Hello for everyone, Iam just so confused about the world of work for erlang developers.
I have learned erlang (and still learn) since 4 years, and Iam looking actually for a remote job since my country (Algeria) don’t have chances in such positions but I was surprised by a lot of things that I have never think about before.
1-First of all how can a new erlanger get a job ? companies look for experience and to get real experience you should work for companies, how can we solve this loop ?
2-Even fully remote positions look for your location, why ? this is not HYBRID this is FULLY remote not ?
3-Most of recruiters that I talked with them, recommend doing MAKEUP to my CV 
, recruiters are just workers and I understand that, but what companies are waiting from a beautiful CV ? shouldn’t they look for the person and their capacities first ?
4-Some friends recommend to go via an other process and try to contact directly a director or a manager to ignore the recruitment process : is this not bureaucracy ? is remote recruitment had become like that ?
Iam so sorry for all but I didn’t expect all that before, I was Java/C++ before and I did well locally but my first contact to Erlang was enough to fall in love with and I had a deep vision to see that it’s more and more powerful language and even if I stay unemployed I will never swap to another language… but to be more realistic I think it’s a blunder to learn Erlang over other popular languages in such situations where you need to pay bills and you are not europeean or american, Thank you.
Hi A!
I agree, and then embedded jobs can be way more difficult to fill/find compared to web dev when it comes to the remote space, then you add CV requirements, timezone restrictions and a limited candidate pool and it can get frustrated for both sides.
( Timezone restrictions have more to do with whether the team can work async vs sync, and whether they are trying to have full contact vs contact overlap, daily live standups vs weekly text standups etc )
We have some project work we’d like to get more eyes on,
paid-project positions and non-paid project positions (for those that need exposure but that have zero experience/portfolio work and want to work themselves up or those that simply want to solve problems on the side! )
Why don’t you send me your CV, I can help you apply ‘Makeup’ to it and also see if we have a project that fits you ?
I have built a bunch of stellar CVs in the last 4 years that have all made it through to final interviews after being chosen above 150+ candidates, I don’t mind helping you for free at all 
I don’t know the general answer to this, but sometimes it might be a legal situation. The employer will have to hire you wherever you live, and with your contract, it will have to follow the laws of the country where you work. If the company already has offices there or an existing contract with an employee-of-record company there, then no problem. But when that’s not the case, setting all that stuff up is not an easy/cheap thing to do.
That’s why some companies only hire remote people from certain specific countries/locations.
Another possibility, for some hiring companies, is that you set up your own company and then sell your services to them. There might be constraints like they’ll only pay you 11 months (no paid vacation) or that you have to follow their weekends (on the country where the company is), etc. You could potentially also explore this situation with them (I know in Portugal it’s relatively easy to set up a company).
You say that Fully Remote need that the company should have offices there ? is that always the case ?
Thank you that is great, but currently I want just to get experience and some money because building self-company is not free, if I will have the possibility to build my own I will never work for someone that is.
At least if the person shall be employed by the company – as opposed to them running their own (freelance) business and essentially be a contractor – that might indeed be needed. Even if there’s no need for a physical office there may still be the requirement to have the business registered in the country for taxes and other legal reasons. This complexity is a whole business segment on its own, which you can see with companies like Remote and their competitors.
Ah okey thank you
No that’s not always the case -
Companies can pay independent contractors through various means - where the contract will state that all tax liabilities fall upon the contractor/worker to sort out and pay.
The independent contractor usually also agrees that the Jurisdiction for the contract/agreement will be handled ( non exclusively usually ) by the laws of:
-insert company country here-
There are also a bunch of different ways to handle billing when it comes to this problem through a mix of external 3rd party solutions ( Think Bill.com, Deel.com, Wise.com ) or through BTC or manually through Swift payments.
Some companies will need to report their independent contractors but not all.
For certain US companies that would mean some need you to fill out a 1099 and W-8EN form, for other companies it might not be needed, and for a 3rd portion they might use a service, a middle man company, that handles the contracts, legal work and payments of independent contracts on behalf of the hiring company with a degree of seperation.
It may be worth talking to Erlang/Elixir-specific recruiters. This is not an endorsement, but Beam it just came across my desk today and maybe they can help out. If you decide to engage with them please report back on your experience!
Good luck!
Thank you for help but Iam just so tired from :
Recruiter ! {self(), CV}
receive
{Recruiter, we regret to inform you....} -> aargh
after some days -> aargh
end.
I just fed up from all these I want just to start work I don’t have experience, Iam ready for all kinds of tests… except that Iam sorry Iam not the appropriate person, Thank you @jc00ke
Yep… The first Erlang job is always challenge! Each situation can be specific. First of all need to understand the company is hiring but HR is filtering - that why I suppose some HR propose some update of CV and this is a good first step - take a look how somebody prepare his CV and after collecting some info you can create your own CV template. Yes, you are right, the company is looking for specialists, but do not forget that HR is not a technical specialist and looks at you from its own side. Another big gaps can be in knowing of good speak and writing English communication skills - if you have good development skills but can’t communicate with the team - how do you plan to carry out your duties? The simple mobile application Duolingo can hell with it. And about experience - the pet projects is always pet projects, however in the Open Source here is placed a lot of amazing projects used by various companies - get experience I believe you can in Open Source projects. And of course - need to have a great mentoring for try to grow up 
and pick up own skills to the next level.
P.S. The first job is always challenge and this is not related to specific of technology. Yes, some job maybe a little bit easer to find but in any case - all they want to have experience - real experience.
Oh and of course - no need to forgot about https://www.upwork.com or similar platforms - maybe this is not a very cool for the first experience - but still here can be found some job.
There are exchange languages communities in Discord for practicing languages through Discord calls. I haven’t try yet but the idea sounds cool to me
Don’t forget we have a Dev Profiles category here: Dev Profiles - Erlang Forums
In terms of tips, people generally employ people - so part of the challenge is ensuring you’re a good fit for a team. Some things to consider:
-
Passion - do you have an insatiable desire for the topic? Have you read all the books you can get your hands on or cram into your schedule? The culture of learning is very attractive to companies, managers and co-workers. It makes them feel confident in you and the future version of you.
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Share that passion. Blog, make screencasts, make cool things, organise meets, be active. Don’t be passive - want to get noticed? Be visible!
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Be employable - Other than the above, don’t forget that you - not just your skills - is what people are going to be employing and having to work with, so ask yourself what kind of person you or the company you’re interested in might want to employ? A kind decent human being, or an obnoxious nasty one? I’m not sure about you but I know who I’d rather be working with
Good luck! 
Nobody has posted in it yet… but you can get an idea of what to post by looking at some of the threads on EF: Dev Profiles - Elixir Programming Language Forum 
My Dev profile: “Erlang skills slightly above ‘hello world’. Willing to learn, and also willing to make coffee and buy cinnamon rolls for senior coders in Stockholm area.”