My life as IT Developer and the Economic Crisis in Italy [looking for remote jobs/collabs]

Today I will go quite personal, sharing with you my human and professional story, and I am going to do it for a very specific reason: I am looking for some remote jobs/collabs; I'm in difficult economical moment, however I'm not here to complain, I hate doing it, so let's go to my story!

image from entrepreneur.com

I was born in the south of Italy and I moved to Pisa, Tuscany when I was 18, to study at the University. I took a degree in Law, but when I finished my studies I decided that I didn't want to become a lawyer: basically I started hating everything about Law and decided to work in a totally different area. So I decided to follow my childhood passion, computers and technology, and the Web (which was in its early stage at that time). So I started studying by myself everything I needed to become a professional developer.

So I started learning HTML and created my first website in 2001, which is still online (but was obviously restyled and modernized a few years ago) and it is http://www.ebooks4free.net
I used it as my CV, just because when you start searching for a job, everyone asks about your past experiences and works. I also wrote an eBook about SEO and Search Engine Marketing, in italian, which is now obsolete and no more online.
Then I learned Javascript, CSS, PHP, MySQL, and more recently Wordpress, jQuery Mobile and Bootstrap.

I started loving my job because I could dress like a geek and a rocker without problems (even if I worked in big companies and banks). Developers had not to dress like white collars and were quite respected because of their technical abilities.

I worked (as an external consultant) for an italian bank in Milan, then worked remotely for a Rome touristic company and then in Pisa for different companies, including a multinational telecom company. I changed many jobs, about a dozen of them, and discovered that being a consultant meant working for 1 year or so, and then having to change job again. But it was easy to change it and find another one in a few days!

What about the wage? It was quite low and there was no real opportunity to increase it, despite the CV which was always better and abilities which were always improving.

Basically it was paid as a unqualified workman (around 1000 euros monthly) but of course it was more satisfying and less hard. When I started, I hoped I would be able to become smarter at developing, to have better opportunities and wages; after all I was quite new and I had to keep my expectations low, before becoming a senior developer.

After years, I was hired by a company near Pisa and was the longest job I ever had, about three years and a half, but finally I had to leave the job, because it was so stressing that my health started getting worse, and my contract didn't grant me any day-off even if I was sick, and they didn't allow me to leave the office even for two weeks. Additionally, my wage was 1100 euro per month and was no more enough to live.

This is the trick: they pay you always the same wage, but the cost of life keeps increasing, until you discover, after years, that your wage isn't enough to pay your bills, car maintenance, house rent etc. The IT in Italy was free from the economical recession which affected all the other areas, until now. Now I start seeing a very bad situation also in this area. I am 43, so I start being too old to be hired as employee (young people ask less money because lack experience and companies here prefer them to experienced guys. because they're cheaper).

After I left my last employee job, I started working as a freelance, and in the beginning it worked fine, until all my customers disappeared or started having economical problems. I currently find customers which always tell me the same refrain: "I am currently broke, if you want to work for free, we can share the future profits", which basically means you can't rely on that.

I started trading bitcoins and cryptocurrencies, I even created a trading bot which is still in development, but the main problem is that with with very little money you can do very little earnings. Additionally I lost BTCs on Cryptsy and other scam sites. I am studying hard to became a good trader and I hope this will be one of my future occupations. I had to sell my 1 BTC recently for 550 euros (part of it was earned thanks to Steemit!), because I needed money, so I missed the 1070 euros rally.

I am very grateful to Steemit for giving me the opportunity to earn some dollars and helping me a little in those difficult times, even if I think it's not easy to earn a living using it, at least for me, being not English native speaker and not even a early user or investor.

But now, let's go to my job/collaboration proposal!

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My Skills

Developing: PHP - MySQL - HTML5 - CSS3 - a little Javascript and Ajax (I have more than 10 years' experience as IT Developer)
Frameworks: responsive websites using jQuery Mobile and Bootstrap
CMS: Wordpress (I prefer not to use CMS, but if needed, I can use them)
SEO: SEO and SEM, Web Marketing and content creation/optimization, storytelling
Mail Marketing and Newsletters using PHPList and MailChimp
Graphics: GIMP, Photoshop
Languages: quite fluent in English, Italian native
Trading: I'm studying hard to become a professional trader, I prefer trading crypto for ethical reasons, but I am considering also trading ordinary stocks, indexes and commodities
Music: I create music with three musical projects - Dharma Fire - The Hollow Circle - AM Antigroup - my music can be used for soundtracks, videogames, jingles, etc

Some of my recent works

There are a lot of web applications and sites I creating during those years, but some of them are not public and others are in Italian, so I will not mention them.
Here are a few of my most recent works
http://www.ebooks4free.net
http://www.beevillage.it/index-english.php
http://www.steemideas.com

Job/Collabs proposal

I would like to work from remote and I obviously accept STEEM, SBD, BTC (I prefer them to Fiat, dirty money). I am available to skype calls and I am very motivated to work or collaborate for ethical and system-alternative projects.

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