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Ask HN: I got let go this morning. What should I do next?

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Re: Ask HN: I got let go this morning. What should I do next?

#192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

While this comparison is true for 100-200 year ago industrial jobs, and farming in subsistence conditions, the original hunter gatherers had plenty of free time, and that's what we're evolved for. Main problem is, there's to many of us for hunting and gathering to be sustainable...

Re: Ask HN: I got let go this morning. What should I do next?

#193
post #9

We're a LAMP shop that is doing more and more angular. I contract with many HNers. Please email johnny d0t goodman @ cpap d07 com if interested in discussing further and setting up a fizzbuzz.

Props to you for reaching out, but would you still apply a fizzbuzz test to someone that has just been the major driver behind building an angular app?

Do candidates have access to the Internet/own laptop while taking a fizzbuzz? If not, I would certainly fail it, eventhough I have over 15yrs of experience! See, in my case I have concluded that the best use of my brain is to solve problems not to remember stuff that is easily accesible online (or other sources like stored code, manuals, etc). Heck, I am sure that even if I'm asked to write down an HTML page from scratch I would stare for hours at a blank screen. I hope these type of tests are conceptual, even taken on paper using pseudo-code. No?

Re: Ask HN: I got let go this morning. What should I do next?

#194
If you do become interested in another fulltime job, we are in downtown Cleveland and are looking for a full stack web developer and an iOS developer. We're a profitable startup in the broadcast space. Small development team. Good people.

Send me an email if you're interested; it's in my profile.

Re: Ask HN: I got let go this morning. What should I do next?

#195
Older and bit WISER elder. THE RULES OF LIFE, imho. your mileage will varyy a LOT. fiction, of course. LOL

1.) DREAM BIG. don't limit yourself. if i had your skillsets i would pitch mish shedlock directly. no endorsement, no conflicts of interest. do the top 20 financial blogs.

2.) mish shedlock? who is this guy. career changer and former cobol programmer who got KICKED INTO THE REAL WORLD. Welcome 'brave and sad new world.' this is a literary allusion. LOL

3.) philosophy. does sad come first or the brave? rhetorical question, my dear Mr. Ut. Opian (LOL) first. "self taught my CS skills are not as solid" COMPLETE RUBBISH. THE BEST are self-taught and self-teachers. I, myself did barcamp.org and i prefer to teach the teachers FOR FREE. Because I get back ten times the investment.

Oh, by the way, when I am CEO, I always have a small interview trick i play on the applicants, like you. I LOVE MY FAMILY AND my 'future children.' SO MY MOTIVATION is extremely high. some companies will try to negotiate you down. AKA kicking you while you are down. Others and most will change the 'social contract' or even the job description. THAT MEANS even if you have the job or future job, these companies are TRASH.

LOok only for the gold. Where the CEO says, I understand. been there myself. WHATEVER happens, whether you get a job here or not, we continue the GREAT JOURNEY that is your life. repeat WE. we even recommend you to our competitors.

5,) don't be AFRAID of taking food stamps. for even those with a college degree... welcome to the USA.

6.)thank you for your open source.

7.)the standard in wall street, nyc, ny, USA is 250 dials. that is COLD CALLS. Sure, linkkd in and networking works. Rule NUMBER 20. Always call on weekends, 6am, etc. The secretary screens the calls when she comes in a 8:30am. THE REAL WORKERS will pick up the phone.

22.) obviously moving is difficult. been there done that. there are many CAREER actors. GENIUSES, they NEVER got there first break until moving to the large city, LA.

23.)plenty of folks are sleeping in their cars /trailers in new york or the big city, which will really suck when it snows.

how amusing. mostly big city, engineering, cellphone and software but I STILL WANNA make big money and move to the SMALL FARM COUNTRY WHERE YOU ARE.

ps. now go back and sell a small RIDICULOUS small amount contract to your former employer. IF YOUR CODE IS A BAD as you think it is. (FOR IT IS NOT) then there is a great demand for your patching the codebase.

get together with unemployed lawyers and write numerous weasel words into the contract. My favorite is time dependent upon prior commitments to non-profits EXPLAIN non-profits are not competitors) and your top priority is the contract.

When the time comes at Saturday night when their website and e-commerce engine crashes, YOU ARE CALLED. Make sure that you are working on that non-profit work, UNTIL THE COMPANY JUST HAPPENS TO DECIDE THAT additional lucrative contracts are issued.

THEY WILL NOT CALL YOU UNTIL THE LAST RESORT. Isn't that the case, fellow CEOs?

i cite as case history the cobol programmer MISH SHEDLOCK. no endorsement and I am not selling you gold (literally).

CAREER: difficult code >> good job lasts only 6 years >> this is COBOL >> capitalism boom/bust cycle >> layoffs so only the best survive >> MANUFACTURING GOESE TO CHINA >> bank IBM (you know the names) crash because the OLD LEGACY CODE finally MEMORY LEAKS over ten years

>> PANIC and sudden need for FORMER EMPLOYEES.

freelance is great, but only in order to gather INTELLIGENCE. Remeber, you will competing with the so called OBAMACARE website, where the Javascript comments are in Gujurat.

get together with your community college teachers, who are from INDIA and ask them to translate the comment sections in Gujurat, which is a POVERTY section of India.

LOL. you think your skillsets are low, wait till you get to the world. Please BUY my second hand Yugo car (the one that tends to go on fire.)

LOL

Re: Ask HN: I got let go this morning. What should I do next?

#196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> So yes, I support people who think about retiring early. If youth is the best time of one's life, it shouldn't be wasted on the desk It's funny, the different perspectives people have on retirement. I don't plan on ever retiring. What would I do? Very much the same things I'm already doing. I've tried to organize my life that way.

I agree. I'll only retire when my body gives out. I decided what kind of old man I want to be and I won't be one of those hunched and shriveled guys. I intend on making it to 140. People who retire die.

Re: Ask HN: I got let go this morning. What should I do next?

#197
post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Could you attach some numbers to what you consider tiny and adequate equity?

For me, there's no amount of equity that would be "adequate" - if a company wants to include some in an offer, great, but it's not going to be a factor in my decision. Most likely the equity will be worth nothing or very little - I thus value it at zero so I'm not willing to give up any amount of salary for it.

I like equity for what it does to me. It makes me primal and on top of my game. It helps me continue to give a shit. All these things benefit me because instead of wasting time (On HN :P) I am focused on delivering and increasing the leverage of my contributions to my team (ie, Making bigger moves) .

Re: Ask HN: I got let go this morning. What should I do next?

#198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

a couple hundred thousand is not enough to retire at 30 though ....

He is 25, and he plans to retire at 30, in 5 years he may save another couple thousands more. Let's put on the lower part of the "couple" spectrum and say he have 200.000, in 5 years he will have 400.000 USD. This money is enough to retire early with the 4% rule http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2012/05/29/how-much-do-i-need... Maybe you are assuming that he want to live in the states, with the interest of this money he…

thailand maybe - spain seems like a stretch

Re: Ask HN: I got let go this morning. What should I do next?

#199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

a couple hundred thousand is not enough to retire at 30 though ....

It can be [1]. Instead of saving 10-15% of your income, suppose you cut your expenses drastically and started saving 80% of your income. The math works out that you will be financially independent within 5-7 years and no longer have a requirement to work for money.

[1] http://earlyretirementextreme.com

Re: Ask HN: I got let go this morning. What should I do next?

#200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Props to you for reaching out, but would you still apply a fizzbuzz test to someone that has just been the major driver behind building an angular app?

Do candidates have access to the Internet/own laptop while taking a fizzbuzz? If not, I would certainly fail it, eventhough I have over 15yrs of experience! See, in my case I have concluded that the best use of my brain is to solve problems not to remember stuff that is easily accesible online (or other sources like stored code, manuals, etc). Heck, I am sure that even if I'm asked to write down an HTML page from scr…

Umm, no. You write it on a piece of paper or white board while the interviewer watches. And it's gotta be pretty close to runnable as-is when you are done.

If you can't write a loop, conditional and dump something to some output destination, all from memory, you have no business applying for a job as a Software Developer.

I will say that I'm lenient about knowing the modulus operator, since that's not an every-day thing for many people (though I would think it's pretty common with webdevs since that's traditionally been a popular a way of doing alternating row colors on tables).

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