where do professional usually go to get genuine, targeted and actionable career advice? I tried LI but it's broad and good for virtual connections.

Remember having a friend in a similar situation. This was my advice in that moment: -Make a list of the top 50 clients you had in the consulting firm, choose those which you had a close relationship and can actually talk about you (not fake it) -Call them and ask them if they believe you did a good job and if they were satisfied with your services. If the answer is yes, then here you have two options 1-Ask them if you can use them as reference. Don't talk about your ex employer. He doesn't matter. This is between you and them. Don't talk bad about him/her, it doesn't help. If they say yes, you are up to a start 2-If you ask and they say no, then you can make a decision. You can put them anyways and they will be called by your interviewer (not necessary they would talk to him or say good things, it's a risk) or you can just name the companies without a persons name or contact info Hope this helped! Good luck

The decision to join a Startup vs a large corporation - and the associated pros and cons are not a static set - they vary greatly based on where you are, what your skill set is, what stage of your career you are in and so on. There are of course some that are universal (like being part of something new that might change the world) - but I’ll focus on some that are perhaps less obvious. I’ll give you 16 points to consider looking at two points within the career stage spectrum - they are by no means comprehensive. Just getting started If you are just entering the job market - right out of college (or not) a startup provides some really interesting opportunities: - Greater involvement / visibility in decision making. - Wider skill set use / development opportunities. - Greater opportunity for responsibility growth and promotion. - More flexibility in lateral moves within the company. It also comes with a unique set of potential downsides: - On the job training? Better be a self starter. - Amazing salary and benefits? Someday, maybe. - Uncertainty and instability of the business. - Resume implications. Seasoned industry pro Similarly, there are enticements at the startup level that make it a great choice for those of us with a few extra notches (and maybe holes) in our belts: - Leverage existing networks / partners and deep industry knowledge to accelerate success in the position and the company. - Elevate to a new strata of management (i.e. VP to CxO). - A chance to expand your personal brand. - Leverage market value for a larger equity position within the company. And with the rewards, come the risks: - Salary may be less than market rate. - Resume implications (can be seen as a step backward - depends on outcomes). - Stability / long term security concerns. - Wildly different work environment / comfort zone issue. In summary - Startups are awesome for a lot of reasons, and as a serial entrepreneur who can’t imagine doing anything else, my personal opinion would skew heavily towards the opinion that everyone should join a startup at some point. As with all decisions in life, being informed, entering into them with eyes wide open, knowing the benefits and risks and managing for them is required to make the right decision. I’m more than happy to chat with anyone considering joining a startup and tie it directly to their own situation.

I've been where you're at *multiple* times. The advice I gave myself was to throw my arms up and just get a job and focus on being better at developing software, the act of coding, since thats what me/you are "passionate" about. If you want a business though, you have to first ask yourself, "Why do you want a business?". Is it because you want to be well known and show up in all the publications? Do you want to hire people and make decisions on where and how the company grows? What do you want? Saying you want a business is the easy part. You can code a platform and get it to the point of being able to be sold (which is great, but these days thats the easy part), but you need to do the other work: figure out what you want and set a goal and run towards it. As I read your question theres a lot more context that can be given to your situation that I don't know about, I dont know you, and havent talked to you, but I can tell that you probably aren't excited to actually talk to people and try to sell it, which is a lot of developers. Most developers think they can build it and customers will come, we've all heard that before, and that's the hard part I mentioned earlier. If you're looking for a suggestion, then my suggestion is: stop building stuff for now. Figure out your goal (not an idea, not a company, but a goal outside of the actual platform) and when the goal amps you up and gets you excited, you'll run down that path, until then, keep coding and getting better at writing software and in your off time, go do hobbies like kayak or something. Make yourself bored, it will come to you then.

I have lost passion at least 100 times. It happens and the situation you find yourself in can make it challenging for you to care. I totally get that. If you are planning on getting out, I would try to position yourself so you have some time to regroup. If you are in a position to do so, I would spend the next year reading, traveling, meeting with people, having discussions, sleeping, and thinking. My best ideas have came from times where I walked away from other things that were not working for me any longer. It takes time for our minds to detach from the things that are dragging us down. If you are like me, at that time I was working too much and not giving myself time for growth. Stopping everything and focusing on myself and my family renewed me and allowed me to once again access parts of my mind that were bogged down with everything I had lost interest in. Hope that helps.

What's your end goal? Do you want to be a great employee? Or a business owner? What kind of a business owner--hands on, or Olympian? Big differences. Specialized skills are what's necessary for being a great employee or hands-on business owner. If you want to be a leading, delegating, deal-making business owner, then you need a different skill set. In either case, simply knowing what you want and being able to articulate it will put you ahead of 99% of the pack. Most people have no idea what they want and drift from thing to thing...their next job is similar to their last, or the first one that was offered to them... You can literally shave years off your career path by being ultra-clear on your target and going straight for it. I've had employers create custom roles for me four times. Each one knocked several years off my career path. It's why I was a production manager with six supervisors and over 150 floor employees reporting to me at 26. I created that job, by sending the employer a package detailing my plan and requirements. Want to partner with the best to learn specialized skills? Sell them on the idea of why they need to hire YOU and only you. Want to learn the art of deal making, delegating and other soft skills? Sell the right kind of business owner on why they need to hire YOU and only you as their assistant. Get IN. Once you're IN, you will get a completely different view of the world. For example, I worked for a national electrical wholesaler for four years. A guy was an accounting clerk when I started, and after awhile he got promoted to assistant to the GM for an area with 11 branches. That guy instantly got access to all the high level data and IN on the decision making at that level. He got to see the issues, information, solutions, and people who played at that level. Near the end of my time there I did a stock tracking project and worked with him. On my first day, I was shocked to see all this data. I was suddenly IN. Nobody else in my department got to see this data. And it was "no big thang" for these head office guys; they worked at this level every day. Set your target and get IN. I bet you cut 10 years off your learning curve by doing so.