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Comment by codeslush | Hacker News Reader

It seems to me that what he's doing is rather smart. It gives him an chance to be exposed to more opportunities than if he was trying to get hired and he can pick those on which he wishes to take a risk.

I would certainly change the wording a little to weed out the people who will just try to take advantage, but the overall strategy seems quite appropriate.

This will work very well for a person who's confident in their skills, but maybe having a hard time finding income from traditional sources. Get in, kick butt, make a statement and earn income.

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Working on open-source has the same benefits, and while a good profitable gig coming from that would probably take longer than 1 or 2 months, the benefits of being a known open-source author will last for much longer and fare much better going forward.

I swear, every time someone (with a known/useful open-source contribution) came to an interview for any company I worked for, everybody was drooling uncontrollably and thinking "how the hell could we please this guy to stay, after all, he's Google material".

Unfortunately, more often than not, this mentality is taken advantage of. To the pressured manager, Vlad provides an easy-out. It also sets a bad tone for the relationship between employer and employee.

It's also a negotiation uphill battle to go from $0 to $50,000/year. Any looming economic crisis multiplies the battle, and in turn, valuable enthusiasm for the industry.

His work is probably better than most, but his self-esteem regarding his abilities is apparent - especially to an employer.

While I don't completely disagree with you, I think his chances of success are better than spending x amount of time applying for jobs trying to get an interview.

I don't recall which company, but in the last two weeks, one of the big name startups put out a competition to solve a problem regarding log file parsing. It was an opportunity, basically, to get a job with them. Now, with this approach, the OP might be competing with thousands of others - and his chances of standing out are reduced. He's taken the inverse approach, and HE can pick the challenges he wishes to solve, with same end goal: income.

It's not unique - it's what a lot of driven people have done in the past to get in the door somewhere.

> I don't recall which company, but in the last two weeks, one of the big name startups put out a competition to solve a problem regarding log file parsing.

My idea is to do exactly what you say.

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