[iovar]

I sympathize with your trouble but what you describe seems exaggerated to me.

If within a year you made only a thousand dollars, why didn't you spend more time working on a side project, or sharpening your skills? Maybe the ones you currently have are not much in demand?

Also, freelancing sites do have a lot of low quality jobs, but if you spend some time digging around you can find decent jobs; e.g. I, a poor country resident, have found jobs that made me in a week as much as you claim to have made within the year.

And btw, I'm thirty-something, university drop-out and with a couple of huge holes in my CV. But that's not what I bring forward when asking for a job. Instead I project the most confident image that I have for myself and that's my advice to you, too (i.e. don't focus on the negativity of your current situation, it's not going to help you find a job).

[knowaveragejoe]

If it seems exaggerated, that's because it is. Outside of NYC and SF, there's basically nowhere in the US where businesses wouldn't hire a competent programmer on the spot.

[jellicle]

If you actually believe that, I pity you.

The reality is that CEOs talk up a shortage while holding salaries absolutely steady and even while laying off thousands of programmers:

http://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-hiltzik-201508...

The reality is also that a 40+, non-degreed programmer will have their resume thrown away by the first line HR people in 95%+ of cases. Not qualified for senior jobs due to lack of a degree; not qualified for entry-level jobs due to lack of a degree and age.

If you want to be educated on this, feel free to make up a fake resume of a 40+, no-degree programmer and shop it around. Make a list of any responses you get. You can keep that list on an index card.

[aianus]

Well, GoogBookSoft comes to Canada every year and wastes many millions sponsoring J1s, TNs, H1Bs, and relocation while paying the same salaries as they do to Americans.

Why would they do that if there was no shortage of qualified American programmers in the bay?

[jellicle]

To hold down wages?

If there were any shortage, why are IT wages absolutely flat?

If there were any shortage, why the famous pickiness exhibited by every company in their interview process?

http://cis.org/no-stem-shortage

[aianus]

They're not mutually exclusive.

If there is a shortage and companies go abroad to fill positions, they're technically 'holding down wages'. Otherwise wages would skyrocket into the atmosphere as more and more money chases the same few engineers. Less value would be produced at a higher cost.

I don't see why that would be a preferable situation for the industry or the country at large. Are you really struggling on your measly $100k + stock (at minimum) and desperately need more?