

Would You Want This Job? Hard work, middle of Kansas - whatwoulddadsay
http://blogs.jobdig.com/wwds/2008/05/25/help-wanted-over-50kfree-health-carefree-home/

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menloparkbum
I spent 18 years in a rural farming community and this seems phony. Any farmer
who is that dialed in and successful has already been doing what all the other
farmers in america do: use seasonal & migrant labor. The "free beef" part
really pushed it past the point of believability. It reads like the author is
practicing his writing skills to land a gig writing polemics for the National
Review.

Assuming it is legitimate, this job sucks because whomever accepts it is
becoming an indentured servant for a land-owning farmer.The skills the person
learns are not transferable to any other occupation, and no other farmers are
hiring this sort of person. If something goes sour in the relationship, the
worker doesn't just lose a job, he loses a house and is stuck in rural Kansas.

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whatwoulddadsay
This was at a family reunion, maybe he was kidding about the free beef, but it
sure didn't seem that way at the time. He is working himself to the bone. And,
I am not trying to land any gig. GLH

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Tichy
"He is working himself to the bone."

Why is he doing that?

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jrockway
Why do people do anything? This isn't uncommon, though; plenty of people here
work themselves to the bone on their software projects. When you own your own
business, you get ahead by working.

~~~
Tichy
It makes him sound like some kind of hero, though. Maybe he is, but in
general, I think ruining one's health through working too much is not a good
idea.

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yankees1
This highlights the fact that there are quality, good paying jobs in the US. A
good portion of the unemployed are unemployed because they overvalue their
skills or aren't willing to make changes necessary to become employed.

~~~
ojbyrne
I find this article to be interesting in light of your comment. It's about
20-somethings scrimping, working crappy jobs, lots of sacrifices, just so they
can live in NYC:

<http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/25/nyregion/25scrimp.html>

I'm sure that it's a quality job, but most people are more interested in a
quality career, and they generally perceive that not too many quality careers
happen in rural Kansas. Not that aren't any, but there are probably
exponentially fewer than in the nearest large city.

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helveticaman
If food prices keep rising, there'll be a lot of quality careers in Kansas.

~~~
ojbyrne
Since the food prices are rising primarily due to the price of gas, perhaps
there'll be a lot of farming jobs (even careers!) nearer to major cities.

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ComputerGuru
I don't get why most everyone on HN assumes all hackers are < 30, have no
family, and would give their left nut to live in a big city or The Valley.

I know plenty of middle-aged experts in the computer industries with wives and
kids who love it out "in the country" and wouldn't trade it for anything else.

While there's a lot to be said for the bling and bang of living in somewhere
like NYC, Seattle, SF, Chicago (my hometown! :D), or the valley; there's a
whole 'nother side to the coin that involves a quite family life away from the
city and the people.

~~~
dcurtis
The majority of "the valley" is suburban and there is absolutely no glamour to
living in San Jose. An hour from Palo Alto, and you're in Gilroy, a rural
community in the middle of nowhere.

In a lot of ways Silicon Valley is rural/very suburban and far removed from
big city life.

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davidw
I think 'rural' is going a bit far, but it would be fair to characterize the
valley as "All the drawbacks of a big city with non of the benefits".

~~~
rms
\+ venture capitalists and SF

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whatwoulddadsay
According to Craig, he has advertised with the local workforce centers who
attend nearly all the job fairs in cities within driving distance. Not to
mention the online job boards, farming magazines, etc. I just thought we all
might be interested in a middle America, ie farming dilemma right now, in
light of all the woe is me talk on the media. The one person is right...there
are jobs,maybe not where you want or need them. It could be a great life for
someone.

~~~
jrockway
He did mention 20 hour workdays, though. I personally struggle with 8 hours :)

~~~
breck
:).

8 hours is a lot for me too. However, right now I'm sitting on an unsteady
(swiveling chair), struggling to hammer another key under intense pain
(carpal-tunnel syndrome), in a frigid (air-conditioned) apartment. I think if
it wasn't for this harsh working environment I could work longer hours. Maybe
I'll give that farm guy a call.

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Tichy
Can't be the wages? I bet there is a price for which many would consider it.
For example, if he paid 2000000$ per year, I would consider it (for a while).

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mdakin
If he really is advertising well, interviewing people and not getting results
the offer is simply too low. There must be some factor that we can't see from
this blog post that is visible to the people he's interviewed that makes this
job NOT worth the money he's offering.

~~~
kingkongrevenge
He's probably full of shit. These employers make deliberately ridiculous
recruiting efforts so they can prove to the INS there are no domestic
candidates and they need worker visas. They post the ads in tiny low
circulation classified sections and then come up with specious
disqualifications for any domestic applicants.

This smells just like a case last year where a PR piece pushing liberal
immigration law backfired. A guy who owned a lawn service company did his bit
for the cause blathering on about how he couldn't get ANYONE domestic to work
for him for something like $10/hour. He needed illegals. Well it turned out,
he wasn't advertising anywhere and was just directly recruiting illegals. When
this piece got even a little circulation native born Americans were lined up
around the block asking him for work.

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mattmaroon
I think if I were a lot of people, yes. This is a more appealing option to me
than getting paid $9 an hour to be a door greeter at Wal-Mart. With free
housing and food and $80k a year salary, it wouldn't take long to become
independently financially stable.

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josefresco
Could you outline his attempts at finding applicants? Where has he advertised
this open position? I find it hard to believe there's nobody in this small
town, or a neighboring county/state that is interested.

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utnick
yea i think he needs to improve his applicant finding skills

its not like people don't live in small towns anymore... there are thousands
of people working in mcdonalds in tiny highway towns that would kill to get
paid 80k a year

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barry-cotter
Hey, will your mate take an English speaker with no intention of working
legally, who doesn't want to pay tax, with no intention of staying longer than
a year?

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pistoriusp
I know plenty of South Africans that would go for this, in fact I know a guy
who was "migrant" worker in the states. Drove a harvester. Two of my other
friends worked for a traveling Carnival in the USA.

They all got to see a large portion of North America, and saved some money in
the process.

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lvecsey
Maybe pay someone to hand out cards to homeless people on the streets of big
cities. A google-like bus shuttle to get people to/from every month or two,
since you will likely cycle through people rather than retain them for a year.

~~~
zach
Let me be gentle about this. I think Craig is primarily looking for someone
with the skills to practice dedicated work. Homelessness develops one's skills
in different areas. I don't think working long hours in ag country would be a
good match for big-city homeless folks.

~~~
dcurtis
You mean to say that homeless are lazy and have no work ethic?

That's true of most homeless, I think. But a small minority of them probably
are good physical laborers who just lack the ability to find good jobs. I
wonder how one could weed these out of the general homeless population.

~~~
wallflower
Unfortunately, a sizeable percentage of homeless also suffer from mental
illnesses that directly impact their ability to hold down a job. A friend of
mine who works at a metropolitan hospital constantly sees homeless people
there, by their entrance not to beg but because they want to be admitted, to
get treated, to get off the streets.

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edw519
Never said _how many_ 18 to 20 hour days. Depending on this answer, this could
be an excellent setup for a software startup. Work double shifts during
planting and harvesting, single shift and part time the rest of the year. Live
for free, write software the rest of the time. Bank everything. All you'd need
is broadband and some deposit slips. By the time your software was done, you
could be your own angel.

~~~
danohuiginn
_nods_

My impression is that this is a fairly common model for communes - farm work
during the some seasons, spend the rest of the year working for cash or on
some big project.

If you strip out the cultural differences, communes and start-ups have a lot
in common. I don't see why a start-up/farm couldn't work in this way, just so
long as you don't try to launch a product in September.

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rms
I'll do it for 250k a year

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whatwoulddadsay
Hmmm, nope.

