How to turn my skill into money/ a business?

[Shy Devil]

Little Backstory

Hey i've been programming for about 7 years now and i've been trying to find a way to actually make money or open a business using my skills.

 

Over the years i've learned programming as a hobby via YouTube and im doing stuff like C# Desktop Applications, NodeJS Applications, Web Applications all that sweet stuff. Im also a electricial engineer and now a automation engineer, and combined with the programming skills i believe this is a extremely cool combo.

 

I've made libraries for the robots at work to extend the programming language and make it easier, i've developed custom applications with cameras for automated quality control and other projects. Im also doing a lot of personal, hobby projects.

 

TLDR

So i wonder how i could turn my skills into a business so i can make money as i want to buy a house and need a new car etc. The company im working at pays minimum wage and its not really nice there. I thought of maybe doing a programming job in another company but 1. im kinda afraid i cant do it (for a unkown reason lol) and 2. they all require a degree or smth and dont care about anything someone has done which sucks really bad. Im a "certified" (dont know proper term) electricial engineer and automation engineer i just dont have a computer degree or something.

 

 

 

[cmndr]

Just get a better ordinary job. 

I knew someone in high school that was, at age 16, making around 3x minimum wage by coding. High school kid. 

If you're worried about knowing what to do, learn some CI/CD stuff, learn how to do code check ins and learn how to write clean, readable code (look up PEP8 or similar). 
https://peps.python.org/pep-0008/

 

You can always hustle for other gigs later on. Get actual experience working with other people and learn from them, even if it's only for 1-3 years. 

 

----

For what it's worth I met a guy who worked at Google who didn't have a college degree. He was definitely insecure about it. Most people had bachelors and masters degrees from elite universities. 

[Agall]

17 minutes ago, Shy Devil said:

Little Backstory

Hey i've been programming for about 7 years now and i've been trying to find a way to actually make money or open a business using my skills.

 

Over the years i've learned programming as a hobby via YouTube and im doing stuff like C# Desktop Applications, NodeJS Applications, Web Applications all that sweet stuff. Im also a electricial engineer and now a automation engineer, and combined with the programming skills i believe this is a extremely cool combo.

 

I've made libraries for the robots at work to extend the programming language and make it easier, i've developed custom applications with cameras for automated quality control and other projects. Im also doing a lot of personal, hobby projects.

 

TLDR

So i wonder how i could turn my skills into a business so i can make money as i want to buy a house and need a new car etc. The company im working at pays minimum wage and its not really nice there. I thought of maybe doing a programming job in another company but 1. im kinda afraid i cant do it (for a unkown reason lol) and 2. they all require a degree or smth and dont care about anything someone has done which sucks really bad. Im a "certified" (dont know proper term) electricial engineer and automation engineer i just dont have a computer degree or something.

 

 

 

Don't need a degree to make it in the technology world. Its primarily based on experience and certifications, where most reasonable places will value experience over degrees and certifications. Some places have minimum requirements for such so you might be forced to at least meet that, but demonstrating capabilities through your own projects is the way to win their favor.

[dizmo]

If you think a degree is holding you back, consider getting one if your country will give you the funding for it.

If you want to buy a house on your own and you don't have family assistance in downpayments etc, then you're really going to need something better than a minimum wage job.

[OddOod]

20 minutes ago, Shy Devil said:

im kinda afraid i cant do it

Welcome to Imposter Syndrome, it's lying.

 

21 minutes ago, Shy Devil said:

company im working at pays minimum wage

Leave ASAP. Get an entry level coding job. In the US it should pay minimum 50k/yr and they should teach you everything you need to know. 

 

22 minutes ago, Shy Devil said:

Im a "certified" (dont know proper term) electricial engineer

To be clear, do you have *any* degree? Like a bachelors in EE or something? Often times HR likes to see a degree in something and most programming managers don't care one whit about education and instead look at ability. 

I'd highly recommend reaching out to some recruiters, I've found them to be helpful

[Shy Devil]

23 minutes ago, cmndr said:

Just get a better ordinary job. 

I knew someone in high school that was, at age 16, making around 3x minimum wage by coding. High school kid. 

If you're worried about knowing what to do, learn some CI/CD stuff, learn how to do code check ins and learn how to write clean, readable code (look up PEP8 or similar). 
https://peps.python.org/pep-0008/

 

You can always hustle for other gigs later on. Get actual experience working with other people and learn from them, even if it's only for 1-3 years. 

 

----

For what it's worth I met a guy who worked at Google who didn't have a college degree. He was definitely insecure about it. Most people had bachelors and masters degrees from elite universities. 

The past year or two i was making research and trying things out how to best document and write good code that looks clean. 

 

Quote

Get actual experience working with other people and learn from them, even if it's only for 1-3 years.

You know the "get experience working with other people" is really amazing. Like i said im kinda afraid and i've always been shy so this like a really good advice to go out and get experience with others and that field. I love it. Thank you

[Shy Devil]

24 minutes ago, Agall said:

Don't need a degree to make it in the technology world. Its primarily based on experience and certifications, where most reasonable places will value experience over degrees and certifications. Some places have minimum requirements for such so you might be forced to at least meet that, but demonstrating capabilities through your own projects is the way to win their favor.

idk austrian companies seem so weird. i finished my 4 year apprenticeship in march and before that i wanted to get into an it job, tho in order to be accepted as apprentice you'd need to do "technical high school" or smth that will take 4 years, giving you the same result soo.. its so stupid here.

 

I have a really good aka future proof degree tho its just not e.g. computer science but electrical engineering with automation etc where programming is kinda actually included in a small scale but maybe that works for them too i never tried it so far.

 

Rn im at a die casting automotive company as automation engineer and due to my skills in programming i made a few highly custom solutions for quality control and im being paid about 31k a year where average should be 40k apparently ._. 

[cmndr]

Full warning - I'm from the US. YMMV if your country is different. 
 

Doing independent consulting is probably more "people heavy" than working in a technical role. 

Your higher ups mostly take care of the politics for you. If you're a sole proprietor, you're doing marketing and politics yourself. 

DO get good at interviewing though. This is what I suggest

1. Adapt the advice here to your situation - https://mergersandinquisitions.com/free-investment-banking-resume-template/

2. Get a set of good eyes to critique the heck out of your resume and make specific suggestions for rewrites (tip, it'll often be "be more specific and why does this matter?")

3. For each bullet, on a separate sheet for your own preparation, write a paragraph outlining who/what/where/why/when/how/how-much/lessons-learned. Getting review on these is also useful (be SPECIFIC, be concise)
4. Amazon leadership principles sample questions are good for behavioral questions (find sample questions). Leetcode/hacker rank is good for technicals. 

[Shy Devil]

26 minutes ago, OddOod said:

Welcome to Imposter Syndrome, it's lying.

I've heard of the Imposter Syndrome before, it sounds really interesting and kinda fits :c

 

Quote

Leave ASAP. Get an entry level coding job. In the US it should pay minimum 50k/yr and they should teach you everything you need to know. 

So the funny thing is that the company im currently working at employed me as a automation engineer, means i get to program robots to do specific stuff. And even in that im underpaid. I get about 31k/year and the average is apparently 40k/year. i'd really love to switch as the environment is really bad and dangerous too but well as of right now until i find something better it is what it is.

 

 

Quote

To be clear, do you have *any* degree? Like a bachelors in EE or something? Often times HR likes to see a degree in something and most programming managers don't care one whit about education and instead look at ability. 

I have the normal high school degree as well as a Electricial Engineering Degree + Automation Engineer (its combined).

 

I've recreated a few products we use at the company (aluminum die casting) and made my own can press yesterday, when it comes to hobbies i've made a blender render load balancer so you can render stuff with friends faster and a chat app and other stuff.

 

I tied a lot of things to see if it could be turned into a business. from hosting and renting servers to customers, to managing servers for customers, to refurbishing server hardware, doing various programming jobs/gigs, doing a crypto *exchange* service (not investing, exchanging, really cool) and a lot of other stuff. 

 

Basically im experimenting what i could do to make some decent money to start a company at some point and fix my life firt tho.

[Agall]

2 hours ago, Shy Devil said:

idk austrian companies seem so weird. i finished my 4 year apprenticeship in march and before that i wanted to get into an it job, tho in order to be accepted as apprentice you'd need to do "technical high school" or smth that will take 4 years, giving you the same result soo.. its so stupid here.

 

I have a really good aka future proof degree tho its just not e.g. computer science but electrical engineering with automation etc where programming is kinda actually included in a small scale but maybe that works for them too i never tried it so far.

 

Rn im at a die casting automotive company as automation engineer and due to my skills in programming i made a few highly custom solutions for quality control and im being paid about 31k a year where average should be 40k apparently ._. 

Talk to your boss, a company will let you be content with less pay and usually the only person who will help argue that you should be paid more is yourself. I'm in the US, so labor laws and such are different, but regardless, if you believe you should be paid more, find a solid set of evidence why, and bring it to your boss.

 

It costs a lot to retrain people, especially with the fact that people will go through complete training programs then just leave. It costs the company a lot to do that, so they'd rather retain good workers by paying them more than having to gamble on another human. I started off in the military and am now a civilian and it still amazing me how short people will work at a place before just leaving, like they didn't think about it before hand. 

[wasab]

58 minutes ago, Agall said:

Talk to your boss, a company will let you be content with less pay and usually the only person who will help argue that you should be paid more is yourself. I'm in the US, so labor laws and such are different, but regardless, if you believe you should be paid more, find a solid set of evidence why, and bring it to your boss.

 

It costs a lot to retrain people, especially with the fact that people will go through complete training programs then just leave. It costs the company a lot to do that, so they'd rather retain good workers by paying them more than having to gamble on another human. I started off in the military and am now a civilian and it still amazing me how short people will work at a place before just leaving, like they didn't think about it before hand. 

it is not that simple. you need to research the labor market and the market rate. employer wont pay $20 an hour to keep you if they can hire someone who can do similar quality work for $15. it is all about supply and demand as well as good marketing. You have to treat salary negotiation as if you are a business trying to sell like say a hair cut or dog working services to some xyz customers. 

[Agall]

6 minutes ago, wasab said:

it is not that simple. you need to research the labor market and the market rate. employer wont pay $20 an hour to keep you if they can hire someone who can do similar quality work for $15. it is all about supply and demand as well as good marketing. You have to treat salary negotiation as if you are a business trying to sell like say a hair cut or dog working services to some xyz customers. 

That's where the "solid set of evidence why" part comes in.

[Franck]

18 hours ago, Shy Devil said:

Over the years i've learned programming as a hobby via YouTube and im doing stuff like C# Desktop Applications, NodeJS Applications, Web Applications all that sweet stuff. Im also a electricial engineer and now a automation engineer, and combined with the programming skills i believe this is a extremely cool combo.

You can get a job in any factory trying to automate their process with that automation engineer and programming skills.

Depend where you live I guess but here we have hard time finding people with that kind of experience.

[Shy Devil]

2 hours ago, Franck said:

You can get a job in any factory trying to automate their process with that automation engineer and programming skills.

Depend where you live I guess but here we have hard time finding people with that kind of experience.

A lot of companies around the area are looking for people like me because there not a lot lately but everyone needs them. So if i were to get a new job it shouldnt be hard theoretically 

[Shy Devil]

18 hours ago, Agall said:

Talk to your boss, a company will let you be content with less pay and usually the only person who will help argue that you should be paid more is yourself. I'm in the US, so labor laws and such are different, but regardless, if you believe you should be paid more, find a solid set of evidence why, and bring it to your boss.

 

It costs a lot to retrain people, especially with the fact that people will go through complete training programs then just leave. It costs the company a lot to do that, so they'd rather retain good workers by paying them more than having to gamble on another human. I started off in the military and am now a civilian and it still amazing me how short people will work at a place before just leaving, like they didn't think about it before hand. 

Lately i was talking with a friend that was working in the IT department and he told me if i wanted to get more money i need to be somewhat annoying and constantly ask. thats how he was promoted etc and got more money too. 

 

I get the cost. A employer does not only pay the paycheck, they have to pay for insurance etc too. luckily the company im working for is a big world wide company so thats not the problem they're just trying to cheap out.

 

a lot of people in our company leave because its just so bad here. the management sucks so bad etc so thats why people leave. We have a lot of workers from a third party company and well they are not that certified so everyging keeps getting kinda back cauz we lack the like proper people with education.

[Guest]

You can apply to other jobs while working a job.

[Agall]

On 5/24/2023 at 8:26 AM, Shy Devil said:

Lately i was talking with a friend that was working in the IT department and he told me if i wanted to get more money i need to be somewhat annoying and constantly ask. thats how he was promoted etc and got more money too. 

 

I get the cost. A employer does not only pay the paycheck, they have to pay for insurance etc too. luckily the company im working for is a big world wide company so thats not the problem they're just trying to cheap out.

 

a lot of people in our company leave because its just so bad here. the management sucks so bad etc so thats why people leave. We have a lot of workers from a third party company and well they are not that certified so everyging keeps getting kinda back cauz we lack the like proper people with education.

Sounds like the company is dying. Might be best to start looking elsewhere as some people have suggested.

[riklaunim]

On 5/23/2023 at 6:38 PM, Shy Devil said:

they all require a degree or smth and dont care about anything someone has done

For software development this is usually not required realistically. No degrees or certificates but you have to have something to back your skills. Usually it's a link to your work (like Github repositories) or a bio of working for X+ years in the field. Junior devs without prior commercial experience pretty much have to focus on their showcase and constantly improve their skills. Note that there is way to may juniors so only the best get the jobs.

 

I would suggest going over local and remote job offers so you see what's in demand locally, what's required there and also what's available as remote work. Mostly will likely be webdev or something similar. If you are experienced with robotics/embedded stuff there can be work there, like with the Nvidia Jetson platform.

 

Some remote job offers as an example:

• https://germantechjobs.de/en/jobs/Python/remote
• https://swissdevjobs.ch/jobs/Python/remote
• https://devitjobs.uk/jobs/Python/remote
• https://justjoin.it/remote/python

And they have other languages as well.

 

 

 

[Timme]

On 5/23/2023 at 7:38 PM, Shy Devil said:

Little Backstory

Hey i've been programming for about 7 years now and i've been trying to find a way to actually make money or open a business using my skills.

 

Over the years i've learned programming as a hobby via YouTube and im doing stuff like C# Desktop Applications, NodeJS Applications, Web Applications all that sweet stuff. Im also a electricial engineer and now a automation engineer, and combined with the programming skills i believe this is a extremely cool combo.

 

I've made libraries for the robots at work to extend the programming language and make it easier, i've developed custom applications with cameras for automated quality control and other projects. Im also doing a lot of personal, hobby projects.

 

TLDR

So i wonder how i could turn my skills into a business so i can make money as i want to buy a house and need a new car etc. The company im working at pays minimum wage and its not really nice there. I thought of maybe doing a programming job in another company but 1. im kinda afraid i cant do it (for a unkown reason lol) and 2. they all require a degree or smth and dont care about anything someone has done which sucks really bad. Im a "certified" (dont know proper term) electricial engineer and automation engineer i just dont have a computer degree or something.

 

 

 

Freelancing, an app for Microsoft Store, Fiverr - anything that'll provide a challenge from outside and, possibly, introduce you to more concepts and ideas. You can ask for the project requirements and try to do it without actually accepting the task.

[Shy Devil]

2 hours ago, Timme said:

Freelancing, an app for Microsoft Store, Fiverr - anything that'll provide a challenge from outside and, possibly, introduce you to more concepts and ideas. You can ask for the project requirements and try to do it without actually accepting the task.

I tried freelancing and a big problem with fiverr is that there are so many ridiculous offers from indian people mostly that would build you a entire datacenter for only 5€. its is extremely hard to compete with them without getting underpaid.

[ToboRobot]

Build a useful product or service and sell it.

[Sofia Vicedomini]

Hi! I do hiring in the company where I work right now, so here are some tips

Most of all, it depends on the country where you live, i.e. in the US there's a shrinkage of the market meanwhile in some European countries we're always looking.

With regards to companies all requiring college degrees, just degrease that info from your brain. If you can code, and you know how to code properly, you can get a job. Actually, the most talented software engineers I know don't have any college education. 

 

1. Set up a GitHub profile, upload some nice, well-formatted, projects you did on there, and explain them through the wikis. 
2. Rework your CV to be a one-pager where you express your passion for coding (I usually write mine and my friends' with rxresu.me )
3. Start applying for entry-level programming jobs and learn how the interview process is and what questions matter in your country: learn by failing. 

A tip from an entrepreneur: failure is not the end, is just a teacher