Mimi Chan

I live in the Seattle area and work in the IT department. Having said that, 50K per year is a little low. But then you must consider how long you have been searching for this position, and you may not know when you will get another job offer.

Who Moved My Cheese is a very good, inspiring book. Here's a link with a synopsis: http://www.entrepreneurbooks.com/Who-Moved-My-Cheese.html

Colere, you should be smart enough to know that our industry is constantly changing and it's almost impossible to "master" all the new technology. Unless you enjoy being a "learner" and willing to adapt, you are better of going to something more stagnant. Good luck with law school, but hopefully you aren't chasing the mighty $$ but instead going for something that you enjoy. :-)

I have two undergraduate degrees, both in business and computer science. From my experience, the type of degree only counts if you have very little work experience and you are looking for a new job. If you have couple of years worth of work experience, companies don't care about degrees and care more about your experience and what you know. I am Java certified as well but I can't get my company to consider me for a development job because I lack the experience. :-(

I agree with Encapsulation, Inheritance, Polymorphism, but would abstraction be the fourth? What about the concept of everything is an object?

OOP is a must, regardless of what position you end up. During your interviews, most companies will definitely ask about OOP, whether you are applying as a Dev, testing, etc.
Database is also a very good course to take.

I agree with Tony.....I would go back to India since a companies are outsourcing development work. I've never been to India, but if I had relatives there and was familiar with the area, I would definitely go back.
No one can be certain of the IT future in the U.S., but if it picks up in couple of years you can always come back with the IT experience and knowledge you gained in India.

You could try going through a hiring agency such as Volt. They would screen you and work with you in getting a job that would meet your qualifications and needs. I know that a lot of companies these days are only bringing in contractors from certain agencies and if you do a good job, companies will convert you to an employee.
The downfall of going through an agency is that the salary will be very low.
Good luck.

Sonny.
I would do both, definitely call and email your resume.(Unless the ad specifies no phone calls) This way, you have a better chance of your resume not being lost in the system and you have a name to refer to in the future.
In this economy, you can't wait for them to come to you. You have to go get it yourself!!

I wouldn't recommend writing your salary requirements on your resume. If you are asking too much, companies won't even consider you since they can hire someone with more experience. If you are asking too little, companies will think that you aren't a top notch candidate.
If I were you, I would focus more on education and work history. If you are what they are looking for based on your resume, you can then write your expected salary on the application.
Good luck.

Agreed......too many qualified developers...not enough dev jobs.

I know that Washington Mutual, from the www.seattletimes.com, have been posting the same jobs since June.

I know that as companies start to buy "off the shelf" softwares instead of building software internally, the need for programmers diminish.
For example, my company, 10000+ employees, decided last year to purchase Siebel CRM package. The need for Java and C++ programmers disappeared and Siebel configurators and analysts were needed instead.
The people who were developers were laid off. Additional business and functional analysts were hired, while the cream of the crop developers were reassigned as architects.