Hot Monster throwing Dice

So the first week of job hunting is over. The provisional statistics are as follows:

20 views of the CV on Dice

18 views of the CV on Monster

1 view of the CV on HotJobs

9 jobs applied to directly

3 responses from head hunters

1 first-round 60-minute non-technical interview on the phone

Essentially I am interested in two regions, namely the NYC metro area (NY, NJ, CT within commuting distance from NYC) and CA (mostly the SFBA). The former is my default destination, the latter is self-explanatory.

In respect of NY as one witness told me 'Finance is the only game in the town'. Indeed, most of the observed positions demanding well-rounded expertise deal with Finance. The good news is that $100K is not the limit although compensation depends on previous experience in the domain. The bad news is that the very same positions tend to be full-time.

As for CA, most telco-related positions found by means of a trivial 'Java SIP' filter concentrate in alluring places with household names such as San Jose and SF. There seem to be many relatively young ISVs resembling the companies I worked for, occasionally they even list 'startup experience' among requirements. Needless to say, contractors are not really welcomed over there.

All in all, it looks like serious job hunting is possible only on the US soil and preferably with local experience and readiness for visa transfer. This hardly bodes well for people without unique skills or background. I know the only person going on H-1B this year to a direct employer. The company is of the MSFT/GOOG league which in my opinion is a tall order for most of us. The only public company where I have access to insiders enjoys hiring freeze until the end of Q3 and seems to be looking for full-time candidates as well.

Another practical consideration concerns one's positioning. I am sure it is definitely possible to join even a firm on the Street provided that one dedicates enough efforts to preparation (e.g. learning Finance 101). The question here is how to choose the domain. There are a few degrees of freedom (geographical location - jobs in NY and CA are different; visa status an GC plans - ability to transfer visa or work corp-2-corp; moving to a new domain vs utilizing experience in a former domain) and a rational choice among them from my current location is a challenge. I am inclined to conclude that until I have spent a few months in the US any activity on my side will be just an exercise in polishing CV with little ROI.