14 ms·

Ask HN: 32 and lost

93 points by elInoubio 10y ago

Hello, I am 32 yo and started programing since 14. I am a self learner and programing is far from being a passion, it is my life. Through the time, I programed using, QBasic, QuickBasic, Visual Basic, C++, C, HTML, JS, CSS, PHP and Python. Actually I only use the 6 last. I live in democratic republic of the Congo, in the heart of Africa. In my country, developer jobs are quasi-non-existent. My wish is to work remotely. But, many remote Jobs I find online require being USA resident. My Wish is to have an employer accept me working for approval even for 3 months. I learn quickly and I can add new languages to my fingers if required. Thank you.

gaspoweredcat 10y ago
you could register at upwork (formerly elance) or a similar freelancing site
- illwrks 10y ago
  I would never recommend this, they are a race to the bottom on price. I have no idea about the Congo, or the politics of the region, but I doubt all matters are handled in paper. There are computer systems running software there, phone systems, service provider infrastructure etc. Find out who is responsible and get talking to them. There is likely a development community and opportunity there, but it is not obvious.
  - elInoubio 10y ago
    It is very hard. Development community are quasi-non-existent. I tried to build one but did not succeed. Getting contact with responsible of enterprises will not be easy but I will try and they are not many.
  - hoju 10y ago
    I started on Elance and found some awesome clients there. One even told me to double my bid because "they weren't cheap"! The key is to focus on a niche and find clients that value their own time. Also I was living in a 1st world country and able to support myself from Elance projects, so it would be much easier for someone in the Congo.
- elInoubio 10y ago
  I will try it. Thank you. Until now, many I found was requiring physical presence in the country of the employer. Going to check this one.
  - ktRolster 10y ago
    There are other similar sites that might be worth checking out too, like topcoder, for example.
    - elInoubio 10y ago
      Thank you.
gargarplex 10y ago
Hi, I just wrote a book on breaking into freelance programming consulting (link in bio). I do 90% of my work remotely and often for countries outside USA. My guess is the number one thing holding you back is your grammar and punctuation. Especially at startup firms, your irregular style is going to hold you back for two reasons. 1) The founders of startups tend to be supremely pedigreed and set a culture of grammatical excellence; you need good grammar to get into a top university. 2) HR and management professionals who screen resumes and may nothing about how to separate a good developer from a bad developer instead rely on false cues, like "is their spelling and grammar obviously correct" or rather, "is their spelling and grammar somewhat abnormal from the standard conventions of American English writing" – in which case they reject. So the question is: how do you improve your grammar? Start by reading the book The Elements of Style. Its contents are largely available online for free.
- elInoubio 10y ago
  :-). Your reply makes me smile a lot. You are right. My English is not perfect. It could also be horrible. French is my first language and I don't practice English daily. But my understanding is perfect.
  - ilaksh 10y ago
    Have you looked for a french programming bid/job board/remote site? Assuming you have of course but just checking. Personally I think your English is good.
  - gargarplex 10y ago
    Hi, Your English is great; I understand you perfectly. But stylistically, there are issues that give you away as a non-American; from that, people may incorrectly infer that you may be bad at English. Americans and our arrogance. There's a classic joke. What do you call someone who speaks two languages? Bilingual. What do you call someone who speaks three languages? Trilingual. What do you call someone who speaks one language? American. Here's a rewriting of your intro paragraph. By the way, the writing is very good; it's just that the mechanics and grammar are distinctly non-American. * * * I am 32 years old and started programing at age 14. I am self-taught and programing is far from being a passion, it is my life. Through the years, I programmed using QBasic, QuickBasic, Visual Basic, C++, C, HTML, JS, CSS, PHP and Python. These days, I only use the last six. I live in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, in the heart of Africa. In my country, developer jobs are quasi-nonexistent. My wish is to work remotely. But, many remote jobs I find online require being a USA resident. My wish is to have an employer approve me working, even for three months. I learn quickly and I can add new languages to my fingers if required. Thank you. * * * Changeset 1. Don't abbreviate "years old" to "yo" 2. Change "since age 14" to use "at age 14" 3. Change "a self learner" to "self-taught" 4. Change "through the time" to "through the years" 5. Change "programed" to "programmed" 6. Remove comma before beginning the list: "I programmed using" instead of "I programmed using," 7. Change "actually" to "these days" and add a comma. 8. Spell out numbers under 10: change 6 to "six". 9. Change "six last" to "last six" 10. Capitalize Democratic and Republic and add the definite article, "the". 11. Change to "quasi-nonexistent". Nonexistent is a word so you don't need to hyphenate non-existent. 12. Don't capitalize "Jobs" in the middle of a sentence. 13. Change "being USA resident" to "being a USA resident". We use "a" as the indefinite article here, rather than "an", because "USA" is pronounced with a consonant sound. 14. Don't capitalize "Wish" in the middle of a sentence. 15. Rephrase "accept me working for approval" * * * The voice in your writing shines through, and that's something many people really struggle with. So just work on the rules of American English and you will improve rapidly. One more thing to note: in France, they add a space before punctuation marks with two parts (!;:?). We don't do that in English. Send me an email if you want! Peace, Zack
hardwaresofton 10y ago
Check out weworkremotely.com and also wfh.io, I've checked them recently). I'm also kind of annoyed at the companies that say "we allow remote work, but you have to be in the USA". Feels like kind of a cop out. Also, you might want to look at some of the other African nations like Nigeria which no doubt need programming/web work. Not sure how easy it is to find jobs there, but maybe that's a job board you could create? You're probably not the only one with this problem, and might be a win-win-win for you, african companies, and other developers.
- superplussed 10y ago
  Your last paragraph is full of great advice. An African-focused job board would solve a need that you are experiencing and would look great on your resume.
- eps 10y ago
  > Feels like kind of a cop out. It just means that the company doesn't want to deal with legal and accounting/taxation overhead of hiring outside of the country.
  - elastic_church 10y ago
    and this exact nuance keeps US salaries high compared to tech hubs with free-er trade agreements like the UK, so if you anybody is looking at all these "cool startups" like it would solve all your problems, the irony is that those employees mere presence would [eventually, in mass numbers] help make the sector less appealing
  - tjalfi 10y ago
    It may be a client requirement. Some of our clients require that only U.S. citizens have access to their data.
woodylondon 10y ago
Hey. email me at antpaul75@gmail.com
- elInoubio 10y ago
  Great !
- stevekemp 10y ago
  For the benefit of other readers it might be more useful if you said WHY the poster should mail you. Do you have job(s) on offer? Are you in the same part of the world as the poster? Or do you have advice you don't wish to share publicly?
chriscool 10y ago
There are companies hiring people working remotely from all around the world like GitLab for example. (I am working remotely for GitLab.) In general you could look at open source projects that have companies hiring remote people behind them. If you find a good project with a good company behind, work on the project, and there is a good chance that you will be hired.
akirayamaoka 10y ago
>>started programing since 14 But something went wrong with google skills.
- nkkollaw 10y ago
  Very helpful.
  - akirayamaoka 10y ago
    Since when did ycombinator become a place for job search?
    - deleted 10y ago
      [deleted]
    - nkkollaw 10y ago
      Whatever you say.
    - bbcbasic 10y ago
      Democratic Republic of Congo ... fwiw
guessmyname 10y ago
I am on the same boat, I constantly browse these websites: - https://github.com/jessicard/remote-jobs https://github.com/jessicard/remote-jobs - https://whoishiring.io/search/34.198/-18.655/2/?search=c+OR+php+OR+python&remote=true https://whoishiring.io/search/34.198/-18.655/2/?search=c+OR+... - https://angel.co/jobs#find/f!%7B%22types%22%3A%5B%22full-time%22%2C%22contract%22%5D%2C%22remote%22%3Atrue%2C%22roles%22%3A%5B%22Backend%20Developer%22%2C%22Full-Stack%20Developer%22%5D%2C%22keywords%22%3A%5B%22Software%20Engineer%22%5D%7D https://angel.co/jobs#find/f!%7B%22types%22%3A%5B%22full-tim... - http://berlinstartupjobs.com/ http://berlinstartupjobs.com/ - https://remotefriendly.work/ https://remotefriendly.work/ - https://weworkremotely.com/ https://weworkremotely.com/ - https://goremote.io/ https://goremote.io/ You can also try to immigrate to another country, Berlin, Brno and Amsterdam are (among other cities in Europe) full of startups actively looking for skillful engineers and because of the benefits for foreign skilled workers the company and the candidate receives tax exceptions and other things that makes the process more appealing to some people. The only problem that I see is that you are a "self-taught" programmer, right? Many companies prefer people with an university degree because that is the easiest way for them to demonstrate that the candidate knows at least the basis of computer science, same thing with the embassies, they do not have time to assess if the applicant is actually a skilled worker or not, so the university degree is definitely a must. With 18 years of work experience you might apply as an "Experienced" developer and maybe you can skip the "university degree check" but is still a bit harder than if you had one. Also check the "Živnostenský List" [1][2] is a special type of visa for freelancers in Czech Republic that allows you to stay in the country for up to a year as long as you have two clients and $6,000 in your bank account. Once in Europe you can improve your chances to get either a fully remote job or an on-site with its inherent benefits. [1] http://www.wandertooth.com/zivnostensky-list-work-in-prague-not-eu/ http://www.wandertooth.com/zivnostensky-list-work-in-prague-... [2] http://www.wandertooth.com/freelance-visa-europe-work-in-prague-non-eu/ http://www.wandertooth.com/freelance-visa-europe-work-in-pra... Good luck.
keefe 10y ago
What can you show to prove you can program? Basically, you have to prove that you're a better bet than somebody local. So, build something on your own and leave it open source, then find postings that use those technologies and apply.
samnwa 10y ago
What is your email address?
- elInoubio 10y ago
  el dot inoubio at gmail dot com.
dreistdreist 10y ago
If there are not a lot of developers in your country, I would assume that a lot of businesses are running without proper software as well. If they had software they would have an advantage over their competitors who don't have it. Have you tried talking to business owners to see if they have problems that can be solved with software? Being good with computers and able to program is a really large advantage if most people around you are not in that position.
- zhte415 10y ago
  To add to this: Something that is in really common need, but not much addressed. A friend had much success with a payroll system in China. All done in English, satisfying the compliance need for international companies which had a small presence but kept getting fined and in trouble with their home offices because they weren't in compliance with local law when the law quickly changed: tiny HR division, etc. China does not lack software engineers, but it does rely on manual solutions which software solutions quickly solve. Not saying do payroll. Just saying do something that solves a lot of people's problems and can start generating some revenue quickly.
scotty79 10y ago
Try finding remote work in one of the European countries. They won't require citizenship and we'll be in your timezone so you can work notmal hours.
ud0 10y ago
Hey, I'm from Nigeria in West-Africa also self taught and learned about remote jobs. It's really easy to get one especially in Europe. You just have to know your stuff, pick a technology and focus on it. It pays to be a T-shaped individual i.e know a technology very well and a little bit of others. I have worked successfully as a remote developer for a startup in Stuttgart, Germany and currently relocating to Berlin to work at a Bigger(IPO'd) company as a front-end engineer. There are tons of startups looking for remote devs. Most times to the employers the pay is really cheap, but when converted to your local currency you are a millionaire and you can live the good life and pursue bigger opportunites like I did. Spend the money by investing in yourself. Buy programming books, pay for courses. Just keep getting better. Most of Africa is shut-out from the technological advancement happening in the world but you can be a part of it by taking advantage of the internet, using your financial resources to learn a lot and fill knowledge gaps in your skills. You will discover once you start seeking out remote dev opportunities that there is a lot to learn.
Lordarminius 10y ago
I am a developer from Nigeria who once-upon-a-time was looking for remote work to augment my income. Africa is uneven in its (under)development. Your part of Africa is less well developed than say, Cairo, Johannesburg, Lagos etc and yet huge opportunities exist in these areas. If you are entrepreneurial (and I strongly urge you to be) there's a goldmine sitting unexplored at your feet right now, and all you have to do is start digging. A few suggestions. In my country a couple of years ago, students who wrote their high school exams had to go and check their results on a physical board at a designated site. Someone came up with the idea of having all the results posted online as well as digitizing the enrollment process. The students pay the equivalent of $2 to use the service and almost a million enroll every year. Think about the process of registering a company in the Congo? Could you migrate it online? What about searching for real estate title documents? School management software? Sundry government processes? There are many possibilities. I have no doubt that these same problems and more exist in the Congo. I am presently working on an idea similar to those listed above (cant say anymore at present, many Nigerian developers visit this site! competition!) and it shows a lot of promise; I can assure you that there are many similar opportunities waiting to be exploited by skilled people like you. Look inward. Look downwards. At your feet. For the goldmine.
- gentleteblor 10y ago
  This is good advice. I remember getting physical results for SSCE and NECO exams and I would gladly have paid the $2. I'll also add that the startups in the US/Europe can provide sample problem/solution combinations for you. You won't be able to just clone ideas, but you'll be able to evolve them for your local market. Good luck. PS. It makes me happy to meet fellow Nigerian engineers. I don't meet many in my day to day.
  - Lordarminius 10y ago
    Hi there! Nice meeting you here too! Bawo ni?
    - gentleteblor 10y ago
dang 10y ago
Every month there are "Who wants to be hired" and "Freelancer?" threads, which you can find at https://news.ycombinator.com/submitted?id=whoishiring https://news.ycombinator.com/submitted?id=whoishiring. You might try posting in one of those. If you do, consider including a link to the current thread, for background. Comments on submissions only stay open for 2 weeks but these threads show up on the first weekday of the month, so the January one will be soon.
neximo64 10y ago
could you please display your email address somewhere on your profile.
- elInoubio 10y ago
  OK. Already, it is el dot inoubio at gmail dot com.
datavirtue 10y ago
contact me ....sean dot anderson at datavirtue dot com We might be able to work something out. Looking for a PHP developer for out team.
datavirtue 10y ago
contact me....sean dot anderson at datavirtue dot com We are looking for a solid developer...and we have a PHP project with a major company.
ezekg 10y ago
Have you tried https://www.toptal.com https://www.toptal.com? I believe they allow freelancers from anywhere to apply.
hoju 10y ago
I have worked online for ~8 years as a programmer and most of my clients don't know where I'm from. It's just not important if I can do the work and communicate effectively (by email). Try picking up short term contract freelancing work, and then hopefully some of those clients will become regulars. I used to bid for dozens of projects a week on Elance, but now most work comes from a few regulars.
thrway3 10y ago
Please help me too. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13287025 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13287025

Ask HN: 32 and lost

93 points by elInoubio 10y ago

gaspoweredcat 10y ago

you could register at upwork (formerly elance) or a similar freelancing site

illwrks 10y ago
I would never recommend this, they are a race to the bottom on price. I have no idea about the Congo, or the politics of the region, but I doubt all matters are handled in paper. There are computer systems running software there, phone systems, service provider infrastructure etc. Find out who is responsible and get talking to them. There is likely a development community and opportunity there, but it is not obvious.
- elInoubio 10y ago
  It is very hard. Development community are quasi-non-existent. I tried to build one but did not succeed. Getting contact with responsible of enterprises will not be easy but I will try and they are not many.
- hoju 10y ago
  I started on Elance and found some awesome clients there. One even told me to double my bid because "they weren't cheap"! The key is to focus on a niche and find clients that value their own time. Also I was living in a 1st world country and able to support myself from Elance projects, so it would be much easier for someone in the Congo.
elInoubio 10y ago
I will try it. Thank you. Until now, many I found was requiring physical presence in the country of the employer. Going to check this one.
- ktRolster 10y ago
  There are other similar sites that might be worth checking out too, like topcoder, for example.
  - elInoubio 10y ago
    Thank you.

gargarplex 10y ago

Hi, I just wrote a book on breaking into freelance programming consulting (link in bio). I do 90% of my work remotely and often for countries outside USA. My guess is the number one thing holding you back is your grammar and punctuation. Especially at startup firms, your irregular style is going to hold you back for two reasons. 1) The founders of startups tend to be supremely pedigreed and set a culture of grammatical excellence; you need good grammar to get into a top university. 2) HR and management professionals who screen resumes and may nothing about how to separate a good developer from a bad developer instead rely on false cues, like "is their spelling and grammar obviously correct" or rather, "is their spelling and grammar somewhat abnormal from the standard conventions of American English writing" – in which case they reject. So the question is: how do you improve your grammar? Start by reading the book The Elements of Style. Its contents are largely available online for free.

elInoubio 10y ago
:-). Your reply makes me smile a lot. You are right. My English is not perfect. It could also be horrible. French is my first language and I don't practice English daily. But my understanding is perfect.
- ilaksh 10y ago
  Have you looked for a french programming bid/job board/remote site? Assuming you have of course but just checking. Personally I think your English is good.
- gargarplex 10y ago
  Hi, Your English is great; I understand you perfectly. But stylistically, there are issues that give you away as a non-American; from that, people may incorrectly infer that you may be bad at English. Americans and our arrogance. There's a classic joke. What do you call someone who speaks two languages? Bilingual. What do you call someone who speaks three languages? Trilingual. What do you call someone who speaks one language? American. Here's a rewriting of your intro paragraph. By the way, the writing is very good; it's just that the mechanics and grammar are distinctly non-American. * * * I am 32 years old and started programing at age 14. I am self-taught and programing is far from being a passion, it is my life. Through the years, I programmed using QBasic, QuickBasic, Visual Basic, C++, C, HTML, JS, CSS, PHP and Python. These days, I only use the last six. I live in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, in the heart of Africa. In my country, developer jobs are quasi-nonexistent. My wish is to work remotely. But, many remote jobs I find online require being a USA resident. My wish is to have an employer approve me working, even for three months. I learn quickly and I can add new languages to my fingers if required. Thank you. * * * Changeset 1. Don't abbreviate "years old" to "yo" 2. Change "since age 14" to use "at age 14" 3. Change "a self learner" to "self-taught" 4. Change "through the time" to "through the years" 5. Change "programed" to "programmed" 6. Remove comma before beginning the list: "I programmed using" instead of "I programmed using," 7. Change "actually" to "these days" and add a comma. 8. Spell out numbers under 10: change 6 to "six". 9. Change "six last" to "last six" 10. Capitalize Democratic and Republic and add the definite article, "the". 11. Change to "quasi-nonexistent". Nonexistent is a word so you don't need to hyphenate non-existent. 12. Don't capitalize "Jobs" in the middle of a sentence. 13. Change "being USA resident" to "being a USA resident". We use "a" as the indefinite article here, rather than "an", because "USA" is pronounced with a consonant sound. 14. Don't capitalize "Wish" in the middle of a sentence. 15. Rephrase "accept me working for approval" * * * The voice in your writing shines through, and that's something many people really struggle with. So just work on the rules of American English and you will improve rapidly. One more thing to note: in France, they add a space before punctuation marks with two parts (!;:?). We don't do that in English. Send me an email if you want! Peace, Zack

hardwaresofton 10y ago

Check out weworkremotely.com and also wfh.io, I've checked them recently). I'm also kind of annoyed at the companies that say "we allow remote work, but you have to be in the USA". Feels like kind of a cop out. Also, you might want to look at some of the other African nations like Nigeria which no doubt need programming/web work. Not sure how easy it is to find jobs there, but maybe that's a job board you could create? You're probably not the only one with this problem, and might be a win-win-win for you, african companies, and other developers.

superplussed 10y ago
Your last paragraph is full of great advice. An African-focused job board would solve a need that you are experiencing and would look great on your resume.
eps 10y ago
> Feels like kind of a cop out. It just means that the company doesn't want to deal with legal and accounting/taxation overhead of hiring outside of the country.
- elastic_church 10y ago
  and this exact nuance keeps US salaries high compared to tech hubs with free-er trade agreements like the UK, so if you anybody is looking at all these "cool startups" like it would solve all your problems, the irony is that those employees mere presence would [eventually, in mass numbers] help make the sector less appealing
- tjalfi 10y ago
  It may be a client requirement. Some of our clients require that only U.S. citizens have access to their data.

woodylondon 10y ago

Hey. email me at antpaul75@gmail.com

elInoubio 10y ago
Great !
stevekemp 10y ago
For the benefit of other readers it might be more useful if you said WHY the poster should mail you. Do you have job(s) on offer? Are you in the same part of the world as the poster? Or do you have advice you don't wish to share publicly?

chriscool 10y ago

There are companies hiring people working remotely from all around the world like GitLab for example. (I am working remotely for GitLab.) In general you could look at open source projects that have companies hiring remote people behind them. If you find a good project with a good company behind, work on the project, and there is a good chance that you will be hired.

akirayamaoka 10y ago

>>started programing since 14 But something went wrong with google skills.

nkkollaw 10y ago
Very helpful.
- akirayamaoka 10y ago
  Since when did ycombinator become a place for job search?
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
  - nkkollaw 10y ago
    Whatever you say.
  - bbcbasic 10y ago
    Democratic Republic of Congo ... fwiw

guessmyname 10y ago

I am on the same boat, I constantly browse these websites: - https://github.com/jessicard/remote-jobs https://github.com/jessicard/remote-jobs - https://whoishiring.io/search/34.198/-18.655/2/?search=c+OR+php+OR+python&remote=true https://whoishiring.io/search/34.198/-18.655/2/?search=c+OR+... - https://angel.co/jobs#find/f!%7B%22types%22%3A%5B%22full-time%22%2C%22contract%22%5D%2C%22remote%22%3Atrue%2C%22roles%22%3A%5B%22Backend%20Developer%22%2C%22Full-Stack%20Developer%22%5D%2C%22keywords%22%3A%5B%22Software%20Engineer%22%5D%7D https://angel.co/jobs#find/f!%7B%22types%22%3A%5B%22full-tim... - http://berlinstartupjobs.com/ http://berlinstartupjobs.com/ - https://remotefriendly.work/ https://remotefriendly.work/ - https://weworkremotely.com/ https://weworkremotely.com/ - https://goremote.io/ https://goremote.io/ You can also try to immigrate to another country, Berlin, Brno and Amsterdam are (among other cities in Europe) full of startups actively looking for skillful engineers and because of the benefits for foreign skilled workers the company and the candidate receives tax exceptions and other things that makes the process more appealing to some people. The only problem that I see is that you are a "self-taught" programmer, right? Many companies prefer people with an university degree because that is the easiest way for them to demonstrate that the candidate knows at least the basis of computer science, same thing with the embassies, they do not have time to assess if the applicant is actually a skilled worker or not, so the university degree is definitely a must. With 18 years of work experience you might apply as an "Experienced" developer and maybe you can skip the "university degree check" but is still a bit harder than if you had one. Also check the "Živnostenský List" [1][2] is a special type of visa for freelancers in Czech Republic that allows you to stay in the country for up to a year as long as you have two clients and $6,000 in your bank account. Once in Europe you can improve your chances to get either a fully remote job or an on-site with its inherent benefits. [1] http://www.wandertooth.com/zivnostensky-list-work-in-prague-not-eu/ http://www.wandertooth.com/zivnostensky-list-work-in-prague-... [2] http://www.wandertooth.com/freelance-visa-europe-work-in-prague-non-eu/ http://www.wandertooth.com/freelance-visa-europe-work-in-pra... Good luck.

keefe 10y ago

What can you show to prove you can program? Basically, you have to prove that you're a better bet than somebody local. So, build something on your own and leave it open source, then find postings that use those technologies and apply.

samnwa 10y ago

What is your email address?

elInoubio 10y ago
el dot inoubio at gmail dot com.

dreistdreist 10y ago

If there are not a lot of developers in your country, I would assume that a lot of businesses are running without proper software as well. If they had software they would have an advantage over their competitors who don't have it. Have you tried talking to business owners to see if they have problems that can be solved with software? Being good with computers and able to program is a really large advantage if most people around you are not in that position.

zhte415 10y ago
To add to this: Something that is in really common need, but not much addressed. A friend had much success with a payroll system in China. All done in English, satisfying the compliance need for international companies which had a small presence but kept getting fined and in trouble with their home offices because they weren't in compliance with local law when the law quickly changed: tiny HR division, etc. China does not lack software engineers, but it does rely on manual solutions which software solutions quickly solve. Not saying do payroll. Just saying do something that solves a lot of people's problems and can start generating some revenue quickly.

scotty79 10y ago

Try finding remote work in one of the European countries. They won't require citizenship and we'll be in your timezone so you can work notmal hours.

ud0 10y ago

Hey, I'm from Nigeria in West-Africa also self taught and learned about remote jobs. It's really easy to get one especially in Europe. You just have to know your stuff, pick a technology and focus on it. It pays to be a T-shaped individual i.e know a technology very well and a little bit of others. I have worked successfully as a remote developer for a startup in Stuttgart, Germany and currently relocating to Berlin to work at a Bigger(IPO'd) company as a front-end engineer. There are tons of startups looking for remote devs. Most times to the employers the pay is really cheap, but when converted to your local currency you are a millionaire and you can live the good life and pursue bigger opportunites like I did. Spend the money by investing in yourself. Buy programming books, pay for courses. Just keep getting better. Most of Africa is shut-out from the technological advancement happening in the world but you can be a part of it by taking advantage of the internet, using your financial resources to learn a lot and fill knowledge gaps in your skills. You will discover once you start seeking out remote dev opportunities that there is a lot to learn.

Lordarminius 10y ago

I am a developer from Nigeria who once-upon-a-time was looking for remote work to augment my income. Africa is uneven in its (under)development. Your part of Africa is less well developed than say, Cairo, Johannesburg, Lagos etc and yet huge opportunities exist in these areas. If you are entrepreneurial (and I strongly urge you to be) there's a goldmine sitting unexplored at your feet right now, and all you have to do is start digging. A few suggestions. In my country a couple of years ago, students who wrote their high school exams had to go and check their results on a physical board at a designated site. Someone came up with the idea of having all the results posted online as well as digitizing the enrollment process. The students pay the equivalent of $2 to use the service and almost a million enroll every year. Think about the process of registering a company in the Congo? Could you migrate it online? What about searching for real estate title documents? School management software? Sundry government processes? There are many possibilities. I have no doubt that these same problems and more exist in the Congo. I am presently working on an idea similar to those listed above (cant say anymore at present, many Nigerian developers visit this site! competition!) and it shows a lot of promise; I can assure you that there are many similar opportunities waiting to be exploited by skilled people like you. Look inward. Look downwards. At your feet. For the goldmine.

gentleteblor 10y ago
This is good advice. I remember getting physical results for SSCE and NECO exams and I would gladly have paid the $2. I'll also add that the startups in the US/Europe can provide sample problem/solution combinations for you. You won't be able to just clone ideas, but you'll be able to evolve them for your local market. Good luck. PS. It makes me happy to meet fellow Nigerian engineers. I don't meet many in my day to day.
- Lordarminius 10y ago
  Hi there! Nice meeting you here too! Bawo ni?
  - gentleteblor 10y ago

dang 10y ago

Every month there are "Who wants to be hired" and "Freelancer?" threads, which you can find at https://news.ycombinator.com/submitted?id=whoishiring https://news.ycombinator.com/submitted?id=whoishiring. You might try posting in one of those. If you do, consider including a link to the current thread, for background. Comments on submissions only stay open for 2 weeks but these threads show up on the first weekday of the month, so the January one will be soon.

neximo64 10y ago

could you please display your email address somewhere on your profile.

elInoubio 10y ago
OK. Already, it is el dot inoubio at gmail dot com.

datavirtue 10y ago

contact me ....sean dot anderson at datavirtue dot com We might be able to work something out. Looking for a PHP developer for out team.

datavirtue 10y ago

contact me....sean dot anderson at datavirtue dot com We are looking for a solid developer...and we have a PHP project with a major company.

ezekg 10y ago

Have you tried https://www.toptal.com https://www.toptal.com? I believe they allow freelancers from anywhere to apply.

hoju 10y ago

I have worked online for ~8 years as a programmer and most of my clients don't know where I'm from. It's just not important if I can do the work and communicate effectively (by email). Try picking up short term contract freelancing work, and then hopefully some of those clients will become regulars. I used to bid for dozens of projects a week on Elance, but now most work comes from a few regulars.

thrway3 10y ago

Please help me too. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13287025 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13287025