I'm not sure what the market is like in Cleveland, but in Columbus there is a great demand for web developers. I work out of a coworking place there with several freelance web developers and I'd be happy to put you in touch with them if you're interested.
Ask HN: I got let go this morning. What should I do next?
161–170 of 207 posts
Re: Ask HN: I got let go this morning. What should I do next?
#162Earlier quoted context omitted.
What's the benefit of a startup? Seems like more hours for less pay while always needing to get things done. I fail to see the appeal. They just have lunches and dinners which appeal to people.
I personally would not do a startup, unless I was one of the founders. Or they provided me with a non-nedglible equity stake or the best salary I could get. Most developers get tiny, tiny amounts of equity at startups which don't pay off in the end. And the appeal of "interesting work", soon dissipates when your up against deadlines, and the focus is speed not quality code. As is in most startups. Just working at a s…
Could you attach some numbers to what you consider tiny and adequate equity?
Re: Ask HN: I got let go this morning. What should I do next?
#163Earlier quoted context omitted.
I personally would not do a startup, unless I was one of the founders. Or they provided me with a non-nedglible equity stake or the best salary I could get. Most developers get tiny, tiny amounts of equity at startups which don't pay off in the end. And the appeal of "interesting work", soon dissipates when your up against deadlines, and the focus is speed not quality code. As is in most startups. Just working at a s…
Could you attach some numbers to what you consider tiny and adequate equity?
> Could you attach some numbers to what you consider tiny and adequate equity?
That depends entirely on the company and the developer, there are no absolute numbers. Keep in mind though that often it's entirely fair that even the earliest employees get vastly less than the founders. After all, they probably didn't spend the last three years living in their parents' basement to get the business to the point of being viable for full-time employee #1. E.g. I think it took Kickstarter something like seven years to actually get to launch.
Re: Ask HN: I got let go this morning. What should I do next?
#164So my guess is this is the first time you've been let go, or this is the first time as an adult (post-college) during your profession that you've been let go. Relax, it happens. This doesn't mean you aren't a terrific developer and person to work with. Take a little time to think about what you've worked on, what you've accomplished in the past 6-12 months I think you'll see what a great position you really are in. A…
+1 on the startup idea. I left a big company to go to a startup and I think its really been a great choice. You'll be exposed to so many new ideas and technologies and really get a chance to expand your skillset. Maybe if you work at a big company like Google or Facebook you get exposed to more -- I don't know -- but where I came from it was night and day difference. For me, the people and experiences outweigh the slight difference in salary (which is still great all things considered).
Sorry you got let go, that sounds like a really unpleasant experience.
Re: Ask HN: I got let go this morning. What should I do next?
#165So my guess is this is the first time you've been let go, or this is the first time as an adult (post-college) during your profession that you've been let go. Relax, it happens. This doesn't mean you aren't a terrific developer and person to work with. Take a little time to think about what you've worked on, what you've accomplished in the past 6-12 months I think you'll see what a great position you really are in. A…
+1 on the startup idea. I left a big company to go to a startup and I think its really been a great choice. You'll be exposed to so many new ideas and technologies and really get a chance to expand your skillset. Maybe if you work at a big company like Google or Facebook you get exposed to more -- I don't know -- but where I came from it was night and day difference. For me, the people and experiences outweigh the slight difference in salary (which is still great all things considered).
Sorry you got let go, that sounds like a really unpleasant experience.
Re: Ask HN: I got let go this morning. What should I do next?
#166Earlier quoted context omitted.
Never getting a raise because that's not built into their budget and there's not a system around it. Having to beg for vacation time and getting maybe a week a year. And after a few years or a few ventures, your friends at big corps are already starting to talk about retirement and pensions, and you realize that's an extra million you gave up. But hey, you can wear shorts!
I work for fortune 300 non tech company (despite their NASDAQ listing). Our pension program has been frozen - no new employees can join and years of service no longer accrue additional benefit. There has not been a 401k match in four years, the continuing education program ended with the merger 10 years ago. And the healthcare is marginally better than Obamacare. And raises. Last year they were 0.75%. A startup looks…
I'm guessing when most people [on HN] are comparing big companies to startups they're thinking of tech companies. What you describe may not be unusual for large non-tech companies - but it's pretty horrible compared to large tech ones.
If it's feasible you may want to consider looking for a new job. [And FWIW some great advice I got when starting out as a developer was never work where software is a cost-center].
Re: Ask HN: I got let go this morning. What should I do next?
#167Near as I can tell, you sound a bit like my javascript skills - that's not where I choose to focus though. My CTO, co-founder (we got rejected by Ycombinator, but, also applied super late) is a self taught programmer who, if you read what he writes, doesn't know a whole lot.
However, he's a genius. I'm 100% certain you have skills you aren't aware of, at your age, non "Tech," town, well, it's always possible you're better than us in the valley.
Write down what you want to do. Step, by step. Start a business or be an employee? Caution: too much self employment makes people not want to hire you as an employee. Ever. I was self employed for five years, took six months to find a job; this time, took that long so I'm staying self employed because groveling and begging isn't what I'm about.
I might be starving, but, I have dignity.
Next, after you have those goals identified, it's time to review the financial options, talk it through with your fiancee ideally so you're both on the same page (my ex-wife of 13 years was also the co-founder of my first 10 businesses, trust me, it sucks to lose a wife, or a business partner - sucks worse when you lose both).
Consider doing contracting, don't worry about it being on your resume, or not, while you explore and make enough money to slowly pad the bank account.
Since you did mention angular, and even though we're broke, we have a very powerful, open source social media & SEO tool that we're giving away. The project is gaining a lot of traction and if you contribute even a bit, we can definitely help promote you and your skills.
Plus, if some nice VC decides that my team and I are going to take over the world, we hire remote and don't have a central office. 3 team members now, hiring an intern next week who's a PhD candidate with experience in natural language processing.
Contact info in profile, and whatever you do, make sure it's your dreams you are following. Only those will lead to any kind of meaningful happiness.
Re: Ask HN: I got let go this morning. What should I do next?
#168This could be a good thing.
Step 1: Register a business
Step 2: Get a domain and some cheap hosting
Step 3: Start building an MVP
Congratulations, you are now working on a "boot-strapped startup". But with Step 3, you can spend your time learning about full-stack web development. You'll have to learn some back-end stuff, improve your front-end stuff, design, art, graphics, etc.
Once your MVP is up and running, then you'll have to move into sales and marketing and learn that part of the business. Come up with some kind of monetization strategy and implement it as part of the product.
While doing all this, split your time between building this thing up, and applying for your next gig. Bonus, when your MVP is up, put it on your resume so future employers can go see it and eliminate that gap in employment right off your resume.
You now have a portfolio, business experience, sales & marketing experience, executive experience, product development, design, QA, art, improved technical skills and no gap on your resume since you've "been working" the entire time.
There are many employers who would kill to have employees with that kind of experience, and it shows you can turn a minus into an opportunity.
Bonus, if you can't find a job, keep plugging away at it and maybe your startup will turn into something.
Re: Ask HN: I got let go this morning. What should I do next?
#169Earlier quoted context omitted.
Retiring in your 30's? What an age we live in. What an industry we work in.
I work at a startup and I am 25. I have saved up some money and seriously considering retirement by the time I am 30. Not that I have a lot of money saved up. I just have a couple of thousand bucks. Nothing fancy. But to me it is a seed money to try out new things, at an age where making huge mistakes wouldn't result in me being 70 and penniless. There will still be enough time to return back to IT once (if) I fail m…
> If this is what hundreds of years of progress and planning has led to, I think we have failed.
You're saying this after complaining spending eight hours a day (presumably five days a week) at your desk. That leaves far more leisure time than most [working class] people had "hundreds of years" ago.
Re: Ask HN: I got let go this morning. What should I do next?
#170So my guess is this is the first time you've been let go, or this is the first time as an adult (post-college) during your profession that you've been let go. Relax, it happens. This doesn't mean you aren't a terrific developer and person to work with. Take a little time to think about what you've worked on, what you've accomplished in the past 6-12 months I think you'll see what a great position you really are in. A…
+1 on the startup idea. I left a big company to go to a startup and I think its really been a great choice. You'll be exposed to so many new ideas and technologies and really get a chance to expand your skillset. Maybe if you work at a big company like Google or Facebook you get exposed to more -- I don't know -- but where I came from it was night and day difference. For me, the people and experiences outweigh the sl…
> You'll be exposed to so many new ideas and technologies and really get a chance to expand your skillset.
This will vary greatly by person and by company. For me it was the reverse - I went from a very small non-profit where I was the only developer to a large tech company and my skillset has expanded more in the ~6 months I've been here than in the 2.5 years I was at the non-profit.