Reasearch institutions/hospitals are doing what-kind-of-variant testing in more a structured study kind of way. Looks like normal people cant just get variant testing easily.
I use the cheap new motorola models, currently motorola 2020 model e,
Motorola usually has a model they market as the "best cheap android" phone, usually runs for about $100-$200 dollars. They arent very repairable in design, but is doable as tutorials are offered online, authorized repair shops can fix the phones but it costs about the value of a new device. Parts can be purchased relativly cheaply online if you are up for the challenge of fixing it yourself.
I assume Canada job circumstances would differ slightly than US, also less opportunities i assume so i agree your plan of looking at US makes sense,
Just a note, in the US, my understanding is most companies are not planning on offshoring most jobs overseas even though they are remote jobs basically in the short term. We all do expect more of that to happen in the future though.
My company is US has a deal with the city its in, the state its in as well. Even though we are all remote now (except for the hardware people), all of the employees are expected to live in a commutable distance to the office so post covid going back to work will be a thing.
I think companies get tax breaks and have agreements with municipalities to bring jobs to an area.
Il just assume you are in the US market. Sounds like you need some guidance on the interview process, you might be applying to the wrong type of jobs, you might want to be more selective/directed with your approach/goals. Maybe you are unable to adequatly prepare for interviews due to your current day job. You should have a plan, how long you can practice interviewing before running out of money, and then go from there. Maybe you can try get a less physically taxing day job so you can study/practice more after work until you get a great dev job.
Ive interviewed for some basic software engineer roles in the US NY region with Node in the last 2 years that basically just wanted basic JS experience to work there without any production Node experience. No 8 hour tests, just general discussions, and build a CRUD app that handles X type of object.
Programs like Outco(costs money) exist to help software engineers improve their interviewing skills/try get more money in their next job, even if they are experts with great experience they take these classes because interviewing can be hard for some devs.
If i were you i would spend a day or two researching the current state of interviewing for JS/react roles. Its a big market, lots of devs talking about succeeding in it online.
Start talking to currently employed software engineers for specific advice on your current issues. Fish for referrels, this is the biggest way companies hire nowadays in US in my opinion.
A big part of it ia genetically being predisposed to it. I read a few horror stories of people that get them every 6 months, or people that get surgeries and the surgeries fail to fix issues,
But glad to hear you havnt had issues since 30 years!
I had an issue like a year ago, luckily all is well now. I got a pilonatal cyst which is gross (dont google images of it) but it is a relativly common tailbone ailment caused by sitting to much and just being predisposed to it. Its also called Jeep butt, because soldiers in WW2 riding jeeps on bumps roads would get this issue commonly.
Lifestyle changes ive made to try prevent from occuring in the future:
-Walk around the block before work,
-Walk around the block lunch break,
-Long walk/run after work.
-Weight loss
-Dont hesitate to get up and walk around as often as you want (keep the blood pumping!)
I dont sit on a chair at computer after work hours. I do on the weekends to program stuff, but monday-friday i dont sit at my computer after work, and il sit on couch rather than chair if i can on weekends. My issues really arose when i was working on a coding project after work hours (majority waking hours was in the chair working), gained like 20 pounds over a year, reduced my exercise frequency, my primary care doc mentioned these all could contribute.
I also wear very lose shorts during the day to orevent my waistband from screwing up my posture, but maybe once we get stuffed back into the office we wont be able to do that anymore.
I dont really think of my higher up colleagues as smart or dumb, i think that some of them have relevant experience and some dont really, and different managers have different personalities which is what impacts trying to work together to solve a problem.
For example, some managers like to give you their proposed plan without wanting any input, these people require pushing back in some situations, you could call it poor emotional intelligence, other managers are much more open to suggestions considering me and the underlings will be doing the work, even though managers inital plan is often correct as previous experience justifies their proposed solution.
But yea i dont really doubt the intelligence of people really unless they continue to repeat mistakes and fail to remedy those mistakes.
I like the new motorolas, i have a moto e, <200$ off amazon, they are almost always running heavy promotions and have models for 200$ with decent performance, some are designed so you cant take the battery out which is frustrating but you can fix stuff if your patient/know how to follow YT tutorials.
Wikis often get cited in political debates with USA friends, i also think most of the political related subjects are consistently left leaning much like academic thought leaders.
But for non-political subjects, wiki is still great IMO.
I think if you are going to start as a software dev in a role where you wont be interacting with management or clients, your stellar business experience wont be utilized, and you would be downgrading your career tragectory,
If you are able to secure a software dev job with mostly management - interacting with clients or VPs and management - you will be able to utilize your previous busienss experience. I'm not exactly sure what type of role that is, so thats something you will have to explore further, but im sure there are roles that fall into this category.
A lot of the IT consulting firms need good engineers who will interact with client dev leadership/client business leadership, that sounds like a role that might be a good fit, but the IT consulting firms really need good people who are willing to work their tails off in those roles if you are up for it.
I was at a bank/credit card company as a software dev, we were always just warned about it being a cluster fuck for business people that have to make a lot of excel reports due to those kind of issues.
From my perspective, if a client(like a porn co) repeatedly had high rates of charge backs, fraud teams are aware of that being possible fraud, business teams know that its causing a clusterfuck and might be losing the bank/cc company money, so its easier just not to support that client so less work has to be done.
I dont think anyone likes the fact that US minimum wage is so low. Seeimg the higher wage offers has been pleasant, but not being able to go in restaurants because they have been unable to hire enough staff hasnt been.
Mcdonalds + Amazon wont be a victim of minumum wage laws, they advocate for high minumum wages, as less productive chains and small businesses with smaller margins will have to die off to allow for more mcdonalds and amazon.
It is sad how expensive some parts of the country are, and the minimum wage "should" be higher, but ive seen economists say raising minum wage hurts low income earners looking for their first job (disproportionatly bipoc people), increases prices for everything, increases govt beurocracy, and simply doesnt work as a simple fix.
Fed govt set aside cash during covid pandemic to give extra funds to people on unemployment. At the beginning of the pandemic all the states particapated, but not anymore.
Critics have accused the fed govt of irresponsibly rolling this out as the economy has rebounded, and now you have many states where businesses are struggling to find workers who want to apply for these low income jobs because unemployment + 300$(fed govt bonus) + tax benfifits > low income job. So basically 21 states stopped giving unemployed people that extra 300$, and surprise surprise, american workers are rational and more of them elected to go back to work compared to the states that still distribute that 300$.
Basically this isnt surprising, but people on the far right want to gut bloated unemployment programs and far left wants universal income + bigger welfare for nonemployed americans, and this is playing out in Washington DC now and in states accross the US who arent one party states.
There are a number of reasons why someone loses unemployment eligbability, time being one of those as you alluded to. Varies state by state.
I beleive some states like NY and Cali have extended unemployment benfifits to like September, other states probably vary.
I had two bad hotel stays in big US cities during peak covid pandemic, 2 hotels in DC had taken in people who needed housing so smoking could be smelled in the building, cleaning crews were not running at full capacity, bars/restaurants closed, i had two overpriced airbnbs around the northeast that were good experiences.
My buddy buys broken Iphones/screens and sells them to China where all the underlying parts are stripped and used for repairing Iphones. This is legitamite not shady at all.
Ships hundreds at a time. A lof of the parts used for repair in China are coming from US/EU broken phones.