31–40 of 219 posts
Expand your network a little. Ask them for their help for new jobs. You helped them, maybe they can help you?
How about becoming a (software) tester?
Have you considered technical writing? I've talked to a number of folks who are in a similar position, and writing (as opposed to generalist development) has a number of advantages: - It rewards experience though, except for niche-specific writing, does not require understanding of specific frameworks or programming languages - It is often 'important-but-not-urgent' work, so intermittent availability is less of a dea…
I also find most technical documentation teams to be a lot more chill and flexible. Most of them have excellent team-minded work styles.
How to get started in this field? You can't throw a stone without hitting an OSS project that wouldn't want help with its docs. It's a great way to build up a network and some Github activity.
In early 40's with outdated skills, I am in the same boat except a physical disability. While development only roles have gone out of reach now, I have been able to find QA, documentation, support, generalist roles at a non-profit, academia, and an early stage startup in that order. Reached advanced interview stages with employers looking for outdated skills (Perl scripting) or in-office positions, so you might want…
Wordpress powers like 40% of the web, unless you really, really, really hate PHP, your skills aren't outdated. It's probably tough to connect to the right people but there are endless companies and individuals out there that need help with their sites that run on WP.
Just as a reminder that there's the Modern-Software-Development Paradise where you need to keep learning new technology and everything is futuristic and shiny, and then there's the Wordpress-Running-On-Php5.6 Real World which is gigantic but few people blog about because it's not fancy and it smells bad sometimes.
For what it's worth, I used to do work on freelancing sites ~10 years ago and just tended to ignore the race to the bottom. I initially charged $50/hr, and regularly raised my rates so that I was up over $150/hr by the time I stopped doing it. Of course I got passed over for a lot of jobs in favor of cheaper folks. But the jobs I did get were from clients who actually respected me. Also, more than once, a client who…
No, that'll lose you the benefits.
https://www.ssa.gov/OP_Home/cfr20/404/404-1575.htm
"We will evaluate your work activity based on the value of your services to the business regardless of whether you receive an immediate income for your services."
SSI is deliberately set up to fuck people over. (Not in this particular loophole-closer, but in general. You get $900/month to cover food, housing, etc.; a pittance. A savings account balance (or any other countable assets) over $2,000 will lose your benefits.)
I've also gotten tech gigs from temp gigs - "Hey, I know I'm just a temp, but I also do tech work and noticed some things I could automate for you, if you'd like some help."
It's horrible feeling like the world has passed you by, perhaps even more so when it's forced on you by external factors rather than choices you've made. That being said, I wonder if you should challenge your assumption that it's out of date. I'm definitely clueless on whatever the latest JavaScript library is and whatever's going in machine learning. But my knowledge of foundational data structures, algorithms, and…
For what it's worth, I used to do work on freelancing sites ~10 years ago and just tended to ignore the race to the bottom. I initially charged $50/hr, and regularly raised my rates so that I was up over $150/hr by the time I stopped doing it. Of course I got passed over for a lot of jobs in favor of cheaper folks. But the jobs I did get were from clients who actually respected me. Also, more than once, a client who…
1. Find a lawyer 2. Consider a corporation 3. Find an external entity (friend, family, form a trust) to run business
Run all plans through lawyer and revive their agreement in writing
It's hard to take Fiver seriously. For example a quick search for 'Ruby Rails' and one of the top service providers lists a premium service of 'full stack development app' delivered in 3 days, and including a 15 minute consultation, a project plan, and audit, for ... $20.
For what it's worth, I used to do work on freelancing sites ~10 years ago and just tended to ignore the race to the bottom. I initially charged $50/hr, and regularly raised my rates so that I was up over $150/hr by the time I stopped doing it. Of course I got passed over for a lot of jobs in favor of cheaper folks. But the jobs I did get were from clients who actually respected me. Also, more than once, a client who…
> I'm not sure what the rules are, but perhaps you could set up a corporation that takes on the freelancing jobs and then pays you a salary of $1,200 a month? No, that'll lose you the benefits. https://www.ssa.gov/OP_Home/cfr20/404/404-1575.htm "We will evaluate your work activity based on the value of your services to the business regardless of whether you receive an immediate income for your services." SSI is delib…