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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?

#292

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 just seems impossible. Any nontrivial open source project with a decent amount of stars (i.e. something that will give OP visibility) is impenetrable for a noob. I don't know why people keep recommending this as a way to break into software dev. It will take a couple months just to setup a testing environment AND get familiarity with the codebase where you can actually start modifying it. Then you need to identi…

> Can you name a single example project on Github where you think a Python programmer with 2-3 years experience could contribute?

I'd love to find one too! :) And better yet, a project backed by a company that is hiring remote open source devs.

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

#293
Google offers free training to get certified being an AdWords manager, you can take the courses all online/remote and get certified remote within a month or two.

Most of the jobs start at $40/k year if you are learning ($3,330 month before taxes) and they can scale up pretty easy to six figures after you have some experience. It's not $500k like, apparently everyone who contributes to open source makes ;) but, it is something that programming can help with.

best of all, the majority of the jobs are remote and don't require a lot of contact, mostly you need to be able to generate a report of what you did each week/month and simply manage ads which is not horribly a hard job, so you can work on other things as well.

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

#294

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not telling you specifically who, obviously, but we have 3 clients that order a post from us about once a month for at least $1,000. The posts typically are: - 2000 to 2500 words - FAST (48 hour) turnaround - ready to be published without more than a simple read through - voice consistent with other posts that we may not have written for them - well cited or referenced The clients are - b2b environment selling in…

As someone who has been thinking about doing some ghost writing for b2b/enterprises/startups as a nice side-income but never got to actuallly do it. This is a great footprint for me to try and crack something to submit (monday) ideally. I already applied to a great SaaS which I see an open call to write blogposts for in their newsletter. The CEO asked which topics I would like to write about and I submited 2-3 rough…

Go ahead. And if you have a tech bent I can probably put you to work as well.

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

#295

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This frustrates me a bit, personally. I've been a professional developer (as in getting paid to do it) for 15 years, full time. I know a lot of tech terms are overused and misused, but I consider myself full stack. Frontend, Backend, Database, some devops. I've worked, in depth, with MSSQL, .NET, C#, Apache, Nginx, MySQL, PHP, Python (Django/DRF), JS, NodeJS, React, Flash/Flex. I've dabbled in Java, Clojure, ClojureS…

I'd consider myself in the same boat. Also been a professional developer for 20 years. Wouldn't say I'm full stack anymore as I'm a little out of the loop with all of the changes with front-end development in recent years, but trying to improve in that area and become a better, more-rounded developer. Also in Florida and in the low $100k range. Always a bit surprised to hear these stories on HN and elsewhere of devel…

fastest way to big bucks is to create an auction market (have multiple simultaneous offers) at companies with revenues growing fast enough that they don’t care

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

#296

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.

> Could most likely just apply to a FAANG company directly.

And dissapear into a black hole. Even contacting FAANG recruiters directly (after they asked for it on LinkedIn) leads to zero response.

I have no idea how these companies are hiring.

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

#297

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because he develops a tool that other google developers use daily. If hiring him and directing his efforts leads to even a 0.1% productivity improvement in those developers, it would be Worth it.

Google devs dont use homebrew.

You are trying to say they are using a different OSX package manager?

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

#298
post #233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not much, if you want to have kids and raise them with a decent quality of life.

You can do that once you amass wealth in your 20s (and even early 30s if that's your style, not necessary though) and then move to a lower COL.

Amass wealth in your twenties sounds so ridiculous to me. My bank balance for most of my 20’s was barely positive. Now that I’m mid thirties my salary is finally high enough that the savings have started to increase, but it’s still far from anything resembling ‘wealth’.

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

#299
post #213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> could most likely just apply to a FAANG company directly Honestly most of those companies don't look at their resumes. Back when I was in college I submitted my resume to one of those companies no less than about 10 times. And then suddenly out of the blue some PM at that company reached out to me saying they came across my website and saw a couple cool projects and asked if I would be interested in sending them a…

what were those projects?

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

#300
post #298
post #233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can do that once you amass wealth in your 20s (and even early 30s if that's your style, not necessary though) and then move to a lower COL.

Amass wealth in your twenties sounds so ridiculous to me. My bank balance for most of my 20’s was barely positive. Now that I’m mid thirties my salary is finally high enough that the savings have started to increase, but it’s still far from anything resembling ‘wealth’.

That’s a shame. I’m sorry if you didn’t have the opportunity to do so. It’s very possible and practical to build wealth in your 20s and many people move to high COL places to do so when they don’t have the burden of kids or strong ties. Even small wealth in your 20s will balloon into big wealth 20-30-40 years later that you simply won’t be able to catch up to saving in your 40s and later. You’re investing in your future by delaying settling down, buying a house, and having kids in your 20s. Whether that’s worth it is up to you and your life goals.
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