Please come back in a few months and update us on your progress, we're anxious to see how for you've gotten. Good luck!
22 and no life
181–190 of 193 posts
Re: 22 and no life
#182Hey OP, hope you read this! I am from the Tri-Cities, so I can relate. At my very first job in high school I worked with a Flash developer from Yakima who had been homeless and living in a drug-addled abandoned building with no floor - so there's definitely hope.
If you're interested in moving an hour and a half south, they have &yet, which is a strong agency but was just starting when I moved. I went through damn near every decent web company in the area before finally moving out to Portland because of how unhappy I was there and how uninspired I was by the quality of the work being put out by the area.
Eastern Washington - Spokane possibly excluded - is a barren wasteland for honest web/tech work outside of freelancing and working out at Hanford, and I'm not sure Yakima has anything worth investing time in either. The cost of living in the TC can be pretty cheap if you're able to find a gig there, but public transit sucks. If you want to apply to some dev jobs in Portland (which would probably be more difficult than finding some in the TC) and get an interview or two out here, you're welcome to stay with us. I have some friends your age that are also into audio production and we have jam sessions with our gear sometimes at our place. Would love to have you if you get any leads.
I am in touch with a few developers still living in the Tri-Cities, too, if you'd like me to reach out to them as well.
Re: 22 and no life
#183Your are not the only one, this game was rigged from the start. At 24 years old I tried to started my own businesses to employ my friends who did not have the same opportunities. My business failed, do to an employe error. The police and the EPA went after me like it was the BP oil spill. I'll be paying the IRS or the Franchise tax board 40% of what I make for the rest of my life. Cops and robbers have teamed up and the average American citizen is caught in the cross fire. Currently I am reduced to farm out my skills to international corporations. I'm considered lucky to have a job working 12 hours a day.
I believe the tech workers should be moving towards private unions to get standard wages and mentor programs. We need to move away from this dog eat dog individualistic suppository programmer complex.
Most tech managers are just trying to suck the life out you to further promote their career with zero consideration for you well being.
Of course you can go work for a Google or another large corporate outfit. Remember that for every job we hold we are cutting an unknown number of American jobs.
Food for thought, there is a special place in hell for the greedy and traitorous. Personally I feel as a part of the high tech sector we are heading in that direction. No one stands up for worker rights in high tech.
Re: 22 and no life
#184I 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 Coursera. I read you want to become an audio engineer. I am in a music production course through Berkelee School of Music on Coursera.org. You are getting great advice. Pick one thing and do it for 10 minutes.
There are a couple of digital music courses on Coursera, one that just ended (but is archived) and another coming up in October:
* Introduction to Digital Sound Design (https://www.coursera.org/course/digitalsounddesign)
* Introduction to Programming for Digital Artists (https://www.coursera.org/course/chuck101) (yep, this is for music)
Re: 22 and no life
#185I just wrote a book about this, called "Break Free of Your Rut." it's based off my own experience being deep in there, and getting out.
It's 2.99 on Kindle, but send me an email and I'll send you a free pdf copy. dan@enemieslist.net is my email.
It sucks, but it gets better.
Re: 22 and no life
#186Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
Just in case the OP reads this and is interested, this exaggerates somewhat for Melbourne. Particularly if you're a kid coming over on a working holiday, which actually sounded like a really good suggestion for the situation. 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…
yep, this matches my experience in Melbourne
Re: 22 and no life
#187Earlier quoted context omitted.
Another idea once you've saved up a couple grand is to outsource yourself while you continue learning and improving as a developer. Move somewhere with rock-bottom cost of living (southeast Asia? Boliva? ...you get the idea) while you do freelance coding online and build up a portfolio. Earn in dollars, live on pesos. By moving to a lower cost area than Australia you still get a little of the "awesome, I'm traveling!…
NO. Don't move to Bolivia, Perú or some of those other countries (don't get me wrong, people there are great, I've had a great time, etc), but if you think Yakima is a tech hell, you won't believe how bad Bolivia is - I've worked for them. And you'll feel even MORE alone and depressed, you won't know how things work, you'll lack a lot of safety nets you don't even think about in the U.S., etc. I can't speak for South…
the point of relocating to a cheaper country isn't to earn a local wage
Re: 22 and no life
#188Don't give up.
Re: 22 and no life
#189Earlier quoted context omitted.
NO. Don't move to Bolivia, Perú or some of those other countries (don't get me wrong, people there are great, I've had a great time, etc), but if you think Yakima is a tech hell, you won't believe how bad Bolivia is - I've worked for them. And you'll feel even MORE alone and depressed, you won't know how things work, you'll lack a lot of safety nets you don't even think about in the U.S., etc. I can't speak for South…
the point of relocating to a cheaper country isn't to earn a local wage
Of course not, the point I'm trying to make is that most people are severly underestimating the culture shock.
Also, if he finds Yakima "hell", being very close to tech centers, how can you expect him to adjust to somewhere that's REALLY in the middle of nowhere in tech terms - and, while you might think it's easy not to get sucked into local wages, he's unable to make US wages living in the US. In my country, a US McDonalds wage (8 dollars an hour) is much higher than most midlevel manager positions, and higher than standard developer wages.
Re: 22 and no life
#190Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's expensive but it's workable, and you can still save money. The minimum wage is federal, so you get paid the same as a barista in Sydney as you do in regional Australia. Also, I suggested it because the working holiday visa is available. I'm not sure if there any other countries which even offer such an option to Americans.
New Zealand offers a similar Visa, but you'll be better off in Australia if you want to make money.
Agreed, I'm in AU now with my brother and he makes $20 an hour working retail at a bookstore. Housing and the rest is expensive though, so count on finding a shared house and a commute. And living cheaply while you save + work on your coding abilities.