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Comment by geff82 | Hacker News Reader

For me, it was getting into IT when I was 30 (4 years ago) and for the first time in my life, I loved my work. I did not do it when I was 20, when was deeply into programming. Instead, I feared math in computer science studies, which led me to work as a car salesman (one that read HN all the time). When I was really broke and unhappy, I met a guy who introduced me into IT contracting for big companies. I just did what he said and instantly landed a long term gig that quadrupled my income. This, in return, made me read, read, read to learn as much as possible. Besides work, I now do Computer Science courses at university. Boy, had I known I could do all this, I would have started a decade sooner...

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I'm going to +1 this hard. Generally same story... when I turned 30 I managed to switch from my very niche career field of designing submarines (working for the navy/government) to doing what I loved (coding/computer stuff). I was a hobbyist for a while before... I took the leap and switched and now I'm happier and enjoy my work. I used to work 15 minutes a day working for the government and hated it (only so much internet you can surf/too bored). Now I work ~50 hour weeks but love what I do and I'm a lot happier doing it.

> I met a guy who introduced me into IT contracting for big companies. I just did what he said and instantly landed a long term gig that quadrupled my income.

Would you mind sharing some of the tips the guy gave you? I'd be really interested. I'm doing small-time IT contracting but looking to grow the business.

He told me: for your first gig, fake or optimize your CV as much as needed(I know this was not ethical but it was better than robbing a bank or being broke). Then, go to Xing (the German Linkedin, which is a gold mine if you know where the Freelancer group is). Then if someone picks you, learn and study as if the devil was behind you. So I did, applied for a lot of Linux administrator jobs, had interviews and it took me about 7 days to get hired by the first company for a long term admin-contract (I already knew my way around Linux, but had no enterprise experience). After a few months, this guy started his own contracting company and instantly got me a job. Nowadays, I am best friends with the guy who introduced me and even the poor guy who recruited me for the first job (I told him my lies later, which did not change his opinion that I had been a good pick for the customer). Nowadays, I keep it all real. My experience and field of work is good enough to be able to tell I had been a car salesman before. But to get good jobs in Germany or Switzerland, use Xing, freelancermap or to a lesser extend, use Linkedin. And know exactly what you want to offer.

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