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Hey, _I_ know you on HN. I've upvoted a ton of your comments. We've also commented quite a few times on each other's comments when we disagree with each other.

Hey, _I_ know you on HN. I've upvoted a ton of your comments. We've also commented quite a few times on each other's comments when we disagree with each other. :) As baseline, I've been commenting on HN for four and half years, 3813 karma as of this writing. In that time, I've been emailed once with a question about a project I've worked on, and once asking me to put some code on GitHub. Zero offers for jobs, or offers for help. And that's totally what I expect. A lot of your comments here, as are many of mine, are about what it's like to live in America, outside the valley bubble. That's not the kind of things that gets you job offers when compared with "How I used $HOT_TECHNOLOGY to save $HOT_COMPANY 10 million dollars." Congratulations! You've found a marketing approach that you've proven doesn't work out for you! Now you just have to find something that works. I've found that what looks from the outside like a secret club is really just that when people work with someone competent for a while, they want to hire them / work with them in the future. Every single one of my new clients in the past fifteen years has showed up because someone worked with me before on a project in the past. People rarely trust someone just because the've read something they wrote. It really takes working with someone on a project where you are in the trenches together. You site says you are a copywriter / community manager? Can you do volunteer community management for an organizations some tech organization? Can you somehow finagle some volunteer resume copywriting for Stanford graduates through some organization? You'll never get anything from the graduates you help, but it's the people in whatever non-profit you are working with that will remember your skill and drive. Or anything that gets you working with people who can hire you later. It snowballs from there. As an aside, your site also looks a bit dated and very unfocused. Best of luck!

DoreenMichele 9y ago
I have given away my time and expertise for literally years. I have done tons of volunteer work. People tell me all the fucking time they value what I do. But they will not pay me. This never leads to paid work. Ever. I just answered questions for free for a YC company this week and informed them I do the kind of writing they need. They can't be arsed to so much as reply to my email with an acknowledgement that they have it. I need income, not more opportunities to improve the lives of others for free, get pats on the head and told to piss off about my sad sack story that I can't afford to eat at the end of the month. I have tried endless suggestions of what works for the guys. Email people and ask for feedback. Email top people here who routinely talk about gender parity in tech and have magnanimous invitations to email them any time. Buy a .com domain to be taken more seriously. Put together some kind of portfolio. I have been asking for advice for literally years on how I can turn my skills and expertise into earned income and I get mostly pissed all over and bullshit excuses.
- danielvf 9y ago
  Yes, I wouldn't expect giving away your services to people/companies to get you work. That's not so much working side by side with a person for a prolonged period of time, as it is working in a dysfunctional, under appreciated client/vendor relationship. I've only given away work for free twice - once before I was a software developer and once volunteering two or three days a week for six? years for a NGO. Other than that, I charge everybody full price, including friends or family, for anything related to my day job. It sets up bad working relationships. Again, good luck.
  - DoreenMichele 9y ago
    You and everyone else here can stop leaving me shitty comments in this thread with dumb advice. What this boils down to is most men will not email me unless they are hoping for a hookup. Because they are apparently scared shitless that a private conversation via email with a woman is too intimate or some crap. Those private discussions are how men make strong professional connections and eventually get work. When I tell a guy he can email me, 99% of the time he only emails me looking for a hookup. Making public comments about how I am just doing it wrong and wishing me luck makes you part of the problem. It essentially drags my name through the mud like I am just an idiot and virtue signals about what a great guy you are while you don't actually do a fucking thing to actually help me. It is just another waste of my time exercise in futility while giving the world another opportunity to see me as pitiable rather than competent, respectable and in need of business connections and paid work.
    - DoreenMichele 9y ago
      To the jerks downvoting my comment, the ggp comment says: Can you do volunteer community management for an organizations some tech organization? Can you somehow finagle some volunteer resume copywriting for Stanford graduates through some organization? You'll never get anything from the graduates you help, but it's the people in whatever non-profit you are working with that will remember your skill and drive. Or anything that gets you working with people who can hire you later. It snowballs from there. When I rebutted that, they did a 100% about face saying they never work for free themselves. So if they never work for free but are telling me to work for free to try get paid work, it is dumb advice. But, hey, let's not confuse anyone with the facts. Let's just pretend I'm a bitch for being pissed off that no amount of proving myself or doing what works for the guys ever works for me and it has kept me trapped in dire poverty for many years. When the guys here are looking to do business, they exchange emails or other contact info and take it to private discussion. When I try to do the same, I get hit on or ignored. You see this in comments on HN all the damn time that people say "email in profile" or whatever. Guys do business and help each other out via private discussions. People leaving public comments with stupid advice they would not follow themselves are absolutely not in any way taking me seriously. It is virtue signaling, just pretending to care without really helping, and it just deepens the problem. When guys take each other seriously as business people, they hash out problems and solutions privately. The vast majority of men will not have a private conversation with me unless they are hoping for a hookup. That is the crux of the problem here.

DoreenMichele 9y ago

I have given away my time and expertise for literally years. I have done tons of volunteer work. People tell me all the fucking time they value what I do. But they will not pay me. This never leads to paid work. Ever. I just answered questions for free for a YC company this week and informed them I do the kind of writing they need. They can't be arsed to so much as reply to my email with an acknowledgement that they have it. I need income, not more opportunities to improve the lives of others for free, get pats on the head and told to piss off about my sad sack story that I can't afford to eat at the end of the month. I have tried endless suggestions of what works for the guys. Email people and ask for feedback. Email top people here who routinely talk about gender parity in tech and have magnanimous invitations to email them any time. Buy a .com domain to be taken more seriously. Put together some kind of portfolio. I have been asking for advice for literally years on how I can turn my skills and expertise into earned income and I get mostly pissed all over and bullshit excuses.

danielvf 9y ago
Yes, I wouldn't expect giving away your services to people/companies to get you work. That's not so much working side by side with a person for a prolonged period of time, as it is working in a dysfunctional, under appreciated client/vendor relationship. I've only given away work for free twice - once before I was a software developer and once volunteering two or three days a week for six? years for a NGO. Other than that, I charge everybody full price, including friends or family, for anything related to my day job. It sets up bad working relationships. Again, good luck.
- DoreenMichele 9y ago
  You and everyone else here can stop leaving me shitty comments in this thread with dumb advice. What this boils down to is most men will not email me unless they are hoping for a hookup. Because they are apparently scared shitless that a private conversation via email with a woman is too intimate or some crap. Those private discussions are how men make strong professional connections and eventually get work. When I tell a guy he can email me, 99% of the time he only emails me looking for a hookup. Making public comments about how I am just doing it wrong and wishing me luck makes you part of the problem. It essentially drags my name through the mud like I am just an idiot and virtue signals about what a great guy you are while you don't actually do a fucking thing to actually help me. It is just another waste of my time exercise in futility while giving the world another opportunity to see me as pitiable rather than competent, respectable and in need of business connections and paid work.
  - DoreenMichele 9y ago
    To the jerks downvoting my comment, the ggp comment says: Can you do volunteer community management for an organizations some tech organization? Can you somehow finagle some volunteer resume copywriting for Stanford graduates through some organization? You'll never get anything from the graduates you help, but it's the people in whatever non-profit you are working with that will remember your skill and drive. Or anything that gets you working with people who can hire you later. It snowballs from there. When I rebutted that, they did a 100% about face saying they never work for free themselves. So if they never work for free but are telling me to work for free to try get paid work, it is dumb advice. But, hey, let's not confuse anyone with the facts. Let's just pretend I'm a bitch for being pissed off that no amount of proving myself or doing what works for the guys ever works for me and it has kept me trapped in dire poverty for many years. When the guys here are looking to do business, they exchange emails or other contact info and take it to private discussion. When I try to do the same, I get hit on or ignored. You see this in comments on HN all the damn time that people say "email in profile" or whatever. Guys do business and help each other out via private discussions. People leaving public comments with stupid advice they would not follow themselves are absolutely not in any way taking me seriously. It is virtue signaling, just pretending to care without really helping, and it just deepens the problem. When guys take each other seriously as business people, they hash out problems and solutions privately. The vast majority of men will not have a private conversation with me unless they are hoping for a hookup. That is the crux of the problem here.