[quaffapint]

I've got a crappy dev job that I've been in for over a decade that only gets worse with less pay. I don't bring home enough money and have my family living paycheck to paycheck. I stress over it and keep trying side stuff to bring in more, which mostly fail. I'm working hard right now trying to get this next side project out the door in the next month.

I'm in my 40s and no one in the area has raised their dev salaries since the 2008 drop. Given my age, it's only going to be harder to find jobs if it comes to that. I'm stuck. It's stressful and it sucks.

But, I still make time for the family. I go to their school functions, and help with their homework. I play games and watch movies. I'm doing it for them. I just wish I could do more. Someone once said they were jealous of me because I seem so content. My poker face must be pretty awesome.

[karterk]

Depending on the terms of your employment, this might not even be possible, but you should try augmenting your primary source of income with some part-time consulting. While the lure of the profitable side project is hard to resist, it's much easier to become financially independent by doing consulting than through a side project. Bootstrapped SaaS projects grow very very slowly in terms of monthly recurring revenue (also known as the Long, Slow, SaaS Ramp of Death [1]).

[1]: http://businessofsoftware.org/2013/02/gail-goodman-constant-...

[quaffapint]

Any suggestions on how to find part time consulting gigs? I know I can't compete with the odesk rates, not sure of non-spammy places to find em. I'll have to check on terms, as well.

[karterk]

Have you tried applying to work posted in the HN freelance hiring threads? There are many such niche software dev contracting listings. Here's another one: http://www.authenticjobs.com/

I suggest you build a few "apps" which are highly focussed in what they do but are more-or-less feature complete and publish it on GitHub. This works better in some areas of software dev than others, but it will basically demonstrate that you can ship a product in an area that you have expertise in. As a contractor, your ability to ship code is the most important point of evaluation for people trying to hire you. With the source code available, people can also validate that you can write decent code. Having such a showcasable portfolio of work will definitely put you in the top of the pecking order.

[cfontes]

I know it's not for everybody. But sometimes moving to another city is the best option.

I've done it myself 2x and it payed of somehow. My job is boring like hell right now( it wasn't like that some months ago), but the paycheck for my country standards is ok. Also the city I am at right now has plenty of other jobs so if I get pissed of I can get away from it.

Think about it...

[aintnoprophet]

I hear you. This is the burnout that I was hoping to read about. Not some guy that gave up all his free time to become a corporate zombie. I want a solution to our burnout not OP.

[quaffapint]

If you figure it out - please share it with us.

Maybe if we stop reading about these 300K jobs on HN, we'll have more contentment. Won't help us at all, but it's one less piece of stress :-).

[jshen]

are you in a big city? All the devs I know make good money, and their salaries have been steadily rising for over a decade. Also, all the devs I know can get a new job in a week or so.

Then I hear stories like yours and wonder what the difference is. Maybe location?

[quaffapint]

It is most certainly location dependent. I'm in a standard suburb in the mid-Atlantic region (it's pretty much all the same, just different cities). I would be destitute if we lived in San Francisco.

It's a very interesting, albeit depressing, time to be a dev around here. Jobs are plentiful - I get contacted by recruiters all the time. The difference is they are offering senior devs what they offered junior devs way back when. It doesn't seem to be language or such dependent, I'm seeing the same thing in all the big corporate level and startup level languages. I used to be able to move jobs and easily get more money, not since the downturn. I guess companies decided they don't need to pay us what they used to (which was still just national average) and are sticking with that.

We don't go on any big vacations, we don't go out to dinner, our cars are old, I have a pre-paid cell phone, and I'm typing this on my 8 year old home built computer. The point being, I know what I need my salary minimum to be, and I'm really below that minimum now all too often (ie, come saving for property taxes). If I was single, maybe I'd move somewhere, but it's not really an option now with the kids in a good school.

[jshen]

Have you tried remote contract work? I know my company has a number of remote contractors making around $70-$80 per hour.

[quaffapint]

How did they go about finding the work?

[jshen]

The short answer is networking. They get to a point where they know enough people to find work.

What kind of dev work do you do?

[quaffapint]

Web dev with mvc in .net and php. I got to find places to network. Usergroup meetings are just a bunch of devs already working (usually fulltime).

[tracker1]

Location has a lot to do with it... It also factors in heavily with cost of living differences, and quality of life for a single guy vs. a family.

I'm in Phoenix, which has a lot of developer work, though most of it is fairly boring line of business stuff. Compared to say San Francisco, which has a little more developer work, but the pay is the same or not enough more for most positions I've looked at and the cost of living is a lot more. There are other trade offs as well that favor SF over Phx, for example Phx is hot 3 months a year, and hotter than hell another 4.

There's a few more rural communities in southwest Oregon I'd like to live in, but there's not really any tech/dev work near what I'd need to make there. Being a software developer outside the top 10-15 major metro areas in the U.S. is a lot harder, and the pay is significantly less.

I'd honestly suggest the guy consider relocating... it's rough for everyone, but Houston, Austin, Phoenix and a few other spots have a pretty nice income to cost of living ratio, and plenty of developer work.

[enjo]

WeWorkRemotely.com

[badman_ting]

Jesus, that is my absolute nightmare.