

Ask HN: My character sheet makes no sense - joebadmo

tl;dr I'm smart and capable, but have no marketable skills, so am basically unemployable.<p>I started college right after high school in CS, but, bored out of my mind and depressed, dropped out after a year and enlisted in the Marines soon after that.<p>During my four-year enlistment, I fought in Iraq twice, saw the West Pacific (Japan, Thailand, Guam), and got pretty good at killing people.<p>After I got out, I went back to school on the GI Bill and got my B.A. in Comparative Literature, because I wanted to study something that would keep me engaged and interested, and I assumed I would be able to learn any technical skills (programming, which I was still interested in) on my own. Having gotten a bit older and gained a <i>lot</i> more discipline, I did much better in school the second time around, and raised my cumulative GPA from about 1.7 to 3.3, by maintaining almost perfect grades for those three years.<p>I graduated in 2009, which I understand was historically the worst time to do so. I was unemployed for six months, then finally got a low level adminstrative job in the federal government through veteran's preference. I also got married and bought a house. My job is a little bit soul-killing and doesn't pay very well. But it's tolerable (I've been through a lot worse) and secure.<p>I'm currently teaching myself to program for Android. It's fun but slow going, since my free time is limited. So slow, that I'm realizing that it probably isn't going to be more than a hobby unless I change something.<p>So: 
Infantry Marine: Level 4|
Comparer of Literatures: Level 4|
Bureaucracy Admin: Level 2|
Rock-climber: Level 6|
Programmer: Level 0<p>My options look to me like:
1. Stay in the fed. gov. Boring, but safe. 
2. Go back to school. I like academia and I'd be interested in studying CS, HCI, or IA, but I'm afraid of student loans and 'higher-education bubble' talk. And I've got a mortgage to pay. 
3. Find employment in a field I enjoy. I write essays on my blog about tech and tech products. A friend of mine at a software megacorp is convinced that I'd be a good Project Manager in the sense of Joel Spolsky's User Advocate. But neither of us see a path to there from here.<p>So my current plan is to put in my 40 hours, program Android by night, and regularly spam job listings, hoping that I'll slip through a filter somehow and be able to convince somebody I'm worth taking a chance on.<p>Advice?
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kelnos
The huge plus here is that you have a stable 9-5 that you can at least
tolerate for the present, which you can use to pay your bills. I wouldn't
ditch that unless you can come up with a solid plan to keep paying the bills
without it (not saying you can't; just keep that in mind).

I don't really know much about becoming a project manager. If you think that's
what you want to do, I imagine others will be able to steer you.

As for becoming an Android dev, it seems that your limiting factor is your
free time in which to learn. And yes, as you say, you're going to have to
change something if you want to fix that. Of course I don't know what you're
filling your free time with, but are there other things you can scale back or
drop completely that will give you more time to code?

That's really the thing about programming: you aren't going to get good at it
without doing it, and without reading what other people have done and learning
from it.

If you think it might help, you can try to find and enroll in Android-focused
workshops or classes. They're not for everyone, but if you feel like that
might be a faster way to learn without requiring quite as much more of your
free time, that might be a win.

In the end: release something! Build an Android app and release it on the
Market. Regardless of how many users you end up with, it's something you can
say you built and can show to a prospective employer.

This is just my _very_ subjective personal opinion, but I wouldn't advise
going back to school for anything computer-related. It's a huge investment in
time and money, and most of this stuff you can learn on your own more
efficiently... if that's what you really want to do.

~~~
joebadmo
Thanks for the comment. Yes, my plan is to try to release a working app as
soon as possible, but starting from scratch, it's taking a while.

Enrolling in a class or workshop sounds like a great idea, I'll do some
research on that and see what I can find. I think having an external
enforcement mechanism/progress framework would help me a lot.

I usually spend a lot of time rock-climbing, but I've been on an injury-
related break, and diverting that time into programming. Other than that, just
wife and 100+ year old house projects, which are not insignificant. I might
have to talk to my wife about taking a few months to focus my free time
completely on programming.

------
c4urself
What do you want to be? I studied Business and ended up getting into
programming instead. I keep thinking carefully analyzing my past might have
had me realize i wanted to get into programming earlier: i loved computers and
looked up to people who could do "computers" well etc. But in the end i'll
never know, important thing is i got into it: I begged for a job at a web-dev
company earning little to nothing the first three months and started learning
learning learning. Like you i didn't have any educational background to go on.
I'm sure there are some people on here that will give you a job if you can
show that you are willing to learn and have the motivation and drive.

~~~
joebadmo
Wow, thanks, that's actually pretty inspiring. Can you elaborate on how you
approaced the web-dev company, and how many you approached? That was one of my
first strategies, thinking that a college degree and my... unconventional
background would be worth something, but I got absolutely no traction
whatsoever. It was pretty discouraging. I'm a hard worker and I learn quickly,
but I apparently haven't been able to convince anyone of that.

------
aeontech
I don't have advice about mobile dev, but I can tell you that there is always
an under-served niche of local businesses and artists that need web dev work
done. They are under-served because they fall in the gap where they do not
have the expertise required to do it themselves, nor money to hire a
professional company to do it, and because most free-lancers, once they build
a resume, do not bother with small projects like theirs and prefer to either
get a full-time gig, or build their free-lancing career and price themselves
above the range that these people can afford to pay.

Which makes them easy pickings for someone like you - especially now with the
proliferation of open source frameworks, e-commerce solutions (just don't use
osCommerce or any of its relatives for the love of god), cms's, wikis, and
what have you, which cover 99% of what a small business/art gallery/whatever
requires.

So, this is one way to bootstrap your resume by doing this type of gigs as a
free-lancer for a year or so. It's nice side-income next to your full-time
job, it builds your resume that you can demonstrate when you are next
interviewing, and you get to figure things out and find solutions for people
with real-world projects and problems that they need solved.

Do not underestimate the value of your knowledge and skills - to most people
what you do is black magic, and even though you may feel like you are a
beginner (and honestly, that feeling will never go away because there's
_always_ going to be more stuff to learn - see Impostor Syndrome), it is still
worth money to them to use your skills and time.

------
phektus
Just stick to your job for another year, and continue with your android self-
study. Don't just study android, also the basics of programming and computer
science, and try to apply them on android development. I know that's far too
time consuming, but after a year you have more money saved (did I mention you
need to save like a monk, even with family and mortgage?), and you will have
more options and skills. I'm pretty sure you'll be more capable programming-
wise, and some savings will make you a bit more confident during interviews.
My 2 cents.

