Help HN: Developer laid off 5 days before Christmas, have kids
I was just informed that a key investor pulled support for a startup I am working fulltime for. Thus, people are being laid off 5 days before Christmas. Bummer.
I am reaching out to the community as I am on the hunt for Developer-related position.
About me: Berkeley Grad, 7 years of development exp, 4 years at startups. Held titles: Developer, Sr. Developer and Lead Developer. Great team-player, active communicator, can step into leadership as needed.
Skills: Ruby, Rails, Sinatra, MySQL, Postgres, SQLServer, API's, JS, HTML5, PHP, Python, Linux system admin (AWS, Linode etc), DBA, Product Development, Team leadership
Experienced in domains: Ecommerce, Saas, Social API's, Analytics, Finance, Health IT
Currently Learning: Objective C, Node.js
Seeking: Remote Fulltime opportunity, willing to travel occasionally. I am great as a technical co-founder in early stage scenarios, helping to define product and rapidly build it. Also great as part of a dev team. Open to possibilities.
Shoot me an email at: prgrmr75@gmail.com if you have any leads or want to talk about opportunities.
Thanks and Happy Holidays!
EDIT: I am located in the Midwest about 2.5 hours from Chicago.
I greatly appreciate the heavy response to this. This is a great community to be a part of.
130 comments
[ 3.4 ms ] story [ 105 ms ] threadEdit: Acchile0 is probably right. I doubt you'll have a tough time finding meaningful employment, but I completely understand the nerves that come along with having just dumped a ton of money into your Christmas shopping at probably the worst possible time, as people are generally not hiring at times like this.
Christmas is a lot more enjoyable when there's a steady paycheck at the end of it, for sure, but try not to let this ruin your holiday. Take a couple of hours a day and pursue employment as you can, but try to relax if you're able.
In finance, January is a great time to go job searching. People collect their bonuses and some percentage leave, and that opens up spots.
Like I said, I doubt he has cause to worry, but I know that I've had similar circumstances where a loss of income source occurs immediately after a big expenditure, so I know how poor the timing is.
January's a new month, a new year, and is likely to be rife with opportunity, but in the interim, there's to be a few missed checks that could be important.
Enjoy the time off for the holidays, spend some time with the kids, and start looking for work in January.
>>> Remote Fulltime opportunity
he's not in the Bay Area
Such demonstration is especially important if said spouse was skeptical about the start-up foray in the first place.
N.B.: Perfectly valid motive for posting. And not one that invalidates the inquiries.
edit: forwarded this link to friends who work at startups where a significant part of their team is remote.
I'm at early days with consulting but I feel a lot more secure with my skill set than I ever did at some large company.
But the advice elsewhere about getting to six month's expenses is realllll good advice. I'd keep the spending thin until hitting at least that point -- and yeah, that can take a while.
So I find myself agreeing with both the 'take time off' and 'let people know' advice. Opportunities flick in and out of existence all the time, so letting people know is good, taking time off really helps you restore balance if you can afford it so taking a break is good too. If you have CORBA so you can keep your benefits uninterrupted, then recharging has a lot to offer.
Or, "you know you're a programmer who was alive in the early 2000's when...."
If any of those dimensions are in deficit for any sustained period of time, make adjustments up to and including a "real" job.
Do this. I know things.
If you're interested in finance, Wilmott and NuclearPhynance are also good places to find headhunters.
Sorry to hear about the startup. Good luck!
What region are you in, or is remote work a requirement? Most interviewers like an in-person at some point, just a thought.
Additionally, if you are unemployed you must get at least 45 minutes of exercise every day, and spend at least 4-6 hours on something career focused (skill building during the annoying latent periods of job searching) as if you were FT employed. Depression can turn what should be a 21-day gap into 21 weeks.
I didn't exercise. I don't regret it. I was unemployed in St Louis for 7 months. It was the most intellectually creative period of my life. I chose to pursue physics of my own accord and with no prior experience. I now have a clear idea of what, precisely, I want my life to be, and close to a six-figure salary. I'm saving up money for at least 6 months while I study very hard in my free time to get high marks on ACT/SAT and (hopefully) earn scholarships to attend a decent undergrad university, with the long-term goal of attending a graduate program at a top university. It's doable with about six years of work, which is no problem at all now that I know who I am and what I want out of life.
It's important to realize that it isn't necessarily best to choose to continue to work regardless of what you could be doing with those extra 50 hours per week. More than that, realizing that "choosing to work" is, in fact, a conscious decision rather than a given, is liberating. It has a way of making your life come into focus.
Your advice is good. I just wanted to share an alternative viewpoint.
It's also important to note that I was incredibly lucky to have the opportunity to not-work without becoming homeless. (On the other hand, it was because I had saved up enough money to do that. And if I can, then you certainly can. Consider it.)
This tells me you're young. Depression didn't creep in on me due to a sedentary lifestyle at that age either. Our bodies age, and as you get older if you don't exercise or eat a healthy diet (for a very strict definition of healthy) you'll find lethargy creeping in. You'll have a harder time staying up, you'll find your body takes sleep when it craves it. When I was 18, I used to be able to stay up for 2 straight days and it wasn't a big deal. I'd spend a whole night coding, then go to work, no problem.
Those days are over, though. Now if I stay up all night coding, I have to crash for a couple hours before I start again.
> And if I can, then you certainly can.
Be very stingy with this platitude. It is highly audience-dependent and false for a surprisingly large number of audiences.
For the physical, that can be as much as walking the dog at night or taking a brisk walk at lunch.
For the mental, you probably already have that covered since you're likely problem solving all day as a developer.
For the spiritual, you don't need to be religious, just take a few minutes out every day and either meditate, think about things, or, and this is my personal favourite, self-hypnotise [1].
[1] Since I have eczema I learnt about self-hypnotism from this book: "Skin Deep", http://www.amazon.co.uk/Skin-Deep-Mind-Program-Healthy/dp/09.... I'm sure there are plenty of others books that probably describe it better.
EDIT: P.S. Great blog by the way Michael. I don't agree with everything you say, but it gets me thinking every time.
I always thought it seemed too aggressive a policy until I hit my first round of financial hardship, and then it seemed so stupid that I hadn't abided it before.
Meanwhile, a friend of mine who does abide this rule just paid for his wedding and first home entirely as a cash transaction and hasn't incurred any debt beyond the credit cards he pays off every month.
Especially in today's day and age, stability is more and more precious.
For me at least, I've been enjoying my relatively simple life of hiking/cycling with friends on the weekends and reading/learning from online resources and books from the library after work :).
Separately, and depending on when one buys a home that might not be the best strategy. I have the cash to pay off my home but I choose to take advantage of a low 3.25% mortgage rate to keep the money available for something else. Mortgage rates are very low now (once again I don't know when your friend did this) so it makes sense to take advantage of that.
I should probably clarify that he originally financed the home, just so that when he paid it off it would look great on his credit (though he already had near perfect credit at the time) -- he put 30% down, another small percentage in buying down points, then made the first few payments and then just paid it off because he preferred to just own it outright.
It's also worth noting that he could have, on paper, afforded to pay cash for a house that cost three times as much as the one he bought (which means he could have bought three of his same house and paid cash for each), so having the money available wasn't a big factor, though optimizing its dollar performance could definitely have been a factor.
I'd recommend it in Europe too - even though the social safety net is much better, it still pays to have savings.
Want to have more freedom with your career? Save more. The freedom you get from being financially independent is well worth the effort of saving.
(To be explicit, that person is me, and I tend to throw all buffer money right at student loans before they grow like a hydra, faster than I can kill them.)
I have "good" health insurance, yet I'd have to pay a $150 "advanced imaging fee" for any X-ray (and, I believe, $1500 for a CT or MRI). What's the economically rational decision when you badly twist an ankle and ought to have it examined, but you expected to use that $150 for groceries?
If you have an in demand skillset like OP or can run to mom and dad for rent free living then you can reduce the total required with little additional risk.
There is no circumstance where student loans will grow when you are actively making scheduled payments on them. Your balance will decrease monthly if you make your normal payments. Just mentioning that for sake of clarity -- some smart people I know don't necessarily have a lot of personal finance knowledge. Your loans will only grow if you either default on them or do something like triggering one of the income-contingent payment plans (which are a lot less good of an idea than people usually think, BTW).
Unsolicited financial advice: go to the institution you deposit your paychecks in and ask about consolidating student loans. (Another option, if you've been diligent about building your credit history, is taking a CC cash advance for a year, or take an unsecured loan. I'm getting unsolicited offers for either "1% fee, 0% APR for 12 months, then normal interest" from my CC at BoA or "9% interest, no fees" for signature loans from Discover at the moment.)
Honestly, part of this mania began when I looked at my statements for just one provider (Chase) and realized the minimum payments they were asking for (~$300) covered ONLY the monthly interest. That sort of freaked me out, and I got spooked at the prospect of allowing that bank to rent-seek on my back for the next few decades, while I lack any sort of consumer rights to even ask a court for bankruptcy protection.
Statement like this (details that is) prove what I am always saying about advice you read online. When I read your comments my first thought was what other safety net you had. If you had reasonably secure middle class parents I would give you different advice then I would if you had no safety net at all.
The answers to all these questions totally depends on details and when people are giving general advice there may be something that is left out that could change the advice greatly.
As an example, I generally fill my gas tank when it is down to 1/4. But if I hear a storm is coming I fill up no matter what the level.
Lotsa fine print in those offers as far as what happens if you miss a payment (interest rate could jack up and retroactive things might happen). May or may not be the case in the one you received. I remember always getting offers of free financing on things for a year and if you don't pay off at the appropriate time you owe all the interest retroactive.
In any case, someone wanting to follow that advice really would need to read all the fine print and understand all the fine print before making any decision. I wonder how many people could do that.
It's best to only take them when you can set up an automatic monthly payment, and zero the balance before the higher normal rates return.
(Personally, I'd also make it illegal to advertise "0% for 12 months" if accompanied by "3% transaction fee" on the insider/fine-print. That makes the effective 12-month rate about 3%, which should be the headline. But banks, lotteries, and perhaps even government schools have an interest in keeping most people from being too good at time-value-of-money/expected-return calculations.)
Do note that about 40% of my pay check goes to paying off student loan debt, 50% to simple living expenses and costs, the last 10% goes into savings, generally so that I can afford a once a year trip back to Europe to see my grandparents/dad/cousins/uncles/aunts/siblings. So at the end of the year I have quite a bit saved up, and then I purchase a flight back home... that really hurts.
Consolidating wouldn't help, it would actually hurt me in the long run. So for now I just suck it up.
But this seems fishy to me for a few reasons, and out of place. HN has a job board up there, job posts every month and there are more than enough places for someone to find a few leads. I would be less suspicious if there was a location mentioned and not just a cryptic "remote" or a link to a site, github or something that makes this a real person.
Maybe I'm just a cynic, but it's hard for me not to feel skeptical.
What, exactly, would the angle be besides a person who is looking for job leads?
Admittedly, it's incredibly unlikely that this is some sort of recruiter scam, but it's not as if what he said was incoherent.
why?
Am I reading this right?
Sorry to disappoint, but nobody is being trolled here.
1) Your writing style is eerily similar to that of a person based in India (and yes, I've seen enough people claiming to be americans but actually from India to know the difference)
For example "helping to define product and rapidly build it" is not a natural phrase to use.
2) I highly doubt anyone here needs to see something like "API's" under skills. It's not like people here aren't aware of many of the APIs that you know.
3) If you really spent 7 years working and have experience in "Ecommerce, Saas, Social API's, Analytics, Finance, Health IT" you either jumped many times between jobs or you worked for a contracting company
4) A person with your level of experience, especially in areas like javascript and HTML5, should be able to throw together a sample or a portfolio. Do you have such a sample?
I'll give you (2) and (3) but he may also just be overreaching. Analytics could equal throwing Google Analytics on a page. Ecommerce, a PayPal integration. And who hasn't grabbed some data from the Twitter API when testing out a new framework or library? I'll agree that that's a very broad range, maybe.
Overall, however, I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt that he's not an overseas dev trolling for leads.
"API's" <-- this could be sampling bias, but I've never seen an american write it like this (though, to be honest, I've never seen a resume include the abstract assertion that the person is familiar with APIs)
"Social API's" <-- If this person used the Twitter API then he or she would say it.
"Experienced in domains" <-- This phrase didn't strike you as odd?
"I am on the hunt for Developer-related position." <-- That could be eastern european, but struck me as Indian.
on overreaching: ostensibly this person realized that the community has many technically competent people. Overreaching makes sense when talking to a recruiter. When you are talking with other technical people, just get to the point! No need to say "Health IT" or "Finance" without going into what exactly you did. Finance is particularly bad, because there are many ... for lack of a better term, mindless roles in the major investment banks.
But the fourth point really bothers me. If I wanted to be hired as a web dev, I would have a sample up. Something that would show I know what I'm doing. It's not that hard, and the prevalence of free micro hosting like AWS or github pages or nodejitsu renders the economic argument moot. Hell, even a simple twitter bootstrap site would say that he or she knows that it exists.
And yes, I've dealt with enough people that claim to be based in the US but turn out to be in India that I take everything with a grain of salt. And if you haven't, you probably haven't tried to find an employee or contractor.
Born in Minneapolis MN. Polish/German American Boy.
You need a long form birth certificate or something?
Yes, I have plenty of samples. Trying to remain anon here.
Shoot me an email.
Niggler below did a good job of specifying some of my concerns of why I am skeptical, but I hope the biggest point I got across is that in my opinion HN isn't the place for this. It feels like you are in the middle of a party and you stood up and yelled "I need a job" - you might be serious and smart, but I'll still feel skeptical about you because you can't fit your message to the audience.
The thing is - the audience here mostly did offer advice and leads, so I might not really know what it wants, so I'm just speaking for me :)
Good luck!
Best of luck Bro!
I have kids, and am in a start-up, just takes planning.
This doesn't even make sense and I feel like you only posted it to be contradictory.
"I have kids, and am in a start-up, just takes planning."
This guy obviously didn't. Startups are generally risky. I've worked at many startups and have seen it all. A non-startup isn't a guarantee, but your job isn't always dependent on the next round of funding.
I'm also not the one posting to HN BEGGING for a job (and pointing out that I have mouths to feed).
Startup work may be a little more financially risky than "traditional" work, but it's sure less risky emotionally for some people. Like me.
Could you explain that a bit deeper?
You are the exception to the rule. In my experience, startups are more risky and much more stressful than a traditional job.
Working for a startup has about the same risk as starting your own company. It can be done, but you need to have savings and be able to handle things like getting laid off when funding doesn't come through.
The majority of people aren't prepared for this and shouldn't even be thinking about working for a startup if they are married/have kids.
I would suggest being a little flexible on your side in terms of location, as Chicago is full of awesome opportunities, and then don't grab first thing, but look for something you would enjoy doing. Like, hit LightBank and other accelerators and see what they have. Have first relaxing holidays, then chase work, as others suggested.
Happy Holidays
I am making the assumptions it's not just salary- benefits, stock options, vacation days, culture? Curious on your thought process for selecting a company?
When people say 'remote' do they generally mean 'in the US'?
I am based in the UK, about 3 hours from London. I know I have a fantastic skill set (Ruby, Rails, Postgres, APIs, Semantic HTML, Heroku, people management and Accenture consulting experience) but I have never found a single company in the UK willing to consider on remote working.
Such a shame for both sides as I don't want to move my young family to London.