I won't bore you guys with my sob story but I've been unemployed and doing fuck all day after day for quite some time. I've been trying to educate myself about coding which is where I hope to land in due time, but it's been hard to summon enough motivation in the vacuum.
This got me thinking, maybe I can supplement my family income by doing a bunch of no strings attached computer stuff on fivver or something and get a bit of experience with coding along the way. Getting five bucks for an hour or two of work would be good pocket money here in Russia.
I'm a stemlord and generally consider myself to have a bit of a talent with coding, despite never having done it in a professional capacity. I know some C# from making shitty games in Unity, some Python from tinkering with machine learning and a bit of JavaScript.
Is there a smart way to approach this? I'm willing to learn those new fancy web frameworks or whatever.
What constitutes know2code though? I've had to take a bunch of CS courses in university and wrangled jupyter notebooks in the lab, but I have no idea what's expected from a hired coder...
Web dev is probably most lucrative and maybe backend or DB?
Take a peak at the sites and see what's most requested, if you have a good grasp on programming, a crash course through youtube or w/e might be enough to get you started in the most requested langs.
What's expected from a hired coder? My experience may vary form others, but as a proj manager, I'd like code that fits the existing code well enough (no rockstar shit, good code is readable and maintainable), good documentation, and a knowledge of the git process (branch knowledge). Ideally I'd show you a sprint board (maybe have some scrum/khanban knowledge) that you can pick and choose from and you'd create merge requests when ready (In our stack, after running AT) and work with another dev in code review.
Bit more on this, I wouldn't expect a fresh hire to know our process or tools. I'd work with them, or ask a senior dev to work with them to introduce them to our stack and dev flow. Is everyone like me? No, there are a lot of assholes out there.
(no rockstar shit, good code is readable and maintainable), good documentation, and a knowledge of the git process (branch knowledge)
As a novice how do I git good at this?
Keep up to date with best practices, follow some forums or even stackoverflow honestly, it's what I do. Branch knowledge and working with atislan/github/gitlab can mostly be done through youtube tutorials and just farting around with it.
I’d like code that fits the existing code well enough (no rockstar shit, good code is readable and maintainable)
As if the existing code is ever readable and maintainable. The code I work on at my job is one of the big reasons I want to quit.
sometimes I fill out surveys on https://app.prolific.co/studies
It's very low paying, but as close to "my own terms" as I can get
Prolific is pretty decent lately actually. Extra 10 bucks here and there for not that much effort
It's just a way a bunch of colleges and research groups outsource stuff for studies. I've used it for years without issue.
It's less sketchy than most survey sites and stuff like that because you're being paid by researchers instead of straight up companies just trying to make you buy something.
I have no idea on the overall security of it, but it's just demographic info and such you're giving them so if you're worried of that getting out then maybe not, if that's fine there's not much to worry about.
You're not going to be dealing with popups or having to download software or whatever if that's what you're concerned with.
not sure if you'd need a VPN to use something like Mechanical Turk or other piecemeal online jobs, I've often wondered how feasible it would be to use machine learning to crank out podcast transcripts and other things that are considered 'manual task' on those platforms
there's some alternatives to MTurk, but it definitely seems to be one the more established platforms related to what you are considering, but country/region locks might be tough to get around (I'm not sure how you get paid, etc)
maybe just look at the different common tasks on these platforms and then work on building some code to automate a common subset
decent list of options here: https://whippio.com/mturk-alternatives/
For a medium-term option, see if you can join a local coding meetup/group. 70% of the people there will be like you but at different stages of employment + income and those connections can help you find work, including doing contract work building websites. Sometimes they might have too much work and want to subcontract you.
Where do I look for one of those? As far as gathered from my friends in IT, computer people were some of the first to move their meetings and what not online once the virus hit...
Good question! It depends on your country and whether you live in a city. But there are often several groups and yes many are lib but they're a start:
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"Open [City]
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"Code for [City]"
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"Civic [City] Hackers"
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"[City] Python Programmers"] (substitute any language)
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"[Demographic] programmers" if you fall outside the cishet white male demo
Googling for these things is probably best but you can sometimes find groups on Meetup or similar platforms.
Also your local socialist orgs might have tech interest groups!
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/r/forhire is a decent spot to pick up a gig or two. I see coding needed pretty often.
Do it on /r/forhire instead, slavelabour sucks shit and you'll be likely to just get scammed
Yep, anyone trying to hire for rockbottom wages is the most likely to not pay at all. Biggest lesson for freelancing early on.
