I would love for my next job to be in Common Lisp.
I do have a concern though. I see that at lots of companies the job is not a Go job or a Python job or a Javascript job, but a Go-at-Foocorp job or a Python-at-Bazco job or a Javascript-at-International-Clowns-Inc. job. What I mean is that the team have built so many leaky abstractions atop the core language, and added so many third-party tools, that the learning curve is steep and the skills non-transferable. On the one hand, who cares? We’re human, we can learn. But on the other it means that it can take significantly longer to ramp up and start delivering value than one would prefer.
What’s this have to do with Lisp? Well, while a well-written Lisp system will be faster to pick up and get started on that one in a less-powerful language (i.e., almost all of them), a poorly-written mess will be much, much slower. My concern is that I might leave a pretty good situation for what ends up being a dumpster fire — and then have to find a new job too quickly.
I'd say that market exists, but is kinda invisible.
I've been looking around for a junior with a passion for Common Lisp, but I have _no_ idea where to find one, especially in Germany (job's remote, but I'm currently not able to hire FTEs outside the country).
This is one of MOOCs offered by the University of Helsinki. There are more at https://mooc.fi. It also acts as a proper, credit-bearing university course. It is the best thing socialism has ever produced.
If you learn to turn a lathe then work in standard corporation (a dictatorship, military-like organization that produces profits by extracting surplus value from labor) that's not a democratically controlled workplace, hence the workers having skills does not make for socialism. For that matter, only having democratic control of a single workplace (a worker cooperative) does not make for socialism either as you will still have to extract surplus labor to compete in an unplanned marketplace.
Was in the same boat, but without money, so I made this [open source bootcamp](https://github.com/Lesabotsy/bootcamp). It has everything to get you from 0 to a competent junior and you would be able to pass interviews. All free resources, in English, from some of the best universities in the world. Now I work as a back-end java developer, fully remote btw.
Oh my god, SageMath helped me so much when learning mathematics. Thank you, so so much you for the amazing work you've put in, the world needs more people like you.
I'm trying to break into SE (at 32 from an accounting background), but not having a US/EU passport and living in a third world makes it hard. So I will say that depending on where you are from, things can get tricky. But the usual still stands, you get jobs by knowing the right people.
If it helps, the tendency is to shift software development to other countries. It’s reached a stage like manufacturing in many aspects - including worker rights, status and job satisfaction and is about to be decimated in a similar fashion. Probably better than looking for a SE job in the west at the moment. In case you haven't noticed there are job cuts, people barely afford housing, crime is on the rise, and so on.
Yeah I see it a lot, but most part of Africa are still not seriously considered. And if they are, it's probably through some agency that will make most of the "cut" while paying the locals minimum wage. I can still go back to EU if things don't work out, but I'll try this way for now.
Exactly, the fact that you're based in a developing country automatically means you'll get a peanut salary, whether you're local or expat, code-mill or rockstar, etc, etc.
SE is not moving to these places for better quality.
It really depends. Jobs that refer to you as a worker and your peers as the workforce will pay peanuts. They pay peanuts in the west, they pay peanuts in the south.
But if you slap an identity on your profile then where you are may not matter that much. There will still be a pay gap but pay will be worth while.
Guess what i am trying to say is that it is worth giving a shot but that shot needs to be given your all you have. I dont have specific examples but it is doable.
I don't know you and don't mean to insult but I advise you to change your mentality. Victimhood is a choice. Yes, you live in a 3rd world country where things are harder. But SE is one of the only fields where you don't need a degree, could work from anywhere in the world and still make decent money especially depending on the cost of living in your country.
Plenty of poeple live in 3rd world countries and have found ways to break into SE and make a decent living. If they can do it, so can you. All the best
But seriously, there 8 billion of us on the planet and things can be massively different for different people.
First, software engineering is NOT necessarily well paid anywhere. A lot of that is a usa thing! Even in Canada, developers are far less on the crazy side of bell curve than in usa. None of my friends can make any sense of usa salaries. And in many other parts of the world, IT worker is an office worker. No special unique magic dust attached to profession.
Second, why do you assume you don't need a degree anywhere? That's true in many companies in usa. It's not necessarily the case in all companies everywhere.
Et cetera et cetera. Being In The right city, family, ethnicity, religion, group, caste can also make a massive difference in many places. There's just a zillion aspects to being successful in various situations that not all of us may be aware of.
Sorry if I'm harsh, but having lived in places outside of the North American continent and still remembering their reality / having contacts around the world, the willing, arrogant and patronizing HN bubble sometimes really grates me :-/
(if on the other hand / benefit of doubt, your intent was to encourage the op, I think the message slightly missed the mark... Better luck next time :)
You don't mean to, but you actually do. Come off your high horse and stop assuming things you don't know. Please do not misinterpret what I wrote, I think it's clear enough.
