Hi Mike.

First of all I recommend the book "What Color is Your Parachute" by Richard Bolles. A new edition comes out every year but a copy a couple years old will probably be fine.

The focus near the beginning is "X,Y,Z are not effective ways to find a job but A,B,C are". Later chapters are about finding the job you want. In short:

• figure out what you want to do (eg programming)
• figure out what field interests you (eg medical science)
• figure out how a (programmer) can contribute to (medical science). Interview working professionals to find this out!
• figure out where you want to work (eg Georgia)
• figure out what companies in (Georgia) could use your skills and operate in the field of your interest. Make a list. Ask your local librarian! Librarians are people with magic skills when it comes to finding information.

Aside: when you get the chance ask a librarian how much work was involved in becoming a librarian.

Many jobs come from small companies (eg under 10 people). Many companies do not advertise. If someone shows up at the door with skills ready to be applied and they know something about the company there is a good chance they will get hired.

Small companies are good to do this with because they don't have big Human Resource departments to filter people through. Often you will get to talk with the person who has the power to hire you. "Cold call" at 8:30 or 5:30 or lunch time because hard working owner/managers will be there but receptionists, etc will not be in the office.

Have him put together a portfolio of work that he has done. I have a printed version (from when I graduated, it's a bit out of date). A version burnt on to CD-ROM that he can leave with people would be good. A similar idea is putting examples of his work up on a web site. Include the URL in emails, cover letters. He should try to make it easy for potential employers to find information about him. Hopefully positive information. ;)

Projects outside of school/work are valuable. They shows when someone is interested in writing code and that he probably has more experience than someone who does not write code in his spare time. If he doesn't have this kind of experience yet then he should start doing it (but of course don't put off looking for work).

A related book about how to be a valuable person in a programming company is "My Job Went to India" by Chad Fowler. This book is not directly about finding a job but a couple things it mentions echo what has already been said about being involved with open-source projects.

Best of Luck.
Chad

Update:PS: I am not Chad Fowler. I did read his book last week though. :)

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