I started the year 2023 highly focused on finding my next job. Having recently completed a contract as a Software Engineer at the European Spaceport in French Guiana, I wanted to pursue a career more towards data. I was actively looking for jobs related to Data Science, Data Analytics, Data Engineering, Machine Learning Engineer, you name it.
I must say, I never had so many working interviews in my life, there are a lot of job offers in these fields, but they seem to be equally balanced with the demand. I’ve reached the final step of some job processes, but for some reason, I was never the chosen one.
It is important to say, that I don’t own a master’s degree in Data Science or any other data field. I’ve studied Engineering of Nanotechnology and Microelectronics, and I’ve worked in this field for almost 3 years. However I have a proven record of projects and work related to Data Science, I even won some data challenges.
I felt I was lonely in a rainforest, trying to survive. At that point, I knew I was not the predator. In French Guiana, nature taught me how small humans are, and doesn’t matter how much you’re willing to fight nature, it will somehow, somewhere defeat you. There’s no point in trying to be the alfa in the rainforest, for that, I would need to have a diploma or at least some years of experience in the field, which was not the case.
I kept on building projects, enrolling in challenges mainly building a portfolio and at some point the impossible happened, I started to get noticed in the immense rainforest.
If you don’t have a diploma or years of experience in the field. Chances are that nobody will hire you. But dedication and showcasing your work is valued by some companies, and by recruiters in general.
That’s why owning a portfolio is key to showing your work and being emailed by future clients.
There are several ways of building portfolios nowadays. Some people use platforms like Notion, others prefer to use Wordpress, there are even AI solutions, that can build a website in 30 seconds like Durable. I took the long path, by making it all by myself, but I only recommend it if you have the time, the skills and a geeky mindset, otherwise, it can be very time-consuming. This is my beloved portfolio:
Portfolios are great, but they are not enough. If you’re trying to survive in the rainforest. Having a fishing rod is good, but having a bow is even better. The same applies to our society, so I’ve decided to start writing on Medium. It was a win-win situation because I was feeding my portfolio and at the same time getting noticed in the technical writing field.
Medium
You can find (just about) anything on Medium - apparently even a page that doesn't exist. Maybe these stories will take you somewhere new?
Showcasing yourself is never enough, and the next big move was social networks. The main one in terms of professional path is Linkedin. I had my account for some time already, but I was never active there, only when I was looking for a job. As soon as I started to publish my Medium articles, people started contacting me (recruiters among them) and I increased my followers exponentially.
I’m still trying to navigate the world of social media. As a Data Scientist, AI and Web3 enthusiast, Instagram didn’t work as well as I thought, but depending on your field it might be a great source. I’m now trying my way on Twitter (aka X), which is full of technical enthusiasts.
#playwright #beautifulsoup #webscraping #datamining #infinitescroll #python #pythonprogramming
medium.com/python-in-plai…
After marketing myself, I finally started to have some gigs. Writing on Medium, was the first jump to start writing on other platforms and consequently being contacted by clients through LinkedIn. See below an example of a paid article.
https://techjury.net/blog/geo-targeting-with-proxies/
I’ve used all the technical content I’ve written to start promoting myself on Upwork. Many times before I’ve tried my way on these freelancing websites, but I’ve not accomplished much, and clients would only accept me for very low prices. I know my place in the rainforest, I might not be a predator, but I know how much I’m worth. Having a rich portfolio helped me to find clients more prone to pay fair wages, and slowly I started to get more and more working contracts.
https://www.upwork.com/freelancers/~01185447baa36a1b77
Other good sources to find freelancing work are surprisingly Discord, Whatsapp and Facebook groups.
Some Discord communities have channels focused on job offers. Building a community is also a great way to showcase your work, but mostly when you’re no longer a foreigner in the rainforest.
WhatsApp groups are great when it comes to local communities. Maybe in your region, someone might need a developer to build a simple application, and that’s where you show up.
When we are stepping in as freelancers, it's essential to shift away from a commodity mindset. Most likely no one will pay for your holidays and you must think about investing more than spending because you don’t have your future secured.
That’s why some years ago I decided to invest in crypto, at that time I was not working on my own, but now I can use it to have a passive income.
During bear markets, there isn’t much you can do besides buying more, trading, farming or staking. The latest option seemed the most effortless, so I jumped into these two solutions:
Stake ETH: I spent some time looking for the best alternative to stake some of my ETH. I even thought of making a node myself, but I wanted to avoid maintenance and being penalized due to a bad internet connection and so on. I looked into Lido but I found it too centralized, then I discovered StakeWise which was exactly what I was looking for.
Presearch node: To make a Presearch node I had to rent a server because once again I wanted to avoid having my own. To set up a node you can follow these instructions. The node provides a very good APY, and you receive the rewards in the form of PRE tokens. Besides Presearch is my main search engine along with Brave browser.
The rainforest is immense, and there are thousands of ways to gain your place. I’m still building my wooden boat, learning how to fish, hunting small mammals, and healing myself with very few plants. Getting to know your surroundings is key and then progressively expand to other areas of the forest.
Working on your own does not mean being a lone wolf, it just means that you need to deal with very different tribes and survive in all of them. In the future that can be a means of connecting those tribes together and owning an important place in the rainforest. Meanwhile, respect nature, its rhythms, and do good, you’ll survive, just like me.