Total turnout was 3 people! Not too good, but we had a good time! Johan, Camille and I have all worked together in the past and recently have all been on the developer market around Boston, so we had a lot to talk about. Johan is actually looking for work in NYC now - anyone out there need a Sr Deverloper/Architect for a .Net project in NYC?
The location was not optimal again. Who knew they had Tuesday trivia nights at the Elephant & Castle? I am still scouting for a downtown location that serves alcohol and food with a quiet environment. I think next time we will try Boston Beer Works on Canal Street. When I walked by last night on the way home (7:30pm) it was pretty quiet and not crowded - unlike both places I have had this dinner so far.
Our conversation about the Boston .Net developer market was pretty good. Seems we all agree that it is getting better and more and more Sr positions are coming around. Some people are even leaving their existing companies just to get .Net experience! Salaries seem to be pretty flat though - which is somewhat normal (probably not going to see the spikes in salaries like the late 90's any time soon). Several recruiters are still calling me (even though my Monster resume is not searchable) looking for people with what I call typical financial IT shop experience. VB 6 experience with strong database experience (SQL server, Oracle, or Sybase) and some production experience in .Net (a mix of VB.net and C# - most seem to be C#). The question you have to ask yourself is “To contract or not to contract?” - the answer to that question will determine your opportunities.
Lessons learned from this Dinner:
- Make sure I put my cell phone number on the information
- Reserve a specific area of the location - not “we will either be in the room off the side of the bar or in the back of the dinning area“
- Make sure people know what I look like - put picture on my web site
- Leave my name with the host so people can be directed to where we are
- Make sure at least one big personality is going to be there
All in all it was a success. I got to catch up with a couple of friends of mine over a few beers and some food talking about geeky stuff, what more can you ask for?