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I'm Begging for Work

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51–60 of 342 posts

Re: I'm Begging for Work

#51

I can't be the only person who wants to know what company could have abused an employee like this, if only to never apply to them or help support whatever godawful business they're trying to run.

Honestly I don't think they're bad. I have a lot of respect for a lot of the dev team and the product itself, which is why I'm so vague on details. Like I said in the post, I'm fairly private and didn't bring much up with anyone until the end, so I don't think anyone understood the situation. Actually one of the things that was encouraging during the past few months was remarks from former employees that [CEO] is a d…

For the record, your boss there is a psychopath, which means he's physically incapable of feeling remorse or guilt, and has no conscience.

That's why he was able and willing to screw you over like that.

Here's a brief overview: http://www.sociopathworld.com/p/portrait-of-sociopath.html .. but the rabbit hole goes pretty fucking deep.

While I sympathize with your situation, it serves as a good reminder to others that you should put off having kids until you're financially secure.

On a more positive note, just "fake it till you make it", and everything will be alright. There are plenty of dev jobs out there.

Re: I'm Begging for Work

#52

Take a look at September's edition of whoishiring: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10152809 You can search for keywords like "remote" and "rails".

The remote positions really need a "timezone" flag added to tbem. Most recruiters only seem to want UTC+7, plus or minus a few.

Re: I'm Begging for Work

#53

Doesn't this person deserve some form of severance or the equivalent of? It's kind of ridiculous that he was "cut out" from a job like some kind of child who was no longer part of the "club". It's grossly unprofessional to disconnect an employee without any due process or policy. I guess I shouldn't be surprised given the events leading up to the situation.

> It's grossly unprofessional to disconnect an employee without any due process or policy.

In the US, it depends on what state the company is headquartered. Many are "right to work" states, which means any employee can be fired so long as it is not for reasons such as age, sex, weight, religious beliefs, or sexual orientation.

In those states, an employee literally can be fired for a reason such as "you upset the owner" with no further obligations.

Re: I'm Begging for Work

#54
I hope you land something soon, the HN community is strong. In case it takes you a while and you are ready to begin interviewing, I actively help junior-level devs get jobs in the industry. I wrote a book on the subject (https://kokev.in/hired-fast) and would be happy to send you a copy for free. My email is my profile and I'd also be happy to go over things with you (applying, interviewing, Rails).

Re: I'm Begging for Work

#55
post #19

1. Tell your wife. Trust me you'll feel better afterwards. 2. Keep looking for new opps. Get your CV out to as many places. Keep your hopes up. Spend time with your kids in the mean time. Kids are great company when you are "present with them". 3. Note for yourself: get numbers in writing before making changes to your life about opportunities. 4. Never use the word Fuck or any other expletives or crass language in an…

Dont spill all the beans to your wife, she's gonna bring it up in a fight later one. ask me how i know.

If that's the only thing you optimize for, you gonna have an even harder time if she catches you lying..

Re: I'm Begging for Work

#56
post #29

What a bastard! Sorry for the language guys, but guess we all know someone like that boss! It's not that hard when you're single but the things are totally different when you had a family and kids. The situation can drag you to any point when it comes to a hungry brother, sister or children. I know, I've been there (thank god it's a history now). But the good news is, you are really valuable. I mean, you are a ruby d…

I hate to break it to you, but if you are making £400/£450 per day as a Ruby contractor in London with less than 1 year of development experience, you are either insanely good or insanely lucky (probably both).

Although I'm working on contract in Japan at the moment, I spent the last 2 years working in London and interviewing people for positions almost every day. Entry level for a good Ruby dev is £30-40K for a full time position. Some companies pay higher (some significantly higher), but they will only hire one in 1000 applicants, probably. There are still people in London making £22K per year as a full time Ruby dev.

And, no, you can not live on £22K per year in London :-P

Re: I'm Begging for Work

#57
Best of luck, brokedev. The only piece of advice I have is that you should see remote work as a long-term goal, not an immediate solution to your problem. Remote jobs are generally harder to find, usually pay less, and are almost always more competitive. The easiest way to get a remote job without years of experience is to perform well enough at a non-remote role that they trust you to work from home full time.

(About your former boss: I know that in most states, employers can fire you at any time for any reason, but generally you'd expect them to actually fire you, not just delete your slack account. Makes me wonder if he was planning on telling you at all or if he instead intended to just stop payment on your paycheck and hope you'd figure it out for yourself. What an asshole.)

Re: I'm Begging for Work

#58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dont spill all the beans to your wife, she's gonna bring it up in a fight later one. ask me how i know.

Don't listen to this advice. Be honest. Don't ask me how I know.

Be honest. I'm happy to answer questions as to why I believe this is good advice.

Re: I'm Begging for Work

#59
post #48

Dude, you got shit on, but your entire post screams unprofessional. If you want to be a professional, and be treated like a professional, you need to act professional. Harsh perhaps but that's the truth. If this is a serious job solicitation and not just catharsis you are doing it all wrong. Starting with how desperate you are, how proud you made your mom, and how shitty you've been doing and been treated does not ma…

I hear where you're coming from, but if he had scrubbed all of that from this post and gone with "professional" -- "I am a self-taught web dev looking for work, I am familiar with Ruby and have recently been doing API work, I want to work remotely and can start immediately" -- would it have gotten anywhere near the front page of HN?

Re: I'm Begging for Work

#60
post #48

Dude, you got shit on, but your entire post screams unprofessional. If you want to be a professional, and be treated like a professional, you need to act professional. Harsh perhaps but that's the truth. If this is a serious job solicitation and not just catharsis you are doing it all wrong. Starting with how desperate you are, how proud you made your mom, and how shitty you've been doing and been treated does not ma…

I'm not sure that he intends this to be the cover letter he sends out with his application. It's important to have a venue to vent too.
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