I’ve officially given notice at work and notified my team. My current plan is to wrap up my project, do a webdev bootcamp to round out my skills, and get a job that actually makes a difference in the world (there are some options I’m extremely excited about, although nothing is done till it’s done). But if that is not the best plan, now would be the ideal time to that find out. So if you have any suggestions on any of the following, please let me know:
- Companies with EA-compatible missions looking to hire remote programmers. I have extensive test dev experience (meaning I write code, not run manual tests, and currently I don’t even write many test cases, it’s all designing and implementing tools) and will have webdev experience.
- Books I should read. I’ve been reading a lot of business and start up books with the goal of evaluating start ups, but if there’s another field you think I should look into let me know.
- Bootcamps. My qualifications were: online, large group and pair programming element, and free of macho bullshit that treats suffering and learning as equivalent, and that appears to have left me with one, but more would be great.
- Supplemental classes or technologies I should learn
- Cool people I should talk to. I appear to have caught that case of “frequent trips to the bay area” that has been going around Seattle EA so in person is an option in either area, and of course there’s always the internet.
- Projects that could benefit from a short-term/part-time programmer or writer/researcher (similar to this blog or what I did for Charity Science).
- Off the wall careers I should research.
Aceso Under Glass 
Talk to Ben Kuhn to see if Wave, the company where he works, is hiring. Wave is more aligned with effective altruism than any other I know. If you haven’t already talked to Charity Science about doing some kind of work with them, do. They’re looking for volunteers and new hires right now. If you’re looking for EA volunteer work involving either coding or researching, talk to Ozzie Gooen about helping out with a .impact project. He is also a cool person to meet, so go to the hackspace Noisebridge with him if you get a chance, which is one of the coolest places in SF.
Thanks for the thought, I’m actually already in contact with everyone on your list 🙂
Contact Ben Kuhn to learn if Wave would hire a remote coder. Wave is more aligned with effective altruism than almost any company I know. If you haven’t contacted Charity Science about working with them in some capacity, do. They’re actively seeking new hires and volunteers. If you’re looking for effective altruism volunteer work that involves coding or research, contact Ozzie Gooen about getting involved with .impact. Also, go with to Noisebridge during an EA workathon the next time you’re in SF. Noisebridge is an awesome hackspace.
How many development econ books have you read?
I’m a particular fan of Poor Economics and Seeing like a State. I suspect there are others that are equally good that I haven’t read yet. Chris Blattman has a good-looking list.
I really liked Poor Economics, and I’ve read several others although I haven’t looked at what’s been published in the last 3 or 5 years. Will check out some of these others.
Are you set on staying in the PNW?
No, but I’m set on a job that doesn’t care where I live beyond the timezone.
I work for a software company in the Midwest. From what I’ve seen, recruiting here is tough because of the simple lack of talent. Whereas I’m guessing the West Coast is pretty saturated. So, if you’re looking for a good-paying job, low cost of living (enabling you to have more left over to give if that’s what you want to do), and you’re a strong programmer, you’ve got very good chances out here.
How are you webdev skills now, pre-bootcamp? I’d recommend you take a look at W3 School if you haven’t already; it’s a really good interactive series of tutorials, starting with basic HTML and moving into the advanced Javascript frameworks, with side orders of a little PHP and SQL to round things out.
My thought is that if you can learn complicated things by reading about them and then trying them out and iterating over what does and doesn’t work, you can make a first-pass effort at teaching yourself web development with this and other resources, and only take a boot camp if it seems like it will teach you something new, or give you a credential you need to be more employable.