Readit NewsShe actually stole 10.7% ($44b) of Vietnam's yearly GDP in total. The 6.6% figure was the amount that she couldn't return.
So it's like $2.7 trillion USD in the US.
Stealing this proportion of a country's money by one person is simply unprecedented.
I'm one of the original members of HN and I've been here for a long time; since week one I think.
I'm an American technologist who has done web dev work in the past, but right now I'm stuck on an island in the Philippines without income or employment, and things are getting pretty desperate since it's this close to Christmas and my wife and I have two young children (my youngest is five). The pantry and coffers are empty at this point. The reason I'm here is because my family are citizens of this country and although I am trying to get the immigration paperwork together to bring them to the States, there's quite a lot of red tape and it's taking a lot longer than I expected.
Until recently I had been working remotely but the company I had been with sold and got folded into a bigger corporation and I was laid off along with our dev team.
My goal is to find an entry level back end or front end role that is remote for now. I am working on my Python-fu and I also have experience with HTML/CSS/JavaScript. I am interested in cloud-based technologies.
Since then I've been sending resumes out and doing interviews, but I'm not getting any response or feedback so far whatsoever... not a single bite. The recent trend of BTO (Back to the office) has been killing my chances, I think. I'm willing to take just about any job, help desk, on call, roles that are APAC time zone-only, anything as long as I can do it from here in the PH.
I know this is a long shot but things are getting pretty desperate for me. My family is basically rationing and we're living very close to the edge of bankruptcy. I would be overwhelmed with gratitude if there was help, but most of all I want to just help myself. I am a hard worker and enthusiastic about work in general, and I have a technical background and have worked in several technical roles in the past. Thank you and happy holidays to whoever reads this!
I reached out to every designer and coder laid off from Twitter and Amazon (one of my investors sent me a spreadsheet that those laid off folks added their contact info to).
I didn't receive a single interested response to my reach outs. Now granted, I'm sure they were bombarded with lots of startup offers and being picky what company/stage they were responding to, or were still in grief mode and not ready to start looking, or maybe (probably!) my reach-out finesse was lacking.
But I'm just pointing out that their are definitely companies like mine who are hiring and it's not all doom and gloom for laid off folks.
I ended up hiring via ads on LinkedIn and job posts on eng message boards.
Being real for a minute: There is definitely a perspective among hiring companies that regular lay offs are sometimes packaged alongside bottom performers, but I think that is something they would just do diligence on during an interview process.
I bought myself a Remarkable 2 and signed up to Khan Academy. Now I'm revising algebra basics and I plan to go as advanced as Khan Academy lets me.
I was really bad at maths in school (UK A Levels). But I'm a successful software developer today. I felt like knowing more advanced maths could make me a better developer and not feel intimidated by a lot of the things I see.
I'm actually enjoying it as well. Maths isn't just something I have to do to get out of school, now it's something I want to do. And it gives me the same satisfaction as solving puzzles like sudoku.
I'd recommend it to anyone. The Remarkable 2 is actually really nice to write on too, since I want to store my notes digitally. And I make so many mistakes when writing, so undo is great.
Doubling my salary and being paid what I am worth by doing what I wanted to do brought me a peace of mind I never had in the last five years (since I immigrated to a new country). I do not have to worry about so many things anymore, it's truly amazing and liberating. I can focus on what truly matters. I can take risks. I can plan for the future without having to go to the depression realm of looking for a better paying job.
Did I hate the jobs I did before? Some of them, but the money aspect stressed me a thousand times more than the work itself. When you don't like your job and do not have the money, you have to worry about both. When it's only your job, you know what to focus on and if you have enough savings, you can be bold and take risks.
A few years ago, I read this NYT article titled "Your Job Will Never Love You Back" [1] and that tagline is stuck in my head since then. Your work doesn't define you and even your dream work will have boring parts.
I'd suggest to go to therapy to focus and work on yourself. Better days are yet to come!
[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/24/business/your-job-will-ne...
After the 3rd such place, and a complete inability to effect change - I threw in the towel and started my own agency 2 years ago. From the outset I made the purpose of the company to be quality of life, not profit. Fewer clients/hours per team member, more time to execute and put out work you are proud to hang your hat on. No assholes (teammates OR clients).
For the entirety of the past 2 years, including the hard bits of actually getting it off the ground and getting those first few customers, the difference has been night and day. My stress levels are the lowest they've been in years. My relationship with my wife is better. I never dread Monday, and rarely pine for Friday. Sometimes it really is the environment, and sometimes that environment is pervasive in a particular industry.
> I’m earning the most money I’ve ever made and yet I’m the least fulfilled I’ve ever been.
I’m making the most I’ve ever made and I’ve never been less happy and more depressed. I despise being a cog in a huge corporate machine, it’s like the job was designed to be as unappealing as possible.
At the same time I can’t get over the fact that I have it better than the vast majority of humanity. I feel guilty hating my job, I won’t complain to people IRL because how could I? I have it made by all accounts. This guilt completely consumes me and adds a special level of self hatred, if I’m not happy with this, maybe I never will be?
Unlike the author though I can’t just quit, so endure it I must.