Today I was supposed to be attending a bootcamp on the R programming language. I don’t really have much interest in R, per se, but need one credit hour to fulfil my computer science degree requirements. Python wasn’t being offered. The course was cancelled due to “lack of interest,” so now I’m left wondering what to do to fulfil that last credit. I sent a couple of emails last night inquiring whether I could run my own bootcamp on blockchain technology, as I’ve run several meetups and could easily spend a day or two talking about it.
That got me thinking about plans to hold a Mid-Atlantic Crypto Conference that had been shelved for the past year. The idea was first brought to me by BCause founder, Tom Flake over a year ago. BCause has since been forced to liquidate, and I haven’t talked to Tom since the news hit. I’ve been to several cryptocons, one in Pennsylvania, and another hosted at Virginia Commonwealth University, so I think I would have the resources to throw something together. Throwing it together in sixty days before graduation would be quite the challenge, though.
I’ve also been thinking about my post-graduation plans:
Work for a crypto exchange: blockchain and computer science are probably my two favorite things to do, this would make the most sense for me. I’ve been in the space long enough that it’s time to make a career out of it, and the money should easily be six figures. I worry about the time committment needed to go and work for someone like a Coinbase or Gemini, though. And the competition would be fierce. A more likely, and less financially lucrative opportunity would be to go work for one of the smaller, niche exchanges, like Safe.Trade, for example. Or…
Start my own crypto exchange: This would be very risky, and likely require a lot of time. There’s some open source exchange software out on Github; I’ve already been planning to take a look at it and see if it can be used with Cryptonote coins like the planned Pennycoin fork. What kind of income would that generate during the next bull run? And what kind of headaches would that entail? I can imagine.
Get my masters: I could just keep taking classes. I love learning, but I’m not sure this makes financial sense, to keep taking on debt and keep taking classes for another four years (part time). I had joked about doing this just to delay repayment on my student loans, but I’m not really interested with any of the programs that are offered at my current university, and the prospect of transferring somewhere else doesn’t appeal to me right now.
Go work for a development firm: I’ve already been presented with one job opportunity via a recruiting agency, so it shouldn’t be too hard to find something, even if it’s a short-term contract. Doing so would mean cutting ties with my current job entirely, and although I’m pretty much done with the MSP model, and IT support in general, I don’t think I want to abandon the guy I’ve been working for the last seven years. I’d rather do…
Freelance development: This would be the dream, wouldn’t it? Pick up a few projects, knock out a few Django prototypes and voila! This could be very lucrative if done right, finding jobs could be hit or miss. I could pickup work through the local startup and coder meetups, pickup some OSS rewards on GitCoin. Wouldn’t even have to quit my day job, really. This really seems the most appealing to me, as far as the status quo goes, but is it just me being lazy?