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There are plenty of people in Seattle (and I'm sure most big cities) having a really tough time finding people to hire. In Seattle, I know of several companies looking for python devs. As other people here are stating, you need to move.
You really may need to uproot your family. I know that the tech economy is booming in several major urban areas. I'm up in Toronto, and have headhunters calling me like crazy. There is a dearth of programming talent. I know several people in San Francisco and they say that the valley has the same problem.
The situation is so desperate that I know several companies that would entertain hiring somebody in Michigan to do work for them remotely. It might take a trip up to Toronto to meet with some folks, but that's just a several hour drive.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Depends who you're talking to, I think. Hip hackers on HN are going to laugh at you, but hiring managers? Maybe not.
Jeff himself said, rather horrified when people started posting solutions to FizzBuzz: > FizzBuzz was presented as the lowest level of comprehension required to illustrate adequacy. There's no glory to be had in writing code that establishes a minimum level of competency. Even if you can write it in five different languages or in under 50 bytes of code. > The whole point of the original article was to think about why…
The key here is to actually want to move to that area, work with that company (whether it's 10 or 10,000), or work in that field. People detect insincerity relatively easily, don't contact people unless you actually want to work with them as opposed to anybody. On the flip side, never let yourself be discouraged by thinking "nah, I'm not good enough for them." The worse thing that happens is the person doesn't respond; this may feel bad but you end up with a thicker skin and learn how to do it better the next time.
Also: do not spam. Again with the insincerity thing above: this technique only works if you want to work with them instead of anybody, and I promise you they can pick up on that.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't know, maybe it's just me, but I think the only thing easier than FizzBuzz is Hello World. I wouldn't advise anyone to mention they can write one in their resume.
I don't have any reason to believe he put it on his resume. As for complexity, FizzBuzz is nothing like Hello World. Hello World only shows that one knows how to make a program compile/interpret and display fixed output. FizzBuzz demonstrates the above, plus an understanding of looping, basic arithmetic operations, and how to create program flow from that. Like it or not, that covers most of the actual coding require…
Granted these are both Perl-oriented jobs, but if you really are 'at the end of your rope' then I would make an attempt.
[I say the power of advertising at work because they both successfully pimped their employers]
My advice. Don't do contract freelance work. It is risky in that if you're not a good business person, you will string yourself along under the illusion of paying the bills. But you'll slowly be moving backward as projects take longer than you expect, you undercharge, etc.. You really may need to uproot your family. I know that the tech economy is booming in several major urban areas. I'm up in Toronto, and have head…
Chicago has an excellent Python user group: http://chipy.org/ Get on the mailing list and let them know your situation. Also consider learning Ruby on Rails. If you Python, Ruby will be easy to learn. If you know any Javascript at all, leverage that.
elance.com web design. you can get jobs filling out wordpress themes and probably make $1,000 a month at least
The original poster already noted that he had tried ODesk and similar websites (of which Elance is one). I think it would difficult for him/her to make $1,000/month (especially working with WordPress) while competing against developers who live in places with lower costs of living than Michigan.
Do something -- anything -- to get your code out there. Even if it's the most obscure and idiosyncratic library, throw it on Github.
I got a ticket to the Valley on the strength of some decently interesting (but by no means amazing) open source code. And I'm not even American and have no CS education, so it was considerably more difficult for me than it will be for you.
Incidentally, my current employer, the Wikimedia Foundation, is very open to remote contractors. (I caution you that we tend to be a bit slow to hire.) If you want to continue to live in Michigan, you won't be unique in your isolation, because these organizations are basically run over the internet. And your salary will go much further if you don't have to deal with rent in SF. http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Jobs
Mozilla has similar advantages. http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/about/careers.html