> But without a college degree, experience or a stack of projects in my pocket no one is going to believe me.
Even with those, people won't believe you. That's why interviews exist, so you can prove your knowledge.
Ask HN: A place to sleep, a laptop, no résumé and a hungry man.
21–30 of 54 posts
Re: Ask HN: A place to sleep, a laptop, no résumé and a hungry man.
#22I am about to leave a well paying job to go live in my Campervan and travel around Europe and Morocco. The more work I can do on the side while away means the longer I can stay on the road. I am quite interested in helping teach or working with voluntary organisations if I can make enough money for Diesel and food. It is both exciting and scary at the same time.
This is exactly what I've started thinking about doing. I am working at a great place but I'm getting tired of doing boring work for boring clients. I really don't care about how much money I make at my current place because it is making my hobby, my biggest interest and my talent - into something different.. it is now in a new, ugly shape. It has gone from something I could not resist doing, to something I don't eve…
Yeh I am currently in cash saving mode. I also have to pay for my girlfriend who has no savings so it is quite hard. We are planning on leaving in July and will start a blog about it soon.
I am just trying to kickstart my company (I am a contractor) into doing more than just contract work and me and a friend are working on a few small projects/ideas.
Really want to hit the road soon, but its the fear of effectively being 'homeless' and not being able to find such well paid work when/if we return.
Good luck with your plans too, our situation sounds very similar.
Re: Ask HN: A place to sleep, a laptop, no résumé and a hungry man.
#23EDIT: "our" startup We've always got room at the lodge: http://gdkr.ma/LodgingSociety Seriously, we're always welcoming hackers to come hang with us in NY. We put you up, give you plenty of your own time to work on what you want, and ask for a part time contribution to our startup. Hit me up if that interests you, Adrian
This really looks like fun -- I hope it works out for you.
Re: Ask HN: A place to sleep, a laptop, no résumé and a hungry man.
#24Open Source. Sure, you don't get paid for it directly, but it can get your name noticed, and show people that you can code.
Either contribute to an existing project, or start your own.
Think of it as code busking.
Re: Ask HN: A place to sleep, a laptop, no résumé and a hungry man.
#25[deleted]
Re: Ask HN: A place to sleep, a laptop, no résumé and a hungry man.
#26But without a college degree, experience or a stack of projects in my pocket no one is going to believe me. Step 1: figure out which of this is easiest to change. Hint: it's "stack of projects". Step 2: change it. Yay, github.
You need to be building things to learn anyway, so github fits that perfectly. There's such a low barrier to entry with getting started and putting up a project or two, and then adding more as time goes on. The key is getting the first project up there, and realizing that it doesn't need to be 'perfect'. The other big advantage of having a github is that it shows you're familiar with version control.
Having a github account with several projects on it is a big positive signal. There will be companies who feel that you need a degree, but that's a small portion of the job market. Committing to build and grow a github is probably the single best thing a developer without a degree can do.
Re: Ask HN: A place to sleep, a laptop, no résumé and a hungry man.
#27You know what I'd like to do? Offer free work experience more. I took another young guy on today, to mentor him through a project that we need done but not so badly it was worth us prioritizing it in our schedule. We're not paying him, but he's getting our time for free, and a good resume piece and reference from us if he steps up to the challenge that I think he can meet. Maybe more of us need to be doing this in ou…
I wouldn't go around bragging about breaking employment law.
I don't understand how this person can be doing useful work that isn't worth $8/hour to you?
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/03/business/03intern.html?pag...
edit:
The U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division (WHD) has developed the six factors below to evaluate whether a worker is a trainee or an employee for purposes of the FLSA: http://wdr.doleta.gov/directives/attach/TEGL/TEGL12-09acc.pd...
1. The training, even though it includes actual operation of the facilities of the employer, is similar to what would be given in a vocational school or academic educational instruction;
2. The training is for the benefit of the trainees;
3. The trainees do not displace regular employees, but work under their close observation;
4. The employer that provides the training derives no immediate advantage from the activities of the trainees, and on occasion the employer’s operations may actually be impeded;
5. The trainees are not necessarily entitled to a job at the conclusion of the training period; and
6. The employer and the trainees understand that the trainees are not entitled to wages for the time spent in training.
Re: Ask HN: A place to sleep, a laptop, no résumé and a hungry man.
#28You know what I'd like to do? Offer free work experience more. I took another young guy on today, to mentor him through a project that we need done but not so badly it was worth us prioritizing it in our schedule. We're not paying him, but he's getting our time for free, and a good resume piece and reference from us if he steps up to the challenge that I think he can meet. Maybe more of us need to be doing this in ou…
I wouldn't go around bragging about breaking employment law. I don't understand how this person can be doing useful work that isn't worth $8/hour to you? http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/03/business/03intern.html?pag... edit: The U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division (WHD) has developed the six factors below to evaluate whether a worker is a trainee or an employee for purposes of the FLSA: http://wdr.doleta…
Yeah, in California that's definitely illegal.
Which is a shame, because I've seen some people benefit enormously from similar intership-ish things. They got in the door of cash-poor companies, were ambitious enough to take on hard things, and eventually got hired at a level way above what they could have achieved through the normal process.
Of course, I've also read about no-pay internships that were total scams, companies just using and abusing the naive so they could get out of paying minimum wage. So I'm glad this stuff is illegal, but I regret that the cheap assholes have ruined it for everyone.
Re: Ask HN: A place to sleep, a laptop, no résumé and a hungry man.
#29You know what I'd like to do? Offer free work experience more. I took another young guy on today, to mentor him through a project that we need done but not so badly it was worth us prioritizing it in our schedule. We're not paying him, but he's getting our time for free, and a good resume piece and reference from us if he steps up to the challenge that I think he can meet. Maybe more of us need to be doing this in ou…
Experience is not payment. You are breaking the law and exploiting the kid.
Re: Ask HN: A place to sleep, a laptop, no résumé and a hungry man.
#30But without a college degree, experience or a stack of projects in my pocket no one is going to believe me. Step 1: figure out which of this is easiest to change. Hint: it's "stack of projects". Step 2: change it. Yay, github.
Yes, this.
As the person who makes hiring decision at a startup, all I care about whether you can actually make things. College degrees and resumes correlate with making things, but the stack of projects proves it.
Go now and put some functioning thing up on the web and get some people using it. Iterate in response to feedback, improving both the product and the code. You don't have to make something massive; a few hundred users and a few kloc of code is sufficient for me to be able to measure your skill.