4 ms·

I just started a 5-hour a week gig and I am addicted. Imagine being paid for the hours you put in. Imagine not being yelled at or ridiculed or told to figure it

I just started a 5-hour a week gig and I am addicted. Imagine being paid for the hours you put in. Imagine not being yelled at or ridiculed or told to figure it out if what you're asked to do is ambiguous or makes no sense. Imagine being able to bill time adding questions to tickets to train ticket writers to write better tasks. And the kicker for me: imagine all the time you'd spend working on your craft in your own free time to better yourself and learn new skills now imagine using that time to do all those things and learn all those things but being able to get paid for it while working on jobs/tasks for a client. Contracting is amazing.

moeris 3y ago
> Imagine not being yelled at or ridiculed or told to figure it out if what you're asked to do is ambiguous or makes no sense. I think maybe you just worked at a terrible business. You experience contacting sounds more like my experience at my current job.
- gigatexal 3y ago
  I was being a bit dramatic but I do seem to have to deal with a lot of empty or otherwise barren tasks in Jira that were created with a lot of implied information i.e tickets with just a title and no body or tickets with a title and very little information in the body.
moneywoes 3y ago
May I ask how you found this role? I find networking confusing I’ve been sending connection requests to people on LinkedIn to no avail
- gigatexal 3y ago
  I got lucky. I posted on HN's Who Wants To Be Hired really looking for a new role but with a blurb that I was open to contracting and someone reached out.
- gigatexal 3y ago
  Networking is about starting within your sphere of influence. If you have no network start with friends and family. Ask "who do you know at company X or in industry Y that I could talk to about roles [A,B,C] at company X or how I could better align myself for a role in the industry or at company X." (I hope that makes sense.) Example: "Hi Mark! We both worked at company A and now you're at Apple! That's so dope! I'm reaching out because I am looking for a change and I really think it'd be fun to work at Apple. How do you like it there? I know the place is super secretive so maybe generally can you tell me how working there has helped you grow in our field? I saw these two Apple roles A and B links here and here. Could you help me talk to the hiring manager to really see exactly what they want from a candidate, what problems they're trying to solve? Would you be willing to refer me to the role? Thanks, John Doe" Then work your way up. So say you have a role and have folks you worked with that have moved on to companies you think are cool. If you are a worker with a good reputation of being productive etc., reach out to them (even better if you were friends before they left) because you have the current company in common it will serve as a conversation starter. Ask them about their current role, what they like, how they've grown, and if there's a role there that you want to interview for ask them for advice about it and even for a referral. You can repeat this process for folks that share your same university, church, other social group etc. But that's basically how I approach networking. Oh and one more thing, nobody likes being a stepping stone or being used. So in all these interactions be honest, open, and be genuine. Legit take interest in them and their success and they will reciprocate. Good luck! Feel free to reach out (email in bio) if you wanna chat more. And if you want to migrate to Berlin I have some pointers there, too as that's what I did. I am originally from Portland, Oregon.
  - mandeepj 3y ago
    Can you please share your journey about moving to Berlin?
    - gigatexal 3y ago
      Yes! So in around 2015 or so I was a bored MSSQL DBA and had been on HN for some time. I noticed the who’s hiring and looked for Python roles. I had taught myself enough Python to be dangerous and thought I’d apply. The role happened to be in Hamburg, Germany. I didn’t think anything of it so I applied. They responded and offered me a job. It was a logistics startup in Hamburg! They moved my whole family over. My wife, my dogs, and all our stuff. 7 months later I and a bunch of other employees left as they moved development to India. I had a bunch of roles in between but have always found something. And finally I landed a role in Berlin and it’s awesome. We moved here about 2.5 years ago from Hamburg and we love it a ton more than Hamburg. Berlin is far more accepting of foreigners. Housing is still nigh impossible to find for reasonable prices but it’s doable if you press really hard and don’t give up.
rustyboy 3y ago
> imagine all the time you'd spend working on your craft in your own free time to better yourself and learn new skills now imagine using that time to do all those things and learn all those things but being able to get paid for it while working on jobs/tasks for a client. CAn you explain this more? Maybe your work doesn't align a lot with your interests but when i'm working I feel like i'm learning and when i'm not working, setting aside learning as a hobby, that studying eventually gets rolled back into my work (which I get paid for)?
- gigatexal 3y ago
  Yeah. I am in fact leaving my role for a role that I think might be more interesting. I have been doing the same old Python + SQL for 3.5 years and claiming the title of Data Engineer and feeling stuck. So it’s time for a change. Ideally it would be amazing during the 8 hours I’m working to be growing but that’s not been my experience.

moeris 3y ago

> Imagine not being yelled at or ridiculed or told to figure it out if what you're asked to do is ambiguous or makes no sense. I think maybe you just worked at a terrible business. You experience contacting sounds more like my experience at my current job.

gigatexal 3y ago
I was being a bit dramatic but I do seem to have to deal with a lot of empty or otherwise barren tasks in Jira that were created with a lot of implied information i.e tickets with just a title and no body or tickets with a title and very little information in the body.

moneywoes 3y ago

May I ask how you found this role? I find networking confusing I’ve been sending connection requests to people on LinkedIn to no avail

gigatexal 3y ago
I got lucky. I posted on HN's Who Wants To Be Hired really looking for a new role but with a blurb that I was open to contracting and someone reached out.
gigatexal 3y ago
Networking is about starting within your sphere of influence. If you have no network start with friends and family. Ask "who do you know at company X or in industry Y that I could talk to about roles [A,B,C] at company X or how I could better align myself for a role in the industry or at company X." (I hope that makes sense.) Example: "Hi Mark! We both worked at company A and now you're at Apple! That's so dope! I'm reaching out because I am looking for a change and I really think it'd be fun to work at Apple. How do you like it there? I know the place is super secretive so maybe generally can you tell me how working there has helped you grow in our field? I saw these two Apple roles A and B links here and here. Could you help me talk to the hiring manager to really see exactly what they want from a candidate, what problems they're trying to solve? Would you be willing to refer me to the role? Thanks, John Doe" Then work your way up. So say you have a role and have folks you worked with that have moved on to companies you think are cool. If you are a worker with a good reputation of being productive etc., reach out to them (even better if you were friends before they left) because you have the current company in common it will serve as a conversation starter. Ask them about their current role, what they like, how they've grown, and if there's a role there that you want to interview for ask them for advice about it and even for a referral. You can repeat this process for folks that share your same university, church, other social group etc. But that's basically how I approach networking. Oh and one more thing, nobody likes being a stepping stone or being used. So in all these interactions be honest, open, and be genuine. Legit take interest in them and their success and they will reciprocate. Good luck! Feel free to reach out (email in bio) if you wanna chat more. And if you want to migrate to Berlin I have some pointers there, too as that's what I did. I am originally from Portland, Oregon.
- mandeepj 3y ago
  Can you please share your journey about moving to Berlin?
  - gigatexal 3y ago
    Yes! So in around 2015 or so I was a bored MSSQL DBA and had been on HN for some time. I noticed the who’s hiring and looked for Python roles. I had taught myself enough Python to be dangerous and thought I’d apply. The role happened to be in Hamburg, Germany. I didn’t think anything of it so I applied. They responded and offered me a job. It was a logistics startup in Hamburg! They moved my whole family over. My wife, my dogs, and all our stuff. 7 months later I and a bunch of other employees left as they moved development to India. I had a bunch of roles in between but have always found something. And finally I landed a role in Berlin and it’s awesome. We moved here about 2.5 years ago from Hamburg and we love it a ton more than Hamburg. Berlin is far more accepting of foreigners. Housing is still nigh impossible to find for reasonable prices but it’s doable if you press really hard and don’t give up.

rustyboy 3y ago

> imagine all the time you'd spend working on your craft in your own free time to better yourself and learn new skills now imagine using that time to do all those things and learn all those things but being able to get paid for it while working on jobs/tasks for a client. CAn you explain this more? Maybe your work doesn't align a lot with your interests but when i'm working I feel like i'm learning and when i'm not working, setting aside learning as a hobby, that studying eventually gets rolled back into my work (which I get paid for)?

gigatexal 3y ago
Yeah. I am in fact leaving my role for a role that I think might be more interesting. I have been doing the same old Python + SQL for 3.5 years and claiming the title of Data Engineer and feeling stuck. So it’s time for a change. Ideally it would be amazing during the 8 hours I’m working to be growing but that’s not been my experience.