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Comment by zettavolt | Hacker News Reader

Thank you for the advice, frankly I would love to work for Matasano, they are arguably one of the premier security firms in the country. However, I have difficulty placing myself in the top-tier category they are in (plus they are not in San Francisco). I honestly don't know if I could write a network protocol fuzzer without relying on SPIKE or Scapy off the top of my head in an interview.

As far as Square goes, I feel I have 0 chance there. I would love to work there as well but no computer science/Math degree, spotty work and residence record and entirely self-taught. I get the feeling that doesn't jibe with their culture and I would just be wasting their time and mine.

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Every time I've seen tptacek post on HN's Who's Hiring threads, he makes it pretty clear that Matasano has a bay area office.

You should email him. The worst that happens is he says "No". And, well, in that case, nothing changes.

You don't sound desperate for a job.

Maybe, my reasoning is that while I'm in the privileged position of being young, it's a greater loss for me to potentially botch the interview today and jeopardize future employment with Matasano than to just eke it out today.

Additionally, how do you convey to an employer without sounding like an asshole "Please, I need to be hired AND get paid at least 700$ before the end of this month"

Additionally, how do you convey to an employer without sounding like an asshole "Please, I need to be hired AND get paid at least 700$ before the end of this month"

You don't. Borrow the money from a friend or family, sell your TV (or other things you don't necessarily need right now). Talk to your land-lord about it, and try to get an extension temporarily. There are lots of things you can do.

You are better off going in now and making the connection than waiting for the perfect moment. If your skills aren't up to par, at least you will be remembered and they will be more impressed when your skills are up to par (shows you can improve significantly). I applied as an intern for a company sophomore year, got rejected, ended up seeing the person at a conference early senior year, got the internship after senior year. If you truly want to work there, be persistent. Someone who is persistent and shows that they will improve to fill gaps in their knowledge is way more desirable than someone who has great skills from the start (since they may not be as motivated or likely to change their skillset).

Stop being a a scared pansy. If everyone had your skills, we wouldn't have a developer shortage. You're perfectly employable by any number of local and remote programming companies based on your skill set.

If you've actually applied to more than 20 places and aren't getting hired, it's not your programming skills you need to be working on.

You can make $700 by the end of the work by working anywhere, even McDonalds. First, get a job so you can have a roof over your head, then grow upon that.

There is no shame from being denied a job, or starting from the bottom. We all had to at one point, and sometimes we are knocked down a few notches on our way back up, but there's nothing you can do but get back up and keep trying.

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