Help me find a job + personal story about CV

Maybe front end web dev? You already know how to create and maintain basic websites, and you could learn javascript with free courses online.

I don't know how the market for job is, but this could be an alternative.

Wish you all the best, Prot, and hope you find something soon.

Hi Prot,

I have few suggestions. Maybe unpopular to what’s already posted here by others.

First of all, I would like to thank you for all the amazing work you have done on the emacs ecosystem and also on the philosophical videos which I found were of tremendous value.

Now, since you are willing to do any kind of job, or at least for the time being, may I suggest you to reconsider the programming language that have chosen? I don’t think clojure or common-lisp is really that marketable right now. I am not saying that they are not useful. Indeed there are so many jobs out there and these two are used in the industry. But, for your situation, I don’t think these are good picks. Maybe you can come back to these languages anytime you want but for now, your priority is to land a quick job.

I think JavaScript/typescript, Java, Go, python, dot-net (if you don’t mind Microsoft platform) are the absolute best and most in-demand and the ones with good stability considering future. And I believe you should narrow down from this list the one that suits you best.

I would’ve added Rust too, but it can feel overwhelming and the learning curve may put you off as someone with less programming experience.

I’d suggest learning from one of the above and contribute to their open source projects and do videos on those and I’m 100% sure you’ll get much more attention from these communities. I would personally suggest typescript for a great exposure as there’s a lot happening in that space and you’ll easily be able to find a project that connects with you so that you can start contributing.

Many may not agree with my suggestions as people generally tend to consider frontend tech quite inferior or uncool to talk about. For quick job and something with worldwide adaption, I think this is one of the safest best for you now. Wishing you all the best. I can help you one-on-one if you need help getting fast tracked in any of these.

You are definitely employable, even if your CV has some gaps. I'd say focus on python, especially web development, because it is marketable. You can program in a lispy way and in the future you can take the next station to something like CL or clojure. Make some toy projects, publish them and perhaps share them on here to get some traction. Create a CV, mention all your projects. Look for consultancy companies and recruitment offices, send them your CV. Create LinkedIn and share yourself on there too. Write a good motivation letter to show how driven you are. I am fairly certain you will be employed because of the high demand. Getting some budget to get started however is probably more difficult. Perhaps some donations can work. You have some reach, and I bet many people are willing to share your story/cv/projects, don't worry about the bureaucratic process too much and still give it a try.

Good luck.

Hi Prot,

For an alternative path that still relates to tech, I would suggest looking into jobs for Technical Writing. Quality-wise, your documentation is so far above everything else I've ever seen. It also comes with the bonus situation of making your Emacs packages a big part of your CV, since they showcase the main talent of technical writing right away. It would also lower your barrier of entry in terms of needing to build a new skill set, like learning a programming language. Perhaps that's a venue worth looking in to?

The CV and the certificates et.c. are not everything, especially not in the tech industry. Most of the brightest and sharp minds I've worked with have been like me - technically without a formal tech education. For better (and definitely for worse) it's pretty meritocratic in the sense that if you can show that you can do the work most employers won't look to deeply into your CV.

Best of luck always. 💜

Hello Prot. I wish you the best. I like the idea of you becoming a Dev, go for it. At least here in Brazil there are some Jobs for both clojure and Python. Maybe Java? Its the language with the most opportunities over here. Well, in the meantime, I would suggest you look for your family or a friend who can share its home with you. Its nice to have someone with you on hard times

Best of luck, Prot. I hardly know any person in real life so I cannot help, but, regarding the choice of programming languages, if you are only looking for marketable ones, JavaScript is a must. Knowing JavaScript will allow you to transition to TypeScript, which is also very popular nowadays.

Consider taking a look at the "web development" area to find out which are the most common languages there. There is a lot of material to get started and, as far as I am aware, lots of opportunities to find a job.

In my opinion, you already did one of the most difficult tasks (even for a professional dev) which is contributing to FOSS software. Also, your English level is excellent and that allows you to find jobs in pretty much every country.

Wish you the best outcome. Much love.

You have very good skills, Prot. Your ability as a writer, which is obvious from what's on your website, is, on its own, a skill that's in short supply (just read this comment for an example of mediocre writing skill). Keep an open mind when looking for jobs and be persistent. I think the "lost decade" you spoke about will not be of much concern for employers, once they see what you've done with your website and your emacs programming. These last are achievements that require great discipline and mental organisation. I wonder if with your background you know some statistics. Data science with a functional programming language like R might be something to consider, although Python is also big for data science.

You can come live with me in America and work at a fast food restaurant.

You can definitely have a good grasp on Python in 3-4 months. I'm certain you will get a job if you give it a shot. Best of luck ❤

dude, you know Emacs, nothing is impossible for you! <3

Honestly I think that knowing Emacs Lisp is a major asset, you should have absolutely no problem to get a job in IT imo.

Regarding Clojure vs. CL vs. Python: I love CL and I think learning CL makes anyone a better programmer, but there just aren't any jobs. I'd learn Python, it's a cool language and you should be able to pick it up in no time.

A guy like you could work for himself!

dont cry

LEAVE greece.
im telling you this country is a fucking failure.

Clojure, definitely!
Especially after your Elisp skills, you could get up to pretty professional level in 2-3 months.

and the solid philosophy behind Clojure is something you would find extremely pleasing.

I would be honored to be your mentor.
I've successfully trained quite a few of my colleagues in Hong Kong already.

I have no doubt about your abilities either and don't quite understand where is all this lack of self esteem coming from.

I've also left Hungary when I was 33 years old, in 2007. Since then I've traveled thru Asia and worked from Japan, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, China and Hong Hong for the past ~8 years.
I only have a high school diploma and I hardly ever had to rely on a CV to get a job.

Hi Prot,

As a soon-to-be-34 year old, I can say that it's a common phenomenon to feel like a train - whatever that train may be - has been missed. Alongside many others in the comments, I think you've got plenty of tangible and marketable skills. One thought regarding programming, is that you might want to try and contact the developers at Roam Research, because it is written in clojure, and I think they'd be receptive to someone with your background and emacs-lisp experience. Connor White Sullivan is the founder, as far as I am aware, and seems like someone whom you could reach out to.

I will continue to think on your predicament. I agree with the sentiment of many people here: there are opportunities for you.

Thank you as always Prot,
Rory

You are incredibly brave and talented. Any potential employer would be privileged to have you in their employ! 10 years wasted? Very much not so according to your contributions to the Emacs community.

I cannot help directly with your plea, as I am not in the EU and do not have strong contacts there, but I do have a few things to say that I hope may be helpful, or at least not harmful. Please take it in the spirit of helpfulness, and discard anything you find uninteresting or undesirable.

(TL;DR: a fair number of comments here are things I agree with, and I think you are marketable and correct in seeking a personal referral, but I think you can hope for a personal referral into a career move, not a holding pattern. You may also be (financially) under-valuing your current contributions to the community!)

I am an educator at a university, and I see many students go through the job search; automated resume/CV filters are absolutely brutal, and you are correct that in your position a way to get around them will have big payoff. However, I believe that 1) you absolutely have things you can put on your CV (as others are saying), and 2) you are doing the right thing in seeking personal connections and recommendations. If you can get past that filter, you will be fine!

As far as putting things on your CV, the comments are filled with people saying that you can put your Emacs work on your CV, and I won't beat that dead horse. I think that, maybe, you are running up against shear between the world of political science and business and those fields, versus the world of tech and programming. In the tech field, "I built a thing" and in particular "I built a thing that people use" is one of the most powerful things you can say. Close behind that is "I did a thing, and I did it consistently" -- which also applies to your videos and your blogs and your documentation. Another fantastic point is "I can learn things", which I think your journey with Emacs lisp (and if you choose to dig into Clojure, as the comments suggest, and which I think is a great choice, then also that) illustrates.

I never, ever suggest to a student that they should fabricate a resume or a CV, and I would not suggest it to you, but you DO want to tell the story that YOU want to tell, and you need to look at it from the best angle; it's also reasonable to describe it with the light of hindsight, rather than the wandering and confused path that most of our lives take in the moment. For example, a valid telling of your story as you gave it here:

1. I took up politics and government
2. I became dislliusioned with the lifestyle that came with it
3. I took a few years to gather myself; I lived frugally, I took odd jobs, I enjoyed life in a beautiful location
4. I found a subject that I could be passionate about, and used my free time to explore and document it
5. I found a following of like-minded individuals, and started to produce artifacts of value to that community
6. I am now in a place where it is prudent to move on from my frugal and somewhat unstable lifestyle, and I would like to move into the adopted field of my new-found passion

This is a reasonable story, and one that an employer can understand and buy into! If you can get a personal recommendation to an employer to put that story in front of human eyes, more the better.

In the US (I do not know about the EU), modest relocation bonuses for distant moves are common; it sounds like the level of up-front funding that you are looking for is likely to be covered by this sort of thing.

If you were my student, I would suggest looking into (as I believe some others have mentioned) technical writing or perhaps a development support role of some kind, as I think it is easy to argue that you have the necessary skills for software development-adjacent activities already, between your formal education and your extensive body of self-published work of excellent quality, and you don't necessarily have to develop any specific other skills for that. I think it is also reasonable to brush up on Clojure (or another language or technology) and seek a junior development role, although the time frame for that might be somewhat longer. (Of course, if you can relocate with one of the less tech-y jobs as you mention, you can work on this in the background!) It would be great to spin out a project or two to build up your CV on that front.

I know that you are not asking for charity or particular largesse here, in particular, but I also think that you may underestimate the value that people place on the kind of work that you have been doing; as far as I am aware, you have no liberapay, patreon, or similar accounts. You may find that there are users of your themes or packages, or simply people who enjoy your content, who would be willing to pitch something in for those things. I do not know that that constitutes a career (although I could be wrong), but it may serve as a welcome cushion. I am not even suggesting that you ask for supporters to make a move, I am saying that I think there are probably people who would already be willing to support what you are doing for them, any immediate requirements aside!

Good luck with this endeavor, and keep that critical and dispassionate (but not overly critical or negative) view on your circumstances. It looks to me like you are one solid referral away from new opportunities.

Man, you should REALLY learn javascript and some of the trendy frameworks and you should be golden for web development.

I'm in a similar situation. I'm planning on getting a remote web development (React/Redux...) job in the next few months so I can leave Hong Kong. The government is out of control and it's really effecting my mental health, since almost everything is off limits for someone that isn't fully vaccinated. I have a small business in Hong Kong that does web development (mainly WordPress/WooCommerce stuff). If I get any decently sized projects in the future, I'll be sure to reach out. Good luck Prot!

I hope you fine a job that is comfortable above all. CL I don't know much about, but Clojure has a good job market and is very well paid, Clojure is also mostly famous in Europe IIRC. Python is a wildly used language and also has a good market. But due to your Elisp skills, which you can use in your CV when applying to a Clojure job, you will pick Clojure faster. another advantage you will have with Clojure is, most companies accept you even if you are not very good at it, because it is a niche language and they are willing to teach you, a lot of remote jobs in the Clojure space too. I think you can learn Clojure and Python in a very short time, so why not learn both? I hope I can find something from my end to help you, if you are willing to live in Iraq for a while.

Dear Protesilaos, I am in a somewhat similar situation. The comments here are absurdly helpful in my situation, too. Do you already know whether you want to delete this video when the business is finished for you, or will the video (and its comments) most likely remain here, say at least until the end of next year? Thank you very much for being as brave as you are. I cannot add any advice, only a tiny donation. Please do just delete this video when it suits you. All the best! Sebastian

We'll get you a job Prot. Just sent an email, hopefully I can help.

Hey, Prot,

Your openness and honesty move me about your current situation and your history. I understand what you are talking about being rejected by some stupid algorithm inspecting CVs and making decisions based on buzzwords or other non-transparent criteria. I would be happy working with somebody like you who can communicate ideas and have a clear way of thinking. I'm always impressed by your documentation, blog posts, and the software you have created. I didn't publish any emacs package. I didn't make well-written documentation for software that people use daily. You have a positive attitude and are clear about what you need to improve your situation. Don't think about the last ten years as lost. You learned many things and showed that you could pick up new things and be successful. Put your emacs work on the CV, the videos you published, and all your writing. That is more than many people I know have achieved in the last ten years. Short term, a remote position will likely be more straightforward for you and a potential employer. As you and others here pointed out, learning Python, TypeScript, and Closure will be helpful to open up new areas of employment. The role of a technical writer seems like another excellent opportunity to use your thinking and writing skills. I don't know enough people in companies that don't rely on all these automatic software to weed out potentially great candidates. Keep your head up, and please stay positive. There will be a good resolution for you.

Hi Prot, I've seen your emacs stuff and would happily pay for tutoring/help with setup - the skills you already have a really marketable anyway imo!

Unfortunately, not recruiting at the minute due to the economy but I would have had no qualms about vouching to give you an interview. We'd have been interested in Py/C++ - i am guessing Py is a bit more marketable generally (C++ is rather rare)

If I were you, I'd definitely look at setting up a business providing emacs consulting/tutoring. Please make it known if you do go a similar path!

Best of luck

Prot you have an amazing future if you get into dev / devops even , just give python a whirl and there is an infinity of jobs

I hope you get your chance, Prot. Everyone deserves another chance and don't think you lack skills. Learning out of conviction programming without a tech background is not something to take lightly.

1st you need to stop using Drugs

You are an inspiration to the DEV community. I am from Greece and talking about you to my colleagues with great fondness and the emacs community in general.

After beeing in the field professionally for almost 3 years, 6 total with uni, I can honestly say your analytical skills, attention to detail, proper and organized documentation, will be the thing that will make you an amazing developer.

There are many Soft Dev jobs that don't require a CS degree in Greece, so keep on looking and I am sure you can surprise them with your abilities.

My vote is that you learn Python and make videos about it. If python is too alien for you initially, you could start by learning GNU R first which was heavily inspired by lisp and which has a very inclusive and welcoming community that produces a prolific amount of free educational content. There is then a lot of free training available for transitioning from R to python. There are relatively few jobs where you can get paid to program in R. JavaScript would be a waste of your talents, IMO.

A few suggestions that I gathered from someone who worked in the software industry:

(a) Focus on one language, which perhaps should be something more mainstream, e.g. Python, Nodejs. (But it is also important that you like the language.)

(b) Streamline your CV, remove what is not relevant to software development.

(c) Apply for jobs that are specific to the language you chose under (a).

Note that your first job does not have to be the perfect one. After you worked for a year or so in software development, you can still try to find something else, where you can implement your other skills (communication, ...) more.

Another route would be software TESTER. You only need basic programming knowledge for this, but it is very important that you are diligent and thorough (which should be no problem for you). You would need to learn some terminology, test methods, etc., which you can do in self-study.

I don't know much about your country, but in the USA many of us use LinkedIn for CV and to look for work. Do you have a profile there? It's possible to find remote work through that, although I can't speak to international work. If you can make one, just a warning you might get junk responses, spam is everywhere these days. Good luck, I really enjoy your videos.

Hey Prot,

I just wanted to tell you that you are such an inspiration for me. When I first came to your channel, it was for emacs but then I discovered much more than that. You are wisdom my man :)

Regarding the job search, I think we are all unanimous that landing a job in IT is much more easier now than back in the days even without formal education in that field. A CV is nothing, I can lie on a CV. Doing is more important because people see what you do and potentially CAN do. And I have to tell you that being able to learn emacs lisp and become an emacs-core contributor and maintainer of emacs-packages in only a few years, it is quite impressive.
Now as you said, emacs-lisp might not be the most marketable lisp out there so yes, as everyone else has suggested, these days Clojure might be your option if you really want to stick with lisp. I myself did that choice and landed on a Clojure job while going through a sabbatical year in 2022 (also trying to cure from something...yeah I feel you my friend!!). At the moment, the best place to land a job in Clojure is probably Germany, the Netherlands or Finland. If I stumble upon something, I will definitely let you know.
If you feel like you want to go into the more general stuff then stick to the mainstream languages : Python, Java. They have pretty good eco-system/communities as well and you will always land something sooner or later.

In the meantime, the only thing I can do for now is provide you with some resources like Clojure books (I have many of those) or actually other technical books if you feel like you are in the mood of reading. Just let me know and I can share those with you.

I wish you good luck and all the best in your quest...

I wrote to a friend of mine about your job search Prot. The guy is an IT R&D recruiter, Co-Founder and a CTO. AFAIK he's looking for people.

Hi Prot, in typesetting you can put emacs skills to full impact! Give your favourite book publishers a chance to hire you by sending them a letter. Typesetting is usually remote work these days so it's a free choice to live in a beautiful countryside or in an expensive city.

Love your eMacs work

You are a great eMacs grand master

U need to put eMacs on your cv

What do u programme in ?

Great programmers have learnt lisp they say it makes you help think better

Programming is a difficult field, can be satisfying but not an easy life all the time

Terry Davis was a great giving programmer but died in poverty, he was a programming grand master better than many phds

Emacs on CV for sure.

To anybody watching this video also read the comments and be inspired. We all need motivation and practical solutions to our problems.
I wasnt entirely convinced watching your video(first time on your channel) but reading your comments and reply to others I must say you're positive and open to suggestions and thats what it takes to succeed sometimes.
Finally to everybody in a career crossroads or standstill, in depression, battling with imposter syndrome know that with time if you put your mind to it and keep trying it shall pass. Prot. I dont know what you believe in but dont lose hope if everything people are saying in the comments are true you will definitely land a job to take care of yourself. Wishing you all the best!