4 ms·

> Some statistics recently suggested that a snowball had a better chance of opening an ice cream shop in the deepest layer of hell than I have of getting anothe

by dmitri1981 16y ago

> Some statistics recently suggested that a snowball had a better chance of opening an ice cream shop in the deepest layer of hell than I have of getting another job. You could not be more wrong. I organise the London Hacker News meetup and speak weekly to people who are DESPERATE to get a good developer. Unemployment may well be high, but there is huge demand for good developers. Unless you have very strong ties to the area I would recommend moving closer to a big city and you'll be able to make considerably more than £17k.

bhickey 16y ago
Dmitri speaks the truth. I'm in the process of joining a company after meeting one of the founders at his meetup last month (White Bear Yard). At £17k, you could be doing better driving a bus in London.
- gjm11 16y ago
  Except that in order to live somewhere he could afford on a London bus-driver's salary, he'd need to be somewhere awful (actually, I don't know whether London has awful-and-cheap bits these days) or way out of town with a horrible commute. None the less: yes, there are more and better jobs in cities. There's also more competition for those jobs, though. I'll hazard a guess that although there's a lot of unemployment where the OP lives now, the unemployed people there are probably mostly not software developers.
  - dmitri1981 16y ago
    You can get a good room in Dalston for £500 a month, starting salary should be from £25k and up.
throwaway_burn 16y ago
According to the BBC, In the city I live, there is around 8 unemployed people for every 1 job here. I'd love to work/live in London, but I am a bit nervous about getting down there because I don't have a degree. I'm completely self taught.
- pmichaud 16y ago
  That doesn't matter. When I hire I don't even look for a degree, I look for code, I look for things you've built, and built well. Then I look for a person who I will like and get along with.
- didip 16y ago
  I don't know how the programming climate in UK, but here in west coast US, I am almost always the only one who have computer science degree in the team. But, most of my coworkers (who don't have degree) are fantastic hackers, wielding /usr/bin like magician, appending to fifo as hack-around, compiling xen kernel from source, etc. So, don't get discouraged. If your situation is agile (being single or without children), move to big city, embrace its big-cityness, and enjoy its salary.
- dmitri1981 16y ago
  I doubt the BBC is talking about developers. You have skills which are in strong demand. It sounds like you are reasonably experienced and that MAY make up for the lack of a degree. Also, in web dev a degree is really not necessary and there are plenty of people in the industry who are self taught. If you would like to improve your CV, contribute to some open source projects on github on a few weekends. I guarantee that will put your CV on top of the pile if are a decent coder. Many places will be able to do a first round interview over the phone, which should cut down on travel hassle. Also, if London is too far away there are plenty of good employers in Bristol which should be a bit easier for you. Anyway, if you need any more help / advice drop me an email on d.grabov@gmail.com
- Symmetry 16y ago
  You have something better than a degree, you have work experience. I really wouldn't be worried about the number of unemployed people around - you have specialized skills that are in demand and most of them don't. It may be that they'll all try to apply to any job they see, making the matching of jobs to candidates harder for all concerned but I really wouldn't worry about it too much.
- scott_s 16y ago
  Interview with places in London. If you get a job, move.

bhickey 16y ago

Dmitri speaks the truth. I'm in the process of joining a company after meeting one of the founders at his meetup last month (White Bear Yard). At £17k, you could be doing better driving a bus in London.

gjm11 16y ago
Except that in order to live somewhere he could afford on a London bus-driver's salary, he'd need to be somewhere awful (actually, I don't know whether London has awful-and-cheap bits these days) or way out of town with a horrible commute. None the less: yes, there are more and better jobs in cities. There's also more competition for those jobs, though. I'll hazard a guess that although there's a lot of unemployment where the OP lives now, the unemployed people there are probably mostly not software developers.
- dmitri1981 16y ago
  You can get a good room in Dalston for £500 a month, starting salary should be from £25k and up.

throwaway_burn 16y ago

According to the BBC, In the city I live, there is around 8 unemployed people for every 1 job here. I'd love to work/live in London, but I am a bit nervous about getting down there because I don't have a degree. I'm completely self taught.

pmichaud 16y ago
That doesn't matter. When I hire I don't even look for a degree, I look for code, I look for things you've built, and built well. Then I look for a person who I will like and get along with.
didip 16y ago
I don't know how the programming climate in UK, but here in west coast US, I am almost always the only one who have computer science degree in the team. But, most of my coworkers (who don't have degree) are fantastic hackers, wielding /usr/bin like magician, appending to fifo as hack-around, compiling xen kernel from source, etc. So, don't get discouraged. If your situation is agile (being single or without children), move to big city, embrace its big-cityness, and enjoy its salary.
dmitri1981 16y ago
I doubt the BBC is talking about developers. You have skills which are in strong demand. It sounds like you are reasonably experienced and that MAY make up for the lack of a degree. Also, in web dev a degree is really not necessary and there are plenty of people in the industry who are self taught. If you would like to improve your CV, contribute to some open source projects on github on a few weekends. I guarantee that will put your CV on top of the pile if are a decent coder. Many places will be able to do a first round interview over the phone, which should cut down on travel hassle. Also, if London is too far away there are plenty of good employers in Bristol which should be a bit easier for you. Anyway, if you need any more help / advice drop me an email on d.grabov@gmail.com
Symmetry 16y ago
You have something better than a degree, you have work experience. I really wouldn't be worried about the number of unemployed people around - you have specialized skills that are in demand and most of them don't. It may be that they'll all try to apply to any job they see, making the matching of jobs to candidates harder for all concerned but I really wouldn't worry about it too much.
scott_s 16y ago
Interview with places in London. If you get a job, move.