Ask HN: How can I make an extra 30-50k a year? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: How can I make an extra 30-50k a year?

#51

Post by yen223 » Thu, Apr 11, 2013, 1:53 AM UTC

joshmlewis wrote: post #48

aaron695 wrote: post #25

I would say not having a goal of "increase my income by 30-50K" might be a start. Moneys not everything, it probably shouldn't be a goal. Instead by focusing on making yourself happy you'll be better off and probably be earning more. Just a theory.

You know, I'm about to rant on an ideal that I hold. So what about money? Money is everything if you think about it. The second you stop having money is the second you are on the street without anything. So money is something . You can go through and live in a decent house with a decent car and you'll be happy if you make yourself happy but I just don't see how people can argue that money doesn't make you happy or ha…

Money might not buy happiness, but poverty sure buys a ton of unhappiness.

Re: Ask HN: How can I make an extra 30-50k a year?

#52

Post by obviouslygreen » Thu, Apr 11, 2013, 1:55 AM UTC

rhizome wrote: post #47

heliodor wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fleitz' point is that switching jobs usually gets you a raise. Most people don't know how to avoid the "what is your current salary?" question, so the raise they get by switching jobs is pegged to their previous salary. Thus, get a raise first, then go fishing for another job. His point was not to get two raises from your current job!

Or just lie in response to the question.

If you can put "just" before "lie" then you're not taking this seriously, you've never found yourself really, badly lied to, or you have a serious dearth of ethics.

Don't lie. Deflect, even if it's bluntly. Saying "I don't believe that's relevant, but I will tell you how much I'd like to make" pretty much says "I'm underpaid" but also says "I know I'm underpaid and I expect better," which tells them something useful about you that you actually want them to know.

Re: Ask HN: How can I make an extra 30-50k a year?

#53

Post by flipper » Thu, Apr 11, 2013, 1:57 AM UTC

I think OP you are on the right track trying to leverage your skills in one area by applying them to another.

I'm in the process of transitioning from IT to Law. This obviously takes longer than a year and it's certainly not for everyone. However I expect to be able to use my technical background (though not expertise per se) in legal work.

Re: Ask HN: How can I make an extra 30-50k a year?

#54

Post by orangethirty » Thu, Apr 11, 2013, 1:58 AM UTC

patio11 wrote: post #40

If you can design, code, and talk business goals with non-technical people, it is highly unlikely that the W-2 rate paid by your current day job is in the near ballpark of what you'd reasonably expect to achieve by going into consulting at an appreciable fraction of full-time. Quitting your job and hanging your shingle as a consultant-who-solves-business-problems-with-technology will trade a lot of the certainty of y…

Let me put your point in plain words:

Consulting currently pays a lot of money. You can make 6 figures without much hassles. Don't quit your job to start consulting without having a group of prospect to sell to. Build your prospects list first, by doing content marketing and networking in site like linkedin.

If you want to take the business route, you can make that amount of money by automating tasks and selling the software. What should you automate? Everything that has to do with lead capturing is worth its zeroes and ones in gold. Start there.

Anything else?

Yes! Start blogging. About your skills. About your projects. Get people reading about you. Even if you don't have an idea at the moment, people will gravitate towards you and give you good ideas.

Whatever you do, realize that this will take time. At the very least, two months of work. Worth it? You bet!

Good luck.

Re: Ask HN: How can I make an extra 30-50k a year?

#55

Post by obviouslygreen » Thu, Apr 11, 2013, 1:58 AM UTC

aaron695 wrote: post #25

I would say not having a goal of "increase my income by 30-50K" might be a start. Moneys not everything, it probably shouldn't be a goal. Instead by focusing on making yourself happy you'll be better off and probably be earning more. Just a theory.

Stopping after the first sentence, you have a point: This is not what I'd call a well-considered goal. It's just a number... unless there's more to it than "I like 90 more than 60," it's lacking any kind of reason or direction, which might explain why he's having such a hard time figuring out how to attain it. A goal that you'll be able to reach comes from a need or desire you can feel and likely articulate.

As for the rest... "money isn't everything" is such a situational and personal sentiment as to be worthless, especially in the context of someone who expressly states that more money is one of his goals.

Re: Ask HN: How can I make an extra 30-50k a year?

#56

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Apr 11, 2013, 1:59 AM UTC

rhizome wrote: post #49

joezydeco wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not up against a wall. You'll be out the door as soon as your replacement is trained. You'll probably be the one doing the training, too. And then instead of your income going up, it'll go down to zero.

Have either of you witnessed this happening in real life? There's always a comment to this effect in every "raise" question I've ever come across, but never have I seen any proximate information.

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: How can I make an extra 30-50k a year?

#57

Post by aianus » Thu, Apr 11, 2013, 2:00 AM UTC

t0 wrote: post #18

bjc wrote: post #13

write a HFT bitcoin bot

The exchanges charge 0.5% per trade. This isn't feasible once you look at the numbers.

Why wouldn't it work if the spread was high enough?

Re: Ask HN: How can I make an extra 30-50k a year?

#58

Post by joshmlewis » Thu, Apr 11, 2013, 2:12 AM UTC

yen223 wrote: post #51

joshmlewis wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You know, I'm about to rant on an ideal that I hold. So what about money? Money is everything if you think about it. The second you stop having money is the second you are on the street without anything. So money is something . You can go through and live in a decent house with a decent car and you'll be happy if you make yourself happy but I just don't see how people can argue that money doesn't make you happy or ha…

Money might not buy happiness, but poverty sure buys a ton of unhappiness.

One of my points exactly. :)

Re: Ask HN: How can I make an extra 30-50k a year?

#59

Post by aaron695 » Thu, Apr 11, 2013, 2:13 AM UTC

joshmlewis wrote: post #48

aaron695 wrote: post #25

I would say not having a goal of "increase my income by 30-50K" might be a start. Moneys not everything, it probably shouldn't be a goal. Instead by focusing on making yourself happy you'll be better off and probably be earning more. Just a theory.

You know, I'm about to rant on an ideal that I hold. So what about money? Money is everything if you think about it. The second you stop having money is the second you are on the street without anything. So money is something . You can go through and live in a decent house with a decent car and you'll be happy if you make yourself happy but I just don't see how people can argue that money doesn't make you happy or ha…

Empirical evidence shows money does make people more happy. But there's a lot of if's and buts.

It depends on current earnings and it also depends on what others around you earn and it levels off.

And it's not logical in any way. Halving your wage but then quartering everyone else would make most people more happy (As per experiments)

Commute time for instance is something studies show people don't realise the negative effects on happiness. So earning ten grand more will make you more happy but if it increases commute time you could end up less happy overall.

And I think if you earn more but end up less happy you're more likely to waste the money on stuff or quitting your job or missing a promotion and many other things that might in the end make you earn less long term.

If you want more money and the happiness that goes with it I think don’t concentrate on the money.

Re: Ask HN: How can I make an extra 30-50k a year?

#60

Post by waltgoldberg » Thu, Apr 11, 2013, 2:47 AM UTC

rhizome wrote: post #49

joezydeco wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not up against a wall. You'll be out the door as soon as your replacement is trained. You'll probably be the one doing the training, too. And then instead of your income going up, it'll go down to zero.

Have either of you witnessed this happening in real life? There's always a comment to this effect in every "raise" question I've ever come across, but never have I seen any proximate information.

It definitely does! Take it from someone who's been responsible for giving the layoff list to HR as well as being a small business owner. Business leaders look at developers as a commodity. Why do you think so many companies still hold Java in such high esteem?