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Ask HN: What tech job would let me get away with the least real work possible?

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Re: Ask HN: What tech job would let me get away with the least real work possible?

#201

Post by roland35 »

Kneecaps07 wrote: post #146

This is unethical, but outsource yourself. Get contractor jobs and then hire cheap overseas workers to do the work and pocket the difference. If you can get a few of these gigs going and can manage your calendar you can probably cut yourself down to 20 hours a week. Just be better at hiding it than the guy we hired who got busted doing this literally within the first hour of his first day. Don't let your boss take ov…

We had to fire someone doing this as well, he was caught because his "subcontractor" was calling into meetings and had a totally different accent!

Please don't do this... Not only is it unethical, there are security, intellectual property, and liability concerns as well. A company should be aware of who has access to it's internal resources.

Re: Ask HN: What tech job would let me get away with the least real work possible?

#202

Post by b-mmxx »

mft_ wrote: post #89
nicbou wrote: post #82

I build a website that helps people navigate life in Germany. It requires little work and pays the bills. I still have to work, but if it's sunny outside, I am rarely stuck behind the keyboard. Unfortunately, I don't think I could easily reproduce. I wouldn't have the energy to do the same in a new location. Even in my little circle, I have many competitors, though they are fortunately not that good. If there was an…

As someone dealing with life in Germany, I’d appreciate the link?

Based on submissions, All About Berlin.

https://allaboutberlin.com/

@nicbou Thanks for this, good quality content.

Re: Ask HN: What tech job would let me get away with the least real work possible?

#203

Post by sokoloff »

ddelt wrote: post #129
gorpomon wrote: post #115

I love this question for its honesty. Frankly if I had a job I just needed technical competence on without much thought, I'd probably hire you. Our 1-on-1's would be brief and probably just be you demoing whatever hobby it is you alluded to. As long as you can crank out some decent code, I don't see a reason why a person who needs some quality work done shouldn't at least give your desired arrangement a chance. Unfor…

I came here to respond to your #1 and tell you I worked in that position, and you are 100% spot-on. I chose to do more and grow/learn, and obviously there were times when you had full weeks and overtime, but by and large, I’d say 50% of people on my team were phoning it in and only putting in 2-3 hours per day. The rest was team meetings, corporate meetings, lunch hour, miscellaneous slack chatter, etc

It sounds like OP doesn’t want their day wasted with the extra 5 hours of non-coding work though (what you call “the rest”, they want to be free from, at least as I read the original).

Re: Ask HN: What tech job would let me get away with the least real work possible?

#204

Post by dalbasal »

killtimeatwork wrote: post #28

I think it's probably fairly random. I.e. you're just as likely to have a "do nothing" job in a FAANG as in some other random corps. But I don't think you can start doing nothing right after being hired - usually people are hired because there's more work in a team that the existing headcount can handle. So, you have to work for some time and then count on "falling into the cracks" - landing in a place where there's…

Random may not be the right word for it, but I think you're right. Do nothing jobs tend to be snowflake jobs, each one different.

A lot also depends of what you consider "work" or "slack." Is low attention meetings work?

One good strategy might be the 1/10X programmer. Find a team that sucks, be 10X better than average. Work 1/10 as hard. Spend 2 days on 2 hr tasks, etc.

Re: Ask HN: What tech job would let me get away with the least real work possible?

#205

Post by RationPhantoms »

SamuelAdams wrote: post #151

You just described my job to a T. I'm a systems analyst at a university. This was a big, demanding job when I first started. But after being here for 2 years, I've automated a lot of the complicated stuff. So now most routine tasks that took the other guy a week takes me about 15 minutes. To be fair though, the other guy was *really bad*. Like, couldn't even open IIS manager and restart a single website, bad. The pay…

Some University positions can be notoriously cushy. I know a few networking folks who have been in their position at the University for a solid 25 years. Kind of unheard of in the enterprise-sector for the same position.

Re: Ask HN: What tech job would let me get away with the least real work possible?

#206

Post by hanniabu »

beastman82 wrote: post #130
DougN7 wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This sounds like a job a friend has in city government (in the midwest US). They have to look busy but in the end it sounds like they really don’t do a whole lot (he’s the manager and knows they don’t have much to do but has to maintain head count).

This was my experience with government work and is why I'm now an advocate for small government.

"Small government" and a small government are not the same thing

Re: Ask HN: What tech job would let me get away with the least real work possible?

#207

Post by SamBam »

burntoutfire wrote: post #133
iso1631 wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My job allows me to go back stage at Glastonbury and track-side visits at the Olympics, front seat views of royal weddings, orchestral pit on last night of the proms, and I have a fairly sedantry job of mostly pushing buttons. Colleagues have spent days in jungles building bridges to drive cars over them, have got to know people living in random villages from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe and share in their culture, have m…

> My job allows me to go back stage at Glastonbury and track-side visits at the Olympics, front seat views of royal weddings, orchestral pit on last night of the proms, and I have a fairly sedantry job of mostly pushing buttons. I had a similar job once, where I worked in TV coverage of final table of WSOP (World Series of Poker). I was around the poker celebs at the time, preparing talking points for my boss who int…

I'm unsure how this is a relevant reply. I guess if you interpret GP's comment as saying "I had a job that I could tell a lot of cool stories about," then you're right, that's not worth so much if all you get out of it is a "cool story bro."

But if you actually enjoyed living in those stories, then how can the ultimate conclusion be "so what?" Having an interesting and rich life that you enjoy is clearly a goal for many.

Re: Ask HN: What tech job would let me get away with the least real work possible?

#208

Post by poisonborz »

ph9SSgMzmX7mbe wrote: post #148
poisonborz wrote: post #15

There is nothing inherently wrong with wanting to focus on hobbies/life and not caring much about working time job - I would guess most people fall on this side, actually (and they don't even have too much of hobbies either). However, the way you wrote this post, it strucks me that maybe you have burnout, or you're depressed - as if you reach out to your passions not mainly because you like them, but because those ne…

What would you recommend? I identified myself way too much in OP's post. I'm in my mid-20s, have a job as a consultant DevOps engineer in a boring fintech company, in a project that I think will fail. I'm full-remote atm, and I'm already doing the least amount of work that I can do without it being noticed. I'm really good at programming (based on feedback of my co-workers), and I like doing side-projects (usually vi…

There's a truckload of options, really. Get more into side projects while ignoring/minimizing job tasks, like OP. Try to find jobs that relate closer to what you like (that's the great thing in being a dev, you can switch jobs or roles rather effortlessy, if you have CV that proves you are generally experienced). Find more interesting things within your field, or even current role. Simply switch to a nicer company. Get into charity work. Monetize a hobby, start a venture - even besides an existing job. And so on.

One thing is important, is that you HAVE to deal with this problem, however convenient it seems to just let things as they are, and "not think about it". OP was really great at recognizing that there is a specific issue to be solved here.

Re: Ask HN: What tech job would let me get away with the least real work possible?

#209

Post by irjustin »

fsloth wrote: post #111
elyobo wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Partner choice and choice whether to have children are other critical considerations in cost control.

"Family as the main instrument of cost control" - now that is bleak :D

You know what, if you don't want to have kids because they're too expensive - do not have kids!

Too many parents don't want to be in the position they're in for whatever reason and didn't take the time to figure out whether they really want to have kids.

Re: Ask HN: What tech job would let me get away with the least real work possible?

#210

Post by knuthsat »

Get a job at a consultant company that hands you out to others as an expert. It will take a while for the big corp that received you to figure out that team members are doing all the work and that you're applying low effort on everything.

If you do not ask for a raise, the consultant company is fine with it and will hand you out to new clients easily.

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