My poker is 99% full-ring, probably 80% online, 20% live.
Online 1/2, 2/5, 5/10
Live - 2/5, 5/10, 10/25

I've been working on angularjs tutorials the last 3 months since I left my job, hopefully I can get something that area when I have a reasonable project to put on my resume. At my past job at a newspaper I did a mix of angular, react and java.

angularjs is not really worth learning. You should learn the newer Angular.

Sorry I meant Angular 5 in reference to the tutorials from udemy. Now its just time to work on a reasonable project! I'll spend about 2 weeks, update my resume, then start applying for jobs.

My work is split between front end (AngularJS/Angular5 javascript/typescript) and devops/cloud/SRE whatever you want to call it. I would say a typical day of work is split up as:
50% coding (including debugging -> swearing at monitor)
20% reading/learning
10% designing/discussing code or system architecture/'grooming' stories (estimating how long a feature would take and offering input to the designers/product owner)
10% reviewing other people's code
10% the standard mundane admin tasks which come in any job (including poker!)

I enjoy it all very much. Problem solving is infinitely satisfying. HTML/CSS is damn boring but once you know it you know it and it becomes second nature (CSS perhaps less so, but just learn it if you want to do any front end web stuff).


Do you know how host this static webpage? How to spin up a local server? Even better, host it in the cloud (read up on AWS, Google Cloud, Azure - huge topics but lots and lots of tutorials/decent documentation). If reading up on AWS, start off with S3 or Elastic Compute Cloud.

Don't think anyone has suggested this here which I'm surprised at, but I would get very comfortable in the command line. Terminal on MacOS/Linux or Windows Powershell. You will spend a lot of time in here.

Pick a programming language and learn the very basics. I suggest either Python or Ruby - these both have terse syntax so are easy to read, harder to make mistakes with + have a large online community where people will have fallen in similar pitfalls. Google your question and odds are it has been asked on StackOverflow.
Once you are comfortable with these languages then I'd definitely recommend learning a bit of Javascript and a solid backend language, like Java (object oriented programming) or Scala (functional).

If you are a totally new to programming, in your chosen first language ask yourself these questions:
- What data structures exist and how do I manipulate them?
- How do I make the program do something if a condition is met? e.g. if the sum of some numbers matches something else, display some text.
- How do I make the program repeatedly do something until a condition is met? e.g. a counter reaches a certain point
- How can I read the contents of a text file sitting in my filesystem?
- How do I print to stdout?

Some ideas off the top of my head for first programs to write if you are true programming n00b (all these programs should be designed to run in the command line, i.e. by running your insert_cool_name_here.py file):
- A program which asks certain questions and accepts user input (stdin). Displays specific text depending on the user's input. Like a very simple MUD game.
- Create some random files in some folder on your computer. Name a few of them in a similar way, give some of them the same extensions (e.g. .txt, .mov, .pdf). Now write a program which, when run and given the path to these files, rearranges them into specific folders depending on their extensions, or filenames or some other metadata you can pull from the file in a different to way to just parsing the filename.
- A program which, at random, will show you some different output

+1million

Do you mind expanding on the freelancing side of things? How do you source work? How consistent is it etc?

Cheers.

tl;dr
work as a dev for a few years in a tech hub city (I work in London)
contracts are consistent if your language or skillset is in demand
don't worry yet about sourcing work, it will come to you


I am not a contractor, I work as a permy but will be looking to move into contracting in a year or so as that is the path that is most:
- profitable
- good for learning (you learn a hell of a lot from getting to grips with a new codebase and system architecture)
- accommodating of your life commitments

My contractor ex-colleagues and friends comprise Scala (backend) + Angular (frontend) devs. It's initially not an easy ride because you need to be very capable and generally have skills outside of your chosen ecosystem, i.e. "cloud computing" and container orchestration is pretty much a must-have these days for decent tech-focussed companies hiring contractors. You are not just hired to write an api (backend) or a UI (frontend).
Read up on AWS, Docker, then Kubernetes is my advice, but that's just what I have found demand for.

# disclaimer: anecdotal
- A mid level Scala contractor will command upwards of £650 a day, without opensource contributions under their belt or previous work at one of the big 4.
- An FE (Angular) contractor I used to work with would get a 6 month contract, and it would regularly get extended b/c https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ninety-ninety_rule

Conclusion:
Work as a dev in whatever field you enjoy for a few years
Get hounded by recruiters
????
Contract/Profit

Thanks for the detailed response!

Grunch (1.5 year old thread):

Build up skills in both.
Take 6-9 month contract IT jobs.
Play poker recreationally.
Play poker FT between contracts for as long as you enjoy it and aren't maddened by the variance. (Play at whatever stakes you're bankrolled for, but be honest about your ability before moving up.)
If you never find yourself wanting to go back to IT then you're a full time pro. If you go back to IT you're a strong recreational player who makes money at your hobby.


What's not to like?

There's variance in IT (skills erosion/mismatch to the market, offshoring, Dunning-Kruger, playing horses in the startup game, etc.) but far far less and mostly enough that your swings are staying above the zero EV line.

Anyone else here good at Angular?

I put together a bootstrap/angular 6 project over the last 2-3 weeks. I realize it isn't a masterpiece. but I plan to keep on adding features to it. I just want it to be a reasonable project before I add it to my resume & apply for some jobs.

Two local poker casinos shut down in Toronto, Canada area in the last 6 months. Still winning a bunch online, but definitely putting in more time coding over the last month & hoping to get a job soon.

whats the backend?

Right now it doesn't have a backend, its has some mock/fake data in the front end.

At some point in the next week or two probably, I'm gonna create some feeds/fake server through google firebase to replace the mock/fake data that I created in the front-end.

Do you think this is a feature I should have for the the minimal version before I update my resume/apply for jobs?

I just want to have the project at a reasonable level on my resume before I officially apply for some jobs.

probably not. so long as you are following action in-effect/epic-action with proper selectors and functional reducers and state then that should be enough.

you can make pretty quick toy backends with node. then your services can actually call a backend api to get data.

Minor update from me in regards to my poker/it job posts..

Been applying for bunch of jobs since mid July, had several interviews so far but no job offers yet. I'm still being a bit picky since I'm not applying that many jobs. Maybe only 10 in the last 2 months(and since I quit my job in January).

Most jobs have asked why did you leave and what have you been up to?
My go to response was I just left on amicable terms from my old job to take some time off and travel (which is true, been on a trip every month since I left).

Do you guys ever think I should mention poker as something I did during the break?

Also for poker, I haven't had any 20k months since April, but still making more then I did at my previous job. If I put in some more hours (40~ hrs a week) I should be able to do that again though.

What country are you looking in?

Conventional wisdom is don't mention poker but that may have changed as the 2004/5 poker boom matured and more people perceive poker as a serious pursuit.

If you want to mention it, I'd probably say something like, "I took some time off to travel, and I also played some poker." If they seem at all interested, follow up with, "You know, it's about the only game where you can win long-term because you're not playing against the house." You DON'T want them to think you're like someone trying to make a living at roulette. But even a casual poker player should understanding, it's a skill you can develop.

You could also say you pursued a side business but that probably opens more questions than it resolves so seems -EV.

Other random ideas:

• 2p2 seems like a good place to extend your professional network. I guess you're doing that. So bravo.
• Speaking of which BUILD YOUR NETWORK. It's important for anyone, but now that you have a nontraditional résumé, it's doubly important.
• I've had multiple people tell me that building your own "hobby project" and publishing it on GitHub is a worthwhile way to showcase skills. It differs greatly by employer. I'd like to hear success stories.

The longer I have been removed from the game, and the closer I have gotten to the real world, the more I have come to believe that the answer to this question is almost always "no". Maybe it's just me; I've always been quite insecure about my years as a poker player, despite the success that I had. But this is a result of the many years of interactions I had with ordinary people that proved to me that the uninitiated will simply never understand.

My perception is that a very tiny percentage of people will believe you and be impressed, a larger percentage will be neutral / not care, and an even larger percentage will judge/label you negatively in some way.

I'm in Toronto, Canada, 31 yrs old had a job 5 out of last 6.5 years, with two breaks after leaving jobs.

I've been working on hobby projects (mostly angular) and some quizzes/exercises from hackerrank.com for Java. My angular project now definitely isn't top of the line, but it shows some basic angular stuff, but I will continue to add on to it.

My average week is maybe 10-20 hours of coding/exercises/tutorials a week and 30-40 hours of poker a week(mostly online). Alot of the time I will be coding and playing poker at the same time.

Some of my portfolio/projects/resume/blog is at my personal website - http://chrisstephensj.com/

I definitely want to get a job again soon, but I will be picky somewhat because eventually when I get a 70-75k cdn job, it will be a reality check in comparison to how much I was making last winter a month from poker while still having a FT job.

True, on my website I have links to my twitter, ig, etc, if some recruiters / people check out my social stuff they'l see some of the poker. If they ask about poker I'll definitely chat about it, but I'm definitely won't go out of my way to bring it up.

If I could find some remote/WFH job that would be awesome, so I could grind and code at the same time.

Try Upwork?

I'm not really interested in personal contract work on small projects for something like upwork.
Ideally i'm looking for a full-time job or some 3-12 month contract that allows WFH.

I mean, if your only job experience is fast food and then you spent 8 years crushing poker, then ya, you kinda of gotta mention it. if you had a long career and then took 2 years off to play poker, then I dunno, I guess not.

Naw, I've always played on the side over the last 10yrs~. I've had a programming job 5 of the last 6.5 years.

I left my job in January to just travel/lay-low/play poker till my next job.

Another bump/update

Over the last month I worked on a React project (I did react for 2 years at my previous job). I would say my React > Angular right now too. My fictional space company is now done in Angular 6 and React 15.6.

I had a few interviews (in person and over the phone in September) but nothing came to an offer.

I've tweaked my resume again with the new project so ill apply for alot of Angular/React jobs next week.

I still want a job sooner then later, but when I'm averaging around 10k cdn a month, should I even bother? All of the interviews I've had I asked for 70-75k cdn salary expectation in Toronto, Canada. What do you guys think?

Poker still has gone very well, the last three months have gone gone 7.5k,7.5k,15k playing roughly 35-40 hours a week.

I've managed to have a 5 day trip to Boston in September, and recently last week did a 4 day trip in Arizona, so I'm taking advantage of the free time.

Hey guys, cool thread.

Poker is and always has been a hobby for me, sure I've thought about it here and there but in reality it's not my thing to play full time, not sure I could handle it mentally.

I also think some of the reason poker appealed so much to me was lack of better options. I think I'm fairly smart but results thus far show otherwise... I was lazy and did mediocre at school, I've just kinda worked ****ty jobs since then with no career path so of course poker seems awesome. So I decided to do something. About that and began pursuing a career in IT, webdev in particular. Was just hoping to get some advice.

I've been learniing for the past 6months or so. JavaScript, more specifically React to go along with the usual html/CSS version control and what not. I've been looking at sass and scss now, I have an active GitHub, keep a blog etc

I haven't really looked at much backend but I guess node makes sense, but at the same time don't wanna pigeonhole myself too much with JavaScript, is that an issue?

I landed a little contract role with a local company knocking out cheap WordPress sites, almost no real Dev work other than some custom CSS but I figured ittl look good on my CV

I want to start applying to jobs in the new year but I'm worried I'm still too new, feel everyone pretty much has the above so I'm hoping you guys can perhaps give me some ideas on other things I can be doing to differentiate myself from other candidates, I'm based in the UK if that matters