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While Marc is picking his 3 companies, please toss the names of companies you're interested in into the mix too - I will build a list of all the companies suggested and build contact lists for those as well.
Andi
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Intentional Software
http://www.intentionalsoftware.com/corporate.html[^]
This is a startup company founded by one of the guru's of Microsoft that has a really interesting concept that I've done some work on myself and I think would be very interesting to get involved with.
MIT Artificial Intelligence Lab
http://www.ai.mit.edu/[^]
Here's an interesting one. I've done some work with AI before at Stanford and have done neuron modeling. I'm quite interested in what these people are doing in terms of AI and robotics, and would like to get involved. Being academicians, can I get involved as a consultant? As a PAID consultant? Besides becoming a student again, how does one get involved with some of the cutting edge work being done at the university/research lab level?
Applied Signal Technology
http://www.appsig.com/joblist/listing.html[^]
What the heck. Here's a big company, I don't know anyone, but I have lots of real time programming experience, object oriented, etc. No Unix/Solaris, but let's see how I would work around that problem! The job market's bad, so I want as many options as possible, even if they aren't a perfect match.
East Coast
Software
Senior Computer Scientist (REQ757) Apply Now
The successful applicant will perform C++ design, development, maintenance and trouble shooting, including solving difficult problems, on complex real-time systems. The position is on-site at the clients facility. This position requires a BS in Computer Science or related field and should have several years experience with real-time processing object oriented design and Unix/Solaris. The candidate will need good analytical and problem-solving skills. A security clearance with special access is required.
Some notes:
While I was perusing Google for software developer companies (I actually don't know that many on the East Coast, being fairly new here and having two clients on the west coast and a boatyard client here in CT), I found this interesting web site:
http://www.gignews.com/resources/game_development.htm[^]
Since I live in Rhode Island, I found this site, which lists some groups it might be useful to network with:
http://www.bdcri.com/news14.htm[^]
and this:
http://www.mirrorimage.com/mi/articles/washpost00.html[^]
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Let me first say that this article may help with the "what", but really needs to explain the "how" to be useful.
Now for the fairy-land part:
People are usually a finite resource.
When I worked in the corporate world, 90% of the people I knew were the ones I worked with. They were pretty much useless in helping me with a job search. References yes, finding a new job, no.
Concentrate your industry resources and your outreach efforts on jobs and technologies that directly match your current skill and experience level...
I think, without exception, that I have never seen a company clearly and accurately provide a job description and the technologies that they use. There are two reasons for this. Management either writes the job description based on what they think the staff is doing. Also, it's pretty easy as the engineer to fail to consider all the tools, knowledge bases, etc., that the job requires on a daily basis. This type of information can only be gleaned during an interview or if you have an inside person, and then you need to know the right kind of questions to ask. Also, a lot of companies are closed-mouthed about this stuff because they don't want to give away corporate secrets.
Identify and contact hiring managers
How? Hire a PI and meet them at a bar???
build a relationship with a potential employer
Tennis anyone???
user group information and chapter contacts and sites
For the most part, user groups seem replete with novices and people who really can't help you with making job contacts. On the other hand, I agree that investigating a company's web site provides invaluable information regarding products, names, etc. Beware though, I have experienced a lot of hype, and unless the website is updated frequently, people named in papers, etc., may no longer be at the company!
There is a very good chance at least one CodeProject.com community member works at a company you are interested in...
Oh please. There are only 50,000 world-wide members. Most of the members I have seen in the lounge seem to be based in the UK. Let's take a quick survey:
who works at:
Space Systems/Loral
Hughes
Lockheed (or whoever they are now)
Apple
IBM
Cisco
Compac
Dell
HP
Electronic Arts
(other game companies)
Actively participate in user groups, mailing lists, websites, and newsgroups for the products and technologies that interest you
How about some useful information on how to filter on this content and extract meaningful information so that I don't spend my entire day screwing around with useless info?
Conference programs and user group archives list event speakers by their area of expertise and technology focus. Session topics detail their product's technical and business challenges. Speaker biographies help identify which skills and experience their technology team values for new hires, and may help you identify an interest or credential you share with a particular speaker. All are valuable resources for job seekers.
Which is now, for the most part, all marketing hype, generated for company visibility and PR, and bears no semblence to reality. I've done the dog and pony show thing, and the engineers on the inside consistently hate it because it detracts from their real work and recognize it for what it is: marketing BS. Of course, if I were paid a several thousand dollars + beni's to do a 2 hour lecture promoting a product, sure, I'd say whatever the company wanted me to say, and they could write my bio too!
In our next column we tackle the good, the bad, and the ugly ways to contact the potential career resources you identify
Looking forward to it. Please put some real meat into the next article.
Marc
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Marc,
Hi.
I'm sorry your experiences were different. Job markets vary. In Seattle most mid-level to senior developers rely on friends, former workers, or friends of friends to find out which companies people like working for, and why -- and to find out how successfully interview with that company.
When you asked corporate types for job leads, did you ask them for leads for open jobs, which companies their friends worked at, which companies their friends *liked* working at, or if they knew anyone who worked at Company _______? Each of those questions will most likely get you a different answer, but any of these answers will give you a starting point to look for new job opportunities.
re: Codeproject members as job search resources: Lurker are every where, and in unfortunately large numbers 
Chris Maunder swears there are 150,000 unique Codeproject visitors each month, which means there are about 70,000 lurkers. Any mailing list I'm on has always had a a big difference between the number of subscribers and the number of people who post. If you ask the right questions, one of those lurkers may still help you.
As a test, is anyone reading this article a current or former San Diego employee of either Qualcomm, 3Comm, or NCR/Teradata? If so, please say hi on this discussion board, or email offline to say hi if you don't want to register.
I will post this question in several Codeproject lounges with active posters, and will post my results here.
Marc, would you be willing to email me the names of 3 companies you are interested in talking with? I will use the processes listed in the article and document in online how and what I did to identify and contact developers who work there to find out what they liked about their jobs and their company, and what I need to do to work there.
Andi
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In Seattle
Ah ha! That explains some of your perceptions  I would suspect Seattle is much more networked than Providence Rhode Island. But I'm not entirely biased myself--I used to live in Silicon Valley (still have a couple friends there and a client), and I spent 15 years in San Diego (with a client there too). Of your Qualcomm, 3Comm, or NCR/Teradata list, the only company that I knew of people who worked there was Qualcomm because the company I was working for had a contract with them. My best friend applied to Qualcomm though, and I believe his wife did too. He was rejected, and his wife took a different job at an obscure web startup company.
I'd love to pick three companies I'd be interested in talking with. Let me do a little digging in this area (if you don't mind my picking East Coast companies). I haven't been looking (being happily self-employed) but this would be a great exercise!
Marc
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Marc,
East coast is good too -- but I can't promise you I personally know any of the names I/we dig up
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Make that 350,000 unique visitors each month 
cheers,
Chris Maunder
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349,999
Sometimes I wear a disguise.
Tim Smith
"Programmers are always surrounded by complexity; we can not avoid it... If our basic tool, the language in which we design and code our programs, is also complicated, the language itself becomes part of the problem rather that part of the solution."
Hoare - 1980 ACM Turing Award Lecture
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Hey Chris I guess this means I can't write mean things about Aussies .... Darn 
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Marc Clifton wrote:
There are only 50,000 world-wide members. Most of the members I have seen in the lounge seem to be based in the UK.
Even if there is on 50,000 - its not just the members themselves, but who they know as well. For example, I don't work at any of the companies you mention, but I have friends who work at IBM, the BBC, one game developer who used to work at Rare, but now works with Free Radical (Time Splitters 1&2), another game developer who worked at Codemasters but now works at some othe games company (I can't remember the name of it - but they're making the new Warhammer online game).
So I can give advice and information about any of those companies even though I don't personally work there. If each person is Codeproject knows just a couple of people in other companies than thats a HUGE coverage.
Kevin
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Let's say there's 50,000 CP members. If, as you assume, each person...knows just a couple of people, this would be 50,0000 * 2 + the original 50,000 = 150,000 companies.
Doesn't seem that HUGE to me!
However, my statement about most members I've seen being based in the UK is blatently dumb. It appears that this is my bias because I'm on east coast time and I don't pick up west coast message posts until the afternoon, when I'm not using my computer anymore. Looking up the demographics (which I just discovered (again, I think!) on CP, I see that most people are in the US!
Marc
Help! I'm an AI running around in someone's f*cked up universe simulator.
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Kevin,
If your friend works at Rare, you now know someone at Microsoft -- which was (or is close to being) assimilated by Microsoft
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Good article, though if I may comment for the next article maybe use plainer english as not everyone here has a firm grasp of our odd tongue
One question I do have is: What is the value of writing articles for sites like The Code Project as opposed to, lets say, writing articles for print magazines like WDJ? Is there still a heavy bias in favour of print magazine articles?
Also I would certainly consider choosing a potential employee above another if she/he included references to articles they had written here on The Code Project (or other sites depending on the skill set, e.g. AListApart.com for web development.) Even if the articles were not top notch I would still appreciate that they took the time and effort to write an article and also were involved in a developer community which is also quite important IMO.
Looking forward to the next article, it is also useful for those of us who have to recruit people. Gives us some insight into what plans of attack potential employees are using
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Paul,
Thank you for your feedback and encouragement. We promise articles will be easier for everyone to read.
Re: codeproject articles vs. dr. dobbs print articles -
As a recruiter, I look at articles to help me evaluate the author's skills, technical interests, and experience level. And, I do most of my work on the internet.
If I was recruiting the lead software architect for the next version of visualstudio.net, I would probably look at DDJ authors first, since DDJ publishes a small number of submitted articles. Someone else already evaluated the technical content and merit for me, and being one of a select few has more prestige.
DDJ charges non-subscribers to access large portions of their archived articles. I rarely bill back those expenses to my clients, so I won't buy access a mulitple web articles unless I really want that content.
The Codeproject is a much more accessible forum for article authors to post their work to a wide audience, and recieve feedback in real-time, or close to it. There are very talented and well-connected site members who actively participate in discussions and in the lounge.
I'd choose the whichever option will allow others to see my work and ideas. How much value does an article/idea have if none or few read it?
Paul, you're a hiring manager -- where and how did you find your best hires - and how do you define a good hire?
Andi
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Andi Levin wrote:
where and how did you find your best hires - and how do you define a good hire?
While naturally some of my needs in a potential employee are similar to other companies there are also differences.
We are a small company, 10 people, and so things like specialism are not currently required or wanted. Potential employees need to handle a diverse range of tasks requiring a wide range of skills. Jack of all trades really
Also being small we keep costs as low as possible and that means avoiding agencies and tapping the job market directly. We actually do off-shore work, so our name is not that big in SA and so most potential employees have not heard of us, which can be both a disadvantage and an advantage.
Really the first thing I look for is enthusiasm and a good attitude. I do not want any prima donas on my team and would rather settle for an enthusiastic but relative newbie than a jaded, cynical and problematic guru. We don't have the time or resources to handle someone like that, maybe one day we can build an office with a dark corner for people like that.
Also I prefer a self taught developer to a degreed-to-the-hilt developer. The reason for that is the self taught guys can handle themselves in difficult situations. They have grown into handling computers, solving problems. They know the tricks and generally don't fall apart when their theories or fancy book-bound methods don't work.
Experience can be good, except for stuck-in-their-ways experienced developers. We are very dynamic (sometimes too much) and every developer here has to learn to change very quickly. So often we hire someone with little "real world" experience and then "mould" them.
And the last, but very important thing, is buy-in to the Bluegrass vision/goal/mission/etc. We cannot offer huge starting salaries, so we have to get the guys in and get them to believe in us. We are looking for long termers, grafters who will stick with us and we will stick with them.
All of the above is why I joined Bluegrass and I cannot see myself in a corporate, drone-directed environment. Hopefully we can keep this environment as we grow, but I think that will be quite a challenge indeed
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