Who is charo?
Charo is a Mexican singer/entertainer. In the US, she was a B-list celebrity during the 70s, for example, making several appearances on the Love Boat and shows like that. She’s also a very good classical guitarist, having studied with El Maestro, so it was fun to talk to her about that.
Where do you teach music?
Out of my apartment in Oakland, CA and a studio in Pleasanton, CA
Whats equity? Like a percentage of a company?
I’m no accountant, but … equity is the difference of assets and liabilities. In other words, if you sold the company and sold everything of value (real and intangible) and paid off all their debts, what was left over would be equity. As a stake holder with 5% equity, you would be entitled to that. Of course, you can’t just walk away with your 5% because there is a board to handle these things, but you get the idea. And it doesn’t necessarily mean that you get 5% of the profits. And your effective equity percentage can go down as new investors come on and other things. This is a good intro.
I know working for free for exposure is bad, because if you look at viral one-hit wonders they always turn out broke.
It’s a bad idea for so many reasons.
- It drives down wages.
- Once the get the idea that you will work for free, they will never respect you. I worked a solo jazz guitar spot in a cafe in New Orleans. It was around the corner from where I taught (chance to attract), and it was a Tuesday night, so I went in one night and talked to the manager and told him I’d do it for free. There was never any music in there so I wasn’t taking anyone’s gig. A few months go by, and I start to get a following. I talk to the manager: Hey, maybe a little bread is in order here. He agrees and starts paying me $50. (Which on the North Shore on a Tuesday night is awesome, plus I was getting some students.) Instantly there was a change in how the employees treated me. I don’t even know how they found out so fast. They weren’t exactly rude before, but now they were almost deferential. (I am hesitant to share that story - it’s one of the few times working for exposure actually worked. 99% of the time it doesn’t. Don’t undervalue yourself. If the only way you can get the job is working for free, then either you aren’t ready for the job, or they aren’t doing their business properly.
- It’s most likely that it won’t lead anywhere. If they are a new company and they are dumb enough to hire an untested web dev to be CTO or lead dev, then they are doomed. If they are established and are looking for free labor, then they aren’t doing something right.
- I would be very suspicious of any company willing to let a dev work for free and come in and mess with their system. There are so many chances to make a mistake. One little mistake could destroy them. And they’re going to let an inexperienced guy with a few certs from a free online bootcamp come in and potentially destroy their future? I would not want to be in that company.
I also joined in February of 2017. I feel as if i spend too much time on the projects. Sometimes doing them twice. Whats your best schedule?
If you think developing web pages is a waste of time, then, uhhh… I’m not sure how to respond to that. That’s what you should be doing. I’m done with the program and I’m looking for new things to build.
My schedule? I don’t have one per se, as I’m always running to teach and can’t organize my time the way I’d like. I probably spend 20 minutes a day looking for a job, an hour learning new stuff, an hour working on pet projects. But that varies wildly.
When I was where you are? I was just working on the projects. Every thing that I didn’t know was a chance to learn. I took some little side trips to learn things to help with the projects, but that was pretty much my focus. My schedule was whenever I had free time, I sat down and worked on the next project. And there were a few projects where I had to trash it and start over. It’s part of learning.
Just code. Learn to code. Build things. Then learn something new and build something else. Don’t try to reinvent the industry and how it does things. Just become the best coder you can. It’s easier to put on a pair of slippers than it is to carpet the world.