how to found a job to get experience ?

[Morgoroth]

Hi all, I'm electronic engineer, and after 8 years of software development I decided to move to hardware development 2 years ago (I just love it), and if I want to do a good job as freelancer in this field I know I need more experience and that's why I'm evaluating to move to another country where I can get a job and learn, there is no chance to get a job on that here except on few universities and those are unstable and very bad paid, USD$1000 month if you are lucky... and that's bad even for this country.

Now, to get to this I made a bet on a project that require electronic development and software development (a startup), the project involve MCU programming, PCB design, web services, signal analysis, sensor developments, control systems, everything. The idea is to show a portfolio of projects that involve all I know and try to get a job in that way. In 3 month I'll finish the project, so is time to start to think on what I'm gonna do after that.

The question is if I'm doing the right thing, or if there is a better way, I'm 37 years old and sometimes I feel I'm losing time and money, for example I reject 3 well paid jobs for this startup, even when the startup had a delay on payments of about 6 month (not a problem of the startup I must clarify), and I have had to live with my parents, and that makes me think that I have a high bet on the table, too high maybe.

I'm single and no kids.

opinions, advise and criticisms are welcome.

Regards,

  JP

[miguelvp]

6 month payment delay would not be bad if they finally paid you all of it, maybe you can give part to your parents for them helping you.

But if those 6 month have not elapsed, I would think you wont see anything. So the question is, have they paid you the back pay?

[Morgoroth]

They offer me a 5% of the company for thous months, not sure if worth it, is a bet, maybe I should fight for more, but my objective is other.

And after thous 6 months they payed as we agreed.

And yes, I'm paying to my parents, 70% of my paycheck bounce from my hand to my father pocket.

[miguelvp]

I've been on many startups and I do like them, only one paid off on ownership, but that is rare.

I'm glad they finally paid you those 6 months back and that you contributed to your family helping you, it's quite common in Spain as well to do so, maybe not as high as 70% but I guess it depends on how much it is they were paying you.

I also was doing the startup thing when single and no dependents, so as long as you think you are learning and figuring things out that will help your career you'll be fine, just don't count on the 5% ownership to pay at the end. Treat it as a gamble but you always have the experience you gain from it.