[jurassic]

Another idea once you've saved up a couple grand is to outsource yourself while you continue learning and improving as a developer. Move somewhere with rock-bottom cost of living (southeast Asia? Boliva? ...you get the idea) while you do freelance coding online and build up a portfolio. Earn in dollars, live on pesos.

By moving to a lower cost area than Australia you still get a little of the "awesome, I'm traveling!" thing with low enough costs that you can try to do work that is relevant to your ultimate goal of getting a career in technology.

[GFischer]

NO. Don't move to Bolivia, Perú or some of those other countries (don't get me wrong, people there are great, I've had a great time, etc), but if you think Yakima is a tech hell, you won't believe how bad Bolivia is - I've worked for them. And you'll feel even MORE alone and depressed, you won't know how things work, you'll lack a lot of safety nets you don't even think about in the U.S., etc. I can't speak for Southeast Asia.

Stay in the U.S. and try to keep in touch with the comunity.

[hoju]

the point of relocating to a cheaper country isn't to earn a local wage

[GFischer]

Of course not, the point I'm trying to make is that most people are severly underestimating the culture shock.

Also, if he finds Yakima "hell", being very close to tech centers, how can you expect him to adjust to somewhere that's REALLY in the middle of nowhere in tech terms - and, while you might think it's easy not to get sucked into local wages, he's unable to make US wages living in the US. In my country, a US McDonalds wage (8 dollars an hour) is much higher than most midlevel manager positions, and higher than standard developer wages.