Always Be Looking.

Honestly, early on, I wasn’t reliably finding them. But that lasted maybe 6 months?

If I have a 6mo contract for example, I’m still applying for a couple jobs every week. I’m keeping in touch with recruiters that don’t suck at their job and building rapport with them. I’m pinging prior coworkers and just seeing who/what they know is available.

Obviously, soft skills and resume matter too. I have enough buzzy technologies under my belt that it increases the breadth of jobs I can apply for, which helps.

Yeah, it was rough at first, but not like…I was destitute by any means. And now with enough of a network built up I’m relatively confident that even if shit hit the fan, I could find a job inside of 2 weeks.

If you’re in the US (or I guess anywhere?) - just make sure to account for taxes…

Makes sense. I removed on FB from time to time and most of my posts get 20-30 engagements from close friends.

Anything pro-Palestine gets maybe 1, at best.

I resemble this…sort of. Except my car is already paid for and I really don’t think it’s a wise decision to just blow money on another car simply to get out of a current vehicle that more than meets my needs.

I hope this is a R&M reference.

You sound like me. I’m diagnosed autistic (mildly), I’m a software engineer, I’m introverted, I’m definitely liberal leaning, and…I live in Oregon.

For now, I love it here (except Portland proper). So many great restaurants, bars, breweries, wineries, and a crap ton of trails and other parks and sights and sounds.

I live semi-rural and half the businesses here have pride flags and BLM signage. I’m non-white, but don’t feel unsafe walking around where I am at night. My tech contract jobs are remote and I make more than enough to live comfortably.

It rains a lot here… though less so these days it seems. It’s weird how many 100+ degree days we get now, but it’s still a lot less than other people I know.

I’m rambling. If you want to know more, just ask.

$20 one time for a well developed app that I use multiple hours a day is inexpensive.

I pay almost as much to multiple streaming services PER MONTH for a shitty experience and sometimes not a completely ad-free experience.

Anyway, in all honesty I chose the $1.99/mo because it gives the dev $24/yr into perpetuity. I also donate to instances. I also use Connect and Jerboa and Liftoff. It’s whatever.