Not to sound cynical, but you live two hours from SEATTLE. If you have skills, you WILL find work here, particularly tech work. End of story!
22 and no life
161–170 of 193 posts
Re: 22 and no life
#162Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
I should say it was anything but easy. It took a lot of hard work and there was a lot of stress along the way.
Sorry, poor wording on my part. I wasn't trying to make your struggles look easy. I actually found it heart wrenching to read about them. And was trying to point out that change can be easy when done in small steps systematically. Although it almost never is ;)
Re: 22 and no life
#163Here is a random suggestion. Yakima has a number of Churches and one of the types of people you can find at a Church are older people who are befuddled by computers. You can also find people to talk about what is important in life and what isn't. Not saying you should convert, just saying that its a place to hear a point of view.
Offer to help people get their computers set up, or fixed up. Be scrupulously honest, do not lie and do not exaggerate and do not try to be anything except helpful. That will get you money to eat and buy the basics. You may still be homeless but you will start connecting with the community in a helpful way.
Yakima does have some electronics stores (BestBuy and Radio Shack) and if I were in your spot I would look to see if either of them needed technical help. Its not that hard to learn how to pull apart, clean, and re-assemble a desktop PC.
Don't give up, and each morning think of at least two things you can be thankful for and hold onto them all day. Be open to opportunities that may present themselves.
Re: 22 and no life
#164Honestly, 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…
Very nice counter to my brief rant (not that you intended it to be). Well said. Except for the language and particular rate, my experience was essentially similar to what you describe.
I would add, though, that it doesn't necessarily go the way the recruiter describes. Yeah, if you take the tests and sign the six years, it will likely go that way, but it is the military, they do own you, and if they want to they can have you do anything because they said so. And you don't get to quit.
The military was a positive experience for me, and it is for many people. But I stand by my rant.
Re: 22 and no life
#165Earlier quoted context omitted.
That is true. Funny you mention Ruby as I have just completed Code School's Try Ruby course this weekend! However, how could I make any particularly meaningful contribution in a language I am just learning? I feel that any issues or new features in an open source project probably require some fairly advanced knowledge, no?
A lot of my blogging at that time was about what I was learning. In fact those posts were the most instrumental in getting me the job in Chicago. My blog showed up for a lot of howto searches for perl. Which got me noticed by a company needing perl programmers. Blog about what you are learning. Your contribution will be helping others learn from your experiences.
Thank you. That is a really excellent idea.
Re: 22 and no life
#166Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes! Exactly. Thank you for understanding what I meant. I want to hear about the decision process behind how or why Zaphar chose the open source project he did, and how others here choose their open source projects? Just a little advice, so that I too (and others reading), can (wisely) choose our first open source project to contribute to.
I just chose what I liked and had fun with. Hung out with people working on Blender. Hung out in the perl IRC channel on freenode. Hung out with a group doing an Open Source game called Planeshift which wasn't high profile in any way but it gave me experience. And put me in contact with people who had connections.
Hah I really like the IRC idea (especially since I don't know anyone like you do). Just joined the Ruby channel as a test at: http://irc.lc/freenode/ruby-lang
Re: 22 and no life
#167Earlier quoted context omitted.
That is true. Funny you mention Ruby as I have just completed Code School's Try Ruby course this weekend! However, how could I make any particularly meaningful contribution in a language I am just learning? I feel that any issues or new features in an open source project probably require some fairly advanced knowledge, no?
You'd be surprised what you can tackle even when learning a new language. A lot of the bugs in an open source project aren't unfixed because they are tricky but because no has had time to work on them. You're most valuable contribution will be time and willingness to tackle something.
Interesting. I would have figured easy bugs were squashed in seconds by expert developers. Shows how new I am to this eh? Thanks for all the advice.
Re: 22 and no life
#168Good 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…
Update: I also forgot mentioning looking at getting a two year degree from a technical school in electronics/medical electronics. There is a massive shortage of two year degrees level skill workers. That's what the real crying of "shortage of skill labor" is all about. I have two cousins making "serious bank" by servicing medical imaging equipment. They make my high tech engineering degree salary look like peanuts. Both of their employers (siemens and ge) treat them like kings (training, benefits, continuing education, job security, bonuses, promotions). Their education was cheap and they made "real" money right out of school. Do the coding on the side as a hobby or slowly have someone else like the company you work for pay for your education.
Too many people what to live the Silicon Valley lifestyle. If you can get into a top 50 school and are backed with some family wealth, you to could do it. But if you think you are going to be the next 'zuck'... you are going to be in for a rude awaking. Remember that zuck was from a well to do family, super smart, and went to an ivy league school. Most Silicon Valley companies only want people like him. The rest of us do not get to play in the big game... Life is tough. Get use to it. You will be happier.
Re: 22 and no life
#169Another choice is the Perry Technical Institute is in Yakima, talk to them about their 12 month program on Welding. Its not as "tech" as web site design but if you get through the program you can hitch hike over to North Dakota and the Gas fields there and find lots of work. Looking at their course catalog it looks like its about $16,000 total (four quarters at about $4,000 each), You can do that in four years with no loans if you can scrape together enough for one quarter every 9 months.
Alternatively they have a machine shop program which could exploit your programming skills.
I only mention it because young people often forget that there is a lot of need for people in these jobs which currently are dominated by older men preparing to retire.
Re: 22 and no life
#170Its all about HOPE, man! Its the drug that you need right now. Do whatever you need to do to plant as many seeds of hope that you can. You need to slowly work out the things in life that are killing your hope. Building positive friendships will help, too. You have time to build a good life for yourself.
Just look at all the comments and suggestions all these people have posted. If you need help, just ask for it. But you will need to work on changing things that you can and they may be hard. Life can get you down. Even in the darkness of days, there are always bright sunny days ahead of you!
Serenity Prayer: God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference.