

Ask HN: Where to work while studying as a mature age student? - deevus

I'm a 27 y/o from Newcastle, Australia and I am starting a Bachelor Degree in Computer Science this year, after working 5 years as a programmer for a local company.<p>Ideally, I would like to get a part-time/casual job while at uni that:<p>a) Is programming related
b) Pays relative to my skills (ie. not a straight out of high-school uni student)<p>Freelancing seems like an option, but I have never done any. Also, the impression that I get is that most freelancing jobs are web-development related, and creating UI's isn't my strong point.<p>Currently my day job mainly consists of working on the MS stack (C#) in (ASP.NET MVC, backend services, MSSQL, Powershell) and Javascript. I have worked heavily with Delphi, and in no particular order I have worked (personally and not on big projects) with Python, node.js, Java, and C++.<p>EDIT: I suppose what I'm asking is how should I approach the job market? I can't imagine there being specific jobs for "mature age students with x years experience", and expect my requirements to be somewhere in between what is typically listed.<p>If I have omitted anything deemed important I will be happy to provide it.<p>Thanks<p>Simon
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CyberFonic
You could seek out web-design / front-end oriented local consultancies and
offer to do their back-end server programming. I would suggest focusing on
your current strengths. Doing CS F/T is heavy enough going without having to
learn new languages, frameworks, etc.

Check out oDesk, eLance, etc. They have a lot of jobs going. If you are
disciplined and very productive you might be able to generate some income. The
downside being that you are competing with people from lower cost of living
countries.

If you have server, networking skills then you could look for work with
systems integrators who need people to work graveyard shifts in data centres.

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orangethirty
With your skills it should not be too hard to get remote work. I'd say wait
for the next freelancers thread here on HN, write a good post talknig about
you and expect the avalanche of responses. I usually get _at least_ 10 emails
on the same day the thread goes live. Someone with your skills is very
valuable. If you need help writing the ad, just drop me a line and I'll help
you out (as a favor). Email on profile. Good luck!

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dear
Just keep working in the same company, either as a part time while studying
full time, or and work full time while study as part time.

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deevus
In prior discussions with them, the impression that I get is that I will not
get much work if any if I study full-time, and studying part-time is not an
option for me.

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paperghost
sysadmin role / help desk in large company

