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Ask HN: Where do seasoned devs look for short-term work?

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Re: Ask HN: Where do seasoned devs look for short-term work?

#81

Post by angvp »

ge96 wrote: post #78
valbaca wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> deeply shameful Your feelings are what they are, but this is the least shameful post I would ever see on LinkedIn. It's someone actually looking for work! and not just posting some super cringe low-IQ engagement-farm copypasta. Finding work is exactly what LinkedIn ought to be for

OMG there was one about how an engineer in San Francisco is crying about his $2K in salad bills and his Cyber Truck while making like a half a mil a year

That was a sarcastic one, made by a comedian who used to work in tech, lol

Re: Ask HN: Where do seasoned devs look for short-term work?

#82

Post by alaithea »

ryandrake wrote: post #48

A lot of people are probably going to reply with "Use your network!" which has always struck me as kind of vaguely incomplete and unhelpful advice. It's like telling an investor "Buy low and sell high." and leaving it at that. OK, thank you, Captain Obvious, that's wonderful, but how? Maybe it's different in the independent contracting world, but I've found my "network" only semi-helpful in gaining employment. They c…

This is going to go pretty OT from the original post.

The handful of times in my ~20 year career that I've gotten a shortened interview process because of connections, the organization has turned out to be a dumpster fire. Admittedly, I ignored red flags that I wouldn't have if I wasn't feeling special for having an "in," so part of that is on me. But lowering hiring standards to preference one person means they'll lower the standards for others, too, and that has consequences. As much as I'd love there to be shortcuts in life, I'm not sure they really exist.

Re: Ask HN: Where do seasoned devs look for short-term work?

#83

Post by jimbokun »

ryandrake wrote: post #42
jraph wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't almost everyone sell themselves? Many people, as employees, sell themselves for 5 days per week, every week, except days off. And everybody buys stuff, and therefore relies on people selling stuff. The only way I see we could avoid being exposed to selling would be do have a different way to organize the economy / the society.

I think it's the self-promotion part that's seen as slimy and shameful. Yes, as an employee I trade my time for money, but I don't write blog posts at the office about what kind of transformational and high-impact work I'm capable of, and about this week's top-10 coding life-hacks, and how I can single-handedly turn your project around from life support to on-schedule deployment. Admittedly, the people who are good a…

Those people are good at imitating the form of what curious and highly motivated by things beyond money do naturally.

Early programming blogs were written by people who had thoughts they just needed to share with the world. Because they were highly confident and self motivated people, they also often ended up being sought after and making a lot of money.

Then later others tried to turn the process into a formula they could use to increase their earning power, even if they were writing about things they weren't passionate about.

Re: Ask HN: Where do seasoned devs look for short-term work?

#84

Post by fragmede »

ryandrake wrote: post #39
paxys wrote: post #36

Having the right technical skills is only 50% of the requirement (and realistically even less than that). The harder battle is being a good salesman. Push yourself and your services at every opportunity. Send mass emails to friends and old collegues. Write daily puke-inducing posts on LinkedIn. Write blog posts and make toy Github projects with "looking for work" blurbs at the top of each one. Set a goal to post N ti…

Ugh. This is probably one of those "Thanks, I hate it!" moments. You're probably 100% right, and this is why I could never be an independent contractor. This kind of self-promotion and lead generation seems so demeaning, slimy, and shameful, and I'd probably die of embarrassment if I ever had to do it. Yet it comes so naturally to some people. It sucks that this kind of skill is required to make it on your own.

It's totally cringe, and the first couple of times you have to do it it'll be uncomfortable. But growth happens at the edge of your comfort zone and you'd be mistaken that everyone's a born natural at it. Most people have to practice at it in order to get good at one. Few people just born with it. So what, you're not one of them. You weren't born knowing how to program either.

As far as slimy, I mean, yeah, don't break ethical boundaries; don't lie, don't take credit for other people's work; and it'll be fine. The ick feeling comes when we see others do amoral things like that and get ahead, but all you have to do to avoid that slimy feeling is to not lump all self-promotion together, and then just don't do the unethical bits.

Re: Ask HN: Where do seasoned devs look for short-term work?

#86

Post by HeyLaughingBoy »

ranger_danger wrote: post #68
ghaff wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How else would anyone actually know that you were available? And that they should give you money? And, even if you get referred, you still need to seal the deal. And even within a larger company, unless someone like your manager more or less does it for you, "advertising" your accomplishments is pretty essential if you want anyone to reward your accomplishments.

it's not about forcing yourself to be a good salesman, but rather about showcasing your skills, expertise, and personality in a genuine and authentic way

That's exactly what a good salesperson is doing.

Re: Ask HN: Where do seasoned devs look for short-term work?

#87

Post by HeyLaughingBoy »

ranger_danger wrote: post #76
paxys wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everyone in the world, including a million experienced programmers, are already showcasing their skills in a "genuine and authentic" way. Why are you better than anyone else for the job?

I don't think they are, and I don't think it's necessary (or possible) to be better than anyone else.

Seriously? Have you seen the absolute crap that some people produce? You really don't think "it's necessary (or possible) to be better than anyone else"?

Race to the bottom, here we come!

Re: Ask HN: Where do seasoned devs look for short-term work?

#88

Post by baskinator »

limbero wrote: post #6

I did this a few years ago and the winning recipe was a shameless (i.e. deeply shameful) linkedin post where I pretty much just summarized my skillset and explained that I was looking for a senior engineer equivalent of a summer internship, with no chance of extension. Got me 3-4 offers. None of the offering companies had ads out for roles like this, so this was pretty much the only way.

Good book on the topic of selling - https://www.danpink.com/books/to-sell-is-human/

Re: Ask HN: Where do seasoned devs look for short-term work?

#89

Post by DrBenCarson »

ForHackernews wrote: post #27
cushychicken wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why’s this shameful, exactly? There’s no shame in saying you’re available to work.

IMHO selling yourself (selling anything, really) is a bit demeaning. But this is probably a class affectation on my part, not real moral intuition.

Commerce is demeaning?

Re: Ask HN: Where do seasoned devs look for short-term work?

#90

Post by fragmede »

angvp wrote: post #81
ge96 wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OMG there was one about how an engineer in San Francisco is crying about his $2K in salad bills and his Cyber Truck while making like a half a mil a year

That was a sarcastic one, made by a comedian who used to work in tech, lol

I'd guess that's Austin Nasso and TechRoastShow. They clearly know the subject matter well.

https://www.instagram.com/austinnasso/?hl=en

https://www.instagram.com/techroastshow/?hl=en

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