Bhavya031

where do you work?

Reason for remote job: I am from India, and here the criteria are so high, and the pay is very little in comparison. I don't like the culture here, and I don't like the cities where tech jobs are good. I will not name the city, but the best I can describe it is obnoxious. Everyone is just doing DSA, and I don't like it.

Some of you might suggest moving to another country. The thing is, looking at the current economy of the USA, especially today, there is a big recession coming, and I don't want to be there when it happens. If I can stay at home, I can afford to be jobless, but not in a first-world country. I will eventually move in 2 or 3 years, but not now.

Sorry about the not-so-concrete body; it was late, and I was having a bit of an emotional crisis. I just wanted to know what people think. To answer your question about why I want to work remotely: I come from India, and I don't want a job here because the criteria are so strict, the pay is too little, and I don't like the culture. I don't think DSA (Data Structures and Algorithms) is bad, but here, if you want a job, you often have to do DSA to clear interviews, as they ask DSA questions in all rounds. It is far removed from development, and I want to do development.

You might suggest moving to another country. The thing is, looking at the current economy of the USA, especially today, there is a big recession coming, and I don't want to be there when it happens. If I can stay at home, I can afford to be jobless, but not in a first-world country. I will eventually move in 2 or 3 years, but not now.

The thing is, I want to take a risk. I want to see if I have it in me. I’ve always wanted to start a small business without being too worried about revenue. I envision a small team with creative freedom, where we ship projects we enjoy. In general, I want to have fun doing something I love.

Let me give you an example. Look at this agency, https://klioh.com/. It is run by very talented women, and I checked their pricing—it ranges from $10k to $30k. They don't have many clients, but they enjoy what they do. I had a chat with the founder, and she told me that they travel most of the time, have a small team, and enjoy great freedom in where they can work from.

I don't plan to copy her—that would be foolish—but I want to take on more complex projects while providing equally good service. The market is and will always be competitive. Startups are also inherently competitive, especially now. The job market is tough. I’m competing with Ivy League kids for internships, and I don’t like to complain about the fact that I come from India. If you’re from India and from a tier-3 college, you're likely to be ignored. It’s not their fault, but my profile doesn’t speak credibility. There are thousands like me.

Despite this, I don’t get demotivated. I still try to build projects and apply for opportunities. If I work in tech in the future, I want to do it for the purpose, not for the money. I also have a bad habit of overthinking decisions in my life. To cope with it, right now, I’m doing nothing. Even if I work, I keep thinking about it. These days, all I do is cook new things, watch TV, and after dinner, I check this thread to see what people are saying and try to understand it. Writing this long paragraph gives me more clarity for my future, so thank you, stranger. Have a great year.

The thing is, I have to do what some might consider "loser" activities right now because I come from a third-world country. If I want to build a startup or do something extraordinary one day, I need some money to support myself. I don't come from a poor background; on the contrary, I come from an upper-middle-class family. My parents can fund my studies abroad, but that's it. After that, they don't have much money left to give, and I don't intend to ask for more.

If this agency can get $50k a year in the worst case, that might not be bad because the currency conversion rate is favorable, and it provides me with some funds for the future. While I don't disagree with Thiel, I don't have the money to have zero revenue in my pocket for several years. However, I'm not naive enough to just sell a website. I will sell something creative, and the website will be a key part of that. Or maybe I will brand a business—who knows? This is my last year of college, so why not do something crazy instead of nothing?

So, general things I've learned from comments are it's competitive for sure. Small businesses don't care much about how good a website looks. There is less demand for web design and more agencies and people to fill that demand. A website doesn't make such a big impact on users, so they won't pay as much or care as much about it.

So, it's becoming clearer that I should not start web design. But this discussion is not over. I want to understand the creative business more, so feel free to share your thoughts on parts of the creative world which are high in demand but low in feeling that demand.

Also, I want to target a very small market where I can dominate rather than scale