Navigating Today’s Tech Market

Kevin Howell ’11

Principal Software Engineer, Red Hat

2025-03-04

About Me

W&M CS ’11

Principal Software Engineer at Red Hat

Raleigh, NC

@kahowell@mastodon.social

https://kahowell.net

Note

These are my own opinions and experiences, and not those of my employer.

My Career

timeline
    2011 : W&M '11
         : CGI Federal - Fairfax, VA
    2013 : CGI Federal - Durham, NC
         : US Government Shutdown
         : TekSystems Contract for Red Hat IT
    2014 : Red Hat IT, Full-Time
    2016 : Red Hat Engineering

Kevin at Red Hat NHO

Agenda

  • Trends
  • Resumes
  • Networking
  • Job Hunting
  • Interviews
  • Resources

Artificial Intelligence

Both in early 2025:

  • Jan 21 - US to invest $500 billion
  • Feb 11 - EU plans to invest €200 billion

Tough Market

  • Applicant to job ratio
  • Inflation
  • Interest rates
  • Investment in AI
  • Experienced engineers are moving less
  • Layoffs, hiring freezes

Cycles

  • Smartphone Apps
  • Cloud Computing
  • Big Data
  • AI

Resumes

Skills

  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Problem Solving
  • Collaboration

Side Projects

  • Shows initiative
  • Potential interview topic

Open Source Involvement

Examples:

GitHub

  • good first issue label on GitHub projects
  • contributing.md

Microcredentials

  • Credly
  • Free & Paid Trainings

Collaboration

  • Side-projects
  • Open-source involvement
  • Non-technical community involvement

Certifications

  • Not expected for early career
  • Many companies pay for professional development
  • Discounts
  • Non-technical (e.g. project management) can give you an edge

Resume Tips

Networking

Meetups

  • User groups
  • Virtual meetups
  • Have a job/need a job
  • Learn what opportunities exist in an area

Conferences

  • Job boards
  • The “hallway” track
  • Free or cheap
  • Practice public speaking

Kevin @ SCALE

Conferences - Suggestions

Referrals

  • Contact before applying
  • Contact after applying

Job Hunting

Recruiting Cycles

  • Recruiting cycles are tied to budget cycles
  • Cycles tend to be quarterly
  • Summer and late fall are slower

Internships

  • Mostly late fall/early spring
  • But don’t give up looking

Roles

  • Backend Engineer
  • Frontend Engineer
  • Fullstack Engineer
  • Technical Writer
  • Data Engineer
  • AI Engineer
  • Quality Engineer

Job Boards at Conferences

  • Employers recruit at conferences

Saved Searches

  1. Look for jobs on a company’s website
  2. Set up a “saved search” or “alert”

Down-leveling

  • Sometimes employers compromise
  • Sometimes bringing in fresh talent is valuable in itself

Consider All Industries

  • Healthcare/Life Sciences
  • Finance
  • Retail
  • Technology
  • Non-Profit
  • Academia

Consider Contract-to-Hire

  • Work as a contractor for 6 months to year
  • Then convert to full-time or find something else

Interviews

Embrace In-Person/Hybrid

  • Early career
  • Mentorship

Practice Coding Interviews

  • HackerRank
  • Advent of Code
  • Beware of interviewing scams

Show Continuous Learning

  • Talk about microlearning or side-projects

Do NOT Lie

  • Or make up answers
  • Instead admit you don’t know, relate to something you do know

Resources

Skills

Jobs

Other Good Resources

Thank You

Image Credits