How feasible is it to get a tech job, be it programming or whatever, that is less than 40 hours a week but pays enough to get by?
I don't mind living on a paycheck by paycheck basis if it means I have my freetime. I love programming and I don't want it to be ruined by a job. I want to keep having freetime and plenty of time to pursue other stuff.
Pic related too, I don't want to lose my ability to stay up into the wee hours of the morning doing fun projects. It literally makes my heart sink every single time I think of a future like that. There must be something I can do.
Ayden Carter
bump. really tearing me up
Colton Bailey
pretty much nothing part time pays enough to live on. All the jobs, tech and otherwise, that do pay enough for that want you to be full time. Or, commonly, more than full time. (the reason most tech workers are salaried instead of hourly is because they want more than 40 hours a week out of you)
You can freelance but that's pretty much full-time by another name. You're your own boss but generally if you don't put in full-time level hours you don't bring in enough money, unless you're some real hot shit indeed.
Austin Hughes
kys
Isaac Robinson
So if most programmers make $20 an hour at least, that's like $2400 a month. In Texas could I probably just live in a shit apartment with a roommate off that?
Angry wageslave, begone!
Owen Butler
I work about 50 hours a week. 10 hour work days. It's exhausting but I get weekends all to myself. I also really like my job.
Or just move to the Detroit Michigan area. There are some parts with few or no niggers. My two bedroom apartment is only $900 a month with utilities included. It's pretty nice.
Robert Reed
>two bedroom >$900 The fuck? I live in NH and can find 2 bedrooms for $700
Aaron Evans
He's in one of the parts with little to no niggers. You've got to pay a premium for that in Detroit.
Sebastian Williams
the only way you can get by on so few hours is if you're a god, like an auditor or a consultant
stop trying to be a special snowflake no one cares about your salsa classes and dank memeing. especially not bosses.
Liam Hill
Honestly any company that has their shit together will work normal hours.
Banks are usually pretty good for non-crazy environments.
Leo Thomas
$20
yeah, 3-4 years ago
your local community collage is churning out the devs like cookies from the cutter. forget about it
Joshua James
What point are you trying to make here?
Wyatt Flores
go to hell if you don't want to work but want to make a living
Carson Ortiz
I'm not OP, I'm just trying to understand your new kind of stupidity.
Matthew Flores
I live in WA and pay $1500 for 1bd. The divide is real
Levi Hall
mine? how about yours pizza party live at home til you're 30 loser.
these threads are all so sad to me. it's about people who clearly don't have talent or motivation getting off on their own presumptive superiority while asking why are their social and financial statuses so low.
it's actual morons asking why are they so incapable.
Jose Murphy
Ageism is a very real thing in software.
If you want to get into software, then go all-in. Bust your ass to try and get into a BIG and respected company (Google, Apple, Facebook). Either work your way up through the ladder there, or just do 3 - 5 years before moving on. Move on to another big company to further gold-plate your resume.
I cannot convey to you the value of doing this. Your resume will be forever moved to the top of the stack, even if you're a fucking unqualified idiot compared to other candidates that don't have a big, respected name on their resume.
Then either move into management, or start using your BigCo contacts to get VC funding to launch startups.
You will be effectively unemployable after the age of 35, unless you're entrenched in a large enough company, or find a small, local company that's stable but not very ambitious.
Focus on saving money at a high rate and buying real estate. Real estate is where money is made, period.
If you do this, then you'll have all the time in the world by about 40 years old.
Elijah White
thank you
so many people don't want to work hard. this is a good articulation
Julian Mitchell
>it's actual morons asking why are they so incapable.
That's unnecessarily harsh and unfounded.
A lot of getting jobs in tech comes down to social signaling. Interviewing in tech is an absolute joke. In many cases, they're just testing for, "does this guy have the exact same background as me".
It's no surprise that there are a lot of underachievers on this board. If you don't play your cards right from the get-go, you can quickly find yourself on the wayside.
You should consider living your life with a bit more compassion for others.
John Gomez
Right... except I moved out when I was young and bought a house in my early 20s. You literally can't even form basic sentences...
Enjoy your minimum wage brah.
Zachary Watson
Ive been working as a dev for about 3 years now, earning a decent amount. I find that whenever i have to work late hours, its because i procrastinate. Im easily distracted, until i feel the pinch of the project deadline, and im suddenly able to focus 100% and get the job done on time, but not without late hours put in. My advice OP is if you want to work normal hours, you really have to work kn your time management and know how to achieve flow, or enter the zone as quickly as possible.
Also, it takes time to find a company that you fit in with. Theres no shame in leaving and finding another job. If youre a decent dev, therell be no shortage of jobs for you. Good luck OP.
Angel Hernandez
It's not about working hard, it's about having the right strategy.
I know a lot of Googlers. *Most* of them don't actually work that hard. A few do, and they were on the fast-track to Staff.
But *all* of them are dramatically more valuable in the eyes of subsequent employers than, for example, I would be. I've busted my ass at poorly run startups doing all kinds of weird and interesting things, but their resumes would always be put above mine.
Levi Gutierrez
Just work full time and save enough money to retire early. Why the fuck would you ever want to be living paycheck to paycheck?
Juan Flores
compassion? i only have my high school and i worked my fucking ass and liver off for this and im only getting started.
i know many people working just as hard and doing so well in their own rite
i don't accept that plea at all
Wyatt Carter
Are you me?
I've found that the Pomodoro technique helps a bit. I've also worked on thoroughly estimating tasks (breaking them down into sub-tasks), then tracking how many Pomodoros I spend on each one.
The older I get, though, the more I think I should just be on Adderal or something.
Jayden Butler
>that is less than 40 hours
Been out of school for a while now and my experience, at least in software development, is that it will be hard to find a job that is under 40 hours a week. If you're salaried, you're fucked. They own you and you're working 40 hours a week minimum. Best bet is probably to be self-employed.
William Wilson
thx ho but you gotta go
Kevin Wood
>compassion? i only have my high school and i worked my fucking ass and liver off for this and im only getting started.
You have no idea what hard work is yet.
>i know many people working just as hard and doing so well in their own rite
I don't even know what you're trying to say here, since your English is so poor.
>i don't accept that plea at all
Don't accept *what*? Learn to communicate, kid.
Hunter Rodriguez
that value will lessen exponentially as employers realize how many people google hires without meeting face to face
Nicholas Cooper
Code monkeys are unemployable because after 4-5 years they can be replaced with 21 year old kids from college.
PhD CS'ers aren't unemployable. They have skils to do real shit.
Jaxon Fisher
You bring shitposting to a new level.
Ethan Lopez
go you're posting on g just the same, i think you're a depressed and lonely person.
what projects are you working on tonight? if your job is even real it's a temp
what now spaz
Alexander Davis
so original, so not autistic
Asher Morales
Never heard of the pomodoro technique, but ill look it up. Im trying to use trello to manage my tasks, but its failing as it requires discipline which i lack. Im terrible at keeping on top of my tasks, but i always get the job done on time.
Brody Rivera
It hasn't yet, and it's not likely to anytime soon.
>PhD CS'ers aren't unemployable. They have skils to do real shit.
That's just false. There are nowhere near the number of positions calling for a PhD, and every person with a PhD in CS that I've met has been terrible at actually delivering software. They're fine for research and architecture, but pretty terrible at implementation.
Irrelevant, baseless, personal attack. What are you trying to accomplish, you hateful turd?
Isaiah Peterson
Minnesota and pay $525 for 2 bedrooms
Nathan Long
Is there nothing at all computer related that pays $1400 a month and doesn't require me to leave my house?
Any suggestions for self-employment, basically?
Gabriel Morales
baseless? you're clearly autistic, lonely, and also must have no self esteem
the evidence is clear here, look how hard you're trying.
calling people out for their writing rather than addressing the argument that you probably either like dicks or have had a cerebral interruption is just dodging
Gavin Martinez
Start a company and advertise on Craigslist. You'll have to learn to market yourself though. And let's face it, you probably aren't good at that, right?
That's what I've always hated. The self-promotion, outreach, talking to "clients" 3/4 of which want work for free, or idiots looking for a "technical co-founder" (i.e. work for free)...
Colton Price
*Yawn* your dumb, personal attacks are boring.
> look how hard you're trying.
Huh? I answered some questions. What's with this weird idolization of cultivated disinterest?
>calling people out for their writing rather than addressing the argument
I literally have no idea what your argument is, because you can't articulate it.
>you probably either like dicks or have had a cerebral interruption is just dodging
*Eyeroll*. You're boring.
Ethan Garcia
Marketing and sales are fine.
What I should actually do is a different matter. I've heard good things about building websites, but that requires ongoing costs.
Evan Campbell
thats the mistake nerds are making by not going to business school
everyone has a CS bachelor after 5 weeks of Sup Forums
peeps need to sell themselves and stop being nancyboy fucking sissies
Anthony Morris
Look into the telecom infrastructure field.
depending on what you do, it can be an indoor or outdoor job, and some positions pay as much as you want to work.
Certified fiber-optic techs and splicers can make a grip of money working largely at their own convenience. It is also almost retard levels of easy to get certified and most reputable outfits will train you. Also a hugely-growing field. You will never be without a job for long.
Bentley Parker
reddit.com/r/iamverysmart
it's for you bud. lmao
Christopher Long
>itemizing my response like a report to your client
wow what service i get here, thanks, i didn't know you cared about defending your posts that much
Lucas Butler
Become an Ad Trafficker.
Hudson Bennett
OP said they're fine just getting by. Obviously not looking to be rich or anything.
Aaron Morgan
Actually, it's my opinion that, unless you're going to go to a top-ranked CS school (Berkeley, MIT, Stanford, etc.), that you're better off doing a Business major with a CS minor.
Personally, I felt that my time in college was wasted with a CS major and math minor. I learned most of the CS in my excellent high school program, and I never used math higher than algebra in industry (including some fairly interesting work).
I'd have been much better served by learning the business lingo so that I could more effectively work with clients. Plus, it would have given me more flexibility. Would you rather be mediocre among brilliant programmers, or the king of Excel in your office? I suggest that Sup Forums think hard about what it really wants in life, and whether you're really going to get that by being an exploited nerd versus leveraging your technical skills in a less-technical role.
Grayson Stewart
so then they should do freelance web dev... oh wait no it's not the 00's
sorry op it doesn't work that way
well it does if you can sell yourself but this thread doesn't inspire hope
Parker Lopez
>What I should actually do is a different matter.
Not really. You need to market yourself to local clients.
Your goal should be to develop business relationships with local businesses. They need their shitty Visual Basic, MSSQL, and Excel contraptions maintained. They need their proprietary data entry software fixed. It's not terribly exciting, but it can be rewarding and generates ongoing work.
Jaxon Lewis
How much do you guys think I could make streaming myself programming?
I hear that's all the rage nowadays.
Henry Long
if what you're getting at is that it's god to specialize than i'm 100% of the way there with you. otherwise fuck excel though man honestly haha
but yeah between the jack or the master this is clear
Nolan Brown
if you do it open source the sky is the limit just start now, tonight, and don't stop
it's not about trying it's about doing. youtube rol
Isaiah King
>They need their shitty Visual Basic, MSSQL, and Excel contraptions maintained. They need their proprietary data entry software fixed. It's not terribly exciting, but it can be rewarding and generates ongoing work. See, most places over here in europe hire a guy just for all that random crap. Most of it's not allowed out of the business.
I could literally get a job with SAP though.
Aiden Parker
>How feasible is it I don't know the US market, but in Europe, this would be trivial: get a job as a software consultant.
These companies sell man-hours and therefore routinely sell fractions of your full with week anyways.
Evan Taylor
That's not what I'm getting at.
What I said is that if you don't want the rat race of a software engineering career, then you should seriously consider the advantages that your technical aptitude gives you in less-technical roles.
Here's the reality of a career in software engineering: virtually every manager will consider you to be annoying overhead. You're constantly bleating about things he doesn't care about, and he just wants you to shut up and make things go smoothly. You are a resource to be exploited, and the moment you falter there are 50 more Sup Forums-drones shoving in their applications to the job listing because he wrote "code ninja rockstar 1337 coder needed for difficult work" (even though it turns out it's writing CRUD apps). Nobody will understand what you do all day, and unless you're a web front-end dev, nobody will appreciate the work you do. I cannot emphasize this enough: the work that generates visually impressive bullshit will be lauded while the difficult code that addressed dangerous bugs and made huge returns on long-term maintenance will go completely ignored.
Samuel Thomas
I gotta say i agree with this guy.
Theres definitely a need for your phd csers in a company, but they do not make up your core dev team. And if your core dev team is made up of fresh grads, youre doing it wrong.
Most people here seem to think that if youre not a phd holder doing pure cs, youre shit, which is so terribly misinformed.
Both phd csers and good software devs are employable. Theres so many pajeet posts on g, but not once in my career have i been worried of a pajeet taking my job. Its all about knowing the value you bring to a company.
Luke Ross
ah, i guess im misunderstanding the ideas
my field is crowded but not competitive so the cruft gets relegated quite quickly
but then again the pay scale here doesn't peak so high as the devs. That's why i hope to either get into security because somehow i take a smart pill or just start consulting after i've put in another few
Ian Lewis
Sounds like you worked at shitty companies your entire life.
Daniel Wood
i was programmer in office many years it destroyed my soul
Nicholas Morgan
I know when I lived in ABQ (2009-2012) studios just outside the University were renting for $250 utilities included.
Gabriel Hernandez
I don't know. I'd say I worked at a pretty wide variety of smaller companies. From long-standing, family-owned ones to California startups.
I also know a lot of people who work for Google, Amazon, and Facebook.
From what friends have told me, I'd say that Google is -- by far -- the best company to work for. Amazon is the absolute worst. I've never heard a positive thing about Amazon from an Amazon employee.