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[TheBiggerFish]

Oh, wow...
*pats*

I hope whatever you decide turns out well.

[BlackFlyme]

I didn't make this to not use it, though it may be a bit late now:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Then again, I don't know why I made it.

[TheBiggerFish]

Give it to Helgoland.
Dew eet.

[Yoink]

Goddamnit Marx, stop hogging the blunt!

[Rose]

Had another look last night at online freelancing, and quickly remembered why I gave up the idea last time.

Too much competition. It doesn't matter how good you are if you're in the middle of like 50 people applying for the same job posting.

[itisnotlogical]

Had another look last night at online freelancing, and quickly remembered why I gave up the idea last time.

Too much competition. It doesn't matter how good you are if you're in the middle of like 50 people applying for the same job posting.

I got an online freelancing job and ended up making $6.75 an hour. It was not worth it, even though the person actually treated me like a human being and explained what they wanted (this is a rarity, apparently). I mean, it was fun, but I had to quit because there was no way I was going to live on that.


I wish I could settle down and accept the fact that maybe the best I'll ever do is to have a regular, tedious job where I clock in, sort widgets for The Man, clock out, and come home to about the same life that I've lived for 20 years now. Probably even in the same apartment complex that I've been in for seven years.

I want to dual-major in Math and Computer Science. I've been working my ass off. But about this time next year, when I have all of the credits for my associate's degree, I'm going to have to

A) Pony up the cash to move to Portland, Corvallis or somewhere else with a CS program real fucking quick
or
B) Quit
or
C) Move with not enough money, and come home a few months, maybe a year later as a failure

I don't want a job where I am completely and utterly replaceable, where there's a security camera everywhere and "You can be fired for..." lists all over the place because some rich fuck in Astoria respects the crackheads that eat at McDonald's more than his own employees, where I had to be afraid of speaking up about the racist, sexist general manager (at least she's gone, thank fuck) because my livelihood means about as much to Ronald McDonald as the hooker he's snorting coke off of right this second, and a corporation would rather fire some kid in retaliation rather than uphold the law, because they're big enough and old enough and rich enough to get away with that sort of thing, and have gotten away with it at my very store.

I want something with my name on it that people will be using and talking about for decades. I want to feel like I exist for some reason other than to clock in, do my bit, clock out, occupy myself until I next have to clock in, repeat until dead.

[Solifuge]

Had another look last night at online freelancing, and quickly remembered why I gave up the idea last time.

Too much competition. It doesn't matter how good you are if you're in the middle of like 50 people applying for the same job posting.

I got an online freelancing job and ended up making $6.75 an hour. It was not worth it, even though the person actually treated me like a human being and explained what they wanted (this is a rarity, apparently). I mean, it was fun, but I had to quit because there was no way I was going to live on that.

It's.... yeah.

There's ways to promote yourself or increase your chances of winning a contract bid, but unless you work in an uncommon niche, are willing to take on the clients and jobs that other folks won't touch, or in the case of a particular freelancing company if you have the money to burn on promoting your bids over others, that competition never stops.

I think all the professionalism and charisma I can muster, a portfolio custom tailored for each bid, and all that still only gets a response to 1 out of maybe 15 bids, and many of the bids I end up winning after that are by people who want me to severely undercut myself to minimum wage levels, have no idea what they want, have no idea what they're asking for, or abandon the job completely.

In terms of hours-per-$$$ earned, most of my work remains entirely unpaid, and that that is paid is not paid half as well as the skills would earn in full-time employment. But it is money, and there are a lot of contracts out there, depending on the skillset in question.


Edoot:

I wish I could settle down and accept the fact that maybe the best I'll ever do is to have a regular, tedious job where I clock in, sort widgets for The Man, clock out, and come home to about the same life that I've lived for 20 years now. Probably even in the same apartment complex that I've been in for seven years.

I want to dual-major in Math and Computer Science. I've been working my ass off.

-snip-

I want something with my name on it that people will be using and talking about for decades. I want to feel like I exist for some reason other than to clock in, do my bit, clock out, occupy myself until I next have to clock in, repeat until dead.

itisnotlogical, I sorta feel you there. I have trouble working under people or on their terms (particularly when they're harmful, absurd, or unsubstantiated authority-for-authority's sake), and I am really only happy when I'm creating things, or doing something that matters. That's why I'm doing the idiotic freelancing in the first place. It's enabled me to practice for the things I make on my own in my spare time, enabled me to decide for myself what I'm qualified for, incentivized me to learn how to do what I don't know already, challenged me to be able to prove it despite my lack of a piece of paper that says I am thus qualified, and is generally enabling me to pursue the long-term goal of gamedev.

That said, you can do the thing. Set a goal, find the steps needed to get there, or at least the first steps to take you closer. Don't be afraid to compromise, and keep at it with the energy you've got available. These things are possible; there's always ways to try.

[Rose]

Yeah, to hell with paying money to promote myself.

But yeah, I live in a place where I'm already working at the only company in reasonably distance that will hire me, and they don't pay me enough.

And $6/hr is still 3 times as much as I'm making in my salaried job, so I'd be happy to get that much, if I could make it happen.

[Orange Wizard]

Someone who's decently competent at programming in NZ would normally be earning upwards of $30 an hour. You should move here.

[EnigmaticHat]

I want to dual-major in Math and Computer Science. I've been working my ass off. But about this time next year, when I have all of the credits for my associate's degree, I'm going to have to

A) Pony up the cash to move to Portland, Corvallis or somewhere else with a CS program real fucking quick
or
B) Quit
or
C) Move with not enough money, and come home a few months, maybe a year later as a failure

Maybe you could head over to Germany for the free college education?

[Rose]

Someone who's decently competent at programming in NZ would normally be earning upwards of $30 an hour. You should move here.

Problem would be convincing the government of that so they let me in.

Also getting a ticket there.

And finding a place to live there.

Besides that, sure.

[hops]

It's New Zealand. They'll let anyone in so long as you buy a house.

[Rose]

That requires money to buy a house.

I'm piss broke here, what to speak of there.

[Orange Wizard]

It's easier than that IIRC.

Actually, here you go: http://www.immigration.govt.nz/migrant/stream/work/skilledmigrant/caniapply/skilledemployment/

[Skyrunner]

I'm in over my head in my Probability & Statistics course... a lot of the concepts in multivariable probability distributions assume you know multivariable concepts like partial derivatives, determinants, Jacobian theorem and stuff. And like ten different types of distributions, none of whose pdf/cdfs I memorized...

~drowns~