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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?

#131

Post by localhost »

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…

+1. I found my most recent hire at Microsoft this way. She was the top performer on my team and continues to do excellent work at the company. Also it’s important to choose your project wisely as well. I wasn’t looking to hire anyone in particular. The recommendation came out of a casual conversation with the creator of the open source project.

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

#133

Post by stu2b50 »

eaxix wrote: post #127

Don't ask for $1.5k/mo. No one will think of you as valuable if that's what you ask for. People who do pay you that much will treat you like shit and are not the kind of people you want to work with. The problem is you're referring to yourself as a newbie. I don't know where you're from, but generally in America that would be seen as lack of confidence. Don't be humble. You can learn on the job. Working from home you…

I mean that would be true in the US, but OP explicitly said he's not in the US. It really depends on where he is; 1.5k/month could be considered a very good wage where he is.

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

#134

Post by rubber_duck »

billme wrote: post #129
notRobot wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What third world country has median income of 1500$/month anyway? Many of them: https://worldpopulationreview.com/countries/median-income-by...

Might be wrong, but believe the point was not that $1500 is unbelievable, but per the data you linked to - that the “median household income worldwide is $9733“; that and the OP posted $1500 is above and beyond there needs; worth highlighting that is household income, not individual income. There’s a massive difference $811 a month and $1500 month; $811 is $9733 divided by 12, though really should be the divid by at…

> since by definition household has at least 2 members.

You can have single person household, and single income - but yeah - my point is 1000$-1500$ for someone who claims to live in a "third world country" and have no experience sounds like you have expectations on what you should make because you've seen others charge that - in reality with no experience and formal training you should consider yourself lucky to get any opportunity to learn/validate your skills because more often than not (from my experience at least) during the first 6 months to a year it will probably take more resources off productive people to get you to be productive than you will be able contribute

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

#135

Post by momokoko »

Start a business. Even if it fails it will help you migrate towards a not pure software engineering role which, as you are now seeing, is highly cyclical.

It is 100% okay if the business fails. I cannot stress this enough. Starting and running even a failed business combined with your technical ability will separate you from almost all other candidates if you need to re-enter the job market.

You sound like you are in a lower wage country so I would recommend a marketing or sales tool. That is typically a growth industry during slowdowns as sales people search for new tools to turn their numbers around. That makes it easier to sell to people in higher wage countries without having a physical presence that is sometimes important in typical b2b sales.

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

#136

Post by 2squirrels »

nsl73 wrote: post #63
bayesian_horse wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think an alternative would be to create and finish a simple open source project yourself, for the purpose of showing off. Scratch an itch. But keep it finishable. It's not about being perfect, it's about showing you can solve many problems.

I think you missed the main point. The most important part of root comment’s advice is networking —- to meet and work with other devs. If you start your own open source project there’s not guarantee people will work on it with you.

As a beginner myself I wouldn’t even know where to begin to contribute to something like Kubernetes and agree with your point. Those projects have a lot of eyes on them and the talent to follow, what value could I add as a beginner that someone with experience couldn’t do in a heartbeat(or hasn’t already).

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

#137

Post by synthc »

3pt14159 wrote: post #125
levesque wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'd share more, but too many people would figure out who it is. Feels like your example is very specific and would not generalize to the average programmer.

I know many people that did this. Not all of them are making $500k a year, but here is some more examples: - Multiple Rails contributors, one that turned core. Those folks are making well north of $200k a year. - Ember contributors or contributors to projects around ember-data or similar. Multiple people making north of $200k a year. - A guy that dove into contributing to Postgres. He wouldn't even share how much his…

There is also tons of people that work on OS projects and get paid nothing. The ones that get paid a lot are the exception.

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

#138

Post by dominotw »

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…

> I've seen people make $500k a year doing this.

Any example of this or good project to pick?

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

#139

Post by dominotw »

stu2b50 wrote: post #133
eaxix wrote: post #127

Don't ask for $1.5k/mo. No one will think of you as valuable if that's what you ask for. People who do pay you that much will treat you like shit and are not the kind of people you want to work with. The problem is you're referring to yourself as a newbie. I don't know where you're from, but generally in America that would be seen as lack of confidence. Don't be humble. You can learn on the job. Working from home you…

I mean that would be true in the US, but OP explicitly said he's not in the US. It really depends on where he is; 1.5k/month could be considered a very good wage where he is.

> 1.5k/month could be considered a very good wage where he is.

Agreed. 1.5k/month is almost upper middle class in my country.

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

#140

Post by dpweb »

pc86 wrote: post #119
wongarsu wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

People attend college and spend enormous money & time with no guarantees. The unpaid time spent is not throwaway.

If I was 19 today - and wanted to code for the most $$$ possible. I wouldn't be in college. I'd be building up skills + know people. Know people even tougher I'd argue for technical people who are often introverts.

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