City living isn't for everyone. Fortunately, software development is an ideal profession for working remotely. All you need is a laptop and an internet connection.

Maki visited the Lookahead Search Sydney office a couple of times this month. If you've seen anything I've posted on the internet, you've seen her already, but here's a photo anyway:

Last week, we spent a few days in the rolling green hills of Berry, NSW for a team offsite. The days were spent doing brown bags, retrospectives and planning. The nights involved eating too much and relaxing together.

The potential foreseen awkwardness surrounding asking your boss for a pay rise is often enough of a deterrent for most people to avoid the conversation entirely. The average boss can be known to forget to bring this up with their team. If they haven't hired in a while, they could be disconnected from market rates, too. So, you may need to take it into your own hands.

Too many resumes are verbose. I gave a talk about job hunting at the August SydJS which focussed on working out what you actually want to do and how to best ensure the reader of your resume gets that message.

There have been loads of studies on how to optimise productivity and most of them have found that 35 hours per week is ideal.

Last night I spoke at a TAFE presentation night, alongside @CathJones0 and @geoffroh .

Recruitment can so often be about good timing. So what do you do if you find yourself looking for a new job when the market is a tad on the quiet side?

89% of job applications that took longer than 14 calendar days ended with a negative outcome. For applications finalised within 14 days of resume submission, this deceases to 52% of applications.

I think there is a misconception out there about why you should write a cover letter and what to include.