I'd hardly feel as if working at a fledgling startup is considered unemployed even if it was considered so on paper. I'm quite sure that potentially you must have learned a wealth of knowledge during those 6 years and its in your best interest to highlight those on your resume and in any interview you manage to secure.
Being in the position of interviewing many candidates lately I get truly excited when people want to show me code and examples of stuff they've built, including the challenges they've met head on. Being in a startup gives you many life experiences that you need to address as a strength, whether you succeeded or not. A little secret that should be totally obvious is that no one wants to work with weak, incompetent, whiny developers because your life/project is in their hands when you have to get the job done by the deadline. Your team is only going to be as good as your weakest link.
I will tell you also that the market is hot. I just heard that in the tech sector the unemployment rate in CA is 5.9% compared to 12.3% for the entire labor force. So in actuality you'll face less competition finding a job in the tech industry currently than you will at fast food, etc. At my current company (in the Bay Area) we have a hard time finding good people locally, and I hear this same thing from many people at other companies. There is a very competitive job market (between companies) here and my employer is paying us handsomely if we can bring in a good new hire.
In addition I'd say play to your strengths. If you're an okay back end developer but excel at front end then apply to these positions or vice versa. Think of the hiring process from the other side of the desk and you'll be sure to land an interview.
Being in the position of interviewing many candidates lately I get truly excited when people want to show me code and examples of stuff they've built, including the challenges they've met head on. Being in a startup gives you many life experiences that you need to address as a strength, whether you succeeded or not. A little secret that should be totally obvious is that no one wants to work with weak, incompetent, whiny developers because your life/project is in their hands when you have to get the job done by the deadline. Your team is only going to be as good as your weakest link.
I will tell you also that the market is hot. I just heard that in the tech sector the unemployment rate in CA is 5.9% compared to 12.3% for the entire labor force. So in actuality you'll face less competition finding a job in the tech industry currently than you will at fast food, etc. At my current company (in the Bay Area) we have a hard time finding good people locally, and I hear this same thing from many people at other companies. There is a very competitive job market (between companies) here and my employer is paying us handsomely if we can bring in a good new hire.
In addition I'd say play to your strengths. If you're an okay back end developer but excel at front end then apply to these positions or vice versa. Think of the hiring process from the other side of the desk and you'll be sure to land an interview.