>>>Mary,
>>>
>>>This is a general recommendation to user groups in general -- please announce them a little more in advance! This has happened just this week in Chicago and Philadelphia. April 11 is tomorrow and your meeting conflicts directly with the meeting of my local .NET user group. I have a funny feeling I am going to find a job there. But I encourage everyone who can make it on short notice to go listen to Paul speak. He is a guy who knows what he's talking about and is generous of spirit.
>>
>>In this case we didn't have anyone scheduled to speak as of yesterday. I was talking to Rick about texting and mentioned I'd be willing to show it if we didn't already have a speaker, hence the late announcement. (although the dates of our meetings are always posted in advance at http://dafug.org ).
>>
>>Our .NET user group (in Southfield, MI) always has companies looking to hire (every meeting there are 4-6 companies saying they are looking for people). Hopefully it's the same for your group.
>
>I was too judgmental. Having led a user group for three years, I know speakers can disappear on short notice. Good for you for stepping up.
>
>Let me throw this open to suggestions because I have not been able to solve it myself. For 5 years I have been trying to transition to the .NET market It has seemed like a stone wall, a Catch 22, because everyone has wanted experience. And with .NET being over 10 years old experienced developers are plentiful. I have a couple of ideas in mind. One is to work free for a month and then the company can decide whether they want to keep me. To me it doesn't seem unreasonable. The fundamentals of software development remain unchanged. But it's hard to convince bureaucratic organizations of that sometimes. My other idea, and the winner IMO, is to do some work on a volunteer basis. I don't have to mention on my resume that the work was unpaid. Can you or anyone else recommend an organization that could use some free .NET work?
>
>Total change of topic -- are you a college basketball fan? I was really pleased to see Michigan make it to the championship game. It looked for a while like they were going to take down Louisville. That team is scary with young talent. At one point they had 5 freshmen on the floor. Some of them will probably flee to the NBA. In every case I would advise them not to. Trey Burke was the player of the year but he left more questions unanswered than answered in the tournament. He did not play like a lottery pick. Mitch McGary was the revelation of the tournament. (How did he get screwed out of the MVP? Is it a rule that the MVP has to come from the winning team?) But his resume is very thin, starting only two games before the tournament. His free throw shooting is abominable. Heck, I could teach him to shoot free throws better than he does. It's probably an impossible dream, given the dollars that are undoubtedly being dangled under their noses already, but I would love to see them all come back. If I were the coach (coaching experience limited to under 12 youth soccer) the first team meeting of next season would be short and sweet. I would write "unfinished business" on the whiteboard and leave it at that.


Mike

>>But it's hard to convince bureaucratic organizations of that sometimes.

I don't travel in the large corporate market myself, but those who do tell me that certifications carry a lot of weight there, so if I wanted to gain a foothold there and I had free time I'd be using it to get some certifications.

If I were looking for work in the smaller market, I'd start by networking with web developers in my area and offer deeply discounted rates for helping them on database projects.

Volunteer work can be a real pain. Most volunteer organizations don't have adequate equipment or infrastructure and don't usually know what they want, so you'd have to really choosey before committing to one.
Another way to do freebee work is to find small startups and do their web sites at little or no fee. If the startup takes off, you'll have a paying client.
I did that when transitioning from mainframes to PC's and I'm still working with some of those clients decades later.

Good luck in your search!