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Ask HN: Who Wants to Be Fired?

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Re: Ask HN: Who Wants to Be Fired?

#121

Post by w0mbat »

120bits wrote: post #23
0xDEFC0DE wrote: post #20

After 8 hours total interviewing at one company, I kinda feel like I was hired and fired in a single day

WOW! That would very exhausting.. is this norm these days to have full day interview sessions?

Facebook wasted loads of my time before I even got onsite, with several shared-screen coding phone interviews spread over a month. Each time I would solve all the problems and get to working code but a week later they would ask me to do another interview.

I got reasons like "the interviewer quit without submitting his feedback" or "interviewer said he had hard time understanding your voice on the phone" (I'm a native english speaker and interviewer was not), or "interviewer lost his notes", etc. Maybe my code just sucks and they were lying but I don't think so. It took so long to get through that stage to the onsite that I felt like I'd already worked there.

Re: Ask HN: Who Wants to Be Fired?

#122

Post by kibwen »

Waterluvian wrote: post #95
eternalban wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm trying to figure out how to be the most assertive and diplomatic. Having a job offer in hand does wonders for one's communication skills.

I perpetually have a few competitive alternatives. But I don't want to have a conversation that way. I shouldn't have to.

You could perhaps try framing it as a negotiation, i.e. "there was nothing in my original contract that indicated this would be one of my regular responsibilities, I'm happy to open negotiations with you in order to add that stipulation." Think of a salary at which you might actually consider being on-call (don't be charitable; make it double or triple or quadruple your current salary if you want). Then, increase that number by 50% and call it your starting offer. If they balk and try to talk you down, offer to go lower, but don't go below that number from the first step. Negotiations will almost certainly stall and your supervisor (who I presume is the one putting pressure on you) will then have political cover to tell their own supervisor (who I presume is putting pressure on them) "hey, I tried", and hopefully this will continue far enough up the chain until it reaches a person that is so detached that they don't really give a damn and drop it. If they do eventually end up firing you over this, then this indicates they would likely have fired you anyway and therefore you've not lost from this exchange. And on the slim chance that they accept your terms of quadrupling your salary, I guess you can retire substantially earlier. :P

Re: Ask HN: Who Wants to Be Fired?

#123

Post by etxm »

protomyth wrote: post #120
rjplatte wrote: post #100

I'm the sole developer working on my current project, which is overhauling a massive DOS era application, as well as overhauling an early 2000s era CRM/business management tool, that almost all of our work happens through. Did I mention that the DOS application is a HIPAA billing application that must meet all HIPAA guidelines as well as write EDI X12 billing files? I'm very junior, been coding for ~5 years, 3 profes…

working on non-version-controlled code, having been expressly forbidden from using ANY VC by the CEO Did the CEO give a reason? I'm a bit curious based on it being billing and HIPPA. Also, are you rolling your own EDI import/export?

HIPAA

Re: Ask HN: Who Wants to Be Fired?

#124

Post by JamesSwift »

throwaway58129 wrote: post #64

I didn't know this format was a thing and am so very excited to discover it. I hope you folks enjoy reading horror stories. I got a job as a Software Engineer in my current company 4.5 years ago; friend-of-a-friend sort of thing. The company had an apparently disastrous piece of software that was their main LOB. They had gone through pretty much every local consulting agency - at least once, on a few occasions they h…

Enjoyable read, thanks for writing it all down : ) Keep on fighting the good fight.

Re: Ask HN: Who Wants to Be Fired?

#125

Post by [deleted] »

reificator wrote: post #102
rjplatte wrote: post #100

I'm the sole developer working on my current project, which is overhauling a massive DOS era application, as well as overhauling an early 2000s era CRM/business management tool, that almost all of our work happens through. Did I mention that the DOS application is a HIPAA billing application that must meet all HIPAA guidelines as well as write EDI X12 billing files? I'm very junior, been coding for ~5 years, 3 profes…

> working on non-version-controlled code, having been expressly forbidden from using ANY VC by the CEO I've been there. Run.

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: Who Wants to Be Fired?

#126

Post by ctoinhiding »

rytill wrote: post #117
ctoinhiding wrote: post #105

I am an acquired founder working in the bay area. The acquisition made me rich, I'm liquid, and I love my product and my team. Everyone did really well in the acquisition. The acquirer means well, but as a public company there is little intellectual honesty and projects are going off the cliff while my fellow executives not sharing the truth of how bad things are going and asking for help from one another for the goo…

If you're fired, do you vest fully? We got acquired recently and it seems like my vesting doesn't jump ahead if I got fired (without cause)... not totally sure though.

it's technically not vesting (my founder shares were fully vested on acquisition) - more of a hold back. we made sure to negotiate this term in.

doesn't work that way for employees unfortunately.

Re: Ask HN: Who Wants to Be Fired?

#127

Post by outworlder »

throwaway58129 wrote: post #64

I didn't know this format was a thing and am so very excited to discover it. I hope you folks enjoy reading horror stories. I got a job as a Software Engineer in my current company 4.5 years ago; friend-of-a-friend sort of thing. The company had an apparently disastrous piece of software that was their main LOB. They had gone through pretty much every local consulting agency - at least once, on a few occasions they h…

This was fantastic.

> With stingy living I'm set to retire at 40 and that blows my mind

Got some Mr Money mustache vibes from your post, now I know why. Congratulations.

Re: Ask HN: Who Wants to Be Fired?

#128

Post by naniwaduni »

rytill wrote: post #117
ctoinhiding wrote: post #105

I am an acquired founder working in the bay area. The acquisition made me rich, I'm liquid, and I love my product and my team. Everyone did really well in the acquisition. The acquirer means well, but as a public company there is little intellectual honesty and projects are going off the cliff while my fellow executives not sharing the truth of how bad things are going and asking for help from one another for the goo…

If you're fired, do you vest fully? We got acquired recently and it seems like my vesting doesn't jump ahead if I got fired (without cause)... not totally sure though.

If you're in a situation where your vesting schedule incentivizes your acquirers to fire you without cause your lawyers may have ripped you off.

Re: Ask HN: Who Wants to Be Fired?

#129

Post by newnewpdro »

oldsklgdfth wrote: post #4

My office mates audibly fart throughout the day and act like it's normal. Pretty sure it's not.

One of my early jobs was working at a small PC repair/sales shop owned by a married pair of Indian immigrants.

They would fart as freely as blinking. This was in a very conservative white midwestern town, and they wouldn't even reel it in while pitching sales to potential buyers.

I was a teen at the time and couldn't believe it, ripping ass right in front of a potential customer while running over prices of various components, without missing a beat.

But clearly this is a cultural thing, and some cultures don't seem to frown upon it.

The best part was they also ate vegetarian, and the most convenient vegetarian fast-food option was taco bell so they ate bean burritos practically ever day. The flatulence was nearly constant.

Are your office mates immigrants?

Re: Ask HN: Who Wants to Be Fired?

#130

Post by etxm »

ctoinhiding wrote: post #105

I am an acquired founder working in the bay area. The acquisition made me rich, I'm liquid, and I love my product and my team. Everyone did really well in the acquisition. The acquirer means well, but as a public company there is little intellectual honesty and projects are going off the cliff while my fellow executives not sharing the truth of how bad things are going and asking for help from one another for the goo…

wear sweat pants and no underwear and put your foot up on stuff while you talk to people in the office.

If you don’t have a penis, put a strap under the sweat pants.

No one is going to fire you with cause for not being aware of your obviously swinging dick.

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