3 ms·

As someone who is a law abiding citizen in the Netherlands, I am jealous.

Teichopsia 7y ago
I'm ticked off. I'd be happy with half that amount and I don't even have a speeding ticket.
Sendotsh 7y ago
Jealous of what? He earned 2 associate degrees and then spent a year and a half doing coding courses, and then got a part time job in IT after he got out, and then moved up to a full role. The entire story is basically no different to any other person who works there way into IT other than he’s an ex-Con and in the US it’s hard for them to usually get jobs.
- mettamage 7y ago
  I earned 2 bachelors (CS and non-CS related), 2 masters (CS and CS-related). My master grades are a 4.0 GPA equivalent, or at least the top 10 percentile and whatever is associated with an A. In total, I've studied 6 years in IT-related studies at an academic level. I have about 1 to 2 years of work experience while I was studying. These study programs took 8 years of my life (and are supposed to take 9 years if you study it in a normal fashion). Despite that, I can't even get the attention of any company in the US and it has been a dream to work at Google (I started applying since 2015), but they never respond with a coding test. In most cases they don't respond at all, at other times it's a rejection. So yea, I'm jealous. I'm happy for this guy that he got such a great turn in his life. But I'm also jealous. Why can't I get such a turn in my life? I'm doing my best. And it's not enough. And that's a painful message to see and it's mostly because I can't work in the US. Silicon Valley privilege is a thing. I want to be there, I have the skills to be there but I can't, because I'm not an American and I basically need to be a lot better in order to be flown over with a H-1B visa. I know what I do have (living in a western European country with a relatively good social system), and I'm grateful for that. And I'm sad that there are amazing programmers who don't get the chances that do serve themselves on a silver platter for me. Some amazing programmers get shit pay by virtue of the country they're in, and they can't easily be recognized and get out. And I wish they'd be capable of making a $100K as well. Nevertheless, I am still jealous (and grateful and happy for that person, I feel all of it more or less at the same time).
  - unnouinceput 7y ago
    Oh, I know your type. I had once a boss that was like you, all academic background, zero practical skills. He was bragging around with his degrees and when put in front of actually programming something useful he'll just skimp around. Wanna know why you don't get even a coding test from companies? Because at the phone interview you raise all the red flags with your answers, so the hiring prospector realizes you're just a theoretical type, not a practical type. Piece of advice, do what my boss did, he went back to academic life and he's doing just fine there. You know the saying "those who can't, teach". So teach.
    - mettamage 7y ago
      You know why I 'brag' about my degrees? Psychologists never thought I'd be able to read or speak another language when I was young, that helped my resolve to show them that they were wrong. Moreover, my parents told me to stay in school because they never did and thought it was the ticket out of lower middle class. And I'm the first in my family to even reach university. No one, not even me (for a long time), expected that I could do it. While I'm not saying I'm the best coder (I'm not), I do have practical skills: - I created an OpenGL computer graphics engine. - I created a few games with GameMaker and Unity3D. - I helped built web apps despite being completely unfamiliar with the stack (two freelance contracts). - I created 2 iOS apps (two freelance contracts). - I made a semi-automated trader bot (not that it worked, but it was fun scraping the NASDAQ). I made a lot of other scrapers. The most fun one was to reserve for an exclusive restaurant that a friend of a family member of mine couldn't get reservations for despite that he was always clicking on it furiously just before the reservations opened. - I know my way around IDA Pro and have implemented a state of the art rowhammer attack called GLitch (with the help of the author).
      - unnouinceput 7y ago
        OpenGL computer graphics engine sounds interesting. Care to share it? I wanna take a look at it.
        7y ago
- rhacker 7y ago
  The person he killed will never have the ability to get 2 associate degrees, a year and a half of coding courses or a part time IT job, let alone their first kiss, have sex, or any of that stuff. so yeah it's not just a "other than he's..."

I'm ticked off. I'd be happy with half that amount and I don't even have a speeding ticket.

Jealous of what? He earned 2 associate degrees and then spent a year and a half doing coding courses, and then got a part time job in IT after he got out, and then moved up to a full role. The entire story is basically no different to any other person who works there way into IT other than he’s an ex-Con and in the US it’s hard for them to usually get jobs.

mettamage 7y ago
I earned 2 bachelors (CS and non-CS related), 2 masters (CS and CS-related). My master grades are a 4.0 GPA equivalent, or at least the top 10 percentile and whatever is associated with an A. In total, I've studied 6 years in IT-related studies at an academic level. I have about 1 to 2 years of work experience while I was studying. These study programs took 8 years of my life (and are supposed to take 9 years if you study it in a normal fashion). Despite that, I can't even get the attention of any company in the US and it has been a dream to work at Google (I started applying since 2015), but they never respond with a coding test. In most cases they don't respond at all, at other times it's a rejection. So yea, I'm jealous. I'm happy for this guy that he got such a great turn in his life. But I'm also jealous. Why can't I get such a turn in my life? I'm doing my best. And it's not enough. And that's a painful message to see and it's mostly because I can't work in the US. Silicon Valley privilege is a thing. I want to be there, I have the skills to be there but I can't, because I'm not an American and I basically need to be a lot better in order to be flown over with a H-1B visa. I know what I do have (living in a western European country with a relatively good social system), and I'm grateful for that. And I'm sad that there are amazing programmers who don't get the chances that do serve themselves on a silver platter for me. Some amazing programmers get shit pay by virtue of the country they're in, and they can't easily be recognized and get out. And I wish they'd be capable of making a $100K as well. Nevertheless, I am still jealous (and grateful and happy for that person, I feel all of it more or less at the same time).
- unnouinceput 7y ago
  Oh, I know your type. I had once a boss that was like you, all academic background, zero practical skills. He was bragging around with his degrees and when put in front of actually programming something useful he'll just skimp around. Wanna know why you don't get even a coding test from companies? Because at the phone interview you raise all the red flags with your answers, so the hiring prospector realizes you're just a theoretical type, not a practical type. Piece of advice, do what my boss did, he went back to academic life and he's doing just fine there. You know the saying "those who can't, teach". So teach.
  - mettamage 7y ago
    You know why I 'brag' about my degrees? Psychologists never thought I'd be able to read or speak another language when I was young, that helped my resolve to show them that they were wrong. Moreover, my parents told me to stay in school because they never did and thought it was the ticket out of lower middle class. And I'm the first in my family to even reach university. No one, not even me (for a long time), expected that I could do it. While I'm not saying I'm the best coder (I'm not), I do have practical skills: - I created an OpenGL computer graphics engine. - I created a few games with GameMaker and Unity3D. - I helped built web apps despite being completely unfamiliar with the stack (two freelance contracts). - I created 2 iOS apps (two freelance contracts). - I made a semi-automated trader bot (not that it worked, but it was fun scraping the NASDAQ). I made a lot of other scrapers. The most fun one was to reserve for an exclusive restaurant that a friend of a family member of mine couldn't get reservations for despite that he was always clicking on it furiously just before the reservations opened. - I know my way around IDA Pro and have implemented a state of the art rowhammer attack called GLitch (with the help of the author).
    - unnouinceput 7y ago
      OpenGL computer graphics engine sounds interesting. Care to share it? I wanna take a look at it.
      - 7y ago
rhacker 7y ago
The person he killed will never have the ability to get 2 associate degrees, a year and a half of coding courses or a part time IT job, let alone their first kiss, have sex, or any of that stuff. so yeah it's not just a "other than he's..."