[HN Gopher] Ask HN: Best alternative jobs for "outdated" skills ...
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Ask HN: Best alternative jobs for "outdated" skills with small
websites/apps?
I am a software engineer who is self-taught, and after graduation I
took local jobs for small web shops for dev work. Here's a brief
description of my timeline from beginning to present: - 1.5 years
contract-to-hire SWE (W2 never actually happened) - 3 months full-
time W2 work, followed by 6 months unemployed - 10 years
independent contract work (freelancing) - 2.5 years of no work,
and a lot of job searching The last 5 years of independent
contract work have been very sporadic. I typically made under $10k
every year. I don't really know how to "put myself out there" as a
freelancer, and after 10 years of doing it, I just want to go back
to W2 as a FT employee. My tech job skills include, PHP, MySQL,
vanilla JS and jQuery. I don't know testing, cloud, or CI/CD
practices. Jobs involve building small scale websites- at first
only WordPress and eCommerce sites but around year 5 become more
much web app SaaS-focused. I have spent a very long time without
work because I don't really know how to fit myself into other
places with such a skill set. I get interviews and then get
rejected for not being good enough. But these are the skills I have
the most experience in by far. I don't have any other job skills
that come close. I don't have close friends and relatives who have
a good pulse on the tech industry. I do have a Github portfolio-
it's not very "hot" or "trendy" tech but just things I do them
because I enjoy doing them. What other good options do I have? It
doesn't have to be highly relevant to work I've done in the past.
Anyone have any ideas of what I can or should do? A side note:
I've been working remote since 2013 (may explain a lot about my how
my career has went) and am pretty good with maintaining a schedule
and discipline around WFH.
Author : spearingthehead
Score : 7 points
Date : 2022-06-07 22:36 UTC (25 minutes ago)
| coderintherye wrote:
| In my experience, you should be applying at small to medium-sized
| companies that are _not_ tech companies. There 's a ton of work
| in these companies and hiring is more focused on solving business
| problems than answering brainteasers in interviews. Just go to
| LinkedIn and search Jobs for "PHP", here's one right off the bat
| that fits your skillset:
| https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/3094812914/
| spearingthehead wrote:
| So I guess making a return to PHP web shops but just "doing
| your job better" and take advantage of FTE opportunities for
| promotions, etc. Correct?
|
| The job in that link is a junior job. I'm pretty open to
| reverting to a junior W2 job, with a modest (but not too low)
| salary, BUT it does raise the concern of presenting myself to
| employers.
|
| I already know that a lot of employers will see 10 years
| experience and applying to junior jobs as a big red flag. Do I
| just present myself with a shorter resume, with less
| experience? Navigating the jobs market when you're stagnating
| 10 YOE and "expert beginner" is a big headache.
| eatonphil wrote:
| Yes 100%. If you, OP, are already outside of a major tech metro
| (so not SF, NYC, Seattle, Boston) then even better. Small
| companies outside of major tech metros are desperate for
| developers who can code because these companies cannot compete
| on stock or salary the same way major tech metro companies do.
| These small companies often even train up smart-looking people
| who don't know code already just to fill their needs.
|
| Judging solely from your "resume", OP, you are in a very good
| position.
|
| Try looking around Craigslist too for local companies hiring
| developers. That's how I got my start ~10 years ago. If you
| have any code you can share, try emailing the CEO/CTO directly
| explaining your interest and sharing your resume and code.
|
| And always ignore the exact qualifications listed and apply
| anyway. You don't know what the candidate pool looks like for a
| company and listings tend to inflate what they need or can get.
|
| Happy to chat more in email (see my HN profile) since I was in
| a similar place as you, OP, years ago.
|
| Anyone, not just OP welcome to message me.
| clorohk wrote:
| I'm kind of in a similar boat in terms of tech stack. A few
| things you could do:
|
| Try to get into https://www.codeable.io/. Haven't tried
| personally yet, but might in the future.
|
| Have a look at low-code/nocode tools and become an expert in one
| of them (Shopify, Wix, Webflow, Zapier, etc.)
|
| Concentrate on landing pages and reach out to marketing agencies
| to ask if you can contract with them. Might be the easiest way to
| get a fulltime job as well.
|
| Ignore the requirements and simply apply for some of the job ads.
| Especially for older big companies, many of them are likely to
| run on your stack and simply put things like cloud in because the
| hiring manager has heard that's what they need to do.
|
| Just some ideas, hope this helps.
| stefanos82 wrote:
| Every day that passes by I read stories that are so much alike to
| each other...it's so scary, because this is what I am going
| through for years now, with my ups and my downs.
|
| If you would like to chat tomorrow, feel free to join
| https://larachat.slack.com/ so we can talk.
|
| I'm using the same nickname.
|
| Have no worries; we will make it.
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