91–100 of 103 posts
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Facebook and twitter are advertising companies too ;)
But at Facebook and Twitter the chance to become very wealthy within the next few years is substantially greater than at Google.
The national unemployment rate is over 9% while Silicon Valley is fighting tooth-and-claw to hire. What's wrong with this picture? Software engineering is technical, sure, but it's not that hard -- if some of the idiots I've worked with in the past could hold down jobs, then anyone can. Which dying industries should we be looking at to fill the gaps in the software industry?
Software engineering is technical, sure, but it's not that hard It actually is, have you ever notices the absolute void of developers over the age of 40? People yell age discrimination but it is not true, it is the constant churn in ones life. From constantly reeducating yourself to stay relevant to the next emergency that requires 16 hrs 7 days a week for 2 months. It requires a passion for technology just to fulfil…
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Software engineering is technical, sure, but it's not that hard It actually is, have you ever notices the absolute void of developers over the age of 40? People yell age discrimination but it is not true, it is the constant churn in ones life. From constantly reeducating yourself to stay relevant to the next emergency that requires 16 hrs 7 days a week for 2 months. It requires a passion for technology just to fulfil…
I worked with a guy who was over 65 and still working at a tech startup, and he was the best guy we had. Unfortunately passed away about a year ago but they do exist, there are just a lot fewer of them.
The lens of experience allows you to see things very differently. The business knowledge you amass in the various field is extraordinary. It it one of the few industry where you field of primary business while change several times in your carrer.
That breadth really allows you to see thing differently than someone who stays in Real Estate or Manufacturing their entire carrer. As you get older it seems that, that information become more and more interesting to you. You start to connect independent pieces of puzzels people did not even know existed and come up with novel views on how the world works.
It really is a shame that people don't survive but the hyper boom bust nature of software dev is just too much on a good deal of people who just want to make a living.
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It seems that despite the ever decreasing barriers, people just don't want to hire, or aren't comfortable hiring, remote workers. I live in Montana. I grew up in Kansas City, and went to school in NY. There is no language barrier, I'm a skilled developer and a pretty good communicator. I'm willing to relocate sometime in the next 2 years. It seems I might as well be a non-English speaker in Siberia, when it comes to…
"It seems that despite the ever decreasing barriers, people just don't want to hire, or aren't comfortable hiring, remote workers." The good news is, this is changing, and fast. Pretty anecdotal, I get pitched for remote work all the time, but over the last year or so, the number of offers has gone up significantly . Of course plenty of "we'll help you relocate" type offers too. I see many more good devs working for…
The developers I know are mostly trying to be founder level at a startup. I actually feel sorry every time I run into a company trying to hire a Rails developer because I feel their pain. What's the solution for you companies desperate to hire? In my opinion, your outlook on equity needs to change. It's regular practice to offer a "rock star" developer 0.25% of your pre-diluted shares when you have $2M dollars in the…
"What's the solution for you companies desperate to hire?" How about looking abroad? I know, it's fraught with perils, but as someone from "abroad" from the U.S. point of view, it needn't be that bad. And your dollars will go a LONG way in hiring top talent (of course, you need someone local or whom you trust to choose the top talent. 90% of the local programmers are crappy too!).
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Mind you, I was programming Basic when I was 7, but I left it behind for years. I went back to school for software engineering when I was 33. I've been working as an ER/Critical Care nurse for 18 years. I'm currently bootstrapping a search engine for economic/financial news at http://Newsley.com . (alpha of search is here: http://newsley.com/search )
Your tagging is pretty cool. How'd you figure out for each tag whether it was a person, country, city, etc.? Did you just look them each up on Wikipedia? E.g. http://newsley.com/articles/eu-threatens-to-block-chinese-bi...
Frankly, it's amazing. There's a sandbox where you can play with it here: http://viewer.opencalais.com/ Copy and past a couple paragraphs of text into the text box, and you can see some of what the api can do.
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Have you considered hiring remote workers? Surely your money will go further hiring a remote developer in the Mid West with the cheaper cost of living than NYC? I'm sure you could even fly them in a few times if you needed to and still save money
It seems that despite the ever decreasing barriers, people just don't want to hire, or aren't comfortable hiring, remote workers. I live in Montana. I grew up in Kansas City, and went to school in NY. There is no language barrier, I'm a skilled developer and a pretty good communicator. I'm willing to relocate sometime in the next 2 years. It seems I might as well be a non-English speaker in Siberia, when it comes to…
I guess the point I'm trying to make is that it IS out there, but remote work is probably the most hidden of hidden job markets - every single one of these roles/projects has come through word of mouth. As you've already pointed out, if you're in the US, you already have some things going in your favour, namely language, timezones, same culture, same currency and banking system, etc. The best advice I can give is start working your network - people you went to school with, mailing lists and IRC channels for technologies you use, etc.
If you want to ask me anything else about working remotely, feel free, I'll try and answer to the best of my ability.
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What that says to me is that there is another tech bubble starting. Right now the hiring standards (hopefully) haven't slipped too much. When the only requirement to get a Python/Django job is that you read a Python for dummies book and can fog a mirror, welcome to 2001 again.
It may be starting, but with at about 20 years in the industry, I would say that we have reached what has been about the norm. With the greater economy in the state it is in though, it is almost certain to bubble again. Development or Nursing are about the only two decent prospects of drawing a decent salary now without a decade of education investment. It is only a matter of time until people smell blood again and s…
re: Nursing. Jobs are actually really pretty tight right now. (I moonlight as an ER nurse in SV). New graduates with no experience have having to move to get jobs. But, then, this area supports the highest salaries for nurses in the country.
There's also substantial money to be made as a police officer or fireman, but it's extremely hard to get a job in those areas.
I'll stick with nursing for a bit longer because it pays really well, and I only work 3 12 hour shifts a week. It's perfect for boot strapping. I'll quit when we can raise an angel round.
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It may be starting, but with at about 20 years in the industry, I would say that we have reached what has been about the norm. With the greater economy in the state it is in though, it is almost certain to bubble again. Development or Nursing are about the only two decent prospects of drawing a decent salary now without a decade of education investment. It is only a matter of time until people smell blood again and s…
Development or Nursing are about the only two decent prospects of drawing a decent salary now without a decade of education investment. re: Nursing. Jobs are actually really pretty tight right now. (I moonlight as an ER nurse in SV). New graduates with no experience have having to move to get jobs. But, then, this area supports the highest salaries for nurses in the country. There's also substantial money to be made…
I know what you are saying, and it is true but in the grand scheme of things, right now only having to move to get a job, if you are a recent grad, for people not in either industry, seems like child's play to what they are facing.
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"What's the solution for you companies desperate to hire?" How about looking abroad? I know, it's fraught with perils, but as someone from "abroad" from the U.S. point of view, it needn't be that bad. And your dollars will go a LONG way in hiring top talent (of course, you need someone local or whom you trust to choose the top talent. 90% of the local programmers are crappy too!).
You can't hire an H1B unless you are willing to document that you were unable to find local talent that had the required skill set. HR departments usually work around this by wording the job requirement in such a way that only their hand-picked H1B applicant has every exact skill. "Oh, you need a Python/Django/Ruby/Java guy with 2 years .NET? I just happen to have a resume with that exact skill set in front of me; so…
E.g. (note that the fun begins on April 1):
FY 2009, quota used up in 7 days before beginning the lottery (and as you allude to, this sort of thing used to be the norm).
FY 2010, quota not used up until December 21, 2009.
FY 2011, quota projected to used up right about now.