
Ask HN: Help a Hacker Out - lesterfremn
As the result of a series of unfortunate misfires and suboptimal decisions I've found myself in the unenviable position of being unemployed and living back home with my mom in Des Moines, Iowa. While it may sound like a setup for a romantic comedy, the fact that a plucky and attractive female has yet to make an apparence has made it painfully clear that it's not going to be that kind of a movie. So, before the cement dries on what was intended to be a very short-term situation and I find myself greeting shoppers at Walmart, I've decided to buy a one-way ticket to SF where there seems to be plenty of opportunity for the likes of me. The only problem is that I don't have a job, an interview, or even any connections I can leverage.<p>But if you need help solving hard problems, I'm your guy. I have an undergraduate degree in Mathematics from the University of Chicago and a masters in Mathematics from Iowa State. I know C++ and Python ok and I've worked as a derivatives quant, a high-frequency trader and even tried my hand at poker for a while. I'm open to short or long-term consulting projects as well as full-time employment. I'm particularly interested in working on challenging problems dealing with algorithms and big data, but I'm up for jumping back into HFT if there's a decent opportunity. Hell, I'll even tutor linear algebra or basket weaving if that's where this adventure needs to begin.<p>In short, I'm a smart guy coming to SF and I need an opportunity. Please help a hacker out.
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bkruse
I own a company that currently indexes/sorts/sells different algo-based
trending information to hedge funds. We also do big-data management for a few
of them as well (think processing/storing 4 million messages/second). I'd be
interested in some consulting and possibly a full-time position. We have
excellent programmers/mathematicians now, but always like to bring on someone
with some experience/new things to bring to the table. If you actually worked
as a trader, we could get you on our prop floor with some stability track
record. Respond here to gauge your interest, and I'll shoot you an email.
Thanks!

~~~
yoblin
Current (and past) experience in this field, if you're looking for someone to
do some contracting I'd be interested in hearing more about what you guys do.
I'm local. yoblin -at- gmail _dot_ com

~~~
bkruse
Great - will do.

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reinhardt
I hate to be "that guy" but how on earth with such experience and credentials
you resort to HN to find a job? Does not compute.

~~~
physcab
Finding a job is almost just as difficult as hiring, even if the person is
credentialed and the company has many open positions. If you don't know
exactly what you are looking for or what you may be good at, theres a good
chance you might spin your wheels.

This is pretty common in the tech industry as I've come to realize. The issue
is that many people can be good at programming, and hell, they might even have
open source projects or even shipped applications to show for it. But put them
in a software engineering interview where they have to walk through a basic
dynamic programming or data structures problem and they will probably stumble.
This situation is even more likely for interdisciplinary individuals where
they don't have typical degrees for their field of interest.

So, point being, it takes a while to find a good fit. One where your skills
expectations are agreeable for both sides. I don't see advertising on HN an
issue, since we are the target market for this type of situation, but so long
as it doesn't become a job board.

~~~
vonmoltke
_I don't see advertising on HN an issue, since we are the target market for
this type of situation, but so long as it doesn't become a job board._

Someone started a "Who's looking" thread a month or two ago. It would be nice
to see that become a regular fixture alongside the "Who's Hiring" thread.

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gcampbell
I just shot you an email, but this seems like a reasonable place to note that
my employer (Twitter) is hiring like mad, and we definitely have some big data
to work with:

<https://twitter.com/jobs/home>

~~~
barce
Hmmm... I applied at Twitter and got the coding problem done right. I also
contributed to one of Twitter's open source projects, "Snowflake." Either you
got to have a great story like this Iowa guy, or hiring at Twitter is broken.
:-( This might be my next HN post: "How I Interviewed Great at Twitter but a
bad coder got my job."

~~~
nkohari
Maybe the fact that you didn't get hired has something to do with you coming
off as a total asshole. What exactly makes you think the OP is a "bad coder"?

Maybe you should write a post titled, "How Twitter Failed to Fulfill My Sense
of Entitlement".

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angersock
Come to Texas. We have cheap cost of living and baller-as-hell problems to
work on, whether you want games or graphics or oil & gas.

~~~
lesterfremn
Yeah, I'm thinking about that. I really like the idea of going to Austin but
the reason I'm thinking of SF is because the software / data scene there is
off the charts. A friend of mine told me yesterday it's like what Paris 1910
was for painters.

~~~
angersock
So, looking over at Houston there are all kinds of crazy datasets for both
energy exploitation and energy trading. There's a thriving if quiet startup
community, and a local private university of some note in applied math (Rice).
It's pretty unpretentious, but that's the city--we are all about the bidness.

Besides, it's a chance to crunch numbers for something other than selling ads
and cat pictures. :)

~~~
saryant
Would you happen to know how to find these companies? I know of a few
(FlightAware, for instance) but figuring out who's doing what in Houston isn't
as easy as the Bay Area. I've been trying to get in touch with some companies
in Houston (I graduate in May) and I'd much appreciate it if you could point
me in the right direction!

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AHorihuela
UChicago math undergrad? I have complete confidence you won’t be acting this
role for long...

You should reach out to people from your class (and years around it) that
ended up in SF. Check out RethinkDB for example - part of their team is
UChicago. Lollihop is another one.

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campnic
I saw a presentation by the Founder of Dwolla which suggested they were
working on some interesting monetary software. Located right in Des Moines :
[http://blog.dwolla.com/another-ramp-looking-for-more-team-
me...](http://blog.dwolla.com/another-ramp-looking-for-more-team-members/)

------
iopuy
I'm in SF, I own a company that writes scripts to moderate internet access at
mobile RV parks. We use some Python and sharepoint. I think you would be a
great match to work well in the office with my other 2 guys. Keep an eye out
for an email.

~~~
deedubaya
Python + Sharepoint to moderate internet access? Wow....why?

~~~
pavel_lishin
I'm actually super curious. It seems like an incredibly odd stack for an
incredibly odd application.

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fawce
Your quant skills (and humor) sound like a great match for
<http://quantopian.com>. If you signup for the alpha using the kozjob email
you shared below, and we'll let you through. If you like what you see, drop us
a line, maybe there's more we can do together.

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haasted
Good luck! I hope you'll make a follow-up post to tell us how it all went at
some later point.

~~~
lesterfremn
That's a great point, I'll do that.

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lesterfremn
I forgot my email address (I'm the OP)

kozjob at yahoo.com

~~~
nicksergeant
You should throw it in your profile. Most people will look there first (rather
than through the comment thread).

~~~
lesterfremn
Ok. I updated it.

~~~
joshuacc
You'll actually need to put it in the "about" field, since the email field
isn't public.

~~~
lesterfremn
Got it, thanks.

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gcv
I'm curious about your experience in the HFT field. Have you ever considered
starting your own trading shop?

If this isn't something you feel comfortable discussing in public, feel free
to email me — address in my profile. I don't have a job to offer you right
now, but would like to talk. When you get to SF, lunch or beer on me.

~~~
bkruse
Hey gcv,

What do you mean, exactly, by starting a trading shop? If you mean becoming a
broker dealer, that will require certificates and capital - and lots of it! :P

~~~
gcv
I was thinking more along the lines of proprietary trading. There is no
regulatory oversight for risking your own money, and the amounts required to
get started are reasonably modest. See, e.g.,
[http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/9s9d7/iama_100_automat...](http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/9s9d7/iama_100_automated_independent_retail_trader_i/)

~~~
bkruse
Ahh - agreed. Getting around PDT for $2,500 and having incredibly cheap
leverage makes for an interesting market (though one bad trade and your done -
you have to put it all on the line with such a small account)! Though if you
do not have that much capital, jumping into futures/options trading against
the best in the world - you will get your head chopped off. The far shot of a
reality such as the one on reddit is not a good one to try to reproduce. I
definitely recommend he read "Fooled by Randomness" by Nassim Nicholas Taleb.
While it's obviously a biased book (even just taking into account the title) -
it does shed some light on the subject.

~~~
Arelius
Regarding "Fooled by Randomness". I haven't read the book, but assume it's
brought up in the inherent randomness of the markets, and people's ability to
try to rationalize said randomness.

Trying to understand the market is surely a shortcut to crazy town, and
certainly trying to rationalize it is a poor mechanism to profit. But it's
clearly evident that the market isn't uniformly random, and that there exists
exploitable patterns in the market that are reliably (to a degree) profitable
over certain time periods.

I think the thesis of "Fooled by Randomness" is best taken advantage of by
understanding that you need to recognize the pattern, and exploit it directly,
rather than trying to extrapolate meaning and use that directly.

The market is clearly a truly chaotic system, but you just need to take
advantage of patterns that are statistically relevant and profitable.

Edit: After additional contemplation, I'm not sure I actually agree with what
I just said.

~~~
bkruse
haha - interesting edit that you have!

I currently have been making money the last 3 years by trading futures. It's
been consistent, however, my co-founder of our fund has been trading for 20
years, lost his family, lost all his money, his house, everything. He was
working at dominos when I took a little risk to give him some cash to trade,
and boy was it a good decision. You could even say then, that the fooled by
randomness theory exists - I was _really_ lucky to have found him and he was
_really_ lucky to have been able to succeed. Regardless, it is possible. For
every successful trader I personally know, I can give you 10 that majorly
failed. It's human nature to want to try it - to be in (arguably) the most
competitive business in the world. I offer my advice on where to start for
free, but jumping into HFT in the really big markets is where people get
crushed. Our current trading system can read a quote, send an order, and get
confirmation about 2,000 times before you can blink! With that said, there are
a lot of places (penny stocks, spread strategies, smaller equities) where you
can thrive, and not have to trade against big machines. I will post to
hackernews one day with an overview of his story and what we do

~~~
Arelius
It seems that doing HFT without being in a datacenter close to the exchanges
is a loosing strategy, since at these frequencies, a delay of milliseconds can
make a huge difference. Do you agree with this assessment?

~~~
bkruse
100% absolutely - here is a really good TED talk that puts things in
perspective (sorry if it's a repost, but it's definitely worth your time to
watch) : <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDaFwnOiKVE>

For just momo or momentum traders that deal in extremely liquid trading
instruments, microseconds can even make a difference. Our current feed from a
US equity exchange is about 220 microseconds or .22 miliseconds - and we are
on the "slow" side of things. The guys that actually read, process, send
transactions usually go as far as using FPGAs even (some of the bigger firms)

That said - there are still lots of places in the market where opportunities
exist!

~~~
Arelius
Thanks, I'll watch the talk with I get a spare moment.

Regarding the existing opportunities, It's interesting imagining a situation
where opportunities did not exist, seemingly the market would either become
completely random, and driven by luck, or remarkably stable. Most
interestingly it crazy to imagine a market that has been optimized to complete
stability. I wonder if that's the natural progression of things.

~~~
bkruse
I think in a big rhythmic cycle, that may be true. I have friends that are
fund managers that say, now, the market is completely and totally efficient,
and that people making money are just "lucky" - both are interesting and
somewhat valid! If 10,000 funds trade, there will be some profitable one (even
though there were SO few in 2008). It's an interesting study, even if you
aren't a trader

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evanmoran
I hope you get the girl.

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AdamTReineke
I'm a student at Iowa State and know of plenty of opportunities in the Des
Moines area. Have you looked around Des Moines? Seems like the insurance
companies (or maybe even a big startup like Dwolla) would have a use for
someone with a Math masters.

~~~
wildtype
I agree with this. I think you can get a job in insurance companies on your
hometown. Good luck!

------
leeskye
My team is looking for mathematicians to help solve huge problems in the world
of YouTube/online video. I just sent you a message.

~~~
iamgilesbowkett
what are you working on? I'm not looking for work, just have a fascination
with the space. are you guys stealth mode?

~~~
leeskye
I love seeing interest in our space. The audience on YouTube is massive. The
current mode of measuring this audience is just the tip of the iceberg. We
believe there is much to be learned in dissecting this audience and how they
connect with online video.

------
nodemaker
Good luck dude!.Being a fellow job seeker myself I can understand how hard it
is to find any decent job without connections or an ivy league degree even
when you have decent skills.

Also I see you have some writing skills too.You can be a great asset for
companies who are trying to get some good content on their blogs and gain
traction.

------
jrockway
How about Google? Happy to start the process for you if you send me an email
(my-hn-username AT google.com).

~~~
lesterfremn
Great, email your way.

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andrewcamel
Make sure you check out Addepar - they're developing a wealth management
platform that seems like a good thing for you to work on given your
experience. Only negative is that you'd have to learn Java, but it's a small
price to pay to get involved with an up-and-comer.

------
HistoryInAction
Come to Startup Weekend Des Moines before you go! This weekend, March 2-4:
<http://dsm.startupweekend.org/>

Also, you should try Dwolla, who are awesome, committed to building the Des
Moines hacker ecosystem.

EDIT: Emailed to offer help.

------
yitchelle
Post a link to this story on G+ to give you more exposure. Plenty of folks
from the valley hang out there as well. Good luck!

~~~
lesterfremn
Thanks, I appreciate it.

------
thebigredjay
I love the positive response this is getting! Sometimes I fall back into
thinking HN is just another list of news, but a real sense of community pops
up at a moment like this. Good luck finding work lesterfremn!

~~~
lesterfremn
Yeah, suprised me quite a bit really. Thanks.

------
devs1010
I don't have close to what you have as a background but I've been able to get
interest in my resume and just landed a position in sf, I havev the fortune of
having family out there so maybe that helped, but you should be able to get a
lot of interest I would think... Have you been applying like crazy and
networking on linkedin, etc, posting resumes?

Id be happy to help in any way I can, my email is rick_developer at gmx dot
com

------
benhamner
"I'm particularly interested in working on challenging problems dealing with
algorithms and big data"

Give one of our competitions a shot - <http://kaggle.com/>. They're a good way
to experiment with algorithms and machine learning on well-defined problems,
and collaborate with people who have similar interests. Also, we love hiring
people who win competitions.

------
calbear81
Let me start by saying welcome to San Francisco!

We've got lots of opportunities for smart guys like you and we love C++ here
at Room77.

We may not have the "big data" opportunities like Twitter has but we have a
big dream, to build the best hotel shopping site in the world and we've got
amazing VCs and people backing us and we have a lot of interesting problems to
solve.

Your quant and derivatives background is especially interesting since we have
a new project that's basically custom made for someone who wants to build a
highly algo-driven engine.

Send me an email roger[at]room77.com if you're interested in finding out more
or just shoot us your resume here and complete a few of our problems
[https://www.room77.com/jobs/se_resume_form.html?p=SWE&s=...](https://www.room77.com/jobs/se_resume_form.html?p=SWE&s=web)

~~~
joshu
Hello from the fourth floor!

Actually I am in Long Beach now but usually I am upstairs.

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gtani
Put your github, stackoverflow, blog, research papers, web apps etc in your
profile, and possibly work the confidence index up, and let folks know your'e
avail for remote work now

 _I know C++ and Python ok_

(never took math classes at U of C, but spent lots of time in Eckhart library)

~~~
nodemaker
The more you know the more you understand how less you know :)

~~~
gtani
_unknown unknowns – things we do not know we don't know_

Yup Rumsfeld knew blind spots

------
ektimo
We're seeking a smart guy/Python/big data engineer. Please send your resume
(or other evidence of ability) to jobs(at)proximiant(dot)com. Proximiant is
developing a touch-and-go digital receipt service.

------
beaumartinez
Wow, you sound really optimistic (and who shouldn't be? You'll slay SF!)

Good luck man :-)

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dabent
Contact me, email is in profile.

~~~
lesterfremn
Email on the way.

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Killswitch
Good luck man, fellow Iowan myself.

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rtrocc
Hope this goes through for you, goodluck!

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dmor
Dwolla!

------
zackattack
Hit me up when you're in SF; we can reminisce about Eckhart Hall.

~~~
lesterfremn
Crusty old building. Smart people.

~~~
lesterfremn
There was this intense Indian professor who had this air about him that was
sort of condescending but more just dismissive. Ie, there was some pretty
intense sttt he would routinely characterize as trivial or obvious.

The thing was, you were never sure whether he was trolling you or not. At a
party or some event, supposedly somebody asked him what his research interest
was. They were probably expecting to hear something like knot theory or PDE or
whatever, but his research interest was "Mathematics", which I guess makes
sense because that's what he worked on.

He liked teaching undergraduates but the department only let him do it once
every four years or so, as the memories faded from the last time he did it.
The year he taught the honors analysis class, it started in the fall with
something like 32 students (and all of them by invitation at that) and ended
with 6. And so the six survivors printed up T-shirts for having completed the
course and wore them to the spring semester final. He's handing out the final
and sees the shirts and says something like, "Don't be too confident about
that."

------
MIT_Hacker
Why not take the Steve Jobs route and walk into a company's office and refuse
to leave until they offer you a job. Square is in downtown San Fran.

