One of the fun things in my life is moving across the country without having a job awaiting me. It's such a risk taking thing to do and I'm a risky kind of guy. I went to the Rochester Institute of Technology's Technology Job Fair last night in hopes of hooking up with a decent employer with a decent position. Fun was had by all.

One thing of note was the amount of "grey hairs" at the event. Lines of people in their 40's and 50's (and maybe even a few 60's!) who seemed to be practically begging for a job. There were a few there who also looked like they had a fetish for red staplers. I stayed away from those individuals.

I showed up in the typical silicon valley outfit of khaki pants and denim shirt and went to work. The rest of the people were in suits and ties and trying to look professional.

It was a pretty mixed reaction going to the booths. The majority were looking for Microsoft back-end developers using things like C#, asp and .Net. Most would give me a weird look when I said Unix. I mean I'm a Unix based back-end whiz and there just wasn't much happening in regards to that. About half would give blank stares. The other half were almost comical in their reactions. Their eyes would grow large and I could see them mouth "daaaamnn!" upon viewing my resume.

Most of you who have read this site regularly know of my exploits (most of which are laid out in my bio). Rochester people seem to stay in Rochester and not run off to Silicon Valley and start a bunch of companies in California, win awards for small business and then actually return to the area. So for them to see a guy who's been all over Asia and throughout the US I guess I seemed foreign to them. One employer actually looked at my resume and declared me the "strongest candidate" at the whole event (granted he was probably just blowing smoke, but his eyes were huge and I'll be meeting with their Senior VP on Friday).

There were some young people there, but I was shocked at the number of older people. A sign of our times I guess.

Of the over 40 employers there more than half took my resume including a small 8 person internet company who has no tech department(?!wtf!?).

Anyway the search is still ongoing, so if you need someone who makes you go "Daaammmn!" in the Rochester area let me know. If you went to this event, let me know what your viewpoint and results were from it below.