Ask HN: Where to work while studying as a mature age student?

Posted by deevus on Monday January 14, 2013 @09:01PM
from the ask-hn dept.

I'm a 27 y/o from Newcastle, Australia and I am starting a Bachelor Degree in Computer Science this year, after working 5 years as a programmer for a local company.

Ideally, I would like to get a part-time/casual job while at uni that:

a) Is programming related b) Pays relative to my skills (ie. not a straight out of high-school uni student)

Freelancing seems like an option, but I have never done any. Also, the impression that I get is that most freelancing jobs are web-development related, and creating UI's isn't my strong point.

Currently my day job mainly consists of working on the MS stack (C#) in (ASP.NET MVC, backend services, MSSQL, Powershell) and Javascript. I have worked heavily with Delphi, and in no particular order I have worked (personally and not on big projects) with Python, node.js, Java, and C++.

EDIT: I suppose what I'm asking is how should I approach the job market? I can't imagine there being specific jobs for "mature age students with x years experience", and expect my requirements to be somewhere in between what is typically listed.

If I have omitted anything deemed important I will be happy to provide it.

Thanks

Simon

( 5 comments | 4 points | on HN )

Re:Ask HN: Where to work while studying as a mature age stud... by CyberFonic on Monday January 14, 2013 @10:43PM (#5058491)

You could seek out web-design / front-end oriented local consultancies and offer to do their back-end server programming. I would suggest focusing on your current strengths. Doing CS F/T is heavy enough going without having to learn new languages, frameworks, etc.

Check out oDesk, eLance, etc. They have a lot of jobs going. If you are disciplined and very productive you might be able to generate some income. The downside being that you are competing with people from lower cost of living countries.

If you have server, networking skills then you could look for work with systems integrators who need people to work graveyard shifts in data centres.

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Re:Ask HN: Where to work while studying as a mature age stud... by orangethirty on Monday January 14, 2013 @10:22PM (#5058414)

With your skills it should not be too hard to get remote work. I'd say wait for the next freelancers thread here on HN, write a good post talknig about you and expect the avalanche of responses. I usually get at least 10 emails on the same day the thread goes live. Someone with your skills is very valuable. If you need help writing the ad, just drop me a line and I'll help you out (as a favor). Email on profile. Good luck!

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Re:Ask HN: Where to work while studying as a mature age stud... by dear on Monday January 14, 2013 @09:45PM (#5058272)

Just keep working in the same company, either as a part time while studying full time, or and work full time while study as part time.

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Re:Ask HN: Where to work while studying as a mature age stud... by deevus on Monday January 14, 2013 @10:01PM (#5058331)

In prior discussions with them, the impression that I get is that I will not get much work if any if I study full-time, and studying part-time is not an option for me.

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Re:Ask HN: Where to work while studying as a mature age stud... by paperghost on Monday January 14, 2013 @10:10PM (#5058363)

sysadmin role / help desk in large company

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