Seen in the Fremont neighborhood, Seattle.

Pretty regularly, I have lunch/coffee/drinks with someone who is trying to find their way in the Seattle Tech Community.  Typically, it’s someone with an idea for a startup.  Although, these days, with the economy the way it is, often they’re looking for work at a tech company.

Here’s the thing: it’s easy to target companies like Microsoft and Amazon because everybody has heard of them.  But, these companies have two big problems:

• Since everybody has heard of them, a gajillion people are applying for jobs there, and
• They’re big, giant corporations and that’s not a good fit for many people.

The problem that these people are presented with is how to find the startups, and small to medium sized companies in the technology community.  That is, companies that are excellent places to work, that have great prospects, but who aren’t on the front page of the Wall Street Journal when they release their earnings.

I tend to direct people toward these resources…all of which are amazing gems.  I’m always surprised that so many people in the tech community are unfamiliar with them.

• TechFlash (http://techflash.com) — the most formally newspaper-ish of the group, TechFlash is led by John Cook, formerly a technology reporter at the Seattle-PI.  TechFlash primarily provides original reporting on technology companies of all sizes in the Seatlle area.
• Seattle 2.0 (http://seattle20.com) — focuses more on entrepreneurship and the startup community.  Seattle 2.0 has a small staff of writers, and often relies on members of the community for articles.
• Seattle Tech Calendar (http://seattletechcalendar.com) — a community calendar of technology oriented events happening in the Seattle area.  Includes all types of events, including, but not limited to, social, networking, organizational and educational. (If you read yesterday’s post about personal connections, Seattle Tech Calendar is a great resource for getting out into the community to meet other people.)  Seattle Tech Calendar also has a companion site, SeattleTechWiki (http://www.seattletechwiki.com).