Writing a blog post describing ways to find employment in Python.

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+![Title image]({{site.url}}/assets/images/python_jobs/main.jpg)
+
+The last few months were tiring. I hardly got any time for writing. I was busy
+preparing content for a workshop and talk. Hopefully I will get into my flow
+soon. In this post I will try to answer one of the most important question of
+our life, “Employment!”. At conferences, IRC channels or even by the roadside, I
+had requested people to suggest good employment opportunities for me. I have not
+always been very lucky in finding greener pastures. I am writing this blog post
+so that you learn from my poor experience. I am happy that at least I was able
+to knock the door of good companies. I am sharing a list of portals and
+companies that I am following or have followed in last few years. As a bonus
+point, I will highlight some uncommon ways which helped me to invite new
+opportunities.  You should read this post if you are looking for **Python + web
++ (remote OR India)** related employment.
+
+*Disclaimer: I have not taken any money or any other type of bribes to advertise
+companies here.*
+
+### Strongly recommended
+
+#### [Python Job board](https://www.python.org/jobs/)
+
+This website is the best choice for finding jobs in Python. The portal is
+managed by volunteers from the Python Software Foundation. You can find both
+remote and on-site visa sponsored jobs here. You will get an option to subscribe
+via RSS feeds. They have an active Twitter handle too. I have configured
+[IFTTT](https://ifttt.com/) to drop me an email whenever new feeds are
+published.
+
+#### Mailing lists
+
+Mailing lists are a good source to get notified for new job openings. In India,
+there are a few active mailing lists managed by volunteers of that community.
+Often Job emails are tagged with "[JOB]" in the subject. I have configured my
+mail client to collect all the mails with "[JOB]" in their subject in a
+dedicated folder of my mail client. This configuration helps me to pay steady
+attention to them. Your Hack May Vary.
+
+Below is a list of active Python communities of India.
+
+* [Bangalore](https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/bangpypers)
+* [Chennai](https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/chennaipy)
+* [Delhi](https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/ncr-python.in)
+* [Hyderabad](https://groups.google.com/group/hyderabadpython)
+* [Kerala](https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/python-kerala)
+* [Pune](http://pune.python.org.in/index.html)
+
+#### [HasJobs](https://hasjob.co/)
+
+HasJob is an easy to follow job portal. You will find jobs posted by emerging to
+well-established startups of India. I am following HasJobs since day one of my
+career. During my early days, I used to run a
+[bot](https://github.com/ultimatecoder/hasjobbot) to apply to all the latest
+openings of the day. I am not using that tool now, but if you are interested in
+making that bot compatible with the new HasJob, please create an issue
+[here](https://github.com/ultimatecoder/hasjobbot/issues) to show your interest.
+I am happy to hack on this project again.
+
+#### [Python now](https://www.pythonnow.com/)
+
+This job board is less known, but I find it effective for remote or visa
+sponsored positions. Openings are mostly from companies based out of Europe or
+United states.
+
+#### [Github profile](https://github.com/ultimatecoder)
+
+There were a good amount of invitations from recruiters, employers via my Github
+profile. While Github jobs has not helped me much, this worked for me. I would
+recommend adding your email address on your Github profile. It helps people to
+reach out to you. In my case, most of the Github invitations for employment were
+targeted to a common audience.  May be people are crawling Github profiles from
+popular open source projects and sending them opportunity emails. I don't
+consider anything wrong in the crawling way, but one should spend enough time in
+identifying my expertise. Contributing to open source projects for inviting
+better opportunities is a long subject which might be a good fit for an entire
+blog post.
+
+### Not so strongly recommended
+
+#### [Django Gigs](https://djangogigs.com/)
+
+I am not too much following this website, but I have followed this when I was
+actively looking for a change. You will find openings for Django developer from
+all around the world.
+
+#### [OpenStack Jobs](https://www.openstack.org/community/jobs/)
+
+OpenStack is a free and open source tool for cloud computing written in Python.
+In my opinion, OpenStack is one another domain in Python. You should follow
+this if you are interested in shaping your career in OpenStack.
+
+#### [The free Python job board](http://pythonjobs.github.io/)
+
+You will find openings from all domains of Python. Openings for remote developer
+is less in proportion to on-site opportunities. I didn't notice any
+opportunities by Indian tech companies at this portal.
+
+#### [AngelList](https://angel.co)
+
+I have heard from people, that AngelList works. It worked for me to observe
+company culture, team and information about the investors of the company. I have
+mixed experience with this portal. I was contacted by few employers for joining
+their startups via AngelList, but they weren't so impressive. You should create
+your Angle List profile and upgrade it periodically.
+
+#### [HackerEarth](https://www.hackerearth.com/)
+
+If you are looking for your first job or you are good at solving competitive
+programming questions, then this platform can work for you. I have not followed
+HackerEarth since almost 3-4 years. One thing is sure that once you create a
+profile at this platform, they will spam you with emails of their hiring
+challenges. You can obviously turn off email invitations from their platform.
+My experience from those email invitations is that Hacker earth is good if you
+want to get hired for large corporate.
+
+
+### Popular, but I will not recommend them
+
+#### [Stackoverflow](https://stackoverflow.com)
+
+Most jobs were open from years. There are few openings which I had applied 2
+years back, and they are still deciding whether to hire me or not. Some rejected
+my application after 6 months. The employers don't bother to reply to my
+questions. The openings which are flashed by the website are mostly inactive
+years before. Subscription to new openings is even worse. Stackoverflow will
+spam you for each and every opening despite you are only interested in watching
+jobs from selective domain. Maybe you should have catchy Stackoverflow profile
+(which I don't have) to get at least good response from the employer. I don't
+think Stackoverflow should be the preferred choice to get employment at least in
+India.
+
+#### [LinkedIn with premium membership](https://premium.linkedin.com/)
+
+LinkedIn works great for advertising your skills. I often use LinkedIn to
+observe the employees of any company or finding the employment history of
+anyone. I am contacted by a recruiter at least once a month which is a good
+thing. But I had a poor experience of their premium service. It was total loss
+of my money. I am recommending to have an updated LinkedIn profile that's it.
+Premium services are more helpful to recruiters.
+
+#### [Github jobs](https://jobs.github.com)
+
+Github jobs has too many outdated jobs. It is not the recommended platform to
+find an employment in India. I have stopped expecting good from this portal.
+
+#### [Y Combinator](https://news.ycombinator.com/jobs)
+
+This platform has mostly openings from Y Combinator startups. Companies posting
+job openings are impressive, but there are very few openings for India or remote
+for India based employee. I haven't got single invitation for an interview from
+openings I applied via this website, but one fellow in my known has got employed
+via this website. You should sure try your luck for sure.
+
+
+### Network
+
+#### [Twitter](https://twitter.com/jaysinhp)
+
+Twitter is a great platform for find jobs, contract jobs, projects. Tweet that
+you are looking for change in your employment. Add appropriate hashtags like
+"#job #python" etc. I had pinned my "Looking for job" Tweet until I found
+satisfied position. I had updated my profile description to "Looking for
+interested position in Python Django..." to let people know that I am open to be
+hired. I was contacted by lot of good people via Twitter. If you are new and you
+don't have good network then you can find people having good influence in the
+community and request them to re-tweet your "Looking for job" Tweet. Those
+people can be organizer of any conference, meetup group, maintainer of any open
+source project or known speaker of any technical conference. If you request them
+politely, I am sure they will happy.
+
+#### Facebook
+
+Just like Twitter, Facebook also helped me to let people know that I am looking
+for change. Facebook is kind of limited in networking with unknown people. I
+have not tried posting on the walls of polular community pages, but there is
+nothing wrong in following them if you are looking for any change.
+
+
+#### Conferences
+
+There are millions of advantages for attending any conference and this is one of
+them. Conference has stalls managed by companies. You can visit them, talk with
+them, ask questions about their culture, work pressure, kind of problem they are
+trying to solve. When I was looking for job, I went to each and every stall of
+Pycon and tried to talk with them. If I find them interesting, I go to their
+career page and skim for openings matching to my skills. If I find any, I go
+back to them and try to initiate a contact with the person by showing my
+interest in openings at their company. Most of the time I was succeeded by
+personal recommendations to their recruiter. Believe me, recommendation works
+better than applying via online portals. Recruiter pays dedicated attention when
+your profile is recommended by existing employee. If you are a good candidate,
+people are happy to take you in their team.
+
+You shouldn't be limited to stalls. You can check companies of speakers,
+organizers or anyone you find interesting at the conference. LinkedIn works best
+for skimming profiles and locate their employment details.
+
+##### Job boards at conference
+
+Job boards are interesting resource. You can demonstrate yourself that you are
+looking for change and you can watch companies looking for employees. I prefer
+to look the board at the end of the conference so that I get all possible
+openings without re-looking. I scan profiles of companies, If they are doing I
+don't delay in applying. I will advise to not take much time in applying to
+positions you are interested in. You shouldn't assume you are the only one in
+the race. Last year at Pycon India, we had an amazing response for job board.
+
+* Pycon India Job board
+
+![Pycon india job board]({{site.url}}/assets/images/python_jobs/pycon_india_job_board.jpg)
+
+* [Pycon US](https://us.pycon.org/2019/sponsors/jobs/)
+
+Pycon US has some remote openings for people located at anywhere on the earth.
+It is worth scanning it once.
+
+Below are list of conferences that I attended in past and found them helping for
+finding better employment opportunities.
+
+##### National
+
+* [Pycon India](https://in.pycon.org/)
+* [Devconf India](https://devconf.info/in)
+* [JSFoo](https://jsfoo.in)
+* [ReactFoo](https://reactfoo.in/)
+* [FunctionalConf](https://functionalconf.com/)
+
+##### Regional
+
+* [PyDelhi Conf](https://conference.pydelhi.org/)
+* [Hyderabad Conf](http://pyconf.hydpy.org/)
+* [Pysangammam](https://pysangamam.org)
+
+#### Meetups
+
+Meetups are mini conference. Meetup helped me to connect with many interesting
+people and I have learned most recent trends via Meetup events. The fun part of
+Meetup is that Meetups are always arranged at different venue. Venue is
+generally sponsored by tech company. You should take time and talk with the
+available employees of the company. Meetup is the best place to step into their
+premise and actually see their environment. I always hear announcements from
+regarding openings at meetup.
+
+This was a different case when I was living at Gandhinagar. There were a few
+communities for sure, but it wasn't as diverse as what I am seeing at Bangalore.
+I am sure this will be a situation at your hometown. I have seen people starting
+Meetup if there isn't any in his/her town to create a community. Today benefit
+of good network and support of community are standing with them as a success of
+their efforts.
+
+#### Events
+
+Small events, mini conferences are a great way to connect with people. When I
+mentored for [Django Girls]() Ahmadabad and Bangalore, I got connected with
+awesome people. I was able to make a healthy relationship with them which helped
+me in finding better opportunities and improving myself in many ways.
+
+### Contract, Part-time
+
+#### Incubation centers
+
+Incubation centers has early staged startups. In my opinion, they are good place
+to find contract based opportunities. I had never attracted by any job offers
+for a full-time employment because of their low paying capabilities than an
+established startup, but your preference may be different. Good incubation
+center does events. You can go to their events, talk with the startups to know
+more about their requirements. Things to be careful while choosing a contract
+work is another matter to discuss, so I am skipping it here.
+
+#### Co-working spaces
+
+Co-working space are good choice for bit progressed startups. Good co-working
+space arranges lot of events for startups. These events include hiring camps
+too. In the past, I have got small contract based opportunities and weekend work
+via network of co-working space. I try to maintain a healthy relationship with
+the managers. I brief them regarding my technical expertise and request them to
+keep me in mind whenever anyone is looking for any technical help in my domain.
+You can try that too.
+
+I will advise you to do a clear contract before starting any temporary work.
+Contract has saved me once from over work and get paid for what I did.
+
+### Remote (India friendly)
+
+Below is the list of companies who are working in Python and hire/hired remote
+developer who are located in India.
+
+* [Zapier](https://zapier.com/)
+* [Scraping Hub](https://scrapinghub.com/)
+* [Platform.sh](https://platform.sh/)
+* [MotoInsight](https://www.motoinsight.com/)
+
+### Open source / Free software organizations
+
+Below is the list of organizations who has some tools/utilities written in
+Python, and they hire/hired remote employee located at India.
+
+#### Organizations
+
+* [Electronic Frontier Foundation](https://www.eff.org/)
+* [Freedom of the press foundation (SecureDrop)](https://freedom.press/)
+* [Tor](https://www.torproject.org)
+
+#### Job Portals
+
+Below job portals which aggregates openings at free software projects. Ratio of
+Python jobs is less compared to other languages. I didn't work as expected for
+me, but I still try to follow them as much as possible.
+
+* [FSF jobs](https://www.fsf.org/resources/jobs)
+* [FOSS jobs](https://www.fossjobs.net/)
+
+### Companies in India
+
+Apart from portals, below are the list of companies that I know are working in
+Python. This list involves companies to which I was interviewed, worked for,
+referred by friends or I spoke with them during the conference. These companies
+were looking for Python developer at any point in time. You should look for
+current openings before showing your interest to them.
+
+#### Ahmedabad
+
+* [Odoo India](https://www.odoo.com/)
+* [Ishi Systems](http://www.ishisystems.com/)
+* [Auberginesolutions](https://auberginesolutions.com)
+* [Codal](https://www.codal.com/) [TrellisSoft](http://trellissoft.com/)
+* [Infibeam](https://www.infibeam.com/jobs)
+* [Peerbits](https://www.peerbits.com/)
+* [Caret IT solutions](https://www.caretit.com/)
+* [Limelight](https://limelightit.io/)
+
+#### Bangalore
+
+* [GoJek](https://www.go-jek.com)
+* [HeackerEarth](https://www.hackerearth.com/)
+* [VMWare](https://www.vmware.com)
+* [Razorpay](https://razorpay.com/)
+* [Petasense](https://petasense.com/)
+* [Sprintboard](https://www.springboard.com/)
+* [OpenEBS](https://www.openebs.io)
+* [NikiAI](https://niki.ai/)
+* [Zauba Labs](https://zauba.cloud/)
+* [Infinity + Beyond](https://paisool.com/)
+* [Doselect](https://doselect.com/)
+* [GALE](https://gale.agency/)
+* [Intel](https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/jobs/locations/india.html/)
+* [Google](https://careers.google.com/jobs/)
+* [Accion labs](https://www.accionlabs.com/)
+* [Credy](https://www.credy.in/)
+* [Grab](https://www.grab.in/)
+* [Treebo](https://www.treebo.com)
+* [Soroco](www.soroco.com)
+
+### Bangalore based Recruiting agencies
+
+* [Bench Hire](https://www.benchire.com/contact/)
+
+### Hyderabad
+
+* [DBS bank](https://www.dbs.com/india/default.page)
+* [Indeed](https://www.indeed.co.in/)
+* [Pramati Technologies](https://www.pramati.com/)
+* [Oviyum](http://oviyum.com/)
+* [Rorodata](https://rorodata.com/)
+
+### New Delhi
+
+* [Fueled](https://fueled.com/)
+
+### Pune
+
+* [Red Hat](https://www.redhat.com/en)
+
+I am sure there are many good companies left from my catch. If you want to
+suggest any, then please write a blog post or tweet about it and share it with
+me.  I will reference it in this post and pay you the credits for it. I hope you
+had enjoyed reading this blog post. Happy hacking!
+
+
+###### Proofreader: [Chandan Kumar](https://twitter.com/chkumar246), [Pranaya Tomar](mailto:[email protected])