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Three Jobs

Today I learned that other people want to do my work for me.

I received a curious email this morning. And no, it wasn't a fake Paypal notice or a request to help pay for a portion of a foreign inheritance1. It's not a scam hustle, but it's definitely a hustle. I have an email addresses that I use publicly and I have quite a number of public profiles online so it's not uncommon for me to occasionally receive unsolicited offers. Even outside of the more common scam attempts which are mostly caught by spam filters these days, I've received some rather odd emails inviting me to build, advise, partner, invest, collaborate, inflate, deflate, attack, defend, or recommend.

I'll include the full text of the email below and obscure some of the details to protect the sender. Why would I protect the sender? First off, he or she… I say that like I don't know, but I did my own recon. They're likely a somewhat talented developer I wouldn't want to tick them off just for fear of retribution, and secondly — Don't hate the player, hate the game2. I'm always very sympathetic to folks out there just trying to make it happen.

I remember when I was a kid in 1987 when the McDonald's Monopoly games first came out. My dad was doing some sort of promotion for it on the radio and had folks calling in to claim prizes base on the scratch off pieces they had. I thought to myself, rather innocently, I'll just ask for the phone numbers of these other folks who have the matching pieces and we can just split the prizes. I was too naive to understand that all other pieces I was missing were exactly the one's others were missing and were how the promotion actually regulated the awards. It didn't take me long to figure it out and I learned years later that the company handling the entire contest had a chief of security, a former police officer working with organized criminals, who stole all of the winning pieces. 3 4

I've reversed engineered scams before and at the end of the line is sometimes a some poor fella, gal, fella acting like a gal, or vice versa usually in an impoverished area of the world just trying to make an easy buck. I'm a big fan of the hack the hacker videos and I think I mighta enjoyed computer forensics. I remember the last one I did for a friend who got hustled on Facebook marketplace for some auto parts. I found the kid in Egypt and by the time I had searched through all of his photos I had small amount of empathy toward the little criminal with less respect for my friend who thought he could actually buy some vintage Porsche parts at such a steep discount. It's usually just the poor preying on the greedy.

In this case, I'm not going to respond. I value personal integrity above all else. But the idea isn't too shabby5. It's not like I haven't sometimes outsourced my work or done work for others without credit. Isn't that how all business are organized. I hired a contractor recently to work on our house and I didn't think he'd be doing the labor. And in this case, the targets would be large companies that have been built on the back of large pools of labor. If we could handle the work of three different jobs at the same time, what would it matter to the companies. I could use an additional 10k a month. There might even be other developers using my resume and likeness elsewhere anyway trying to get jobs.

Poor fella doesn't realize that even if we'd pulled down half a million, credit agencies report your employers and eventually we'd get caught up in a our own web trying to juggle simultaneous meetings or explain work I didn't actually do. I'm not even doing a chunk of the work anymore with the help of AI. In the end, it's not about the money. Just ask anyone who has a stash. It's about being happy and that revolves around your personal worth. In this case, I'm finding mine in my ability to more quickly realize mistakes I might have made when I was more naive. And the one key element the proposal really failed to understand is that I actually like doing the more challenging work myself. And even though I've hired a contractor, I was pricing new table saws yesterday.



Dear David,

I hope this letter finds you well. My name is ???????, and I am a senior full-stack developer based in ???????. I recently came across your profile on ?????? and wanted to propose a potential collaboration that could be mutually beneficial.

Currently, I am not engaged in any projects requiring immediate collaboration. However, I believe that forming a partnership with you could open doors to lucrative opportunities. Our collaboration could take the form of technical cooperation, where we share responsibilities, or non-technical support, including entrepreneurial advice and guidance.

Here is the framework I have in mind for our collaboration:

  1. Job Applications

I can assist in crafting a resume for you that reflects extensive full-stack development experience, effectively showcasing approximately a decade of expertise. This would help attract the attention of recruiters. On your behalf, I would apply to 100–200 senior software engineering positions daily, focusing on well-paying U.S.-based roles, particularly those where time zone differences may work in your favor.

  1. Interview Assistance
  • For initial and screening interviews, you could manage these stages or request my assistance if necessary.
  • During technical interviews, I would support you through remote tools like AnyDesk or TeamViewer, providing real-time solutions to ensure precise and confident responses.
  • For final interviews, your familiarity with American culture and native English proficiency would be an asset, but I would remain available to offer guidance and preparation as needed.
  1. Collaboration After Hiring Once hired, we could establish a work arrangement as follows:
  • You would handle daily scrum meetings and team communications. In situations where cameras are not required during meetings, I could attend on your behalf.
  • I would manage day-to-day technical tasks, ensuring all company requirements are seamlessly fulfilled without affecting your reputation or existing commitments.
  • Together, we could potentially manage multiple roles (3–4) simultaneously under this arrangement.
  1. Compensation and Payment Terms Salary payments from the company would be deposited directly into your account. Based on our agreement, we would split the earnings proportionately. You would retain 30-40% of the post-tax amount, depending on the salary, while I would receive the remainder.

Summary In essence, I would take responsibility for the technical aspects of the work, including daily tasks and technical support during interviews. Your role would focus on communication and cultural elements, leveraging your English proficiency to navigate the hiring process and team dynamics.

This arrangement has the potential to generate earnings exceeding $10,000 per month, assuming our collaboration is successful.

I understand this proposal is unconventional, but I see it as a creative and strategic way to combine our strengths and achieve significant opportunities. If this idea interests you, please let me know, and we can arrange a call to discuss it further.

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts.

Best regards, ?????? ????????



Footnotes​

  1. How to Recognize and Avoid Phishing Scams - https://consumer.ftc.gov/articles/how-recognize-and-avoid-phishing-scams ↩

  2. Don't hate the player, hate the game - https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/don%27t_hate_the_player,_hate_the_game ↩

  3. McMillions - https://www.hbo.com/mc-millions ↩

  4. McDonalds Monopoly Fraud - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonald%27s_Monopoly#Fraud ↩

  5. These Remote Tech Workers Secretly Juggle Multiple Jobs - https://www.wired.com/story/remote-tech-workers-secret-multiple-jobs/ ↩