Ask HN: Can You Buy Your Way into Your Dream Job?

TlDr: This might sound strange – maybe even immoral. But can money buy you into your dream job? How much :) ?

Long story short, I'm a Dev. From a boring job, I started a very successful side project. A dream came true. Now 4 years later, I'm done with it.

Yes I did learn a lot. Yes, data science and a bit of ML was involved. Yes, I (should) feel very fortunate (and I do). But it was a lonely journey. Since I could afford it, I took a lot of lectures at the university again (a good one). Got re-educated on the latest "shit" regarding machine learning, robotics, 3D vision. Even did a small student/research project. BUT it's not enough. Can't really land a job that I want. I understand that. Couldn't even get an interesting internship. Yes, these entry positions are for graduates and obviously I just lack the experience for a senior position. My CV isn't just as clean... OK, enough complaining : )

Was thinking – how about buying my way somehow into it? Shouldn't this work? Maybe it depends on how much... Yes could start my own company in the area of my interest (robotics) BUT I do not feel comfortable doing such a step right now. So what do you think : )? Any hint? Can this work? How? Thanks!

Yes.

Any chance there are OSS projects in the area you want to work in? I’ve always viewed that as a particularly unique feature of software development that can be a great entry point.

Kind of tried this path. At least the OSS I worked on moved really slow, since the people involved did it as a side project as well. Still doing some own stuff, might publish something that might be somehow "impressive".

You have a huge number of options, the problem is choosing one.

It sounds like you may already have gotten an MEng or the equivalent, but if you haven't, an MEng is a way to work on a cutting edge project.

One goal is to develop a really good demo, as opposed to a company. Personally I had a lot of success making demos when I was working full time for somebody else but when I was doing it full-time on my own account (as well as doing a lot of business development work) I didn't quite find what I was looking for.