Don't End The Week With Nothing (opens in new tab)

Totally. You're not spamming ("if the subject makes sense") and of course nobody sees all the comments. So if you're adding to the discussion and your link to your work helps, then go for it!

For years I had the bad attitude "simply do the work and obviously everyone will know how good (or not) I am". That quasi worked in the lab where we all shared a filesystem but no, it's terrible personally, professionally and, in the case where I did do good work, for everyone else. I'm still unlearning that...

Note: there are plenty of scammers and the simply inept who "network" by blindly inserting themselves into other conversations. Doesn't sound like you're at risk of that.

Go for it.

It may be easier with a European company (same timezone, can take the train once in a while to meet people) but you can also find a remote job with a US company. There are plenty of cool companies in Paris, London, Berlin, some in Amsterdam...

are you going to build out some front-end stuffs for the (majority of) people who don't already use ssh or just refer them to existing clients? while using a standard protocol for a standard task is (or ought to be <_<) a no-brainer from a programmer's perspective, most people want something clickable, and the last time i had to get something over ssh on windows, i wound up with this ghastly-looking program called WinSCP.

Then move abroad! Don't stay in Europe, where salaries are low and taxes are high. I just moved to Asia a year ago, and only regret not having gotten out earlier.

  * just do it, and ask forgiveness or deal with the consequences.
  * ask a lawyer to look at your contract and state law and see if the company has the right to what you do off hours on your own equipment
  * try to sell the side project as beneficial to the company (cross training, extra publicity)
  * do a side project, but expect to throw it away
  * pick different ways to do a side project--there are many way.  Contribute to open source via QA, documentation, user support.  Do user group talks.  Reach out to authors in the space that you are in and offer to review technical books.  Join an email list and answer questions of other users.
  * walk--find a different boss in the same company who will let you do this
  * walk--find a different company

Alternatively, argue that letting you work on solo projects will be beneficial to the employer; Risk-free testing of new frameworks and languages that leads to an experienced developer.

For some very big companies (I've worked at one myself) they seem to have a zero tolerance policy of outside work and you might be SOL in that case - I guess you have to ask yourself whether it's worth it then.

You might consider asking in the context of a more general compensation discussion than just "Hey boss, can I work on OSS?" That way, if they say "No side projects", you'll say "OK, in lieu of the side projects, I'll need more money." It's easier to be sticklers for the stock agreements when there's absolutely no cost to the company to insist on the usual boilerplate, but minor concessions on the boilerplate are often easier than concessions on things which actually appear on the company's books.

Otherwise big companies could claim they own the the capitol improvements to your property which you do on your own time.

Generally don't be a dick and work on your stuff while at work and you will be fine.

While I was in that black hole[1], though, I got bupkis in the way of inquiries if I didn't publish my resume on Monster or Dice. Even then I rarely got anything but clueless, spammy recruiters. It took me almost two years of active searching to get out of there. Being in that black hole in the first place was a serious impediment to getting out of it.

[1] I am now openly in the NLP world.

So what is supposed to happen if you are looking for another job when the job market isn't red-hot? Are you just hosed?

I've never dealt with ultra-secret NDA wrt. getting hired elsewhere, so I'm curious.

As an example, a friend of mine recently lost his job. His co-workers had a similar attitude and focused on the high profile work the the CEO cared about (e.g. industry conferences, television ads). My friend focused on more junior level tasks (e.g. tech support, maintaining the corporate website). He even had some tasks with negative prestige (e.g. unclogging toilets).

When a change in the tax code altered the company's finances, my friend was fired. Within a month, the company had lost half their clients as support calls were going unanswered, the website was down, and clients who visited in person encountered an office that smelled of feces. None of my friend's tasks were high profile, but they were all critical to the health of the company.

I know that I'll be rewarded better if I do the high profile tasks instead of the drudge work. However, the drudge work still has to be done. Should I ignore the drudge work and let the organization fall apart around me or should I convince some other person to perform the drudge work for which they won't be rewarded?

My future boss made it clear (for the first of many times) that he intended on dealing with me squarely, in a fashion which is not universal among all Japanese employers, and that I had skills and educational attainment closest to his salarymen and thus I should be a salaryman. He asked if I understood what he was asking for me. I said that I did, that I was honored, and that owing to my age and situation I didn't think I could promise him that I would reside in Japan continuously until my retirement. He said that he understood I had particular circumstances and would accept the possibility of me leaving at some indefinite point in the future as long as it was, say, 4 years off, seeing as he was sticking his neck out for me. I told him that 4 years was a long time for an unmarried 25 year old and asked if 3 was acceptable. We shook on it, so to speak.

To my bosses' enduring credit, they were scrupulously fair in dealing with me as a Japanese salaryman, despite that being almost shockingly abnormal at many Japanese firms, and they made it quite clear that everyone else was to deal with me in the same fashion or they'd find out what a Japanese multinational will do on behalf of a wronged employee.

[Edit to add: If people detect notes of conflicting opinions from me regarding salarymanhood, it's largely because that one specific bit of Japanese corporate culture -- loyalty -- really resonated with me.

Feudalism is a pretty effed up system, too, but aside from all the Game of Thrones Except In Real Life bits it had its own peculiar beauty to it. I sort of feel like that about salarymandom.]

How I got hired there is a long story. I think I've told it on HN and elsewhere before.

If what you love isn't something that's considered economically viable, you're pretty much out of luck.

See if you can convince $large_company to let you do (and most importantly, talk about) side projects for reputable charities (perhaps giving credit to $large_company as well as taking it for yoursef) or for friends businesses/startups.

The other thing I see working well for friends/colleagues is presenting at conferences/meetups. We've got a "Web Analytics Wednesday" meetup here in Sydney, and a pretty much continual flow of web design/development related meetups/mini-confs/industry-specific groups. See if you can pitch "I want to present some of what we at $large_company do to people in $industry at $event" to your boss.

(I am not a lawyer and don't have a citation for this, so take it with a grain of salt.)

As a remote worker, people won't come to like you. They won't necessarily dislike you either, just not form bonds with you on the basis of spending 8+ hours together every day. You won't get a share of their "Dunbar budget", so to speak.

If you are really, really good, there is no reason to think this will affect you. You earn your place in terms of your contribution, which may be the raw amount of work you perform, but you can use force multipliers to. By over-communicating, and in general having the disposition to help out people.

On the other hand, if your work is average or below average, I believe it's far easier to hide in plain sight at the office; blending with the crowd, being seen at least putting the hours.