, and 1000's of smiles this week I am looking confidently into my employment future. If all goes well, today will have been my last day standing with a sign begging for a job. What lies ahead of me is the arduous task of going through a number of interviews, informational meetings, phone calls, and email contacts until I receive an offer. In the unlikely event that I get no offers, then I suppose I'll have to go back to another street corner and keep trying.

Never give up, never surrender!

I would like to thank the thousands of people who have written, waved, honked, gave the thumbs up, or brought me a can of pop. You guys made a hard 31 hours bearable, and brightened my life!

Today went great! I set up on the corner of 40th and 156th in near the 520 on/off ramps at the Microsoft corporate campus. I got there at 7:00 on the bus and got going immediately. Very few pedestrians passed me today, making my presentation somewhat different. I mainly stood on the corner showing my sign to passing cars. Surprisingly often a car would stop to take a right turn at the corner, roll down their window, and exchange a business card for a resume, or receive one of my cards. The rush of people getting to work apparently created quite a stir, as a number of people ventured out of the campus on foot to meet me after hearing about me from a co-worker.

My first surprise of the day was a personal visit from the Sr. Director of Recruiting for Microsoft. He set me up with a recruiter to take some of my information. After this he offered to get me a taxi home. I politely declined and went back to my post on the corner, as I feel that determination is one my strongest qualities, not to mention a prime virtue at Microsoft. Quite an assortment of PM's took interest and asked for resumes. I will find out over the next few days if they were well received.

One exciting part of my day was when a Redmond police officer suddenly pulled up next to me, and turned on his lights. He got out of his car and asked for my ID. Apparently its illegal to solicit without a permit in Redmond city limits. Luckily for me and my perspective employment after short consideration of my sign he decided I was not hurting anybody and so long as the people were enjoying it (as they obviously were) I could continue!

As the day went on and word spread I received a lot of support, people giving me the thumbs up, or honking as they drove by. If you did that and are reading this, thank you! I appreciate it. Standing outside in cold, rainy weather for 11 hours is a grueling thing to do. As for my location on Friday I'm not yet sure, I'm considering a downtown Bellevue location, or somewhere near the Red West campus of Microsoft. I'm not yet sure, but Friday might be my last day out in the cold holding a sign. A few interviews have started to trickle in from my 2 days efforts, and I am going to do some of those on Monday. If I get no offers from those, I will resume my post with the sign at another location.

Wow! What a day! I got to the Columbia Tower at about 6:50AM and started getting set up. I propped my briefcase open on the ground with resumes and business cards ready to go. The first few hours were freezing, with a biting wind that managed to completely go through my summer suit, leaving me shivering for all to see. Reponses were good; people liked my attitude and approach, and were generally supportive (with the exception of the woman who told me to "Get a real job").

The day was a definite success in terms of my quest for a job: I handed out about 70 resumes, over 200 business cards, and had 1 interview. At about 8:30 KOMO showed up to get some footage of me, followed by the Seattle Times, the Seattle PI, KIRO 7 and KIRO 710AM on the radio. I got a 2-3 minutes of coverage of the KOMO 6:00PM news and I was mentioned on NPR briefly, and got a segment (thanks to Donna Renae) on KIRO 710AM.

Aside from having to stand on my feet for 11 hours straight, today was fun, I got to meet a lot of new people and it was definitely a great way to get my resumes into peoples hands. I'll be continuing my unorthodox quest for a job tomorrow at the Microsoft corporate campus in Redmond from 7:00 (or thereabouts depending on the busses) to 6:00 again!

Thanks again for the great support Seattle!

A while back, my friend Bear and I came up with a joke that it would be funny, given the sagging economy, to dress in a suit, and have a sign that says "WILL CODE FOR FOOD" and have a bunch of resumes. Then, better yet, I realized it might work! I have decided to stand in front of the Columbia tower with my sign on May 1st from 7:00AM to 6:00PM. I will pick a new spot every day and continue to beg for a job at various high-tech locations until I have a job! Thus project code for food was born.

This morning I started real preparation for project code for food by sending out press releases to all the major newspapers and local TV stations. My preparations have paid off so far. KOMO called to ask a few questions and said they would be sending down a crew tomorrow morning. I also made some good contacts with the Seattle Times and the Seattle PI. Having the press there will definitely make it a more public job search. I just hope it's memorable enough to get peoples attention and get me a job!