Signing up to Linkedin is only the first stage. You have to let other people know you are interested in their projects, companies or articles by clicking the "like" button and posting articles yourself.
If you were wanting to install a shower with a guaranteed flow rate, you'd get a "power shower" which is a shower with a built in pump and mixer valve. Any constrictions on the pipes would fail when the water pressure changed.
If it were an aquarium or swimming pool water treatment system, you...
The independent way is the most fun - being a startup. That's the best way of gaining new skills that are considered "commercial". There's always the chance that a large company will buy you out.
Just about every vacancy I have seen has always been with a startup that has just been bought up...
I'm a software engineer/programmer/developer who started programming in the 1980's (got my first home computer in the 1980's, did a BSc,MSc,PhD) and have been working ever since (presently between contracts just now - anyone hiring? :)
The industry is fun, so long as you keep learning new...
You can download trial versions to play with for a month (3D Studio, Maya, Modo). My recommendation would be to download as many free Youtube tutorials as possible, watch them, figure out how to use them, and then try and build up a showreel. You can also pay for a monthly license, around £200.
The problem is that the architects and principal engineers who have bought homes in the mountains and West side of the peninsula don't want to move. That leaves everyone else fighting and scrambling to find accommodation the Bay Area.
I tried doing that in the UK - studied for a PhD in Computer Graphics/Image processing because it seemed a good way of achieve a life ambition and find a job in industry. After publishing three papers and getting to the point where companies were inviting me to do talks, TPTB realized what I was...
In silicon valley, the reason there's a shortage of engineers was due to two reason; for undergraduate degrees, the salaries they offered, didn't cover the living expectations of traditional middle-class engineers, so they brought in foreign workers who would be willing to live in edgier...