Ask HN: I got let go this morning. What should I do next?
As far as I see it, I have this great opportunity to break out of the regular 9-5 job world, which I have always wanted to do. I have been working weekends on pearmarket.co, which is a website for small farmers to more easily promote their products online (I have recently open sourced the core of the project at https://github.com/thecolorblue/beetpress). Unfortunately, it is not currently in a place where I can dedicate all of my time to it and see any income. I would say I am 3 months of solid work away from having a good beta. I do not see this as an option as it would clear out most of my savings, and leave me in mostly the same position I am in now.
I have looked into doing freelance work, but as I am self taught my CS skills are not as solid as other developers, and my design skills are just about average. I am more product focused, I try to work as closely to the end user as possible and clearly define what they need. There does not seem to be a need for freelance product people (is this a good assumption?). It's also important to note that I am 28 and just got engaged. Moving is an option, but living on a spare couch for a couple months is not.
So I really have two questions. What would you do in my situation (would you stay in a smaller city?), and if you could start over in web development, what would you focus on?
206 comments
[ 3.8 ms ] story [ 240 ms ] thread2 years ago I got laid off from a job I was at for almost 8 years. File for unemployment and make sure that's set. Clean up your resume and LinkedIn then enjoy some time off. For me, it was early July so it was nice to sit outside on the patio for a while. I freelanced through the summer, made a bit of money here and there - We survived until the following March when I found a job.
I don't think there is any starting over in development. Why through away any # of years of experience? If you can find a job using your existing skill set - awesome! If not - well, you've got 6 months to find a new language.
My primary language has always been PHP. I used it at the job I got laid off from as well as the 2 jobs I found after unemployment. Side projects are causing me to learn new languages / frameworks and I'm working on a big site in AngularJS myself. Will AngularJS open any doors for me? No idea - but it's another skill that'll go on my resume / LinkedIn for sure.
My current job and last job found me via LinkedIn - as much as most people I think like to hate it, it does have it's value. Spend some time there and see what you find.
Enjoy some time off? Not so much.
If I understand correctly, he (she?) said that he only had a 3 month runway of money. In that situation, finding a job had better be your full-time job.
I mean, look, take a day off. Take two days. Take even a week. Breathe. Look around. Do a couple things you've wanted to do and haven't had time for.
But don't take a month off. You don't have that kind of time. After your bit of down time, work at hunting for a job as seriously as you would work at a full time job.
Second, javascript is a great skill to have and it is looked for quite a bit. Remote work isn't out of the question just because you aren't a degreed CS person. You said you have some savings. So take 1-2 weeks, polish up the resume, take it easy and start sending out resumes locally if you can find anything and also to remote positions. You might feel more comfortable starting to send out resumes right away and then taking a couple of weeks before you start a new gig, but either way, take a couple of weeks to decompress between jobs. I have skipped that in the past too many times and regretted it later. Also use that time to reassure your bride-to-be that all is good and will work out, tech is a great place to be.
Just a side note, I live in a small city and almost every client, job or thing I have done has been remote or outside my city, so it is very doable. If you go into freelancing, there is a thread from the other day on here about it, look it up under Ask HN, it has some good points from a lot of people.
Post in the hiring/freelancer threads that come out Sunday (and January's, if you want). Apply to positions that interest you.
2. Work on your startup idea / prototype during this downtime. It doesn't have to be perfect, just hacked together well enough to provide value to someone.
3. Brush up your skills on sites like Codeacademy, W3C, Tutsplus, etc. Take a few free online university / MOOC courses.
4. Sift through projects on Odesk / Elance. You may find some part time work that may provide some supplemental income while at the same time improving your dev skills.
5. Hustle. Knock on doors. Be proactive. Let your passions shine through. Don't take no for an answer.
You're probably better off taking unemployment and working on some quick projects to spiff up your github account. I experimented with Odesk/Elance for side income and the best job I managed to find was $20/hr.
I rather work at McDonalds for half that @dminor and still have my pride, than to be a burden on society.
A couple of points if you choose to go the freelance path:
1. Very few clients will care about your CS skills. If you can develop commercially viable solutions that work, which it sounds like you can, you're ahead of 90% the freelancers out there. Dirty secret: a lot of people with CS backgrounds don't write beautiful code and couldn't architect a commercially viable application on their own to save their lives.
2. A lot of freelance developers are incapable of working with clients to shape product, and a lot who can don't like doing this work. The people who make the most money as solos are those who can craft solutions, not those who crank out code. So it sounds like you have skills and interests that would serve you well.
Good luck!
Edit to add: especially if the target client js less than savvy, they're going to really appreciate working with a consultant who has the skillset the OP does. Frequently (and sometimes frustratingly) less savvy clients can take a very wide view of what a web consultant should be providing for them. Marketing as a product development and management guru can absolutely become a viable business as a freelancer. There are tons of other freelancers with other specialities whom you can sub to (if the budget and agreement allows) to fill out any gaps you may have in specific areas. Particularly things like design and UI that lend themselves to well-defined scopes and deliverables.
http://jacquesmattheij.com/the-army-of-the-new-independents
"These aren't the droids you're looking for."
While I've never been "let go", I've made a strong effort to keep the door open at every place I was a full-time employee. In every case, this has led to more and better work down the road.
It's bad ethics to write stuff that only you can maintain, so what other methods can one achieve this/what do you mean?
However, even in the best codebase, it takes time for somebody new to come up to speed. If they need help now, it will make sense for them to call in the original developer.
So, if you were a good developer and something happens, you can get called in to consult. Make sure you hit them for 50+% more than whatever your salary was; that's the penalty for the company gaining the flexibility to not use you when they don't have work.
And, even if something doesn't happen, they might want you to train the next person, again, make sure you charge appropriately for it.
Don't be a dick--especially if the company is going down, there are going to be other people springing loose shortly and you might want to work for/with them.
Good luck.
Being good at something (or at least, much better than your co-workers) is the other method you're looking for, no need to resort to evil stuff.
Likely this was reflected in the OPs salary, note that he's let go but his co-workers are not, so probably he was making more per hour than they. And now he'll make more per hour still and his former boss will be more than happy to pay once he realizes that OP could turn him down just as easy as he was let go.
Don't burn your bridges...
Could be a win both ways in that sense. OA gets a customer with a regular need and existing investment. Former boss gains flexibility and can show headcount reduction.
It's bad ethics to write something only you can maintain for self-interest.
If your boss tells you to throw hacks in or pile up a bunch of tech debt, it's your job to say, "this is ill advised, and here's why", and then do it anyway if that's his or her informed decision. There are often pressing business needs that mean having feature X now, and possibly paying more in the future to clean it up or for other features, is a fine tradeoff.
Lots of code is in the place, where test coverage is poor or there are grungy hacks to make things work, and hence is much more easily maintained by the original author.
To anyone who actually can code, it seems ridiculous that people are applying to coding positions who can't come up with a solution to this, but anecdotally many hiring managers routinely encounter such applicants. I suspect the parent here is using the term "set up a fizzbuzz" as shorthand for "set up some time to see if you can actually cross the bare minimum coding hurdle."
See http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?FizzBuzzTest
I read blog posts to the contrary. They say how awful it is that these "dumb HR people" ask these basic things. Well, I've probably done 200 technical interviews, mostly from HN, and unfortunately this is my experience.
If I must choose between unpopular and ineffective, then bring on the fizzbuzz. If you do pass the screen, I guarantee you those you will be working with are smart and effective too. So effective and so enjoyable in fact, that I keep doing these interviews in order to find them!
@jacquesm - You are internet famous, I love your blog and admire your work. I know we're on different sides of this. If you care to pick this apart, I will read it with an open mind and respond as factually as I can.
In that situation I think a fizzbuzz test is a bit strange.
But, it's your company and I don't think anybody should tell you how to run it, I was just curious about why you'd administer this particular test on someone that should be able to not only ace it but will likely be insulted by it.
How do you define "a real test of their capabilities"?
While we start the hour long skills test off with some fizzbuzz weeders, we quickly move into harder questions pulled out of issues we've resolved in the real world that are likely to be of the same shape of future work.
If people are offended by fizzbuzz, they don't express it often during interviews/employment/exit interviews. The most common reaction from someone who can solve it is a bit of a wink and a nod as they slay it and move on to the "real" stuff.
I've never had anyone ace our test. No one is a 10 everywhere. I think there's a lot of value in how you approach things and react to a blocker or limitation. We watch this closely too. It isn't just about saying "Every answer is correct, so hire me".
Lastly, we're out of Houston, TX. I'm guessing the culture is very different in CA and perhaps that's the mismatch.
Anyway, as I said, you're free to run your shop any way you want.
For what it's worth, I'm a native Texan out of Dallas and wouldn't dream of giving someone with demonstrated development ability, like OP has, a fizzbuzz "test" as part of hiring. I'm guessing the culture is very different in Houston and perhaps that's the mismatch.
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).
Good luck out there, sorry to hear it. For whatever it's worth, I know people who got fired from jobs that turned out to be the best thing that ever happened to them.
I am from Pittsburgh. I would recommend moving west for all sorts of reasons, but I know that's not realistic for everyone. Look into it if you can.
Staying in Cleveland depends on if you like Cleveland or not. Unsure about the opportunities there, but I have an inkling that there are more varied and interesting opportunities elsewhere.
Consider taking the opportunity to move somewhere that is going to be a great area for you to raise a child (if that is something in your future).
Not many people have the luxury (as we do in our industry) of being able to (mostly) freely choose where they work.
> starting over
I wouldn't do much differently. Any dev worth their chops can learn whatever the hot technology is these days. I'd focus on learning how to learn, how to communicate effectively based on your audience, and how to find interesting people that you can learn things from.
This. I have no experience myself living in Cleveland, so I have no opinion on it, but from the outside it doesn't seem to have a lot to recommend it. In fact it's sometimes used as an example of a generic city. [1]
BUT if you [OP] have a strong network of friends there, that alone could be reason to stay.
If you're at all considering starting something new instead of just looking for another job, there are advantages to staying away from the coasts. With Google and others offering developers $200k+/year in compensation, it's hard to find good people to work with -- and you'd be farther from your network if it's primarily located in Cleveland.
But look at your network and figure out where it's concentrated. If you do know a lot of people in another location, it's a prime opportunity to move there.
And if you are looking for a new job, the coasts are great for that. I know I could have my choice of job if I were willing to work on the coasts. I'm in the Boulder area now, though, and I'm not leaving -- though I'm working remotely for a company on the coasts. [2]
For me, I decided to move to Boulder because Boulder is awesome. I grew up in California, but hated the congestion and insane housing market. The K-12 schooling system left a lot to be desired as well (again, if you're looking at kids as an eventuality).
But Boulder was partly an attraction because I have family here; take your own situation into account and figure out what you want. There is a lot of tech in the Boulder/Denver area, so that's one option, but there are fewer big companies offering crazy salaries (Google has a Boulder office, but it's not nearly as huge of a presence here).
Good luck!
[1] e.g. “America has only three cities: New York, San Francisco, and New Orleans. Everywhere else is Cleveland.” -- Tennessee Williams
[2] Full details of my working arrangements are more complicated than that, but not relevant.
No. No. No. No. No.
Don't move because other people don't think your city is cool enough. Move because you want to.
I live in Northeast Ohio and have never had trouble finding a job. There are plenty of opportunities locally and you always have remote options. OP lives here, has seemingly been there long enough to evaluate it, and should be able to figure out what location makes sense for him!
If you'd be happier elsewhere, or think there are more interesting companies elsewhere, you should move. But people's uninformed opinions need not be considered.
Cleveland's tech ecosystem isn't great but it's improving.
You could try checking out opportunities at younger companies via JumpStart (http://www.jumpstartinc.org/jobsatcompanies.aspx)
Cleveland isn't San Francisco or New York, but it's not BFE, either.
My sister-in-law works part-time for a tech company in Cleveland. The cost of living is insanely low (like $400/mo for an entire house in some places) and that allows her to be a full-time artist without needing a full-time job to live. I'd imagine the low cost of living would also make it easier for a freelancer to be selective about clients, should OP choose to take that route.
Many of these Rust Belt and Midwestern cities are becoming centers of hipsterdom. Who would have thought ten years ago that you would see young people moving to Pittsburgh, Detroit, Des Moines, or Omaha to start trendy restaurants and open art galleries? But now I see the reason: it's cheap to live, you can probably afford to buy a house, the public schools are decent, and there's a small community of likeminded people who'd rather do meaningful things than stay on the work treadmill to afford SF or NYC. The same thing is happening in Cleveland, at least from what I've seen.
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. As others have said it's a golden time for both developers and particularly Javascript coders.
Once you've had a little time to reflect on all this then dust off your resume, update your linked in, and basically get ready for a lot of recruiters calling you.
If you have the means financially don't rush, take your time and really interview your next potential employer as if you were hiring them.
You'll be amazed what kind of work is out there if you take your time versus jumping into the next gig you are offered.
Lastly, at 28 I would seriously consider a startup. You are in a great position to take that risk right now. Since you aren't in a tech hub like San Francisco it might take a little more time to find something there, unless you want to relocate. Perhaps look under Gigs in craigslist, I've found local (Denver) startups looking for coders that way in the past.
There are a whole litany of standard answers to that question such as greater risk = great reward potential, the ability to choose and work on something you are truly interested in and/or passionate about.
I feel like the reasons are somewhat obvious as most HN'ers are aware of the pros/cons of this choice though I encourage others to chime in, I'm sure I'm forgetting a bunch.
Take a look at...
Dwolla: they are out to destroy the Automated Clearing House industry. Bitcoin: banks need to know how to interface with that! Micropayments: same deal. Mobile: OCR for check deposits! Data science/analytics ("big data"): obvious.
Banks that fail to adopt a hacker culture because IT is a "cost center" (despite the fact that all operational units of any business are) will crumble.
Everything you do is magnified, good and bad.
I spent all my days, nights, and weekends out of college working on a doomed startup during the first bubble and I'd still describe it as one of the best experiences of my life. It prepared me for all sorts of experiences since then. I was ideating, researching, designing, building, and even publicly presenting multiple new products for a company that didn't have the staff to specialize in any of those needs.
I've used those skills at companies big and small since then and have worked alongside those who haven't forged their abilities in the pressure-cooker of a startup - I wouldn't change a thing.
From a developer's perspective, you don't have to support someone else's code (at least for now). It's YOUR code - but it's also YOUR bug when they do come up. It's much less stressful fixing your own bugs then a "senior" developer who's worked there for 15 years and supposedly knows what he's doing but fails to take responsibility.
I previously worked at a large ad tech startup (using that term loosely, they had just gone public and had about 250 people) and it drove me nuts. Particularly, it was the strain of having to work for someone I didn't respect. I left and now run a company with some friends - all of whom I believe to be smarter than I. There is no better feeling than being the dumbest one in the room. That is a luxury rarely afforded at large companies. Invariably, you're going to end up with people at the bottom of the barrel. When you're the owner/boss/hiring manager - you get to pick the people you work with.
TL;DR: Startups aren't about compensation it's about the enjoyment of picking the workplace you want to be in. You don't have to worry about working with people you dislike, because you pick them all!
Edit: Also forgot to mention, I have learned exponentially more in the last 2 years of running my business than I feel like in the rest of my life combined. It's like software development/product management/sales special forces training - you really end up pushing yourself to do more than you thought you were capable of. Mostly because there is no one else to pick up your slack.
I've never worked at a startup where you can personally chose the staff..
I've noticed people at startups tend to be developers focused on the latest trends, coding fast, the latest js framework etc, less focus on writing clear maitainable code.
Developers at larger companies focus on writing maintainable code, SOLID, TDD etc, less focus on the latest js framework.
What do you want?
But all things depend on the individual companies, in some startups you won't get to hire. And for my luck, of the 2 large companies where I worked there was no chance of flex-time, or remote - or any kind of non- 9-5 schedule even for devs. On the other hand at 1 of them everyone left at 5 on the dot cause no one cared about their jobs - and a strict 40 a week feels like vacation a lot.
I think regardless of where you go you have to pick wisely (and I only picked large because my options where limited and the salaries where good.).
But as a rule small - not just startup, means you have more power and control over yourself and your fiefdom. And that freedom is what you like that's where you should go. (Or research - there's a lot more paperwork with research teams, but there's a lot of freedom as well.)
And yes - if you like writing good code you are proud of years later a big co is good place to do it. At my government gig, we wrote prototypes we'd knew would have to be thrown away, perfectly - because really why not? There were no hard to meet deadlines, or particular concerns about the grants running out. So we built things we'd be proud of, every time.
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 miserably. And it will also be an extended break in the worst case.
I want to explore the world, jobs, hobbies, people. I have realized the 8 hours everyday I spend on my desk is the best time to be out and about. The sunshine is literally gone by the time I get off work. If this is what hundreds of years of progress and planning has led to, I think we have failed.
So yes, I support people who think about retiring early, and actually living their lives when they are still young. If youth is the best time of one's life, it shouldn't be wasted on the desk.
Maybe you are assuming that he want to live in the states, with the interest of this money he could live easily in Spain, Thailand, Argentina, etc...
The original post suggests ~$2000, not ~200k
[1] http://earlyretirementextreme.com
:-)
I think a better situation is to be financially secure by your 30s (be completely out of debt, pay off a mortgage, have money for children, etc.) and then have the ability to start companies or work freelance for the rest of your life rather than being a slave to the 9-to-5 grind.
I do like the concept of getting rich slowly and learning slowly. I would love to peruse multiple degrees (I already have two) just out of the love of learning and also meeting other lovers of knowledge.
My wife and I might retire in our mid-30s, in the US but not in an expensive area, and be completely comfortable with well under $1 million in assets. Because we live a laid back, low cost lifestyle -- with the house paid off (as of this week) our burn rate is dropping to under $20k per year.
You might need considerably more money to maintain your desired lifestyle. There's nothing wrong with that -- but recognize that not everyone is you.
That's a choice that a 25 year old need not make.
For those of us who have hit or are even beyond 35, and chose not to have kids, things look very different. Particularly if you work in North American IT, you're able to funnel all of that extra disposable income into things like early retirement, as well as improving your day-to-day quality of life (that could be vacations, gadgets, whatever you'd like...).
And I was in the same boat; when backpacking through Thailand I thought, "Thailand is cheap, I'll just raise a family here". Well sure, for backpackers it's easy to live on 3K per year. But with a couple kids, you'll likely want a safe car (stupidly expensive there), decent schools (again), something nicer than a backpacker hostel, etc. Heck, flights home to visit family will run close to 10K per year alone.
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.
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.
A startup looks better and better.
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].
A lot of the superiors they hire really affect the architectural policies of the company. For example, we can use Spring & jQuery but little else. Now they are trying to write apps with heavier front-end & getting into trouble cuz its a mess of jQuery callbacks with no real js framework. Why? The main architect has never heard of React, Angular, backbone, etc. (not to mention the fact that I'm one of like 2 devs who can actually write js, and unfortunately the other does not possess the equally rare skill: "uses proper design patterns"). You'd think I was joking until you met a bunch of corporate consultant programmers.
Basically, these companies try to boil web development into an old-school "IT" process but the level of intellect is astonishingly low. I've been lookin for a new gig at a tech company for quite a while but it was tough to make a change cuz this is my first gig out of grad school, had to prove myself a bit & build resume.
The only relief is that the corp "cost-center" IT kindof job I have is such a mess that its a good place to study & relax, pace of work is veeeeery slow.
Why not try to apply for some jobs now? You don't know how good your resume is until you try it
I went from research Matlab / dabbling in C# at a dayjob, to RoR, to javascript, to now pretty hardcore backend Java (EE, Spring, high concurrency for last 2 yrs), trying to move into Clojure a bit more. Most well-funded companies don't seem to like polyglots from what I can tell... But yeah I will be looking for the ones that do, plus I am studying C++ to make a bit of a more lateral move into audio digital signal processing / data-mining / machine learning.
I don't know... companies tell me I'm too expensive for the level of experience I have, yet all the high-paid seniors I work with are awful so I don't want to lower my salary expectations unless I can find a company thats actually worth sacrificing for.
I say career because even if you don't make a lot of money, being an early technical member of a successful startup usually A) gives you a fair amount of visibility and credibility in the tech community and B) leads to a number of other job opportunities with startups with more responsibility and/or equity. Being able to execute under pressure is a valuable quality, and once founders or even VC firms know you can do it they start cherry-picking you.
Edit: should also add, don't go working for a startup just to go make money off equity. The grand majority won't make you much unless you're a very early hire; you'll probably make more over the same amount of time by investing your higher salary, ESPP, etc. at a more established company. Make sure the other factors are the "real" reason, with potential cash being a secondary one.
But I mention it because you ask why other people do it, and that's one reason why.
Basically, it’s extremely unlikely for a junior developer to be chosen to manage people, unless they happen to be the most senior person there.
You get to be involved more broadly, but you will also be working way more. You will learn a lot.
Downside of a startup -- you are putting a lot of personal time in for others benefit. Unless you are a Facebook/twitter/google/etc. (all based on luck) an early engineer at a startup is basically wasting away 25-50k/year (depending on level) he could be getting at a public company.
I've played the odds, out of about six or seven startups I worked at, one managed to pay out for the previous couple of years of work (and I am was back at market salary).
I love startups. I work with some now in my current role, I've consulted with many others over the years, but if your goal is pay for time, they are the wrong place to go.
One more potential battle story -- discussions for non-founding CTO of a seed stage startup. The personal sacrifice at the time to accept would have been about $70k/year in guaranteed money for sub 10% equity in the company and a ramp from 45ish hours to 60+hours/week. On paper from everything you can find via glassdoor/angels list/hackernews, the numbers were right regarding the offer. However, what needed to be built (in terms of the service) consulting for the same type of gig would have been $150+/hr and probably much safer/lucrative -- but wasn't an option.
Despite adoring the lead angel investor, I passed. I have my own projects going on and battle scars that kick in when I go back to thinking about being an early stage in building out other's startups on salary.
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 successful startup won't automatically bring success, you have to be in a position to capture that success. The easiest way to do that, is be a founder.
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.
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.
However, with that in mind, I will still give up salary in return for equity if I am (a) passionate about the business idea, (b) believe that there is a good chance that the business will succeed, (c) believe in the founders and team that is already in place, including any investors. And looking back (I am in my 40s now) the younger you are the more risk you can absorb in terms of equity. I enjoy the startup world and am willing to take risks. Plus, like any other job if it doesn't look like it is panning out or you are unhappy there is nothing holding you there.
* Google salary is $180k
* Startup salary is $125k
Expected value of stock options must be >$55k per year to be economically equal. If we assume 5 years to exit, 20% odds of successful exit, and $50 million exit, that means I must own about 3% of the company at the time of exit, assuming I have no risk aversion (and more if I do). Assuming reasonable dilution over the 5 years, I need to get substantially more than 3% today.
In most cases, only founders get that level of equity. The equity offered to future employees is, quite frankly, a complete joke for most startups I've seen. The assumption is that there aren't enough developers who can't value options well that some sucker is gonna get fleeced.
That doesn't make startup the wrong option (I went with it), but the incentives have to be non-financial. Startups can be great or horrible places to learn, depending on how much exposure you have to business processes and similar. In Google, you're in a specialized box. In startups, you can see many more aspects of the operation. Getting into a position with that kind of visibility, however, can be difficult to properly negotiate early in the career.
Most likely your not going to end up with any of that cash, unless you get into the right position first.
This has been my experience too due to contract jobs, not getting along/connecting with the web agency owners (office politics) and having unrealistic demand thrust on me. Such demands being ok in 20 hours we need you to design, code, make it responsive, skin it into WordPress, configure widgets & create custom post types for a 20 to 30 page website. For, me that's not realistic, unless I'm working 12 to 16 hours a day and only putting down 4 hours a day.
My most enjoyable experiences in this field have been working at large companies (projects are not rushed due to a bureaucracy & people there are older/more mature) vs. at web agencies (get things done fast or your out and I'm king crap here I'll get rid of you whenever I feel like it).
Sorry you got let go, that sounds like a really unpleasant experience.
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.
Sorry you got let go, that sounds like a really unpleasant experience.
farmlogs.com/jobs
[edit] Found it on the contact page: Ann Arbor, MI
Hand hold them through the design process, be firm about informing when you think they are making the wrong decision, overly attribute the success of the project to them.
Nobody sues a doctor that has been kind to them.
Everybody loves a freelancer/consultant that gets a job done, is humble and makes everyone look like a success.
2) Relax a bit and get your head together.
3) Go on a trip (you'll be starting from scratch at a new company, so use the time for a bit of a vacation)
4) Polish your resume & LinkedIn profile
5) Broaden your horizons geographically and interview at lots of different locations around the country and choose something you love.
Source: http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/collecting-unemployme...
I disagree with your interpretation of "able to available".
Even nolo is not 100% on this: Vacations and travel MAY mean you are "unavailable" to work.
I am not a lawyer, and this is only my non-lawyer non official, non-professional opinion of what I relied on for myself.
1) Jobs are available all over the country and all over the world. 2) If you are actively applying and interviewing and able and willing to take the next flight home in the event of an offer or unwillingness by a company to interview you over Skype.
So for me, I had a justification. If the state did not agree with me, I risked them taking the money back. I didn't exactly push it by mailing my claims in postmarked from a foreign country either. I found a way to get them mailed in from my home area as to not cause undue focus on me.
Bottom line. Go take that vacation.
Skills have very little baring on success as a freelancer. 99.99% of clients will not care what language, framework, algorithm or pattern you use to create their product.
The biggest issue as a freelancer is clients. Clients are absolute hell.
I wouldn't describe my clients as hell, though--not by a long shot. But I've been freelancing full time for seven years, moonlighting five before that, and I've learned to avoid (and am able to do without) bad clients for the most part.
Way back in the beginning, when I didn't much know what I was doing and sold even that work way too cheap, there were some pretty bad times.
Layoffs happen, even to great developers. Ask about severance, but don't get pushy or threatening if not offered it (you don't want an extortion rap). Ask about a guaranteed positive reference (by contract, and with LinkedIn recommendations) and do be pushy or threatening if not offered it. Have your references checked in any case by a third party. Don't sign non-disparagement for less than 3 months' severance, although you should almost never disparage an ex-employer. Do sign non-litigation if offered a positive reference and a cash severance you can accept (which may be zero, if you have savings and confidence).
Take a week or two to recover, emotionally, but no more. Being unemployed on dwindling savings is no fun, so get yourself in the game immediately before you start getting depressed or moody or whatever. Work so hard that you don't have time to get moody. Looking for work is your new job. Job searches have a lot of latency and you can work on your side projects while you wait for emails and calls to get returned (otherwise, you'll go fucking nuts refreshing your email client).
Describe your situation as a layoff for economic reasons (even if it wasn't) and say that your performance reviews were excellent (even if they weren't) and don't say anything negative about former colleagues, managers, or employers except in a you-or-them situation (such as a 6-month job, where someone will come off looking bad and your job is to make sure that it's not you... but even then, minimize what you say.)
What would you do in my situation (would you stay in a smaller city?)
Take your job search national. It's not about "leaving Cleveland". A good company will give you at least $5k post-tax for relocation. (Add $4-5k for NYC because rental brokers collect 15% on tenant side.) It's about going where the jobs are. Obviously some locales are better than others. Seattle, Boulder, Austin, and Chicago have strong tech markets and (relative to SF or NYC) moderate cost of living. NYC is an option if you don't need a lot of space and you're willing to downsize on furniture. If you choose NYC, include the broker fee (again, 15% of a year's rent) and loss-on-sale for your car (you'll be getting rid of it) in your relo calculations. San Francisco... some love it, some hate it, and I doubt I'd move there without a stellar offer (I'm 31) but if you find something out there, give it a go.
if you could start over in web development, what would you focus on?
Don't fret about starting over. You can't and that's a good thing. The knowledge you've gained is more transferrable than you think. But if I were to start over, I'd jump either into the Python or the Clojure stack (and maybe move to Haskell after 2+ years if I really wanted to build extremely robust, large systems).
Why?
btw, map doesn't load: https://order.pearmarket.co/map
About page is very very interesting, my suggestion: move the Offers and Needs to the frontpage, that looks like one of the most important things in the whole site.
It's something I've always wanted to do, but I can't really justify giving up a great job with a great income to go back to school. But should I find myself unexpectedly without said job, then maybe I just would, unless other obligations prevent it.
My point is simply -- is there something for you which plays the equivalent role of dentistry? If so, maybe this is your opportunity to pursue it without feeling guilty about giving up a great job. If not, then I recommend following all the other advice here.
My suggestion is to go to meetup.com and look for groups you'd be interested in. Then spend time mingling with those people. I was going to add tips for how to network effectively, but I don't want to assume - you may already be good at it!
Here's a link of meetups in your area related to startups: http://www.meetup.com/find/?allMeetups=false&keywords=startu...
If you can build stuff; you are ready for freelance work.
I'd start sewing seeds in every direction and see what takes root. Apply to jobs locally, and all over the country. You only have to consider moving if you get an offer. You can try kickstarter or getting an angel investor if you want to try your own software. Freelancing kinda sucks unless you have connections. It's hard to differentiate yourself and get a decent rate if you are just another person online. But again, you can give oDesk a shot and see how it fares.
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