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If You Want To Code From Home, Learn JavaScript
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%)."
If I'm going to damn my soul, I'd rather find other ways
Well no one is going to hire you for 120k a year because you read a LEARN C++ in 24 hours book.
You need many years of experience and a computer science degree or mathematics to back you up with 5 managerial references minimum! Those who want to reply back or mod me how they didn't need that? Fine, how much are you making? I bet it aint 120k without all if not 2 out of the 3 of these.
For 120k a better have all as I can hire 2 developers for the same price or more if I want to have someone inexperienced in India.
http://saveie6.com/
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...
*turns entire countries into catastrophes
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.
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.
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 $1k residual mark, and with new and fixit jobs wandering in as well as my wife has an online shop it is slowly growing and working. Not that there isnt squeeky tight times, but for 5 years now we have kept the lights on and food on the plate and it is getting easier.
I'm a UNIX systems administrator with 30 years of continuous industrial-strength experience in Silicon Valley.
I've been living outside the San Francisco Bay Area since 2005 - when it became too expensive to raise a family with just two incomes.
I've been sleeping in my van and showering at a gym for EIGHT !@#$ 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.
He took a list of 10 languages, added another list of languages, then looked for those ...
Ie, there could well be other languages that he didn't look for that are more in demand than the one he looked for.
I don't know exactly how he handled only 'programmer' jobs for Dice.com ... but they've got 31 jobs that match 'perl'. Add that to the 3 from the other site, and we're looking at 4.4% (behind Python, above, C++, VB, TSQL, etc.
Of course, this is always going to be a point-in-time study. (I found 63 'Ruby' jobs (out of 745), which would put it at 8.4%, above his 7.2%) You really need to look at long-term trends. (and you need to make sure to not count the same jobs from week after week ... although the fact that they can't find someone to fill a job might be a sign that's skill's in more demand, but it doesn't necessarily mean it's good to learn that language if employability is your goal)
The really sad thing is that ASP is above Python (33+10=5.8%), and SQL's not on his list but mentioned in 27.8% (155+52) of the jobs. And Postgres (which he didn't check) has more mentions than Hadoop (which he did)
Build it, and they will come^Hplain.
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.
So true. There are plenty of places with a cost of living far below a place like DC or Silicon Valley which pay decently enough that you end up way ahead.
For comparison, CNN's site has a cost of living calculator, and the US census site has several pages about cost of living worth looking at.
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."