Yes, probably I am nuts.

[chipotle]

Why? I'm sending out feelers for a part-time web development position. Part-time. The chances are it wouldn't bring me any benefits other than being a W-2 employee again (not that that's anything to sneeze at), and likely my salary wouldn't just go down, it'd plummet like a turkey in freefall.

So why would I even consider this, you ask? But no--you've been reading this journal (probably), so you know. I want time to develop personal projects--ideally time to develop them into things that generate a side income. A part-time job with a side income could end up equalling a full-time income.

But would I really want to leave There? That's a complicated question.

It's great to be part of a company like this, even in a small way. They're the classic visionary startup that wants to change the world. (Really. It's definitely not about being a game, and long-term it's not about being a fancy chat service. It's about being the metaverse.) The data I'm analyzing is usually pretty interesting, and it's got the highest Brilliant Person Per Square Foot measure of any place I've worked at and probably will ever be at again.

But, I'm realizing it's a classic example of the distinction between occupation and field, the two components of a career in job-hunting lingo. I find the field fascinating, even though it's not one I'd have probably chosen for myself. But the occupation, interesting data or not, isn't doing much for me. Couple that with the "ergonomic issues" I've already mentioned, from office setup to commute to working hours, and it's difficult for me to work up a lot of enthusiasm. Couple that with my status as a 1099 contractor, and the enthusiasm drops another fraction. (I recently worked out how far behind I am in my savings from where I need to be just to cover taxes, and have realized I should have been paying estimated tax the last couple of quarters to boot.)

I suppose I'm confirming what I already really knew about myself--if I'm going to go into overdrive for work, I want it to be work I'm doing for myself, not somebody else. I don't think I'm lazy and I think I do pretty good work. But I think 35-45 hours a week for somebody else is quite enough. I also know from experience that I'm poor at drudge work: my attention wanders.

Some off-the-cuff calculations I made suggest that I probably need about $2,000 a month in net pay--more than that and I get to save and pay off debts, but much less than that and I get to either sell the car or sleep in it. My guess is that grossing $15 an hour at 40 hrs/week would hit that level. It'd be a serious cut from my high-water mark, certainly--which isn't that high by this area's standards--but despite my love of expensive toys, I'm willing to opt out of the income race for a while. (I'd still love to be able to put together a top-of-the-line desktop machine before the end of this year so I can both use it for my work and take a tax deduction on it, but I'm not completely sure I can justify that with my current income, let alone a smaller one.)

Well. I'm writing this from the "wired" McDonald's I've written about before. Currently I can't check email from the office, as they've locked down the network for the indefinite future. I have no idea if the position I inquired about this morning will still be open, if they'll decide I'm not quite qualified (or overqualified), or... well, or anything. But it feels like I'm taking another one of those weird life steps--you know, the off-the-cliff kind of steps--by applying. I won't ask for wishes for luck, per se, but more general good wishes are appreciated. Hopefully I'll figure out what I want to be when I grow up before I die.

Comments

[prickvixen.livejournal.com]

$15 an hour in the bay area is, at least in my experience, pretty easy to get. I don't know if you can get it doing web development... have you thought about going into software QA? It's fairly low-stress, too.

On QA as a job...

[chipuni.livejournal.com]

QA isn't low-stress.

Monkey-see-monkey-do QA can be very easy: some companies have written up hundreds of pages of documents that someone needs to follow. But in those cases, you need to follow mind-numbing, poorly-written directions every day. The job is far from secure: any enterprising job-seeker would look at that list of QA documents, then present managers how much money they can save by automating this work.

The only (relatively) safe form of QA as a job is creating and automating tests. That's real programming, and it requires as much brainpower as any other kind of programming. On the other hand, it pays a lot less, and it gets a lot less respect. (My biggest mistake was taking a job with QA in the title. Remind me to tell you the horror stories of working at Informix.)

Further, companies operate under "grade school baseball" rules. Remember them? Even if your team is losing 52-0, whoever gets the third out in the final inning is the one who lost the game. QA is exactly the same. It doesn't matter if development spent five extra weeks adding unscheduled features to the product, leaving you just one week to finish six weeks of work. If a product is to you before the ship date, you are blamed if the product is late, and you are blamed if the product ships with bugs.

If you can't guess, I don't recommend software QA.

Re: On QA as a job...

[prickvixen.livejournal.com]

Er, okey-dokey. That isn't my experience, but I guess you know best. *steps away slowly without making any sudden moves*

[chipotle.livejournal.com]

Getting anything in the bay area isn't easy these days, I don't think, which is why I'm not exactly rushing to pull the rip cord--I'm just thinking about it.

Your experience with web development and QA positions doesn't match up with those of people I know nor my own, I have to admit. I've known a few people who made upwards of $70K annually doing software QA--but that's only because they were being paid overtime and were consistently working 60-80 hours a week. And for all of that, every one of them was treated badly by their employer and screwed over. Without exception. While that may indeed be par for the course in the industry, I wouldn't feel comfortable going into a field where I had to assume that was going to happen.

Conversely, my own two QA experiences have been relatively nice, but they've been very short term, the "real" one with GTE TSI paying about $12 an hour and the busy-work one in 1989 only paying $6. In web development work, at Linvatec I was being paid $25 an hour and at NetPoodles my annual salary was just a little under that in equivalent. In 2000-2001, I did check job postings out here, though, and jobs doing about what I was (essentially "webmaster": HTML markup, server-side scripting in something like PHP or Perl, basic database manipulation, and server administration) were generally advertised at comparable prices to that or more, with the appropriate cost of living adjustment--usually $35-40/hr here, or $70K+ a year. Those prices all but evaporated around here during 2002, unfortunately; my best hope for web work, I suspect, is hanging on doggedly until all the people who only know HTML give up, move somewhere else and stop clogging up the system.

[prickvixen.livejournal.com]

Hmm, I don't know. I was in the $65K range when I was at Adobe, and that included all kinds of obscene fringe benefits. That was a salary position; when I was a contractor I pulled in much more because of the overtime. That was two years overall, and I left for the usual no good reason. I guess Adobe is an exceptional case.

My only dedicated QA position of note before that was at an educational software company, and that was basically sleepy-time... come in, run a lot of mindless tests, write bugs, go home. It didn't pay much by Silicon Valley standards, but it was way more than I'd made previously. Again, I left rather than the job being yanked.

My web design experiences have all been nightmares. I did 20 months at a startup at my starting pay, doing what turned out to be the work of two people, to go by my replacements when I left. Maybe three, but Mpath was running out of money by then.

Another gig was with some crooked yokels in Michigan who were essentially paying me below minimum wage for doing entire sites top to bottom. It was that or work at Meijer.

Anyway, my entire statement was that getting $15 an hour shouldn't be hard, which it shouldn't be, since I started at $12 in 1994 with zero QA experience; and that QA is low-stress, which to me it is, compared to my other jobs doing websites, being an office monkey, working at Wendy's and cleaning up other people's puke. You may have higher aspirations than I do.

[haikujaguar.livejournal.com]

I hope this works out as it should for you. I would certainly not feel comfortable making such a step myself!

But I've also come to the conclusion that even if I suddenly was showered with novel contracts and knew I could make a living as a writer without a day job, I would still have work somewhere, part-time or not. There are things I get out of being "in the workforce" that I just don't staying home to work on personal projects, and not all of them have anything to do with money or health insurance.

This was one of the most freeing realizations of the past year for me. I no longer feel rushed to "become a writer before I die." Knowing I wouldn't change anything means I'm already a writer by the definition I've chosen.


Funny how looking at something just a little differently changes everything. :)

[tuftears.livejournal.com]

I can understand where you're coming from here, though fortunately for me, There is a step in the right direction toward my dream career, that of being Richard Garriott. ('gryn) I spent time while unemployed trying to figure out the minimum I could get by on, and then told them at my interview that I wouldn't supply a salary history because I didn't want to be underbid.

They wound up making a pretty reasonable offer-- a bit less than my last job, but those were boom times. I'm glad that I went that way.

For your own case, I'd shoot for around $20/hour if you can manage it, having a safety cushion is a good idea. There are always unexpected expenses.

[koogrr.livejournal.com]

Well, good to know THERE is visionary. It has that feel. I'm a little jealous that you work there.

It seems to me that the work-related issues are bothering you more than the work. That you'd really love your job if you were making more money, didn't have such-a commute, and had a better employment status.

Geez, sounds like my problems

So, I guess see if those are addressable first, then look for more work.

[chipotle.livejournal.com]

I'd be more at peace with my job if the commute and the employment status changed. (Money isn't an issue in that regard--I wouldn't turn down a raise, certainly, but I'd be able to budget a smaller amount than I'm making.) But, I don't know that I'd really *love* it. The chances are that, like most jobs that don't involve creating new programs or leading teams, it's going to continue on its march toward drudge work. And, the commute isn't going to change unless I move--which would raise my living expenses considerably. (If I lived on my own out here I'd probably be trying to move into a cabin in the Santa Cruz mountains, somewhat southwest of where I am now, which would make a commute to There evven longer.)

This perception is probably the main thing that gives me a push toward freelance work, perhaps something akin to what Scotfox seems to be contemplating. I'd really like the idea of work that ranges from quick "house calls" to short-term contracts. Of course, I'd really like the idea of not netting less than $2000 a month. So. :)

[chastmastr.livejournal.com]

HUGS...