

Ask HN:[One’s Professional Life is At Risk] – Please Help. - Active-PHOENiX

What someone with my situation shall decide and do?<p>Here I mention that because of ASK HN limitation of 2000 words I will use first comment space to give you enough information and base to come up with most accurate ideas and responses.	
Your considerate and sincere response is highly and genuinely appreciated. 
Thank you in advance for your time and considerations.
======
Active-PHOENiX
Few background to start with: I am currently 32 years old – unmarried – with
no relationship with opposite sex. I have been awarded B.S in Software
engineering summa cum laude. I got one-year MBA degree. I am an Introvert –
Typed INTJ in Myers Briggs test. My nationality is Iranian although I despise
and hate it, because of its corrupted people and culture and its
organizations. [No offense intended]

I am a .NET developer with 5+ years of exp and my last job position was a mix
of senior developer, UX designer, team leader and scrum master. With regard to
technology I read a lot on different aspects of our industry and try to keep
my knowledge up to date. I read about business, management and leadership, I
have tried to overcome my lack of self-esteem by the help of some psychology
material and still working on that. I was employed by a company from
Netherland to do development work as a junior developer few years ago before I
join the company in my last job. By considering Iran situation and life
conditions and limitations here for a guy like me here are some questions in
my mind that I was unable to answer to myself although I have done my
research: My Current Situation : \- In my latest performance review , my boss
told me I have done very well and have brought the company lots of benefits –
but because of recession we are currently under they cannot increase my salary
for the coming year I have to expect the same salary as last year but he will
consider me for better positions at a later time – considering an inflation
rate of at least 120% for the current year and remembering him putting me down
and neglecting his promises for previous year I decided to leave the company –
now I am unemployed currently.

o I am not eager to search for a job because I will undergo the same process
and will be forced to go to another company after 2 to 3 years , this is a way
around not letting you reaching upper level management – those positions are
already occupied and/or is kept for someone else and keeping you from growing
because if you grow they have to pay you more.This is widespread in software
industry in Iran as well as no copy rights for software being built.

o I had some thought to start my own business until I have found out that: In
Iran once you go to register an LLC you have to have business office – you are
not allowed to work from home – you are not allowed to have an online business
without a business office located elsewhere other than your home and some
years of doing business under your belt [paradox] , It has to be in a trade
center. And I do not have that amount of money to have one.

Some Questions :

\- Is there any way that I can build a startup and do business with countries
other than IRAN, from Iran , I am aware of sanctions? \- Is there a way that I
can get a work visa and get out of this place? I know ASP.NET MVC 3 , JQUERY ,
C#, T-SQL , SQL SERVER 2008 R2 ,Full Text search algorithms, Entity Framework,
TFS 2012 , Scrum 2.0 Process and many other technologies related to .NET
development. I have done projects in developing CMS’s and Line of Business
applications. \- I found myself useless after all of these years of work
experience and schooling, I have very little money in savings account although
I do not spend that much, I have no house or car. I feel no matter what and
how much I work I will not be able to build a life that I can live in it at a
sensible degree of comfort. I feel my mind is numb and unable to find ideas I
should have, I feel I am inept and incapable of supporting myself and doing
something to support my life. \- Why some people who do not belong to the
place they are, still can be there with not much effort, with not much
integrity or merit and competency? I have seen a lot. \- How come
underperformers come up wealthy, happy and life come easy to them , although
life was never easy or forgiving for me and I do not expect it that way
anyway? \- What is the meaning of life when you just run after goals and
values that are deemed to be worthy of you r effort but very few were capable
of achieving them and society standards see it as norm and you have to try to
achieve them to have a comfortable life no matter how hard you try and how
many times you fail? \- I am willing to work for half amount of average salary
for a software developer outside of Iran, Is there anybody willing to give me
a job and be able to get me a work visa? \- If you were me, what you would do,
I do not see myself as I have all the answers, I just see and try to
understand the situation and its limitations to come up with better decisions.
What do you think?

~~~
Shmidt_77
Hi,

I can't help you with a job or a visa, I can only say that I feel your pain
and sympathize with you. You seem like a very talented guy, and you deserve
better.

Do not despair my friend, keep on looking for a way out and eventually you'll
get there.

\-- On a different note, it seems that the site is ba_n_ ning me for some
reason. I can't even comment. Really annoying.

------
manglav
I am sorry to hear of your situation...please don't take offense.

You say "I am not eager to search for a job...", yet you ask " Is there
anybody willing to give me a job and be able to get me a work visa?" That does
not make sense. It seems the best choice is to leave Iran. If you don't want a
software job, freelance on Odesk or Elance. I'm sure you can find a job
willing to give you a visa. Try Canada, many people I know there are on a work
visa.

~~~
victorhn
I think he means he doesn't want to work in Iran, but is open to job
opportunities outside Iran.

I am not very sure, but i think you also can't receive money when you
freelance in Odesk/Elance if you live in Iran.

~~~
manglav
Odesk you can't, Elance did not say anything about it. And that is not
stopping him from freelancing himself. There's plenty of opportunities in the
Hiring Freelancer thread as well.

I'm not familiar with these issues however, so I'll refrain from posting more
haphazard advice. I just feel the OP could make some more effort.

~~~
Active-PHOENiX
@manglav Thank you for your response , for your information I have to say that
all money processing systems banned Iran and Iranians to work with the system
, as I already mentioned I have worked with an Employer from Netherlands in
2010 and I was Just doing freelancing but because of sanctions he could not
sent money to me in my bank account and redirected the amount to a bank
account to Bank of America which one of my relatives lived there. I have tried
to work with the options you mentioned but they have banned Iran already. And
I do want to work and have a job but not in Iran.

~~~
manglav
I wasn't aware of all the difficulties, I'm very sorry. This might be the
perfect use case for bitcoins however...at least until you can emigrate.

~~~
Active-PHOENiX
I was totally unaware of such currency existence, Thank you for the
information, It seems its market and exchange is still mostly in US and It
seems it started to happen in 2009 , 4 years ago and I did not know anything
about it, however, How can I find latest information like these new happenings
in internet , from where can I get informed regularly? I should read
TechCrunch regularly? any other place? thank you again.

I was trying all past years to search and read as many news as possible in
Hacker News , StackExchange and some other forums ... any better place to get
informed?

~~~
manglav
I've seen bitcoin on HN at least a couple of times in the past month, so maybe
just read a bit more thoroughly. Your sources seem fine, but I would add
Arstechnica to it.

~~~
Active-PHOENiX
Thank you , I have been heard of this web site, now I have bookmarked it. It
seems very few people were interested to answer those questions I have asked ,
maybe I should post this somewhere else to get better input? I sincerely
appreciate your time spent here typing comments for me.

~~~
manglav
Two things - 1\. This is a hard problem to respond to. 2\. From what I've
seen, most people on HN respond better when they see the OP has made some
effort. Sort of like a homework problem. Your post mentioned very little about
what you've done to get out of your situation, so that may have been why they
were not enthusiastic to respond. I sincerely believe with your set of skills,
you should be able to support yourself easily and anonymously if needed, or
even emigrate. Great programmers are needed everywhere. Try looking for a
company started by an Iranian, and apply there! There's always a way. Good
luck!

