Hi! I have been reading lesswrong for some years but have never posted, and I’m looking for advice about the best path towards moving permanently to the US to work as a software engineer.
I’m 24, single, currently living in Brazil and making 13k a year as a full stack developer in a tiny company. This probably sounds miserable to a US citizen but it’s actually a decent salary here. However, I feel completely disconnected from the people around me; the rationalist community is almost nonexistent in Brazil, specially in a small town like the one I live. In larger cities there’s a lot of crime, poverty and pollution, which makes moving and finding a job in a larger company unattractive to me. Add that to the fact that I could make 10x what I make today at an entry level position in the US and it becomes easy to see why I want to move.
I don’t have formal education. I was approved at University of São Paulo (Brazil’s top university) when I was 15 but I couldn’t legally enroll, so I had to wait until I was approved again at 17. I always excelled at tests, but hated attending classes, and thought classes were progressing too slowly for me. So I dropped out the following year (2014). Since then, I taught myself how to program in several languages and ended up in my current position.
The reason I’m asking for help is that I think it would save me a lot of time if someone gave me the right pointers as to where to look for a job, which companies to apply to, or if there’s some shortcut I could take to make that a reality. Ideally I’d work in the Bay Area, but I’d be willing to move anywhere in the US really, at any living salary (yeah I’m desperate to leave my current situation). I’m currently applying to anything I can find on Glassdoor that has visa sponsorship.
Because I’m working in a private company I don’t have a lot to show to easily prove I’m skilled (there’s only the company apps/website but it’s hard to put that in a resume), but I could spend the next few months doing open source contributions or something that I could use to show off. The only open source contribution I currently have is a fix to the Kotlin compiler.
Does anyone have any advice as to how to proceed or has done something similar? Is it even feasible, will anyone hire me without a degree? Should I just give up and try something else? I have also considered travelling to the US with a tourism visa and looking for a job while I’m there, could that work (I’m not sure if it’s possible to get work visa when already in the US)?
I work as a software developer for an American company, but my perspective is mostly limited to my own experience. I have also been involved in some hiring decisions and interviews. You can sometimes get hired without a degree, if you can prove you have the skills. LinkedIn is helpful for finding work if you can connect with recruiters. It may be easier to find a job when you already have one, as that proves you can currently do work. Open-source work was helpful for me. The quality matters more than the quantity. It can show that you know how to use version control, and, depending on the project, that you can coordinate work with a team.
Thanks for giving your perspective! Good to know some hire without requiring a degree. Guess I’ll start building a portfolio that can demonstrate I have the necessary skills, and keep applying.
Hi! I have been reading lesswrong for some years but have never posted, and I’m looking for advice about the best path towards moving permanently to the US to work as a software engineer.
I’m 24, single, currently living in Brazil and making 13k a year as a full stack developer in a tiny company. This probably sounds miserable to a US citizen but it’s actually a decent salary here. However, I feel completely disconnected from the people around me; the rationalist community is almost nonexistent in Brazil, specially in a small town like the one I live. In larger cities there’s a lot of crime, poverty and pollution, which makes moving and finding a job in a larger company unattractive to me. Add that to the fact that I could make 10x what I make today at an entry level position in the US and it becomes easy to see why I want to move.
I don’t have formal education. I was approved at University of São Paulo (Brazil’s top university) when I was 15 but I couldn’t legally enroll, so I had to wait until I was approved again at 17. I always excelled at tests, but hated attending classes, and thought classes were progressing too slowly for me. So I dropped out the following year (2014). Since then, I taught myself how to program in several languages and ended up in my current position.
The reason I’m asking for help is that I think it would save me a lot of time if someone gave me the right pointers as to where to look for a job, which companies to apply to, or if there’s some shortcut I could take to make that a reality. Ideally I’d work in the Bay Area, but I’d be willing to move anywhere in the US really, at any living salary (yeah I’m desperate to leave my current situation). I’m currently applying to anything I can find on Glassdoor that has visa sponsorship.
Because I’m working in a private company I don’t have a lot to show to easily prove I’m skilled (there’s only the company apps/website but it’s hard to put that in a resume), but I could spend the next few months doing open source contributions or something that I could use to show off. The only open source contribution I currently have is a fix to the Kotlin compiler.
Does anyone have any advice as to how to proceed or has done something similar? Is it even feasible, will anyone hire me without a degree? Should I just give up and try something else? I have also considered travelling to the US with a tourism visa and looking for a job while I’m there, could that work (I’m not sure if it’s possible to get work visa when already in the US)?
I work as a software developer for an American company, but my perspective is mostly limited to my own experience. I have also been involved in some hiring decisions and interviews. You can sometimes get hired without a degree, if you can prove you have the skills. LinkedIn is helpful for finding work if you can connect with recruiters. It may be easier to find a job when you already have one, as that proves you can currently do work. Open-source work was helpful for me. The quality matters more than the quantity. It can show that you know how to use version control, and, depending on the project, that you can coordinate work with a team.
Thanks for giving your perspective! Good to know some hire without requiring a degree. Guess I’ll start building a portfolio that can demonstrate I have the necessary skills, and keep applying.