Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: Help, I'm a developer who can't pay rent

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

1–10 of 33 posts

Ask HN: Help, I'm a developer who can't pay rent

#1

Post by zettavolt »

It feels smarmy posting to HN like this, but here goes.

I was laid off from my Software Engineering in March and instead of picking up another position I coasted for awhile to work on some personal projects, figuring I could coast for at least a year. This month I incurred a financial disaster and now I'm thoroughly broke and am slightly concerned about paying my rent next month.

I'm a fairly young guy without a college degree but about 7 years development experience total (since I was a kid) and about 2 years "professional" experience. I know Erlang/OTP like the back of my hand, lots of experience with x86 & C/C++ and contemporary information security and exploit development practice (Not just old tricks like stack overflows! I know dlmalloc and jemalloc allocator internals and have tried my hand at faking more than one vtable pointer in an use-after-free). I doubt any of you are hiring for this but I also have considerable experience with Reverse Engineering as well, mostly on Windows with IDA, but my understanding of Linux (and ELF) internals is definitely better than average. I'd like to think I have very good networking knowledge as well, ranging from TCP protocol suite to client I/O strategies to building distributed systems from pragmatic (and academic) perspective.

I know Rails/Ruby + Python/Django/Pyramids and have passable Javascript skill as well (honestly mostly jQuery, don't really care much for JS, but can do it). I have a fairly extensive github and my Git skill is fine (maybe above average) as well.

Given how "hot" the market for developers in SF is right now, I'm a bit embarrassed to be posting for a such a shameless quick gig hence the throwaway. If you're interested, post here contact me @ zettavolt@hushmail.com if you need help before the end of the month or are willing to give me some cash up front in exchange for a longer term agreement I am more than fine with that as well.

(I'm located in San Francisco BTW!)

Re: Ask HN: Help, I'm a developer who can't pay rent

#2

Post by atlantic »

If I were you, I'd delete this and start again with a different tone. You sound a little desperate, and that will push people away. Repost under your own name, asking for advice about how to find a job in SF, and mentioning your skills in brief. Don't ask for anything except advice, don't talk about being laid off or the poor state of your finances. You'll probably get a few spontaneous offers.

Re: Ask HN: Help, I'm a developer who can't pay rent

#5

Post by zettavolt »

rorrr wrote: post #3

Tried getting a job?

I've tried applying at three places. I've done web development "professionally" before and frankly I've always been extremely unhappy with the job environment, maybe it's characteristic of web dev or maybe just bad experience.

I would like to go into something deeper but my experience and interest in Distributed Systems, C/C++/Assembly and security is entirely self-taught and done out of a hobby so I don't have anything "professional" to show for it beyond the ability to talk for hours, a few web browser and plugin exploits I've written and the only substantial project I've done in C++ is one of the early WEP crackers for Windows which I wrote 6 years ago (and is riddled with classic C++ novice mistakes).

Plus, if I applied for a job now I would not feel comfortable asking for money up front to pay my rent, even if a company could figure out they wanted to make a hire before the end of the month.

Re: Ask HN: Help, I'm a developer who can't pay rent

#6

Post by zettavolt »

ig1 wrote: post #4

Speak to these people: http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=tptacek http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=bigmac I believe they're both hiring compsec people at the moment.

Thank you for the advice, frankly I would love to work for Matasano, they are arguably one of the premier security firms in the country. However, I have difficulty placing myself in the top-tier category they are in (plus they are not in San Francisco). I honestly don't know if I could write a network protocol fuzzer without relying on SPIKE or Scapy off the top of my head in an interview.

As far as Square goes, I feel I have 0 chance there. I would love to work there as well but no computer science/Math degree, spotty work and residence record and entirely self-taught. I get the feeling that doesn't jibe with their culture and I would just be wasting their time and mine.

Re: Ask HN: Help, I'm a developer who can't pay rent

#7

Post by MysticFear »

zettavolt wrote: post #6
ig1 wrote: post #4

Speak to these people: http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=tptacek http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=bigmac I believe they're both hiring compsec people at the moment.

Thank you for the advice, frankly I would love to work for Matasano, they are arguably one of the premier security firms in the country. However, I have difficulty placing myself in the top-tier category they are in (plus they are not in San Francisco). I honestly don't know if I could write a network protocol fuzzer without relying on SPIKE or Scapy off the top of my head in an interview. As far as Square goes, I fe…

You don't sound desperate for a job.

Re: Ask HN: Help, I'm a developer who can't pay rent

#8

Post by zettavolt »

MysticFear wrote: post #7
zettavolt wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you for the advice, frankly I would love to work for Matasano, they are arguably one of the premier security firms in the country. However, I have difficulty placing myself in the top-tier category they are in (plus they are not in San Francisco). I honestly don't know if I could write a network protocol fuzzer without relying on SPIKE or Scapy off the top of my head in an interview. As far as Square goes, I fe…

You don't sound desperate for a job.

Maybe, my reasoning is that while I'm in the privileged position of being young, it's a greater loss for me to potentially botch the interview today and jeopardize future employment with Matasano than to just eke it out today.

Additionally, how do you convey to an employer without sounding like an asshole "Please, I need to be hired AND get paid at least 700$ before the end of this month"

Re: Ask HN: Help, I'm a developer who can't pay rent

#9

Post by chill1 »

zettavolt wrote: post #8
MysticFear wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't sound desperate for a job.

Maybe, my reasoning is that while I'm in the privileged position of being young, it's a greater loss for me to potentially botch the interview today and jeopardize future employment with Matasano than to just eke it out today. Additionally, how do you convey to an employer without sounding like an asshole "Please, I need to be hired AND get paid at least 700$ before the end of this month"

Additionally, how do you convey to an employer without sounding like an asshole "Please, I need to be hired AND get paid at least 700$ before the end of this month"

You don't. Borrow the money from a friend or family, sell your TV (or other things you don't necessarily need right now). Talk to your land-lord about it, and try to get an extension temporarily. There are lots of things you can do.

Re: Ask HN: Help, I'm a developer who can't pay rent

#10

Post by Zev »

zettavolt wrote: post #6
ig1 wrote: post #4

Speak to these people: http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=tptacek http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=bigmac I believe they're both hiring compsec people at the moment.

Thank you for the advice, frankly I would love to work for Matasano, they are arguably one of the premier security firms in the country. However, I have difficulty placing myself in the top-tier category they are in (plus they are not in San Francisco). I honestly don't know if I could write a network protocol fuzzer without relying on SPIKE or Scapy off the top of my head in an interview. As far as Square goes, I fe…

Every time I've seen tptacek post on HN's Who's Hiring threads, he makes it pretty clear that Matasano has a bay area office.

You should email him. The worst that happens is he says "No". And, well, in that case, nothing changes.

Post reply on HN