Readit NewsEdit - fixed autocorrect
My entire Linux experience is dictated by what’s installed by default on rhel and/or ubuntu.
He was a data analyst who was tasked with this daily report. He automated it and hid the automation, so for two years he did pretty much nothing until his degree was finished.
I have two full time (albeit remote) jobs and two part time admin/data processing jobs. ChatGPT and Copilot let me do far more work in the same amount of time but officially are not permitted, so I just sit on the work for days to ensure that I only produce at the same rate as everyone else. The two admin/data processing jobs are also nearly fully automated. I introduce random defects to the work product to keep expectations from rising.
I work fewer than 25 hours a week net now. Leaves lots of time for reading.
Figure out how to improve your productivity, but make sure your employer doesn't benefit from it. You can keep that improvement for yourself.
When my son was ready for his own laptop, I originally set it up with a Microsoft Family account. That was a terrible mistake. Microsoft Family causes only pain and misery and completely fails at what it's supposed to do.
Microsoft bought Minecraft and recently forced everybody to migrate from perfectly functional Mojang accounts to Microsoft accounts, which makes everything more complicated. My son's Minecraft account ended up on my wife's Microsoft account, and suddenly I'm called UnshavenFiber (though not entirely incorrectly, I've got to admit).
However if you are not in a tech city, and don't want to move to one, then online is great. Here is what you can do.
1. Find stuff on Show HN or HN (or Reddit etc.) generally that you are super excited about. Genuinely. For example with me: I probably should be excited about self driving cars, but I am actually way more excited about that self-hosted wiki in a single HTML file, for example.
2. See how to connect to the people. You could send a cold email, but it is a bit sucky and desperate. It is better if you "do" something fun online with them. Maybe help them on the Github, submit or review PRs, join the chat server and talk, build something and let them know about it, use it for free (maybe using their thing, or complementary) etc. This should be effortless because remember you are super excited.
3. That's it. Be a human, see where it goes. You may or may not find out about jobs. You might get bored. But doing 1 and 2 enough a great job or opportunity will be found out.
This is more like: build and connect with people for their coolness, and let the occasional job opportunity present itself. You still need to do interviews, and come across like a good worker and will add a lot of value and all that jazz. But this is about finding stuff that may not even be advertised. And also most advertised jobs are a bit shit. So it acts as a filter.
I live 40 miles north of Wichita Kansas USA. There's no tech - there's no city even.
Here's what I did: I got to know a recruiter in Wichita. Turns out she's a rock star - one of the leaders in the region at recruting tech. Met a guy on an flight from Atlanta to Wichita. We got together and talked geek a few times. The three of us started a Meetup in Wichita where we talk geek every other month or so. We generally get 15-50 folks depending on the time of year and topic. Last meeting I got two off handed job offers (I'm not looking). I've gotten a previous position the same way.
Tech is everywhere. The typical attendee to our Meetup is a developer or analyst at a regional bank, an airplane manufacturer, or farm credit agency. Nothing fancy, but great jobs for this area.
I'm not a very social person, but I do like to talk geek. There are lots of folks like me everywhere. Folks want to learn. Get together and teach each other.
To really rub it in they combine not testing with treating their customers like garbage. Their support actually tried repeatedly blaming my ISP as if somehow connectivity would impact user account specific issues. I eventually sent them URLs of articles pointing out the problem. Then - crickets.