5 ms·

I've been trying to find a salaried position at a company for a while now. I've been offering 3 days per week for 50% salary and health care. This give a compan

by bradly 5y ago

I've been trying to find a salaried position at a company for a while now. I've been offering 3 days per week for 50% salary and health care. This give a company that couldn't afford an engineer with 16 years of professional Rails experience at Apple, Intuit, and successful startups at the rate of a junior engineer. You get all the mentoring, team building, hiring experience. Still haven't had any serious takers yet, so I started woodworking instead. If anyone is interested in leaving teach to learn woodworking/furniture making, reach out!

animal_spirits 5y ago
Ah I'm not too far into my tech career (2 years) and wouldn't say I'm looking to get out quite yet (I'd like to pay my debts off first), but I'm curious to hear what you've learned about getting into woodworking. I can't find your email on your page though :(
- bradly 5y ago
  I've added my email to my profile. Here are some of my big takeaways after just a few months: - Hardwood is expensive. Very expensive. I get most my wood out of the scrap box and use that to practice techniques (bow tie inlays, dovetails, veneer making, epoxy, live edges). - Quality tools are expensive. Very expensive. Even hand tools can easily be over $100 for a single chisel or rasp. Hand planes and hand saws will start at over $200 often times. - The work is very rewarding. - The people are very helpful. I reached out to a furniture maker on YouTube I've been enjoying and asked if I could come work and learn with him for a couple weekends and they were onboard. - There are co-working spaces with full wood and metal shops. I belong to one and I'm there most weekdays for a few hours, but most of the others are running 1-3 person companies making quality furniture and art. It's great to be around. $200 a month for table saws, drill presses, band saws, planers, jointers, spindle/edge/disc/widebelt sanders, 10'x5' CNC. - Community colleges and local woodworking associations offer lots of classes on a variety of topics and techniques. I took an initial five day course where I made a cutting board and stool. Since then I've taken a lathe classes and I have a measuring and marking class and a shaker tray class next week. - Buy the SawStop.
kevinmchugh 5y ago
Have you tried selling 24 hours per week at 100% of your salary as a consultant?
- bradly 5y ago
  I consulted long ago, but I just didn't really enjoy looking for clients, thinking about taxes/deductions, invoicing, and the like. I'm always open to helping out with consulting, but it isn't something I want to go out of my way to seek out.
  - kevinmchugh 5y ago
    I ask because I've never seen a company employee a software engineer for 3 days/week, at any price, but I've seen them pay a lot for contractors with 20-30 hours of availability per week
    - renewiltord 5y ago
      Odd that there aren't tech consultancies that launder the job, then.
      - hackerfromthefu 5y ago
        There definitely are, especially if you have a track record with them and negotiate the consultancy and end client toward it.
jrochkind1 5y ago
I've been pretty lucky getting 4 days a week at 80% plus health care, at several locations. Some of them had existing policies that 80% was the least you could work and still get health care though. It may be that 3 day is pushing it too far, even at 50% instead of 60% of salary (or that may be too confusing to not have the salary be proportional). I am pretty confident that I am 95% as productive at 4 days as I am at 5 days (and I'm a fairly productive engineer). But I take 80% of salary anyway, cause it's worth it. (I also don't, even at 100%, make the 99th percentile incomes that many on HN seem to).
- bradly 5y ago
  That's great to hear companies are open to four days for 80%. I'm surprised as engineer's salaries go up and up that there aren't more people looking to trade money for time.

by bradly 5y ago

animal_spirits 5y ago

Ah I'm not too far into my tech career (2 years) and wouldn't say I'm looking to get out quite yet (I'd like to pay my debts off first), but I'm curious to hear what you've learned about getting into woodworking. I can't find your email on your page though :(

bradly 5y ago
I've added my email to my profile. Here are some of my big takeaways after just a few months: - Hardwood is expensive. Very expensive. I get most my wood out of the scrap box and use that to practice techniques (bow tie inlays, dovetails, veneer making, epoxy, live edges). - Quality tools are expensive. Very expensive. Even hand tools can easily be over $100 for a single chisel or rasp. Hand planes and hand saws will start at over $200 often times. - The work is very rewarding. - The people are very helpful. I reached out to a furniture maker on YouTube I've been enjoying and asked if I could come work and learn with him for a couple weekends and they were onboard. - There are co-working spaces with full wood and metal shops. I belong to one and I'm there most weekdays for a few hours, but most of the others are running 1-3 person companies making quality furniture and art. It's great to be around. $200 a month for table saws, drill presses, band saws, planers, jointers, spindle/edge/disc/widebelt sanders, 10'x5' CNC. - Community colleges and local woodworking associations offer lots of classes on a variety of topics and techniques. I took an initial five day course where I made a cutting board and stool. Since then I've taken a lathe classes and I have a measuring and marking class and a shaker tray class next week. - Buy the SawStop.

kevinmchugh 5y ago

Have you tried selling 24 hours per week at 100% of your salary as a consultant?

bradly 5y ago
I consulted long ago, but I just didn't really enjoy looking for clients, thinking about taxes/deductions, invoicing, and the like. I'm always open to helping out with consulting, but it isn't something I want to go out of my way to seek out.
- kevinmchugh 5y ago
  I ask because I've never seen a company employee a software engineer for 3 days/week, at any price, but I've seen them pay a lot for contractors with 20-30 hours of availability per week
  - renewiltord 5y ago
    Odd that there aren't tech consultancies that launder the job, then.
    - hackerfromthefu 5y ago
      There definitely are, especially if you have a track record with them and negotiate the consultancy and end client toward it.

jrochkind1 5y ago

I've been pretty lucky getting 4 days a week at 80% plus health care, at several locations. Some of them had existing policies that 80% was the least you could work and still get health care though. It may be that 3 day is pushing it too far, even at 50% instead of 60% of salary (or that may be too confusing to not have the salary be proportional). I am pretty confident that I am 95% as productive at 4 days as I am at 5 days (and I'm a fairly productive engineer). But I take 80% of salary anyway, cause it's worth it. (I also don't, even at 100%, make the 99th percentile incomes that many on HN seem to).

bradly 5y ago
That's great to hear companies are open to four days for 80%. I'm surprised as engineer's salaries go up and up that there aren't more people looking to trade money for time.