I was told today that I can't stay on here after June 8th, and I need to find another job.
So far I have had very bad luck with that. I've interviewed with ~10 companies, but most of those have not worked out for one reason or another (My lack of professional experience with networking is often a problem, their unwillingness to pay a living wage is often a problem.)
So, if you know any companies that need a (remote) junior systems administrator, or a (remote) senior technical support analyst/engineer, let me know!
I am looking for remote work, because my new home is in rural north Georgia and there aren't really many jobs in rural north GA.
That being said, I'm also open to anything within ~50 miles of Gilmer County GA.
I know what I'm doing, I'm good at it, and I get invested in the success of my team.
@ajroach42 All I have is what I've learned trying to music: consistent output (even if you make it in huge batches over a near-burnout weekend and release on a schedule like I do) + relentless self-promotion.
@Riley Consistent output of what though?
That's the trick.
@ajroach42 I figured this out for myself by doing 1-6 month projects. I just did a thing and saw how it worked out. That's really the only way. No one can predict what's going to move you closer to a goal, but doing lots of stuff long enough to see increases your luck surface area.
@Riley If I can find a remote job that doesn't suck my soul and leaves me with any free time, I plan to get back to my ~2014 levels of creative output.
That's 2 comics, a zine, a public performance, and a script or a short story every month, plus a blog post every day, on average and lots of one off projects (action figures, game consoles, speaker designs.)
I'm really hoping I can do that, and see what sticks.
@ajroach42 That's a lot of different projects. If you get to where you can do that much, you might find you can't do enough on any one project to get results. I didn't see progress on music until I dropped everything. At one point I was posting 1-2 songs a day and making more. Being able to focus on it and make a lot led to the quality, and quality+output led to sales and fans.
@Riley I'm sure that'll be the case for me as well, as soon as I find something I can focus on.
@ajroach42 Good luck. :3
I wish I had more specific advice.
@ajroach42 That's how I made 500+ songs over the course of two years. :3
Lots of experiments.
@ajroach42 Update your LinkedIn profile as thoroughly and quickly as you can and mark yourself as actively searching. LOTS of recruiters are using it to make contact with job seekers, especially in professional jobs like yours. Research companies you're curious about (Glassdoor is p good for this) and reach out to recruiters for them if you can find them on LinkedIn.
@ajroach42 Make it clear to headhunters/recruiters that you're ok with a pay cut if necessary. You're negotiable. If they think you're out of their price range it can close doors too soon.
@ajroach42 When I left doing tech pubs and the constellation of thing around it -- UI coding, webmaster, some information architecture/SME coordination -- I had a very large pay drop, which sort of locked in
But that was because my skillset and contract history had been on rails for years, which may be different in your case
@ajroach42 I suppose my suggestion would be to plan for something like that happening, but only in scale to what your range of options are.
Including having an increase in pay, over time, depending
I don't think it's a given (at all) that making a large shift means lock-in takes effect, it depends on a number of factors -- but it can
@shoutcacophony I'm trying to stay in the same industry, so I'm hoping that any pay cuts I have to take will be temporary, but I'm moving from an expensive area to a cheap area. The cost of living where I'm headed is almost 60% less than where I am now.
I expect that to come with a paycut, and I've prepared for that.
@ajroach42 I remember you mentioning this, fair enough
What I'm saying (again, in my case) is that it played itself out over years, not just the move itself, or the drop in living costs (which was also true for me). Which was good for a long stretch, until it...wasn't. Pretty much.
OTOH, there's things I couldn't have forseen (like the subprime crash), so...can't have everything, I guess? heh
@ajroach42 Is there something you're looking for in specific, suggestions-wise?
@shoutcacophony Uhh... Creative places to look for work? Cover letter tips? Contracting/supplemental income ideas?
I dunno. I was just hoping that my current gig would last another year, and it didn't, and now I'm scrambling because I haven't planned well.
@ajroach42 i get it now, thanks
that can be hard. (i've been through this particular scenario a lot.)
have you looked at the remote work aggregator sites? i'm presuming you have, but i'd think they'd possibly be more open to PT/supplemental/creative solutions approaches
@shoutcacophony Like what?
@ajroach42 creative solutions as in "find things you like, start digging to find slots for said things"
musicians do this a lot, or often enough -- you play in a band, you start a label. you're into electronics, you write music software or create sound patch libraries. you produce your friends and get a cut (or not).
@ajroach42 that all takes time though, it's not a stop-gap. stop-gaps are more like "moonlighting or start reading CL ads and hope for the best". or work retail. etc
that's why i suggested remote site aggregators, both for finding work and because the listings themselves may have clues for things that you could piece together and come up with new/composited solutions on your own
@shoutcacophony I'm not sure what you mean by Remote Work aggregators. ARe you talking about things like Upwork?
@ajroach42 Ew, Elance. No, not that. More like a traditional jobs board, but focused on remote work. Not "gig economy", actual jobs/freelance work
@shoutcacophony Oh, That could be useful. I'm unaware of many of those, though.
I'll look around.
@ajroach42 Same here. I'd like to know as well. Good luck!
Yeah, I can see where that would have been rough and difficult. I'm sorry that you had to deal with it, and I'm hopeful that I won't.
We're going hard on cost reduction. If I can maintain close to my current income levels for the next 4 years, we'll be debt free. If I can't, it'll take 8 years.
We're trying to position ourselves to weather the storm. I hope it works out.
@ajroach42 Thanks. I'm not mentioning that for sympathy, more like "here's how it went for me" -- a lot of it was more than good -- great, even in a lot of cases. But it's appreciated, ty
@ajroach42 "current income levels" -- so, you're looking to get additional income to cover for the 30% pay cut? Asking.
@shoutcacophony I'm hoping to find a job that won't come with a 30% pay cut, but if I can't, then yes. I'd like to find supplemental income (contract work, probably) to cover the 30% pay cut, and the resulting 1099 taxes.
@ajroach42 remote work (and PT work) then, definitely
i think @ghost has some leads on remote work aggregation sites
@ajroach42 I just read this recently, thought it might help: http://fuzzyblog.io//blog/jobhound/2018/04/24/ten-things-i-learned-from-a-job-hunt-for-a-senior-engineering-role.html
@Greg Yeah, I read that a few days ago (yesterday?) and ... It doesn't match with my experience the last time I went job hunting (two years ago) or really with my experience so far this time.
But I'm not in california, and I'm not a developer, and I'm not looking for a senior position, so a lot of what he's saying just doesn't apply to me.
But some of it can/could be abstracted, so I should do that.
@ajroach42 maybe their tool they built would be useful? Anywho... godspeed!
@ajroach42 If you're on LinkedIn, add "seeking new opportunities" to your headline. Also, under the Jobs section, there is a hidden variable you can set to let recruiters know you're searching.
We're in an okay position. We have enough in savings to ride things out for a little while, even if I can't find work.
I can freelance as a web developer again, and probably pick up enough supplemental income that we wouldn't even have to dip in to savings.
Heck, I could probably take the money from my last paycheck at my current job, hit all the local thrift stores, and then set up a booth at a flea market flipping thrift store finds and make more than enough money not to hit savings.
But the point is that that isn't sustainable. It doesn't help us hit our goals.
If I take a $15/hour job doing grunt work for a crap company, we'll be fine. I'll have plenty of time to indulge my creative outputs. Everything will work.
But that's a big difference from what I'm doing now, and it'd slow us down. If I can make more money, we can reduce our expenses more quickly.
@ajroach42 I'm in a similar situation and am also out looking for suggestions.
@stephen I got some decent ones from various sources today. I’ll pass them along in ~9.5 hours after I’ve slept and walked to work.
@stephen Just remembered to get back to this.
First, someone made a tool from HN postings that you can filter by remote: https://whoishiring.me/
also:
https://www.workingnomads.co/jobs
https://hire.withgoogle.com/public/jobs/findmyflockcom
https://remotive.io/find-a-remote-job/#s=1
Finally: If you're looking at a specific company, it was suggested to me to research the recruiters for that company on linkedin, and contact them directly, bypassing the application process.
@stephen That last tip sounds ridiculous to me, but it was our internal recruiter that suggested it, so...
@ajroach42 @stephen I have a friend who had results from this, but he had researched his somewhat limited market of expertise and knew which companies had upcoming projects they would be hiring for.
@ajroach42 If you've jumped on the Ruby train, Gitlab is hiring and they are purely remote.
@dmoonfire I’m not really a dev/engineer anymore, if I ever really was. I don’t know ruby.
I did apply for a support position with gitlab, and my application is still open and pending review.
@ajroach42 Sadly, all the jobs you said you were qualified for in my company require Dallas. :(
@dmoonfire yeah, you mentioned that the last time it came up, before my employer flip flopped again.
It’s unfortunate, but that’s the way of things. I appreciate you checking.
@ajroach42 We are all in this together. Sadly, the openings my friends had in their companies were all locale-based also. :(
@ajroach42 well... do you have h4x1ng skills?
@remotenemesis that depends on what you mean. If you’re talking security and pen testing, then not really? I know the basics, but I’ve never had a need to put it in to practice or to do any formal training.
If you’re talking about old school hacker skills, as in development and systems administration, then sure. That’s what I do, along with some support.
@ajroach42 unfortunately the only tech company I know of in that area went bust over a decade ago (I worked for a UK subsidiary but it wasn't very well managed) but I've boosted this just in case anyone from USA reading might know of opportunities..
there might still be work on SCADA systems and VOIP/telecoms but it often requires at least some onsite work and unless you end up working full time for a small family run business its often short term "gig" subcontracting..
@vfrmedia I don't mind travel, but I'm legally prohibited from working in telcom for the next 7 months.
@ajroach42 wow, I didn't think laws like that were still allowed anywhere! When my contract ended at the UK Environment Ministry I was required for 2 years to notify Her Majestys Government if I took any job in management of farms or woodland (in case of conflict of interest), but if there wasn't any they couldn't stop me getting such employment (I was an IT worker anyway!)
Maybe SCADA systems for renewable energy might be an emerging field?
@vfrmedia @ajroach42 Probably a non-compete, which in the US is enforceable everywhere except California, I believe.
@ajroach42 @bhtooefr they can /occasionally/ be found in the UK but they are not officially defined by law in the UK and cannot be against the national interest - eg I don't think they are allowed in healthcare, because there is a national shortage of healthcare workers and support staff
on that note tech for healthcare (sysadmin work for computers in clinics, patient databases, not so much specialist medical kit) might be a possibility?
@vfrmedia @ajroach42 @bhtooefr FWIW non-compete clauses are enforceable in most of Europe, but usually restricted (e.g. in Germany the employer has to continue to pay you half of your salary for the entire duration)
@ajroach42 You'd have much better luck in Cherokee or Forsyth County. Moving is not an options? Atlanta's job market is very good. Several of my coworkers commute from Forsyth Co.
@gme Just bought a house in Ellijay, so I'm not looking to uproot myself.
Cherokee is about as far south as I'm willing to go on a regular basis (I'd go further if I could do partial remote)
Atlanta's market was great when I lived in GA last. I was in Kennesaw and commuting, and there were plenty of open positions in the area, but I'm not looking to move or to commute more than an hour, which puts Atlanta (and even Roswell) off the table.
@ajroach42 Good luck! I don't mean that sarcastically either. I commend you for wanting to live in the N. Ga. mountains. Envious even. Unfortunately, I'm an East Cobb "snob" (some would say) and have to commute into the ATL for my job. Working remotely just isn't an option for me. Fuck I-75.
@gme :-D I was in Paulding and Kennesaw for the first 25 years of my life, and I love the area.
I can't blame you for not wanting to leave.
But I found such a great house, in a wonderful community. We're reducing our expenses by 50%, and we're at a point where any amount of money I make will be sufficient.
When we took all this on, it was under the expectation that I'd be able to keep my job. Learning that I can't has been frustrating, but we'll get through it.
If you have any job hunting tips, or any ideas for supplemental income, I'd appreciate that too.
From what I've seen, I'm about to have to take a 30% or higher paycut in order to move out of this job.
I'm coming to terms with that. We can more than get by on that. It basically doubles the amount of time it'll take us to reach our goals, but we won't really suffer for it.
But I would appreciate any suggestions you have.