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Posted3 months ago
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Unfortunately, I can't find a problem to solve, and believe me, I tried! Everything I come up with has been solved already with a better set of features.
There’s a whole host of US-centric products that work well in American-ish places, but fail to serve local users in non-Americanized markets.
(See: Baidu vs. Google in China)
“What we are taught is that if you want to start a business, you need to come up with something new, something that hasn't been done before. But the reality is that the world will very easily accept three of the same thing, or five of the same thing. And usually it is an advantage to look at something that already exists and say, can another one of those exist? Or can I take what's there and tweak it a little bit? If you are a great cloner, you will be 90% ahead of the rest of humanity.”
I recommend using the concept of a “talent stack” to find areas you are uniquely suited for and uniquely interested in.
Make an ordered list of things you enjoy, things you are motivated toward, things you are talented at. Then brainstorm ways to combine as many of them as you can.
Your particular combination will be rare, this is where you are most likely to be able to find and solve problems.
Since you’re a programmer you are very well suited for that type of analysis.
Once you’ve identified those areas, dedicate deep focused thought toward identifying problems and solving them. Go for long walks or hikes or bike rides while thinking about it.
However, as OP directly experienced (as have I) most startups will fail. That's the normal result. Employment is almost always safer, even if ultimately less rewarding. So try to do an honest assessment of your risk tolerance. If you only have yourself to worry about, you can live on beans and rice for a long time. If you have children or other dependents, it can be more complicated.
I was taught by my very first real "boss" (way back when dinosaurs roamed the streets) to never put more into your startup idea than you can afford to lose and still manage to survive afterwards. You can always rebuild (a totally new idea or a variation of the old, after learning from your mistakes) from that point as long as you can manage to survive your mistakes. On the other hand, he also said that if you're really serious about your idea you should absolutely invest in it as much as you're realistically able to (finances, time, and effort) without putting yourself in an un-survivable bind.
So - solve it for them. Figure out all the answers, set up all the stuff that will make it easier for a prospective employer and have it all at the ready.
patio11 is famous because what he did was really non-trivial even though he is such a humble person he discusses his work in very homely terms.
Are you personally making a living by selling a product or service you created - and if so could you share something of your experience? Making a product is not trivial - it's double hard.
First you need to come up with a product. Then you need to sell it and the latter is possibly much harder than the technology in all except the most complex of products. There are success stories, sure, but so many people in the internet are hustling so success looks like driven by chance rather than a deterministic outcome by following a given process. (If you get to medical school, then becoming a doctor is a deterministic outcome. If you get unemployed, coming up with a product and sales to make a living does not seem deterministic to me in the same sense).
One lesson I had to learn the hard way, no one is coming to save you. Build your own future. Make your own path. Finding something that people would pay for is easy. Finding something that a lot of people will pay for is hard. Just find a way to earn a living and then find a way to make a living with what you love doing. You don’t need to work for a FANNG to be successful.
Can you clarify how you mean that?
There's an extreme interpretation that I'm guessing you don't mean.
I feel like you're just coming in with an ax to grind that has no relevance to the question being asked here.
1. if there are jobs offering high pay, and there are people who get them- these jobs are not overpaid, clearly some people want to pay high and there are other people who deliver (and of course there are other who fake it, but it's not a norm)
2. not all people are equal, and not all jobs are equal, and just because 'it feels unfair' does not mean it is unfair. Sure, there are different levels of programmers but I personally have seen people who deserve every penny of their pay, because they produce stuff 99.99% people won't be able to produce no matter how hard they want to be in that league
3. Education is investment people make because they see it opens some doors that are otherwise closed- looking at job descriptions in my area, most well paid jobs require some form of paper from applicants- it doesn't matter if it's good or bad, it's state of reality (and sure, there are other jobs where paper is not needed, my point is that with the paper more doors are opened)
4. in case of original poster, the problem might be different- partially because of the target audience and partially because of local reality. In early stage of developed countries nepothism is a huge problem, so I sympathetise with the poster as I know this first hand. I dare to say, having college degree puts him in much better situation than most of the population and the game is to be patient.
The first thing that comes to mind is, if I wanted to hire you remotely, how would I pay you?
I don't know whether it's a common question you have from prospective employers, but if I'm running a business (FWIW, I'm not), I'd be worried that regularly sending money to Iraq might trigger some alarms (anti-money laundering, sanctions, etc.), and this probably trumps any other consideration unless somehow you're able to show that you're so good at doing the work that it's worth the (perceived) risk.
So I'm speculating that maybe you'd have better chances if you focus on crypto-friendly companies and figure out a way to receive money using crypto, and mention this upfront or at least at the same time you reveal where you are currently.
I can't even imagine how hard it would be from Iraq, even if it's currently "not sanctioned" in theory.
1) We'll always need tech for bureaucracy. Look for anything that is done on paper that can be digitalized. CRM, POS, LMS, inventory management. These stuff are red ocean and you don't need to convince people that yours is better. Just be better than Excel, simpler than SAP.
2) Anti-corruption is a fertile field in developing nations. That means forms. Payments and payments infra. Malaysia is entering an era where e-invoicing is mandatory for tax cuts. Things like remittance may be difficult too and it could mostly be a paperwork thing.
3) Common advice in HN is jobs good, entrepreneurship bad. But in your situation, the odds of having a business may be 15%, and the odds of getting a job may be 1%. Entrepreneurship is also a lot more difficult if your competitors are people like Walmart or Amazon so the math is entirely different.
when you can't get a job then entrepreneurship is the only other option. uganda leads the statistics with the highest number of entrepreneurs world wide for a reason.
“The Money River, where the wealth of the nation flows. We were born on the banks of it-and so were most of the mediocre people we grew up with, went to private schools with, sailed and played tennis with. We can slurp from that mighty river to our hearts' content. And we can even take slurping lessons, so we can slurp more efficiently.”
Have you already tried positioning yourself as deep into your country's "money river" as possible? It's by far the biggest knob, location location location. You can be the most qualified amazeballs whatever of something in a resource desert devoid of opportunity and you'll starve.
Do you have a personal website or blog? Do you have thoughts, ideas, problems you’ve solved, or mini hobby projects to talk about? It may not directly lead to an instant job but I think showing the world more about you and what you enjoy doing (and are good at) beyond the normal CV format might be a good start? It’s at least a productive thing to spend your time on while you’re trying to work out your next move.
if you can move to a country that is hiring lots of dev (like japan) move.
2. Assuming that it is still to do with computers. A software business does not have to be about building products and selling them. I imagine in Iraq (or where ever you are) there are many small businesses and non-technical people who need their computers maintained and repaired (example, this guy has posted on HN and has a small business that does this : https://www.scottrlarson.com/services/computer/repair/ .. I am not affiliated in any way with him). You might need to hit the street, ignore the fear / embarrassment / rejection, and cold call or cold visit businesses. If only 1% of the people are going to turn into customers, get the other 99% out of the way, faster the better.
3. Teaching positions may not pay well but may pay the bills while you work to build a career or business.
You country was devastated by an illegal war. Rebuilding will take a lot of time and courage. Wish you all the best.
Look at existing software with unhappy users and make an alternative, even if a simpler one. Create something that hits a specific need of local businesses. If nothing else comes out of it, you will still have a real-world project and related experience (with designing, planning, shipping, talking to customers) to add to your resume.
Given your propensity for programming you are probably a high functioning individual, able to apply logical reasoning and systems thinking to a wide range of problems.
I have no idea of your living conditions so honest feedback beyond that is quite hard. Different places are different man.
I know talented programmers coming from around the world - so your career choice was not wrong. The career has been an opportunity for talent across the globe. It's possible that your life situation, however, is what stops you to actually follow the career path of your choosing now.
I know people who've struggled to find direction after their initial education did not pan out. They eventually pull through - sometimes they find a job that is aligned with their education, and sometimes they need to pivot and find something new. I have no idea what action you should take in your local economy.
I'm super impressed you take care of you elderly mother. I don't know what relationship you have, but being a caretaker is a dignified position what ever the circumstances. But it can also be a sacrifice towards personal freedoms, goals, and life outcomes.
Now, what I'm going to say may sound like BS but it really is the only solid actionable support I can give: take care of yourself. Try to exercise. Try to sleep. Try to eat. Try to find things in life you enjoy, and notice and pay attention to them. Life can be lived - and sometimes needs to be lived - one breath and one heartbeat at a time.
I also found Erwin McManus' approach to finding what you like do helpful. Take a sheet of paper and make to columns: "I love this!", "I really dislike this". Over the course of a couple weeks, when you're feeling one of those, write what you are doing in the appropriate column. You'll get start seeing some patterns after a while. His theory is that what we excites us is pretty specific, so look for things like "writing tools for others" rather than "programming". (However, while I think he's right, I also think we are much broader than that, so you might look for things that are not even related to programming. You might find something completely unexpected that does have local opportunities.)
One way I was told how to find product (your service) and market (labor market) fit is to focus on the problem. Sell yourself as a problem solver rather than a software developer. The software is just a tool, and software engineering is a framework to apply those tools in practice. Although the current state of your locale lacks software dev opportunities, it might also be that most people aren't aware of their needs for digitization yet. Software is also in a lot of things. Don't limit yourself to web development.
this is to say, don't give up.
from my personal experience, tech networking is the only thing that worked for me. not just networking through jobs (that didn't do anything for me) but participating in tech communities. online and offline. HN, various discord groups for programmers, skool.com also has lot's of tech groups, maybe even linkedin. (i use linkedin mainly to connect to people i meet elsewhere, so i can't tell how well it works by itself). others i don't know. i'd also look for expats from your country in other countries. maybe you can make some connections there to help you get remote jobs you would not otherwise find.
It's not like you'll find a job next door. Even in USA you usually don't and need to search well.
Look up my contact info from this site: omardo dot com. It's my blog from the high school.
Is moving to an area with more jobs a possibility on the table?
Also keep in mind that pay is relative to where you live. While some hit the jackpot making Silicon Valley wages in developing counties with very low costs of living, that’s not the norm and shouldn’t be the expectation. Those wages are high, in part, because the cost of living is high. I work for a large company and pay scales are region dependent to account for cost of living. I think the idea being that two people doing the same job have a relatively similar lifestyle. Are you turning down otherwise good opportunities because you’re looking to make California wages outside of California and the US?
What adversity does is challenge our attachment profile. This helps the timid hoarder, who wants to keep everything, by forcing them to choose. They learn a stronger, purer, sense of self in the process. A lesson we can’t seem to learn as fast, voluntarily. Victor Frankl describes it in great detail as a holocaust survivor in Man’s Search For Meaning.
So embrace your hardship. Consider that you are exactly where you need to be in this moment, to move ahead. And make all attachments second to this - Never Give Up. But for the rest, maybe introduce flexibility, experiment more. You have an opinion on these other opportunities not being worth it, but what have you tried? You see things up close that the ruminating knee hugger simply won’t ever see by thought alone.
The saying I have tried to live by is “only a young person thinks the last downturn was the last”. Also as Game of Thrones puts it, “my sweet summer child”.
But that requires also being able to eat, and sleep under a roof, so taking "hold your nose" jobs may be required.
Also, learning and mastering difficult stuff, can be useful. "Full-Stack" is a very crowded field, with a lot of talented, hungry people.
I sincerely wish you the best.
This might mean that you will have to move to a different city but you do what you need to do to survive.
- find outsource dev shops near you and see if you can find work via them - find outsource dev shops NOT near you (different time zones) and offer to work with them to increase their off hours coverage - list yourself on work platforms like fiver and taskrabbit for lots of useful problem solving that isn't programming but where programming makes you more competent: organizing digital documents, fixing/creating excel models, integrating various business software, setting up CRMs, fixing vibe coded messes, making personal websites, setting up email on custom domains, sending order confirmation emails/texts, lead generation, sending notifications/emails when particular topics appear in news/regulation/official databases, keeping an online menu up to date for a company - offer cheap localization / "check and fix your ai generated localization" service -
Make solving big problems your life’s purpose, not trying to find a “job”.
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