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Ask HN: Is the Great Resignation in tech real? If so, why?

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Re: Ask HN: Is the Great Resignation in tech real? If so, why?

#161

Post by aikinai »

timthorn wrote: post #154
yarcob wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> much of my job satisfaction came from the sense of comradery of working on a team I think this is a seriously undervalued factor and something I was completely unaware of. I used to always judge job opportunities either by how well they pay, or how interesting the work is. But in reality, the social factor is just as important. So some time ago, I was trying to hire my first employee. I paid a lot of money for job…

Consultancy might have a boring image, but the work can be extremely varied. I was at one of the big names and got to go behind the scenes at a major theme park, spend a night with police officers on blue light calls, watch open heart surgery in person, meet a lunar astronaut and eat lunch in a tv studio watching a live broadcast.

Wow, that sounds way more interesting that I've been led to believe! Did you just get lucky? What was your role?

Re: Ask HN: Is the Great Resignation in tech real? If so, why?

#162

Post by yakubin »

cammikebrown wrote: post #4

Switching employers, especially in tech, to get more money is not a new thing due to COVID. For whatever reason, employers are more likely to hire new talent at a higher pay grade than give equivalent raises to current employees. I know lots of folks in tech who would switch jobs every 2-3 years and get a much more significant raise each time than by staying with their current employer.

This is true. But switching jobs this fast a lot doesn't look that good on resume.

Re: Ask HN: Is the Great Resignation in tech real? If so, why?

#163

Post by timthorn »

aikinai wrote: post #161
timthorn wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Consultancy might have a boring image, but the work can be extremely varied. I was at one of the big names and got to go behind the scenes at a major theme park, spend a night with police officers on blue light calls, watch open heart surgery in person, meet a lunar astronaut and eat lunch in a tv studio watching a live broadcast.

Wow, that sounds way more interesting that I've been led to believe! Did you just get lucky? What was your role?

I think you make your own luck for things like this. I was a technology architect which had the advantage of being quite broad in scope. I came to the company with a deeper technical background than some which helped, but I also built a specialism after I joined that was rare in the company. That meant if there was a need for that skill, I had a high chance of being asked to assist. And of course, when it came to change projects, choosing ones that held an interest helped. But for example, anyone who joined the project with the police force had an opportunity to join a shift, anyone who worked on the TV project could have lunch where I did, so it isn't all about the role.

Re: Ask HN: Is the Great Resignation in tech real? If so, why?

#164

Post by BlargMcLarg »

gambiting wrote: post #150
nodejs_rulez_1 wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the OPs point was that the past employer effectively leveraged the social aspect to underpay. Now that there is a hobby outside of work, the latter is suddenly not a center of life anymore. The pay raise is the ironic reality of employers catching up with the real cost of labour.

That assumes that these social aspects are valued at zero. Money isn't everything in a job. Your compensation consists of the money, yes, but also everything else in the job. Good social aspect at work takes effort to build and maintain, so maybe, actually, those employers weren't underpaying at all. Again, money isn't everything.

Counterpoint: with basic human decency and almost every company following the same blueprint when catering to that social aspect, odds are in practice it really doesn't matter. Either you're an outlier socially and lucky to hit it without turning your CV into Swiss cheese, or you're more average and almost every company will cater to you the same way, so odds are high you'll fit in similarly regardless.

Good social aspect is still in the eyes of the beholder, and for people like me, this blueprint absolutely isn't beneficial. Nor is the risk of looking for an outlier culture worth the potential benefits, when that same outlier culture can be much more easily found outside work.

Re: Ask HN: Is the Great Resignation in tech real? If so, why?

#165

Post by rwmj »

sva_ wrote: post #141
KKKKkkkk1 wrote: post #101

I still remember the days when people were posting on Slashdot that software engineering has no future in the US because it's all moving to India. As we know, that turned out not to be the case. Tech companies have been willing to pay literally 10x for engineers to work from their US headquarters. Now folks are again claiming that the era of remote work is upon us. Maybe that's true. But be careful what you wish for.

The companies here in the EU of which I heard that they allow remote work pretty much limited their employees to stay within the EU while working. Is this different in the US?

Despite what people think it's difficult for a company to pay someone who is living in a country where the company doesn't have a presence, for tax reasons. We (Red Hat) are mostly remote but we can only hire people who live in countries where we have a local office, and there's no such thing as a nomadic employee, or at least not for more than a few weeks.

Re: Ask HN: Is the Great Resignation in tech real? If so, why?

#166

Post by aetherspawn »

kaycebasques wrote: post #71

In June 2021 I left Google after 6 years. I outlined my motivations here [1]. Long story short it's a conscious bet that time and energy are scarcer commodities for me than money. I'm not sure I'll last a full year but I think I have a few months left in me. [1] https://kayce.basqu.es/sabbatical/prologue

From your post:

> As luck would have it, global healthcare plans seem reasonably priced. My partner and I got covered under Aetna's MHP Exclusive plan (their most comprehensive package) for under $300 a month total (not $300 per person).

As an Australian, this figure seems ridiculous, even if it were in $AUD! To give you an idea, I pay around $45 AUD/mo (but I've never had to use it because free healthcare).

Re: Ask HN: Is the Great Resignation in tech real? If so, why?

#167

Post by kzrdude »

urthor wrote: post #118
KKKKkkkk1 wrote: post #101

I still remember the days when people were posting on Slashdot that software engineering has no future in the US because it's all moving to India. As we know, that turned out not to be the case. Tech companies have been willing to pay literally 10x for engineers to work from their US headquarters. Now folks are again claiming that the era of remote work is upon us. Maybe that's true. But be careful what you wish for.

I still think we are at the dawn of widespread adoption of remote work. I fully expect the pendulum to swing the other way from favoring intra-US remote work like it is now. Highly competent developers phoning it in from Peru, totally unlike the 1990s, very much seems like it'll be an extremely prominent trend in the future.

What was the 90s situation you're comparing to?

Re: Ask HN: Is the Great Resignation in tech real? If so, why?

#169

Post by KaiserPro »

BoxOfRain wrote: post #149
KaiserPro wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that the number of people that want to go remote, are not the same as the number of people that we think want to go remote. From my immediate team(20), there are two people who will go full remote. The _vast_ majority want something blended or flexible. Then there are some people ~3 who want to be in the office full time. Granted this is for the UK. I suspect that there is bias in news for remote only, becaus…

I've had a similar experience in the UK, in my previous job I was the only one who wanted to remain full-time remote this year. Management wanted everyone back in the office full-time so I ended up resigning and moving to a different company for a decent raise, but as far as I'm aware the majority of people there wanted either full-time office or hybrid working.

congratulations!

I don't want to come across like I'm anti remote work. I want a company to support full remote, I think there benefits to how the company structures communications to allow full remote. I just don't think its wise to go all in either way, either full onsite or full remote.

Re: Ask HN: Is the Great Resignation in tech real? If so, why?

#170

Post by asjfj9 »

> I think covid was a splash of cold water that's caused many of the people in my circle to re-evaluate how they spend their time. Tech workers are so in demand that we can freely change jobs so it follows that many people would availing that option.

This sums it up.

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