While contemplating my future, I keep up with networking activities and searches for local opportunities.

A placement/head-hunter/recruiter provided some possible situation for me. One of the companies has a questionnaire for applicants. It is an interesting set of questions, with a good mix of essays and technical questions. The list includes questions like:

"How did you learn programming and why did you stick with it?"

"Describe one of your projects that was enjoyable."

"Make improvements to the following code:", with a simple but improvement-rich set of code.

This was not a simple, five-minute test. I had to think about the essay questions, and then I wrote several draft answers before committing to a final response. For the coding exercises, I dusted off the C and C++ compilers and set up some development environments. The hiring company wanted me to generate some test cases, to demonstrate familiarity with test-driven development. For me, that was simple, since I used test-driven development techniques on projects back at UPS. (And I like test-driven development, because I can work faster and with greater confidence.)

I've also had lunch meetings with friends and former co-workers.  In friend is using Google Jobs, his woodworking hobby, and his photography hobby to supplement his income.

And when I can, I've been reading Breaking Windows, an expose on Microsoft and their ability to transition to Internet technologies. It's fairly fast reading, and it fills in the gaps of my schedule nicely.