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Ask HN: Having few employable skills and only 1 mo of savings left?

2 points by ssylee ↗ HN
Thought it may be appropriate here, as there must have been startup founders who are close to that situation. Here's the context. It's not for myself, but a friend who's in this situation right now.

<p>He graduated with an applied physics bachelor's degree 2 years ago. He's had some instrumentation design and support experience, but it's not like these skills are sought after much here (after all, most of it is outsourced to Foxconn these days), and these kinds of jobs are unlikely to be landed quickly. He can drive. He's had some C, C++, and Matlab programming experience, but there isn't much of these opportunities these days. Even if they do show up, he probably can't beat out the competition from various experience levels for the job vacancy. He has only 1 month of runway left.<p>What would you do in his shoes? Glad to hear your suggestions. Thanks in advance.

8 comments

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voxx
build something as fast as possible and find a vc.
debacle
Get in contact with a recruiter and be willing to move anywhere in the country. If he finds a good recruiter he'll have a job in two weeks.
Mz
He can probably extend the runway a bit by swallowing his pride and looking into getting some free or cheap food from programs in the area, having a yard sale, etc. One food program found in a lot of areas requires a few bucks and 2 hours per month of volunteer work. I don't think they ask any info about your finances. (Maybe someone other than me can remember the name.)

If he happens to be in San Diego, I am familiar with some of the services here.

Best of luck.

NonEUCitizen
Since he knows C / C++ / Matlab, he should be able to find a job.
ssylee
Why do you think that's the case?
NonEUCitizen
The more difficult the tools he knows (and in the case of Matlab, you actually need to know math to make real use of it), the less competition there is. For C/C++, at the very least he can look into Embedded Systems, where you do need to know C/C++.
leeny
also, if he is actually proficient at a hardcore language like C, learning some of the more in-demand languages shouldn't be a problem. i guess if he doesn't have any web development experience, that could potentially limit his options a bit, but i don't think it would be a deal breaker, depending on how much wiggle room there is for ramping up post-hire.
technojuicy
You say he's had some experience, which doesn't seem to convey something that can be applied to a job. Ruby programmers are high in demand, and some companies even offer bootcamps. I recommend he check those out.