levelz · HackerTrans

2 tahun yang laludiscuss

Unless you've worked for a payment processing company, or for a major retailer that does a lot of payment processing, you have no idea how much fraud or attempted fraud happens in transactions (you can even see it as a small retailer if you are getting sales online and say you'll ship international).

levelz

3 tahun yang laludiscuss

> Everything is outrageously expensive > Middle class gets crushed

I moved out of New York City in 2020. The overriding reason was not this, it was just a fluke that I got a very compelling out of state job offer in 2019, and they requested I move in 2020.

However, I am making about about $150-$160k as an SWE, and it goes a lot further here (although having to spend $700-$800 a month for a car, which I did not have to do in NYC, bites into that a little). I have a new, big, apartment with a front door to a tree-lined street in a nice walkable neighborhood near my workplace for less than $2000 a month. In New York I would have an older, smaller apartment on a higher floor in not as nice of a neighborhood for more a month.

I know people say to move to the Bay area because that's where the action is for tech jobs and where you make connections etc., but I don't see why not take a step on a way for a decent paying job in a cheap city where you can accumulate savings while your skillset is increasing.

The juniors/associates I work with making <$100k a year say they can barely afford their expenses now here. I don't know what they'd be doing in the Bay Area or New York. They have roommates too.

I saved up a ton of money down here, and gained experience as well. If I move back to New York (or to the Bay Area), I do so on surer footing - I have a lot of money saved up for a rainy day now.

It also makes for a situation where those with lower income - even associate/junior SWEs at Fortune 100 companies - can't afford to live in cities like NYC, San Francisco etc.

levelz

3 tahun yang laludiscuss

In New York City five years ago I was switching from one IT career to another (Unix sysadmin to programmer), and was working part-time for a very small startup that had run out out of seed money, while interviewing for more lucrative positions (which I found four years ago). The founders were working a day job, and funding me out of pocket, which was to the tune of $100 a month. For a variety of reasons I decided to do Postmates deliveries, one reason being the flexibility.

Running around Manhattan on cold November nights five years ago, I began to appreciate the $100 a month I was getting programming for this small startup at my desk at home or in their co-working space. If you don't have a bicycle or car, you pretty much need a metro-card, which goes to your expenses. Sometimes orders came in right away, sometimes I'd be sitting around for over 20 minutes waiting for one. The food pickup location was always within half a mile of my location. The quickest pickup offer to delivery for me was 23 minutes, longest was 52 minutes. With waits of up to half an hour before a next offer.

Deliveries usually paid a little over $4, but there were bonuses of $2 for some deliveries, and you'd be paid for long distances or long waits for food. You would also get tips (up to $7).

As I said, I was getting paid $100 a month to do some programming for a small startup, which seemed very little, but it was a lot easier than how much time and effort it took running around Manhattan to earn $100 from Postmates.

About six months after doing occasional Postmates deliveries I was making over $60 an hour programming for a multi-national.

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