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Comment by soulnothing | Hacker News Reader

I've been "laid off" pretty much every six months for the past several years. Over and over my team has been out sourced for a cheaper alternative. Or the project was not properly scoped and would be above budget.

This happened last week. Me and my team delivered a high frequency trading platform. Ahead of schedule, and better performance than requested. But still, we were too costly so we were all let go. Then it was shipped over seas.

I'm really questioning what I want to do now. I love coding, but constantly being outsourced is getting very tired.

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>Me and my team delivered a high frequency trading platform. Ahead of schedule, and better performance than requested.

Sounds like you have the startings of your own business there.

Intellectual assignment clause. It's limited a lot of ideas I've had. Combining that with constantly having to look for a way to provide a roof. It limits the ability to start a new business.

>Intellectual assignment clause. It's limited a lot of ideas I've had.

You had those ideas right after the contract with the assignment clause was terminated though, right?

This was an assigned project, so the idea / implementation was not my own. The dev / architecture is something I use on most projects I work with though.

I think you're missing the implicit "wink wink" lol

Unless you signed some non-compete that extends beyond the time you were employed (and you're in a jurisdiction where that's actually enforceable), taking that idea and whipping up a new implementation from scratch (then selling it to other businesses, including, say, your former employers' competitors) should be perfectly legal. It might be a bit below-the-belt, but well, maybe said former employer should've thought about that before kicking you to the curb :)

One possibility is to work on contract only, billing appropriately (i.e. significantly more than "permanent" salary), so that you _know_ it's just temporary. This way, you don't have as much emotional whiplash of thinking of this as your future and then it gets pulled away. Of course, it's not for everyone, just suggesting a possibility.

Thanks.

I've already tried to go this route. I actually avoid full time now at this point, for this reason. But the lack of delivered projects, and highlights on my resume. Have limited the upper amount of my rate.

Where are you based?

Philadelphia / remote.

without knowing your experience, did you try working for google etc?

I can maybe offer my help, on how to study for interviews and so on. it's not hard, but it's annoying to code algorithms and whatnot. It's a muscle that needs exercising.

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