I live in syracuse, I found a job this year after being laid off in 2 months. It was a stressful time. Instead or 5-6 hours a week hed be better off studying C,C++ and Java and applying to places locally. Syracuse does not have a ton of web work, but there is a big defense industry here (Saab, SRC, Lockheed, AFRL) so there are things. Cornell, SU, UofR, I imagine are hiring fewer software engineers now though with the potus changes.
> but there is a big defense industry here (Saab, SRC, Lockheed, AFRL)
i hope things don't get so bad that my options are destitution or the defense industry, but i'm used to eating ramen.
Lockheed can be an excellent place to work. While I’m not particularly fond of building war machines either, I had the opportunity to work on Space Situational Awareness. My role involved developing software to track the movements of space debris and alert operators to potential collisions. This project has been one of the most fulfilling aspects of my entire career.
There are also quite a number of medical device and pharmaceutical companies on the east coast (based in upstate NY here), along with defense industry contractors. So, there are some more options.
medical devices i am slightly more sympathetic to, as a user of a DMD. pharmaceutical companies, only slightly higher than "defense" companies. they exist in practice so that few may benefit from the misery of many.
IME, medical device work is nice: they need high quality and they are willing and able to pay for it.
i applied at a web dev role at SU, in-office, making less than what i made in like 2009, with skills that are frankly below me. custom written cover letter. job been posted for months. they just hit me with the 'no thanks'
Your resume might need to be rewritten then. Schools do pay very poorly, thats an undisputable fact, but their benefit of free tuition for you and your kids is pretty good.
I would reiterate that most jobs in syracuse are basically C, C++ or Java. The only real web shop is TCG Player, I think theyre C# and god sold to ebay so its the same high competititon. Equitable might have some stuff, not sure how things are going there but they are a java shop. Out to rochester you get a few more web places. But most of the web jobs even are corpro enterprise jobs, they probably dont have a ton of need for php or javascript front end really. Theres plenty of cloud out in Rome. Rochester has more than syracuse, from syracuse its doable, I know people that did that commute.