151–160 of 193 posts
I've been where you are right now. Only I was married with 4 kids and one on the way. No job, No home, No degree, and what looked like No future. I don't know what your exact circumstances are but here is how I went from there to working for Google. 1. I got exposure. I hung out online with open source developers and participated. I did stuff in perl and blogged about it. 2. I did whatever I needed to to survive and…
Although I cannot say I hav been in the same situation as you, I can empathize and offer my sincerest sympathies for your struggle. I noticed you want to be a programmer, there are m any options. Check out appacademy.io. They are a 10 week programming bootcamp learning ruby, rails, JavaScript and HTML5. Because you already have programming experience, you are above the rest and may have a better chance getting in. It…
Does Appacademy offer housing? If not, attending the program would be near impossible, as rents in NYC and SF are exorbitant, and would necessitate working another part-time job just for the luxury of sharing a room with several other people.
Start turkin'
I've been where you are right now. Only I was married with 4 kids and one on the way. No job, No home, No degree, and what looked like No future. I don't know what your exact circumstances are but here is how I went from there to working for Google. 1. I got exposure. I hung out online with open source developers and participated. I did stuff in perl and blogged about it. 2. I did whatever I needed to to survive and…
That is an awesome story, good job Zaphar! You make it sound easy and it can be. Just keep taking the next step, keep learning, moving forward and getting feedback and almost anyone can take themselves somewhere. What is you blog BTW? It's not listed on your profile or twitter.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I like the Australia idea, but I'd save up $10k before departing. Relocating to another country is expensive. I suggest to find some freelance programming jobs online. He could make some money writing articles about the stock market for SeekingAlpha.com. In terms of education, I think he should do some courses with Coursera or one of the other free online institutions.
Make that $20k the cost of living in Australia (especially the Sydney or Melbourne areas) is very high at the moment. $2.5kAUD/month is average for a single bed apartment. Also getting a rental unit without previous references from Australian landlords/agents is particularly difficult. Be prepared to spend out a lot of $$$ getting set up.
Yes you'd be looking to pay that for a nice, new or renovated single bed apartment in the middle of the city or an expensive area. As hinted at though, as someone with $5-10k in the bank coming here to be a barista there's no way you'd be able to get a lease for one of them anyway.
Head even a 20 minute tram ride out from the city, however, and suddenly you can pay AU$1,400/mth for a 1 or 2 bedroom place in an older building. (Though you may struggle to get a lease anyway...)
If you were on a working holiday you would likely be better off finding a shared place with some like-minded souls, and end up somewhere around $1,000 for rent + all your bills and such to live somewhere pretty nice.
I don't have a degree and I consider myself pretty successful. I'm no Zuckerberg but I haven't been unemployed since 18 (I'm 26). And, like others who've posted, I have to beat recruiters off with a stick. There is a lot of work out there if you have a good online presence. Those are my credentials, now here's my advice: build a portfolio. And I don't mean a portfolio site or physical portfolio per se (though that wo…
I was in a similar situation just a week and a half ago - almost 25, took 6 years for a 4 year degree(something you can't do in India, looks really really bad on the resume) and had no experience other than a failed stint as a freelance web developer and a useless 3.5 month stint at a company where I did nothing.
So, till last Sunday, I had pretty much 0 value in the job market. I had a Github account and some small projects on it, but nothing more than decent and I kept thinking I'll apply for this awesome position when I finish that amazing project. And I would've kept doing that for a long long time, but there was a thing came up where I had to travel to another city and I figured since I was going there, might as well apply to a few positions in companies based there. So early Sunday morning(2am ish) I send out a bunch of applications. By Wednesday I had a new job with payed more than what most of the guys I went to college with earn(in some cases it might be as much as 2x), had a standing job offer from another place for when I leave the job I hadn't even started yet, one co-founder pushing me to come over for an interview and offered to better what ever I'd make at the other place, plus 3 other inquiries.
And all that with a few half decent projects on github and a passionate(I think so) about me thing on the resume.
Granted that there are a lot more better programmers available in the US than there are here in India(my boss was shocked by the level of most coders he interviewed), but still it seems doable - getting a job solely on coding chops.
I'm not saying that if you start applying you'll get a job the next day or even the next week or the next month. I'll be the first one to admit that I got really lucky with the timing(a lot of start ups had put up wanted posts at that time) and with the apparent lack to good programmers who want to work at start ups in India. But unless you apply, you don't find out whether or not you could've got that position you liked.
So code some stuff up, put it online and start applying.
I don't have a degree and I consider myself pretty successful. I'm no Zuckerberg but I haven't been unemployed since 18 (I'm 26). And, like others who've posted, I have to beat recruiters off with a stick. There is a lot of work out there if you have a good online presence. Those are my credentials, now here's my advice: build a portfolio. And I don't mean a portfolio site or physical portfolio per se (though that wo…
I second both Udacity, and applying to every job where the description seems to fit you. I was in a similar situation just a week and a half ago - almost 25, took 6 years for a 4 year degree(something you can't do in India, looks really really bad on the resume) and had no experience other than a failed stint as a freelance web developer and a useless 3.5 month stint at a company where I did nothing. So, till last Su…
So code some stuff up, put it online and start applying."
Nicely said!
Good suggestions here already. You might look for jobs on Craigslist. It sounds like right now you're looking for anyjob, for cash/rent. Be willing to do about anything, you're not choosing a career right now you're just taking money from people without stealing. Depending on who you work for, some of them might have interesting ideas or contacts. If you can get to North Dakota you might work in the oil fields, but I…
!!!NORTH DAKOTA or the military... It be BOOM times in the oil patch. Housing is tough, but find a job that will put you up at the man camps. Search google for north dakota oil jobs and whatnot... Summer is rolling around so make sure to be there before all the southern guys come back up after leaving for the winter. I plan on looking for a oil field job soon. After years in college, grad school, working at a corp jo…
I say that, having joined the military after high school because I had no clue what to do with myself. And for me, at that time, it turned out well.
However, the US hasn't used its military for anything good or honorable since World War II, except possibly the first six to nine months of Afghanistan. If you join the military you'll likely have to kill someone for no worthy reason, or you'll have to order someone to do it. For fucking Wall Street, and so whoever's President at the time doesn't have to take Viagra.
Fuck. That. Shit.
Don't waste your soul.
(Apologies to any veterans or family.)
Honestly, probably one of the best things you could do is join the military. If you are tech savvy, then chances are that you can score high enough on the ASVAB (entry test) in order to get into a really high speed career field. I joined the Navy, became an arabic linguist, left after a few years, and got a programming job as a contractor for 102k/year. Here's the process you're looking at if you want to take a simil…
That and being stuck in there for X years. Sounds like you lucked out with your military career but it seems like more the exception than the rule?