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Comment by channikhabra | Hacker News Reader

thanks for advice. I'll try to quit whining once I get a hold of myself. And I love programming. The problem is I don't or can't stick with one thing. I have many projects hanging. I thought trying to do a regular job will help and gave interviews in several local companies. Since I have not graduated yet, despite my portfolio most of them offered me to do work for 3 to 6 months for free and then a similar package. One of them even offered me to do paid training with them before they "think" about hiring me. The company I am joining now were the most generous of all I met. Thing I wanted to whine about was the trend of exploitation that's going on in the city, but I think it turned out to look like me whining about the job. I am actually kind of excited as I will have to learn many things which I would not have touched otherwise. And yes I have plans for my own development shop. I will do it once I have enough confidence.

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I spent my last weekend styling and setting up an online shop for a client that included importing 4,000 products from their existing locked-in system - took me about 20 hours and I still have about 10 hours of time to put in but the job is for about $4,500. It was as boring as hell and I would have preferred to be spending the whole weekend with my wife and kids, but in those 30 hours I just made your annual wage four times over.

30 hours is not long to have to stick with one thing, and if you put in 30 hours on odesk at $10/hour you could take the next twelve and a half weeks off compared to what you are signing up for. Even at $2/hour you would still only need to work every second week and still come out ahead.

I can only guess that competition is fierce but you only need to find and retain a few companies that can feed you some work and you are set. So, sure do what you are planning if it keeps food on your table, but set each Sunday to match your month's wage and when you do, get out.

Next weekend when I'm working rather than spending the whole time with my family I'll rethink whether I could outsource it for 10% of what I make if I could find one programmer I could rely on to get it done correctly, quickly and discretely.

That's my first world problem.

I'm going to ignore all of the other parts and address this: "The problem is I don't or can't stick with one thing."

I've found focus gets better with age. Young minds benefit the most trying to discover and learn as much as possible. You get bored when the initial learning portion vanishes.

Sometimes you need a project that has a wide enough breadth that it can hold your attention over a very long period of time. When one part gets boring, you move to the next part. Over a few months you rotate around but you must return to each piece and make it better.

It was very interesting reading your story.

I am trying to get a freelance webdesign/developer career going, but I am quickly learning that doing freelance projects is much more about getting clients, managing clients, and making sure they are happy than it is about programming, design or development skills.

Anyways, I hope you new job goes well and good luck!

This can be restated for almost every business there is. It's why sales guys are paid so well.

My thoughts as well. 'Division of labor' - not everyone can be a great salesman and a great programmer.

Can you link to your portfolio? My suggestion to you tonight is to build a single about me page that links to all your work, and why it is good and someone should hire you.

I have this - and mine is utter crap. I cannot believe I have so little good stuff to show, despite years of doing this. (http://www.mikadosoftware.com/paul_brian). I realised that I also do not finish projects - but I have to finish something so I at least put it on github and link to it.

You can do better.

This surely must become a trend - looking on ODesk for a fool to do crap work must give way to CVs that demonstrate actual ability.

I don't think you are whining. Its perfectly rational. 6000Rs a month ? I heard that construction workers in Delhi get 4000Rs - that's brutal. There are Django devs in Bangalore charging 3000 / hour.

Running your own shop is a whole new set of skills. Working at this place might give you the insight for later in your life when you can move up the ladder. Maybe you are doing the right thing. Just get your focus fixed on the next level up and how you can get there.

edit: no, don't take this job. from your skill set I think you have already well passed this level. there's nothing to learn and it might even look negative on your resume.

Can you move down to Delhi ?

Construction workers in Kerala make 20000 a month - would you move and do that work?

If I was a construction worker then I would if I could. but I doubt anybody that isn't a Malayalam speaker can get those jobs.

do you know if there are many northerners that move to bangalore ? plenty of AP and TN move there I know.

Kerala has a dearth of manual labor. There are 2.5m Northies working in Kerala as manual labour today - I am talking about their wages only.

[insert the obligatory joke] that's because 70% of time on the job is spent adjusting the lungi.

Agreed - but the Northies are using Lungies too in Kerala :)

Do it before you have enough confidence. Take it from someone who started a business that did okay from the beginning, then miserably failed for about 2 months, then came back and does great now. The times of despair are when you learn the most, because you get practical knowledge on how to make a real business work. You get the confidence to bug the shit out of people until they become your clients, and the audacity to get out there and find opportunity anywhere you can.

My late uncle used to say this over and over again: zamindar nahi banenge jab app kam kisi aur keliye karehe. If that didn't make sense, it's because my Hindi sucks: what I mean is you'll never get rich working for someone else.

Have you tried out going through Matasano's crypto-challenge? It's fun, and they use it as a funnel for their recruiting efforts. (See http://www.matasano.com/articles/crypto-challenges/)

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