I went to school for design, and went on to become a programmer, so I have a very well rounded, Swiss Army knife type skill set. I can design and build entire web apps myself (that's how I make my living), although I'm not looking for work like that. I've been working with Ruby/Rails all the way since 1.2.x.
I've been running my own bootstrapped SAAS apps for a living the last few years (see goro.us for links). Recently had an addition to the family and am seeking reliable part-time work with another startup to supplement my income.
I actually saw some of it because someone forgot to disable stack traces on the production server (and their sign up form was broken when I submitted it). It was written using some PHP framework. You'd think it would be written in Java...?
I was feeling the much same way when I was 27. I had a lot of ambitions, but my financial obligations (and weak resume at the time) prevented me from doing what I thought I was capable of.
I saved up some money, then took the best paying, most flexible–yet reliable–part time work I could find. I got really lucky and found a boss who was very understanding of my situation.
For the next few years I was fairly broke, but by having a steady part time job, I was able to swing back and forth between developing new skills, working on my own SAAS business, and freelancing when things got tight.
My business didn't hockey stick, but it had a steady bootstrapped upward incline. When it was making enough to pay the bills, I stopped freelancing, then eventually quit my part time job.
I traveled overseas a bunch, toured with my crappy band a few times, did all the other stuff on my bucket list, then bought a house and had a kid. Business is still good and consistent. I'm not rich, but I'm not poor either.
I'm 35 now. I spend my days hanging out with my son and answering the occasional email, hacking at night or whenever. I've never been happier than I am these days.
Sometimes, I wish I could travel back in time 10 years so that I could tell younger myself, "hey, things will turn out really well." Would've made the trip here a lot easier.
Remote: Yes
Willing to relocate: No
Technologies: Ruby, Rails, JavaScript, HTML/CSS, Sass, Rspec
Resume: Email for LinkedIn
Email: work {at} goro {dot} us
I went to school for design, and went on to become a programmer, so I have a very well rounded, Swiss Army knife type skill set. I can design and build entire web apps myself (that's how I make my living), although I'm not looking for work like that. I've been working with Ruby/Rails all the way since 1.2.x.
I've been running my own bootstrapped SAAS apps for a living the last few years (see goro.us for links). Recently had an addition to the family and am seeking reliable part-time work with another startup to supplement my income.