alex-yo's comments

alex-yo | 9 years ago | on: Never accept a counter-offer

Yea, funny. I'm looking for a job now.

The most funny thing is that I get no counter-offer. I always here (or rather read) "yes, we are impressed by your experience, it is really great, but you know, you wanted too much, we have lots of others who want much less". When I asked for a counter offer I get either no reply, or something like "We don't give counter offers at this moment, you wanted much above the average that we pay".

And I wanted just about the same money I was earning in my previous job.

From my perspective the job hunt is a one shot thing. I give some figure, they stop being interested. No negotiation, no counter-offer, no other things.

So it seems like the market is not that good for programmers, or I'm just so unlucky.

alex-yo | 9 years ago | on: It’s easier and cheaper to use bank wires than Bitcoin

Or rather "The Disaster That Is Bitcoin Services Around Bitcoin". I'm wondering if there would be the same kind of article that dollars is very bad, because bank wants some money for wireing them e.g. to Europe, and the exchange rate between dollar and euro could change overnight.

alex-yo | 9 years ago | on: Ask HN: Is Answering Questions on Stackoverflow help us to grow in our carrier?

Don't worry too much. You answers will be modified. Questions will be changed or blocked (so no one will be allowed to answer). Just because those people "who love answering questions" will know better. They even know if your question is a question.

I think you'd better have a blog. This way you can answer the questions you find e.g. on SO, but no one will change your answer.

alex-yo | 9 years ago | on: We Don’t Simply Get Remote Jobs, We Join Remote Teams

There is no shortage of remote job boards and job aggregators

That's true, there is just a shortage of the job offers. I'm looking for a remote job now. All the job boards have between 2 to 5 job offers per day. To each of them answer thousands of people.

The aggregators are even worse. They are automated. That's why they contain an ad even when it has no remote allowed.

alex-yo | 9 years ago | on: Old Geek Jobs: fighting against ageism in the industry

During one of my interviews, a couple of years ago, I heard something like "Oh, you're over 30, and you were not a manager yet? Look, I have lots of CVs of people at your age, who are managers. If you are not, then it seems like your employer was thinking that there is something wrong with you. That's why we won't go with you further in the process".

I was arguing that in my previous job I was in fact a technical team leader, I was spending half of each day on showing people how to use databases, I was organizing trainings and conference talks. I just didn't get the job of course.

The most frustrating thing I experience now is that companies don't want to have a programmer in my age. And I cannot be a manager "because you don't have any experience in managing people".

That's sad, frustrating and depressing. Especially that I'm looking for a job now.

alex-yo | 9 years ago | on: Old Geek Jobs: fighting against ageism in the industry

Well, a funny thing, I'm not old, I'm just 37. In my country I need to work for the next 30 years to retire.

However companies don't want to talk with me about getting a job regardless my 14 year of commercial experience. Sometimes I hear during an interview "oh, you did so many things, I wish I could have the same experience". And then I don't get this job.

And no, I'm not expensive. I usually don't get to the point where they ask me for the money.

I'm thinking about starting my own company with my own products. This will be much harder, but it's better to have this kind of job than none.

And I just stopped replying to the job adverts with "young team".

alex-yo | 9 years ago | on: Things I Hate About PostgreSQL (2013)

Yey, looks like people just watch presentations, not read it, that's why here is 1 comment about the content, 15 about how the presentation looks like :)

alex-yo | 9 years ago | on: A bite of Python

I wouldn't call it 'traps'. I would call it 'read and understand documentation before writing code' like: what is 'is' operator, or how floats behave in EVERY programming language, or why you should sanitize EVERY user input.

So, basically, I can write such a list for every language I know.

alex-yo | 9 years ago | on: Ask HN: Who wants to be hired? (September 2016)

Location: Poland, Europe (CET+1/2)

Remote: Yes

Willing to relocate: No

Technologies: 15 years of full stack experience (programming, administering, DBA, organizing trainings, integrating different things using plenty of languages at the same time).

  Commercial experience with: Java, C++, Python, PostgreSQL, SQL, GIS, Javascript, Ruby (and some more).

  During all the years I have also used hundreds of libraries, and worked in dozens of different projects, and industries.

  Many years of working remote in a multinational team.
Résumé/CV: email me if needed

Email: [email protected]

alex-yo | 9 years ago | on: How hard is that to find a fully remote job?

Hi, thanks for the reply.

I'm outside USA, and the tax thing is simple: I send you an invoice, you send me money. Nothing more, nothing less. No insurance problems, or different law issues.

As for the conferences, I attended some, I was even presenting on some. I learned nothing, as most of the stuff I had already known. Currently I learn from books. Usually from algorithms, and math ones. This is the kind of stuff you won't find on conferences. Btw, many conference videos are available on youtube, so going there to learn is IMHO not the main reason for a conference.

alex-yo | 9 years ago | on: Project delays: why good software estimates are impossible

Heh, I recall when a funny manager asked my team about an estimation. We agreed on a year (exactly something like 12-14 months). Then he went to his managers, sold the project with 6 months deadline, and was quite happy.

The outcome was simple: his estimation was good, the team was lazy.

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