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Ask HN: How do I reach making $1-1.5k/mo in 13 months?

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Re: Ask HN: How do I reach making $1-1.5k/mo in 13 months?

#111

Post by notRobot »

rubber_duck wrote: post #25

> I'm a dev with almost no experience > Started coding 3.5 years ago and probably have enough under my belt to try multiple projects over this duration This isn't enough information to go on, 3.5 years of programming could mean you've built your own game engine and a CMS from scratch in an attempt to do some project of yours, or it could mean you've been watching random programming courses sporadicly in hopes of land…

> What third world country has median income of 1500$/month anyway?

Many of them: https://worldpopulationreview.com/countries/median-income-by...

Re: Ask HN: How do I reach making $1-1.5k/mo in 13 months?

#112

Post by ambicapter »

wongarsu wrote: post #92
pc86 wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But the statement is in response to "this is bad advice for brand new developers." If the advice is so specific you end up doxing the single person in the world who's ever done it, then it sounds like that's a perfectly fair criticism.

I think the point is more "this general strategy works for most people; but not everyone is going to get a $500k job from it". It's a reliable strategy to get noticed and make a good impression. How much money you manage to make from that opportunity obviously depends on many more factors.

Sounds you're like just walking around the point

> It's a reliable strategy to get noticed and make a good impression.

If its so reliable, there should be many repeated examples of it happening. So far, all we have is a single case.

Re: Ask HN: How do I reach making $1-1.5k/mo in 13 months?

#113

Post by code-faster »

1 - Create an online portfolio on LinkedIn. Don't worry about what's on it, just make it. Keep it updated.

2 - Log hours programming whatever it is you like programming to build your resume and skills. Since you need money and you're remote, your resume is what will land you an interview. Your skill important because that'll land you an offer. The number of hours you log will matter most and that will depend on how much you like what you're doing. You want to have the "oops I worked too much again" problem, not the "oops I forgot to work again" problem

Finding a job: Find a remote engineering job. You may find luck in crypto, check out https://cryptocurrencyjobs.co/engineering/

DM me on twitter, @code_faster if you have more questions.

Re: Ask HN: How do I reach making $1-1.5k/mo in 13 months?

#114

Post by karaterobot »

latenightcoding wrote: post #59
3pt14159 wrote: post #21

What I've seen that has worked in the past is this: Pick an open source project that is in a language that is respectable and commit to contributing to it for three or four months. Full time. Try to make sure that your written English is clear and professional in things like PRs. Try to keep your code as clean and as well tested and linted as possible. Once the core team gets to know you a bit you'll be able to reach…

This is bad advice for someone who has only been coding for 3 years (according to OP). People who can make $500k/year through connections they make contributing to open source projects could most likely just apply to a FAANG company directly. It is way more common to see brilliant developers make $0 from open source projects.

The inference I made from that statement is that if OP demonstrated skill and professionalism on an open source project, they might be able to ask the other maintainers for a job introduction. This is perfectly reasonable advice: earning people's respect is a great way to network, and networking is a great way to get job recommendations.

I don't think they were saying that most people who contribute to open source projects make half a million dollars a year as a direct result.

Re: Ask HN: How do I reach making $1-1.5k/mo in 13 months?

#115

Post by ravioli_fog »

3pt14159 wrote: post #21

What I've seen that has worked in the past is this: Pick an open source project that is in a language that is respectable and commit to contributing to it for three or four months. Full time. Try to make sure that your written English is clear and professional in things like PRs. Try to keep your code as clean and as well tested and linted as possible. Once the core team gets to know you a bit you'll be able to reach…

Just wanting to add support for this strategy.

As I mentioned in another similar post awhile back[0] I did an in person version of this and have seen it first hand from those who were online.

I've worked with a bunch of people at this point who primarily were connected by a shared language or project and relationships that developed online.

[0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21167473

Re: Ask HN: How do I reach making $1-1.5k/mo in 13 months?

#117

Post by question11 »

wokwokwok wrote: post #38
Gustomaximus wrote: post #10

My view is coming from someone who hires people last few years. 1) People hate on Freelancer sites, but get on them and and build a profile. If you are good it will show in time. Expect to work for peanuts at the beginning - consider it advertising. 2) Don't lie about what you can do. Always do a good job. I've tried a bunch of people from poorer countries and those seem to be the 2 main issues. Dont have a mentality…

> Expect to work for peanuts at the beginning - consider it advertising. This is terrible advice. Don't work for free, all you're doing is allowing other people to take advantage of you... which, they will. There's plenty of other great advice in this topic; this: "work hard and do a good job, for free and it'll be great experience / advertising / whatever the f" is total BS.

My friend told me don't study for free.. make sure you get paid

Re: Ask HN: How do I reach making $1-1.5k/mo in 13 months?

#118

Post by jll29 »

Here's a trick (that I haven't tried personally): say you're looking for 3 (paid) internships, say you don't care about money, you only want them to improve your resume. Ask if they want to be one of the three companies on your resume. Say you will need $1,500/month just for food/rent, otherwise you work for free. The good thing is you can get an income immediately, and internship income isn't considered a "salary", so in case you do a great job and they want to hire you, you can start a negotiation without the low $1500/month working against you.

The reason this can work is that many companies (including all the ones I worked at) are happy to pay for a small number of interns over the summer.

Re: Ask HN: How do I reach making $1-1.5k/mo in 13 months?

#119

Post by pc86 »

wongarsu wrote: post #92
pc86 wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But the statement is in response to "this is bad advice for brand new developers." If the advice is so specific you end up doxing the single person in the world who's ever done it, then it sounds like that's a perfectly fair criticism.

I think the point is more "this general strategy works for most people; but not everyone is going to get a $500k job from it". It's a reliable strategy to get noticed and make a good impression. How much money you manage to make from that opportunity obviously depends on many more factors.

The problem is that people are conflating "one guy got lucky and got a $500k remote job" with "here is a repeatable process to generate a full-time income by working on open source on spec." Even getting a $50k remote job is not a guarantee, and telling people to work for free on open source is the Hacker News equivalent of telling a designer that you'll pay them if you like the logo they make you. Only this is much more insidious because you're telling them to work full-time, for free, for "3 or 4 months."

We complain about job interviews taking an entire day yet have no problem telling this person to dump 750 hours into something with the hope of "getting noticed."

Re: Ask HN: How do I reach making $1-1.5k/mo in 13 months?

#120

Post by ericmcer »

3pt14159 wrote: post #21

What I've seen that has worked in the past is this: Pick an open source project that is in a language that is respectable and commit to contributing to it for three or four months. Full time. Try to make sure that your written English is clear and professional in things like PRs. Try to keep your code as clean and as well tested and linted as possible. Once the core team gets to know you a bit you'll be able to reach…

If his goal is to guarantee a reasonable (actually very low) developer salary this feels like bad advice. There is no guarantee he will get hired, no backup plan if the project does not hire him, and he could very well walk away with nothing.

If your goal is to get a job just look at trends in job boards (probably very skewed towards web/mobile/data science), figure out which area you like/excel in and hone in on that. Keep iterating on your resume, upping your skill set, and learning from interview failures. Remember: selling yourself and your skill set is more important than actual ability. That is something you can really only hone with practice and repeated interviews.

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