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I am Brazillian Still, sadly that stuff also applies here... Me and my friends around my age, that were born in solid middle-class families (of the sort that

I am Brazillian Still, sadly that stuff also applies here... Me and my friends around my age, that were born in solid middle-class families (of the sort that could own only one car, a cheap house or apartment and so on), were taught that the path of life was: go to college, get a job or public sector job (here in Brazil those are popular), marry, have a boring life. Instead we went to college paid with crazy loans, found no jobs, jumped around from gig to gig trying to repay the loans, people don't want seriosu relationships, only flings, and now I am 30, living back in my parents house, still with no job. A 30 year old college friend of mine that is excellent designer and know some coding, is living on his parents home with his kid (no wife), to pay the kid bills he found a illegal-ish gig as construction worker, and after he lost that job, he can't find a new one. My grandparents used to tell me what was their "poor life", where they had to walk to school, work their asses off early, date in front of dad of the bride, eat eggs because other food was expensive... Now we have a "rich" life, with cars (that belong to parents, I never could afford my own, neither my friends), computer, internet... but can't afford our own house, we can't "work our ass off" because there is no work, eating enough protein in some months have been hard, as food prices inflated way beyond the wage growth and what is affordable now is basically cereals and starchy foods (like potatoes), and your food choice become: eat enough nutrients and baloon in size wildly as all food availble has too much calories comapred to other nutrients, or control your calories, have nutrient deficit... To me is no surprise people live in slums or invaded areas, one time I rented a apartment with cracked walls, non-working fire alarm, elevator that often had issues (like operating with doors open and stopping 20 centimeters off-level), no garage, and the rent was 4 times the mininum wage, I could only afford living there when my income due to some coding contracts landed me in the top 3% highest earners of the country... made me wonder, where everyone else was living. (or one time I shared a normal 3 bedroom house, with literally 35 persons, most of them already had bachelor degrees, several in STEM, and were there to train in a nearby police academy, hoping such dangerous work was better than having no work at all in their own field)

somethingsimple 8y ago
Wow, things have gotten really bad since I left the country. Mind if I ask in what state you live? I never had trouble finding a full time programming job in Rio Grande do Sul.
- speeder 8y ago
  I am in São Paulo I never got full time job offer, only contracts, some that were joblike (ie: company treated me as actual contractor but expected me to be present 9-5 every day in the office). When I was fresh out of college I did got some offers for part time work, but with wage so small it wouldn't cover any of my costs at all (for example wages were smaller than my monthly debt repayments of student debt alone).
  - mtw 8y ago
    It sounds like you have good programming experience and can write decent English. I would look for remote work with a North American or European startup, send them your GitHub account and recent work. That would be better than trying to find a local opportunity
st1ck 8y ago
Does something prevent you or other STEM guys from freelancing or finding a remote job?
- bdamm 8y ago
  Immigration laws? Sufficient social mobility to build the requisite contact network? It's not quite as easy as hanging a resumé out on github.
  - graeme 8y ago
    There are remote work sites where you can get $30 USD an hour or more programming if you speak English. That’s massively more than local wages. for devs. So even a partial success at foreign freelancing can create a lot of financial breathing space.
    - speeder 8y ago
      Link please? One of my difficulties was when I had college debts, I kept trying to find remote work for around 25 USD, and people still thought it was too high, on freelance.com and whatnot, but I couldn't go lower because then I would lose money (ie: not cover my debts and expenses).
      - graeme 8y ago
        Was thinking upwork. I may be off on rates. But when I hired a dev on elance (precursor site) a few years back, $30 was the price I paid. I tested a couple people for whether they could understand the request. Could have gone cheaper with worse English ability, but seemed like a mistake. I imagine you do have to stsrt lower to get some reviews first. That’s a big thing clients look for.
      - st1ck 8y ago
        I got my last two long-term remote jobs through upwork.com. But probably it's hard to find a job above $20 per hour if you don't already have reps there. Having some rare skills helps though. If you don't mind (remote) full-time, you can try remoteok.io, Angel list, stackoverflow jobs etc. Recruiters can also help.
yourapostasy 8y ago
> ...eating enough protein in some months have been hard... Do you happen to have enough space for raising rabbits? If you cook a lot of fresh vegetables for your family and yourself, then there is almost certainly enough to feed the rabbit from the trimmed vegetable scraps, and nearly any restaurant would be happy to give you vegetable scraps if you ask and arrange for it ahead of time. If you have more time than money, then this might help your protein deficiency. Start with one rabbit, then a breeding pair if you can get over the butchering part. Otherwise, a couple of chickens will yield lots of eggs, some of which you can trade for other proteins. Rabbits and chickens can be raised in most apartment-scale situations, but the key is setting aside enough daily time to diligently tend to them. Usually only 15 minutes a day is sufficient, but YMMV.

somethingsimple 8y ago

Wow, things have gotten really bad since I left the country. Mind if I ask in what state you live? I never had trouble finding a full time programming job in Rio Grande do Sul.

speeder 8y ago
I am in São Paulo I never got full time job offer, only contracts, some that were joblike (ie: company treated me as actual contractor but expected me to be present 9-5 every day in the office). When I was fresh out of college I did got some offers for part time work, but with wage so small it wouldn't cover any of my costs at all (for example wages were smaller than my monthly debt repayments of student debt alone).
- mtw 8y ago
  It sounds like you have good programming experience and can write decent English. I would look for remote work with a North American or European startup, send them your GitHub account and recent work. That would be better than trying to find a local opportunity

st1ck 8y ago

Does something prevent you or other STEM guys from freelancing or finding a remote job?

bdamm 8y ago
Immigration laws? Sufficient social mobility to build the requisite contact network? It's not quite as easy as hanging a resumé out on github.
- graeme 8y ago
  There are remote work sites where you can get $30 USD an hour or more programming if you speak English. That’s massively more than local wages. for devs. So even a partial success at foreign freelancing can create a lot of financial breathing space.
  - speeder 8y ago
    Link please? One of my difficulties was when I had college debts, I kept trying to find remote work for around 25 USD, and people still thought it was too high, on freelance.com and whatnot, but I couldn't go lower because then I would lose money (ie: not cover my debts and expenses).
    - graeme 8y ago
      Was thinking upwork. I may be off on rates. But when I hired a dev on elance (precursor site) a few years back, $30 was the price I paid. I tested a couple people for whether they could understand the request. Could have gone cheaper with worse English ability, but seemed like a mistake. I imagine you do have to stsrt lower to get some reviews first. That’s a big thing clients look for.
    - st1ck 8y ago
      I got my last two long-term remote jobs through upwork.com. But probably it's hard to find a job above $20 per hour if you don't already have reps there. Having some rare skills helps though. If you don't mind (remote) full-time, you can try remoteok.io, Angel list, stackoverflow jobs etc. Recruiters can also help.

yourapostasy 8y ago

> ...eating enough protein in some months have been hard... Do you happen to have enough space for raising rabbits? If you cook a lot of fresh vegetables for your family and yourself, then there is almost certainly enough to feed the rabbit from the trimmed vegetable scraps, and nearly any restaurant would be happy to give you vegetable scraps if you ask and arrange for it ahead of time. If you have more time than money, then this might help your protein deficiency. Start with one rabbit, then a breeding pair if you can get over the butchering part. Otherwise, a couple of chickens will yield lots of eggs, some of which you can trade for other proteins. Rabbits and chickens can be raised in most apartment-scale situations, but the key is setting aside enough daily time to diligently tend to them. Usually only 15 minutes a day is sufficient, but YMMV.