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If You Want To Code From Home, Learn JavaScript

Posted by timothy on from the ocaml-guys-all-work-from-spaceships dept.

itwbennett writes "Earlier this month, remote-work cheerleader and Basecamp developer 37signals launched a job board called WeWorkRemotely.com that is, you guessed it, devoted to telecommuting jobs. At present there are only a couple hundred jobs listed on the site, so you'll still have to use other job boards as well. (Dice, SimplyHired, and Craigslist all have filters for finding remote working jobs.) But here's another thing that will help you land a work-from-home gig: Learn JavaScript. ITworld's Phil Johnson looked at a number of job postings for software developers open to people wanting to work remotely and then compared the frequency with which a number of popular programming languages and technologies were mentioned by the postings to determine the top tech skills for telecommuting jobs. Not surprisingly, the ubiquitous JavaScript topped the list, being mentioned in just over 20% of these listings. Other languages and tools used for the web are high up the list as well: jQuery at #3 (12.5%), PHP at #5 (9.5%) in the fifth spot, iOS at #8 (5.6%)."

14 of 152 comments (clear)

  1. Or properly learn C++, move to DC by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Or properly learn C++, move to DC and get your 120k working for defense contractor

    1. Re:Or properly learn C++, move to DC by SuperKendall · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Because nothing damns your soul as much as assisting an organization that provides huge amounts of disaster relief in a catastrophe.

      --
      "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
    2. Re:Or properly learn C++, move to DC by taoboy · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Harder for them to outsource you, if the job involves a security clearance. Harder for you to work from home, however.

    3. Re:Or properly learn C++, move to DC by CodeBuster · · Score: 4, Interesting

      It doesn't matter when the landlord knows he can charge $5,000 a month and have renters all out bidding each other for that one bedroom in an attic.

      So get creative. Buy a used van conversion in decent condition, get a gym membership and live out of your van until you can get on your feet. Many in Silicon Valley have done this and even crazier things to make it. Always remember that it's easier to ask for forgiveness than for permission, so don't be a prisoner to rules that were created by landlords and others like them to keep you down. Your advantage over them is that you have less to loose and are willing to do things that they didn't believe you would or could to survive. As a young person, getting ahead these days requires cunning and deceit. Do not fail to use these methods when necessary.

    4. Re:Or properly learn C++, move to DC by Greyfox · · Score: 3, Interesting
      I've run across a few useless people over the years who've managed to bring down ridiculous rates despite complete technical incompetence. Near as I can tell they mostly did it by lying on their resumes, bullshitting their way through interviews and leaving the company for a new contract after a few months, before anyone catches on that they really don't know anything about programming. If the company is lucky, these people simply don't contribute anything while they're there. If they DO actually do anything, cleaning up the mess they leave is a monumental task. I once hired on after a programmer who left abruptly about a week before a project was due to be delivered. It was a C project for an inventory extension for a very large client. This programmer had strung the company along for the better part of a year. When I got in there, first thing I noticed was they didn't realize that C strings were null terminated. That's the level of programmer I was picking up after. Despite this, the company was unwilling to scrap the last year's worth of work and wanted me to salvage it. Trying to do that actually took more time than it would have to just throw everything away and design and implement the project from scratch.

      Most of those useless people got weeded out when the tech stock bubble collapsed, but I've noticed a new generation of them making their way back, now. Companies are lowering their standards and letting HR do the screening, interviewing and the hiring. HR departments seem to be mostly unable to distinguish between good programmers and bad ones and tend to take the view that one programmer is as good as another and they can be replaced with no impact to the company. My personal observations are that (in general) it takes a year for a new person to become familiar enough with a company's code base and processes to be able to be able to contribute at 100% productivity. One guy who knows your business at 120K is easily worth 3 or 4 contractors at 60K who need to be trained. On average one or two of those contractors will be completely useless and contribute at best nothing of value to your company, 3 or 4 of them will be gone in 6 months just as they're starting to get familiar with how your business works and all of them are going to impact the productivity of your other employees with their training needs.

      --

      I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?

  2. Re:Learn JS and compete with $2/hr developers by SuperCharlie · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Having owned and run my own little web biz for 5 years now, I have run estimates on my real hourly income.. and its a little depressing. It usually does end up below minimum wage, but then a big job (feast cycle) hits and we start over. On the other hand..I have managed to pay bills for 5 years now in my PJ's..so I go tthat goin for me...

  3. meaningsless by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    "Job Postings" are not a good measure of actual jobs. Most of these postings are spammy fishing excercises done in bad faith. Hundreds apply, no one gets the job.

  4. Re:Learn JS and compete with $2/hr developers by korbulon · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Sounds like an excellent way to skate along the cusp of poverty. Out of curiosity, do you have a long-term plan to break the cycle, perhaps a phase two?

    This sort of menial programming work is crowded out by "third world" programmers - they do a good enough job at bargain basement prices. After all, no one is asking them to refactor a GUI or build drivers for an OS. There's no way to compete with that and expect to earn a decent living in a western country.

    Used to be that a programming job guaranteed a decent standard of living. Now it's just laughable. To be a good programmer requires the same sort of commitment and training regime that a lawyer or doctor has to endure. Big difference: doctors and lawyers are essentially guildmembers. They have a code and rites of passage which help to maintain a certain standard and limit supply. With programmers it's each man for himself.

  5. Re:Learn JS and compete with $2/hr developers by SuperCharlie · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I am a little on the strange side. I dont expect anyone to like or appreciate this, but I try and stay below poverty for income if I can for a few reasons. The overall business plan is to build sites and such for low down and small monthlys, get enough of that and hosting to make a residual income and then just pick up checks and do whatever jobs roll along. Almost at the $1k residual mark, and with new and fixit jobs wandering in as well as my wife has an online shop it is slowly growing and working. Not that there isnt squeeky tight times, but for 5 years now we have kept the lights on and food on the plate and it is getting easier.

  6. Re:Learn JS and compete with $2/hr developers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    $2 hour? You're being dramatic, IMHO.

    I typically pay $15-$20/hr for quality PHP/MYSQL/JS work (on elance) that meets my requirements.

    You can get cheaper folks, but I've tried them, and benchmarked a couple times for the exact same project. cheaper providers wind up costing my far more. They take more of their own time to complete the projects, and more of my time to hand-hold & test code for them. By the time the multiple rounds of bug fixes are done, I've paid $30-$40/hr for a "$7/hr" developer.

    I'll use US providers when I need to have an enforceable non-compete / non-disclosure signed (e.g. when I must share too much about the project or its components)

  7. re: live out of your van by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I'm a UNIX systems administrator with 30 years of continuous industrial-strength experience in Silicon Valley.

    I've been living outside the San Francisco Bay Area since 2005 - when it became too expensive to raise a family with just two incomes.

    I've been sleeping in my van and showering at a gym for EIGHT !@#$ years. And driving 300 miles, each way, every weekend, to see my kids ands wife and bask in the warmth of my family.

    Recently I've been seeing hourly wages for contractors fall to a level I have not personally seen since the early to mid 1990s - twenty years ago.

    - $35/hour for people with 3-5 years experience and multidisciplinary skills
    - $50/hour for people with 5-10 years experience, etc

    This, despite the cost of gas, food and rent having escalated dramatically - I would conservatively estimate the cost of everything *else* has doubled.

    There is no question in my mind that the value of DOWNTIME has not decreased over the past twenty years. The value of the work I do is as valuable as it ever was - maybe moreso.

    From this I infer that the compensation I should be receiving for the work I am doing should be substantially greater than it actually is.

    Were I to be brutally honest with myself I would be forced to admit that I have saved my employers millions of dollars in cumulative downtime every year.

    I'm tired of being cheated and I am angry at those whom are doing the stealing. They are criminals. Why am I being punished?

    Lowering the price of gas will not dissuade my anger. It only increases my anger - because the control over gas prices only reaffirms the thievery, anew.

    I speak for many.

  8. Re:Learn JS and compete with $2/hr developers by eriks · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Liked. Appreciated. I do (essentially) the same thing. Have been for almost 15 years. Vastly under-rated "business model": live (quite) comfortably with a (very) low-expense lifestyle and not be stressed out and over-burdened with work. I generally am just above "poverty" income, rather than below. It's kind of funny (strange), the years where a make a little more than usual usually hurt because I have to pay more in self-employment tax, so my net income is lower than if I had just made a little less... can't win 'em all...

  9. Re: Learn JS and compete with $2/hr developers by corychristison · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Same boat here basically.

    I've been doing web design and development since I was 10. I've been making money doing it since I was 14. I moved out on my own when I was 15.

    I turn 25 one week from today. I'm now married with two kids. I live in a small town of approx 35,000 people in Saskatchewan, Canada. We are currently renting a town house for around $700/mo. Basic utilities are around $150/mo.

    With my wife working full time with a wage around $13.50/hr it certainly works for us. I stay home with the kids (daycare is expensive!) and work around her schedule when it comes to meeting with clients, etc.

    The goal is when both of my kids are in school, I will be able to really focus on the business and take on even more clients. Eventually rent some office space and grow from there.

    Build it up little by little and eventually you will be comfortable. Around here you can make around $35,000/year before paying taxes. That certainly makes it easier.

  10. Re:Oh, god, not this trope again. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Heh. Defense contracting is where old, out-of-date programmers go to hang on for dear life until retirement.