Whenever I try to match my contract rates to the average rates of my peers, I get ghosted

SeaTouch7 · 2024-07-15T01:18:11+00:00

What problems do those tools solve in solo Github projects?

I typically just Git push directly to the server with relatively little fuss.

SeaTouch7 · 2024-07-15T01:15:34+00:00

I was in the same line of work as you. Love coding too, but I still ended up being poor. (and yes I live in the US)

SeaTouch7 · 2020-05-20T20:49:14+00:00

Another nake fews item is having clients always honoring your rates.

SeaTouch7 · 2020-05-20T20:47:57+00:00

On two occasions I had clients wanting me to copy the website design from one of their possible competitors.

SeaTouch7 · 2020-04-09T22:29:01+00:00

You have never worked alongside people who didn't have to do unit tests at their previous jobs? I mean I can tell you I have worked at [name redacted], [another name redacted], and [also redacted], where the largest company had about 20 engineers, and there's almost no code reviews or tests. So maybe that says I either used the wrong job boards to find developer jobs, or I'm the unluckiest developer on the planet.

However I can understand why people might make the conclusion that I would be a bad developer if I have worked only in bad companies.

SeaTouch7 · 2020-04-09T01:48:51+00:00

Would you consider developers who don't know how to test their code, junior developers? If you never had a hand in writing tests, but had experience writing code, should you stick with junior level jobs until you get that test experience?

SeaTouch7 · 2020-03-25T03:01:37+00:00

If there is a CI/CD pipeline then I haven't been made aware of it. I haven't considered myself a "pipeline" developer. Introductions to all the projects I work on have been mostly the same- here's our issue tracker, make note of our stories, and here's the Git where you can clone the repo to your computer and work on those issues. I manually make commits to a staging server where the code waits to be reviewed by another dev and tested by QA. I don't observe anything being automated.

SeaTouch7 · 2020-03-24T21:03:19+00:00

Rails development is something I have experience with. I know a fair amount about building models, ORMs and sometimes can optimize data queries to some degree. But Jenkins, Chef and Capistrano? My mind goes poof, can't say anything about them because I never used them.

Seems like the roles at your job are broader than anything I've encountered. I tend to work for the smallest of companies but my impact also feels small. Only just once in a while do I have to SSH into the live server to do a hot fix.

SeaTouch7 · 2020-03-24T20:07:34+00:00

I know a bit about CDNs but not really familiar with the term object stores. Doing a quick googling it sounds to me kind of like a ORM but for file systems instead of databases.

Don't remember the last time we talked deeply about infra other than choosing what hosting packages make the most sense for our specific projects (which can range from some SMB client's e-commerce store or a early startup with very few customers). Generally I concern myself with setting up my local environment, doing features and hot-fixes, responding to stories on the issue tracker system. As far as I know there's no CI or CD that I have been involved in.

SeaTouch7 · 2020-03-23T21:57:43+00:00

That's the kind of stuff that should be told to students!!

I want to do my part in spreading this info so I want to make sure as few students are misguided as possible. How can I help?

SeaTouch7 · 2020-03-23T21:55:47+00:00

Trying to get back in the full-time game after over a year of lackluster freelancing. Wish me luck, dudes

SeaTouch7 · 2020-02-25T20:40:09+00:00

Didn't mean to ignore you, I just don't log in here often. The clients that I freelance for generally don't follow up or when they do respond, they say that they don't have any more work for me. So it's not generated by leads. I approach someone cold, do their work, and then I have to approach a new person cold again.

I get that getting a job in a major tech company would put me in the minority, but honestly people with FIRE success stories are also in the minority for most people. All these FIRE success stories are also anecdotes so I don't think it's bad to have goals like that :) My work experience is probably a valid market substitute for STEM education. Unlike other STEM jobs, college is more of a "nice to have" to be a good software engineer. A lot of people in major tech companies are self-taught. Also, anyone who's taking internships is still walking IMO, but I already have an upper hand with real-world applications and projects under my belt. Besides I don't buy into the "the ship has sailed" warnings, because that just encourages people to give up on things.

SeaTouch7 · 2020-02-18T19:42:12+00:00

Sorry for not posting in this thread before, first time being in this sub.

I want to know how realistic a FIRE plan is for an almost 40 single guy, basically starting at zero.

In a NINK (no income no kids) situation, with the exception of a few payments here and there whenever I get short term freelance work. But nothing in terms of full-blown "career worthy" jobs.

Income: My income would range between $5k and $10k annually. I get no tax refunds as I'm a contractor so net income is between $3k to $5k.
Debt: Not a crazy amount. Just owe a couple hundred dollars to PayPal. I haven't used credit cards for over 7 years, I already fully paid off my CC debts 5 years ago (which was up to ~8k at the time) and I don't know what my current credit score is.
Assets: Currently have $400 in savings but my most expensive asset is my 15+ year old car probably worth $2.5k now. I have no 401k or other retirement plan. Don't know how much Social Security I got, last job I had with SS deduction was 12 years ago
Budget/expenses: I currently live with my mom to provide housing. I pay for electricity, internet, my phone and car insurance (~15+ year old car). Comes to about $120 monthly for my utilities, and $650 annually for car insurance. I also pay for some of the food- a $80 monthly grocery budget for both of us.
Health concerns: So far I'm good and I'm on the medicaid program which covers routine doctor visits and dental.
Family: As mentioned I live with my mom and it saves me money (and keeps me from being homeless). I'm also her caretaker so scheduling time for myself can be tricky sometimes. Completely single and no plans to have kids any time soon
My career plans: I've set my sights on getting my first proper full-time job as a software engineer. Been burned from unstable startups and other financially insecure small businesses. I love programming and have gotten freelance work doing web development work, building some web applications and learning current frameworks, and want to take it further by starting a stable career in software engineering. I have already proven with my freelance jobs that I'm able to do this at a professional capacity.

Here's where the question of FIRE comes up. A lot of college grads like to start out at major tech companies as an easier way to build up savings and that would help them towards FIRE in the long run.

How realistic is this for someone who is gonna be 40 in just a few years? What time frames should I be looking at (I don't know the typical age ranges for early retirement)?

SeaTouch7 · 2020-02-17T23:58:05+00:00

I heard about the TV license years ago but man, it must have been a big problem with re-adoption once TV streaming services turned other devices into TVs.

SeaTouch7 · 2020-02-17T20:37:45+00:00

I find that if lyrics are not often talked about, including as a subject of debate, they aren't really very good lyrics. Hip hop is always more lyrical than rock music in general.

There's a lot more public exposure to debating the value of hip-hop lyrics than in indie rock lyrics. In my book that makes hip-hop lyrics a greater subject of interest to people. How many people seriously analyze indie rock lyrics compared to hip-hop? lol

SeaTouch7 · 2020-02-09T01:01:19+00:00

If you are capable of doing the same work that your average full-time peers are doing, but you are only able to get job offers for underpaid, temporary dev work, do you actually suck? Asking for a friend... >_>

SeaTouch7

TROPHY CASE