I would like to recommend the following local companies and their job offers (Some of the info below may be "old news"):

- Digital Dominion (www.dominiondigital.com). I was told by their recruiter, Tricia Rhodes (trhodes@dominiondigital.com), that Dominion would be hiring in January 2009 again. I was in touch with her in October/November time frame last year, but I haven't heard from her since. I interviewed with Anthony Wenzel (awenzel@dominiondigital.com) and Mike Kittel (mkittel@dominiondigital.com). The interview experience was very positive. Dominion Digital is a company that I really wanted to join.

- Harrisonburg-based Rosetta Stone (http://www.rosettasto.... Rosetta is a very successful company, and they're looking for a variety of people and talents so all of you should check them out. It's a bit far from CVille though. I applied and was contacted once by their HR to fill out an IT skills form. I haven't heard from them again after I sent the skills form back. My IT skills probably didn't match their demands.

- Aker Wade (www.akerwade.com). Aker Wade is currently looking for a software engineer to work on a very interesting project involving electric vehicles and battery exchange stations (See BetterPlace.com). I interviewed with Bob Mosolgo, Director of Software Development (Bob.Mosolgo@akerwade.com).

- Rimm Kaufman Group (RKG) (www.rimkaufman.com). RKG is currently looking for a senior developer. RKG is a very successful small company (RKG made the 2008 top 500 fastest growing private companies in America: ) that offers "paid search marketing" services. I had a very positive interview experienced with John Miller (Director of IT, john@rimmkaufman.com) and Alan Kaufman (President, alan@rimmkaufman.com). Warning to the IT folks: RKG uses interview techniques with software engineers that involve some short database design and coding exercises on the white board! So, brush up on your relational database design theory and typical search & graph algorithms before heading out to an interview. Their IT infrastructure uses Linux, mySQL, and Perl.

- Perrin Quarles Associates (PQA) (www.pqa.com). PQA has experienced significant growth for the past few years working on EPA (and other US state-level as well as international environment protection agencies) government contracts, and will continue to recruit software engineers in 2009. I had a very positive interview experience with the founders (Peggy, peggyquarles@pqa.com, and Perrin Quarles, perrinquarles@pqa.com), Bill Balcke (Sr Vice President, billbalcke@pqa.com), Jeff Vogelsang (Sr Associate acting as a pseudo Chief Technology adviser, jeffheatwole@pqa.com), Cindy Ferreira (Chief IT Architect, cindyferreira@pqa.com), and Jeff Heatwole (Project Manager, jeffheatwole@pqa.com). I encourage everyone to keep PQA on their short list and check out their job openings periodically.