
Help HN: Laid off due to Covid, almost out of runway - inferred_type
Hello HN, It&#x27;s been a long month of interviewing since I was laid off due to the market shrinking from COVID.<p>My position (Frontend&#x2F;Full-stack Engineer) became redundant as the company had to change direction. A lot of really great engineers were let go of.<p>I&#x27;ve been interviewing for full-time positions but the process is slow going and  I have not yet received an offer. I don&#x27;t have much more time before my own savings runs out and I am the sole provider for my family, so I am reaching out to the community for help with any leads.<p>About me: full-stack&#x2F;frontend engineer with 5 years of development experience (all remote)<p>What I&#x27;m looking for:
remote contract projects utilizing the technologies below
- or -
remote full-time position as a full-stack or frontend engineer<p>(US citizen in the US, no visa sponsorship required)<p>Skills:
- Node.js
- Go&#x2F;Golang
- React, Redux&#x2F;Flux
- TypeScript, JavaScript
- CSS, SASS, HTML
- Mocha, Jasmine, Enzyme, Cypress, Unit&#x2F;Integration testing 
- Mongo, Dynamo, Redis, Postgres
- Docker
- AWS, AWS Lambda, Serverless
- Jenkins, CircleCI, Grafana 
- Microservices, SOA
- Linux, Ubuntu, bash, ssh, git 
- API and EHR&#x2F;health system integrations across multiple protocols and dataformats
- Scrum rituals, Agile<p>If you are hiring or know of any teams hiring (ideally that you could introduce me to) then I&#x27;d be glad to know.<p>You can reach me at jai@omkara.dev — I&#x27;d be glad to forward my resume and LinkedIn profile.<p>Thank you for your time! I would greatly appreciate any help.
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mguerville
In my line of work (non engineering, strategy and other business side
leadership roles) there’s also the problem of a very tiny pool of jobs to
begin with, so I decided to be very proactive and I have started reaching out
to companies that raised money recently or who have “we’re hiring” on
executives LinkedIn profiles and cold emailing them something to the tune of
“I have helped many companies with various hard to define problems and taken a
variety of roles that may not fit the traditional job titles paradigm, I like
your company and you’re growing your team at the moment, could I get a chance
for a quick chat to see if you have problems or opportunities I could help
solve?”

One week in, I’ve already had a handful of informational interviews, while my
applications to actual postings go into a black hole.

I bet that approach could work for your profile as well, I’ve even deployed a
sales enablement tool and a CRM to automate, track and document (for
unemployment claims) my process

Good luck

~~~
inferred_type
Oh that's very interesting. Can you share more about your strategy for filling
the top of your funnel? Where are you finding companies that recently raised?
I can only think of maybe Angel.co or Crunchbase

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burger_moon
Have you looked through the July Who's Hiring thread? Also probably worth
going through the last few months of submissions and reach out to any of those
companies looking for front end devs.

Also post this in the Who wants to be Hired thread, although I don't know how
effect that thread is (I never got any contacts from that one)

Edit: also sorry I don't have anything to offer you, my job isn't hiring right
now. But any time I see these posts I always give them an upvote. I hope you
the best!

~~~
inferred_type
Thanks for the suggestion! Yes I've gone through the recent thread and
submitted my resume and cover letter to a number of jobs but haven't heard
anything back yet. I'll try like you said the older threads, thanks!

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kugelblitz
Yeah, really sucks, am in similar boat. Also single income household with
runway running out. Am a freelance contractor, projects are rarer than last
year. My last long contract ended earlier than I thought. Was able to get a
one month project through a colleague, but that also ended now. Most of my
leads have dried up. And my side project usually brings in 20-50% of monthly
income / profit, but the last months was actually losing money (it's a niche
jobboard, so yeah).

Did calculations, and will reduce my regular rate by 15%, because 6 months at
85% is better than 5 months at 100%. Got a 1 day/week contract for now, and
will look for something additional 4-5 days / week.

I assume you have looked into weworkremotely.com and remoteok.io? Maybe
reaching out to recruiting agencies like Michael Page or Hays are worth a
shot.

Good luck to you!

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danieka
I've had luck working through Toptal, but that was about two years ago. But
when I worked through Toptal I could usually get a gig in two weeks. The pay
is roughly equivalent to what I would earn in Sweden, or at least fair, if I
consider that I don't have to do sales, billing etc, and can invoice 40 hours
a week.

I think Toptal is better than UpWork or other platforms where the price is
driven down by competition.

If you have any questions about Toptal or the application process feel free to
reach out to me on mail[at]danielk.se

ps. not sponsored by Toptal, but I used them when I was in a similar situation
to yours

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alec_kendall
Have you heard of upwork? Create a profile on it... and if I were you, I’d
focus on marketing yourself for cloud services. Hourly rates range but the
experienced contractors charge around $150 and there seems to be a lot of
companies hiring off of it (some of the top guys have a couple thousand hours
with over $500k earned).

~~~
probinso
Upwork is terrible

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throw51319
So you got laid off maximum 4 months ago. Did you only have 5 months of living
expenses saved up? That's like 10k max.

The market is def ripe for >mid-level devs, esp with Trumps H1b thing. Just
keep applying, use Hackernews whos hiring, and use LinkedIn. You will def find
something in 2 months.

~~~
boring_twenties
You're saying the "max" figure for living expenses for a family (which GP says
he has) is $2k per month?

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quickthrower2
Hope this helps: Reach out in my HN profile and I’ll give you a free pro
version of my job search app for 12 months.

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alexmingoia
Why don’t you apply for unemployment benefits?

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inferred_type
That could help definitely, but would only cover my rent, and I am discouraged
by what I've heard about it, i.e. taking weeks/months to be approved.

~~~
jdan222
I am in the same boat. My runway is gone, and now I have to choose between
rent or debt. I am choosing rent. Still, apply for unemployment. Do it if
you’re not even eligible for it yet. Then when you are eligible it'll be a
breeze. Use it to supplement your life while you continue your search.

Sorry you’re in this boat with us. Good luck fren!

~~~
inferred_type
Ah, that's a great idea, thank you! And good luck to you, too!

