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Ask HN: Strategies to land fully remote $250k+ job

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Re: Ask HN: Strategies to land fully remote $250k+ job

#321

Earlier quoted context omitted.

wow $200/mo recurring fee.. and they don't do your taxes? operating a compliant LLC isn't that complicated. I'd be curious to hear what they're doing that is worth $2500/yr.

I presume they're charging for knowing what to do & how to do it correctly, not just for the time spent doing it.

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: Strategies to land fully remote $250k+ job

#322
post #307

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The magnitude of latency isn't rewarded, just coming in first, so more and is spent on less an less absolute improvements, none of which have been relevant to human reaction times for decades. So why are the HFT firms earning profits? There is no law that says people are obligated to do business with them. There is no law that says people have to buy at the prices HFT firms are selling at and sell at the prices HFT…

If someone come in and beats them by .001ns they get all their profits. Is .001ns really worth that reward? The utility provided is mostly detached from the reward, it is just winner gets it.

Worth what reward? Once an HFT firm buys a security, they now have to sell it again. Or vice versa if they sell a security. Do you think they earn a profit on every trade? There is risk in every trade, sometimes they overpay, sometimes they underpay.

It makes no material difference to the profits of a buy and hold investor. If it did, buy and hold investors would not trade with HFT firms.

Re: Ask HN: Strategies to land fully remote $250k+ job

#323
post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

2 weeks vacation per year is pitiful. Do people really get on and are happy with only that? I get 5 weeks ( minimum legal in France), i use it to the max and it's okay, but sometimes insufficient.

2 weeks (as in 10 non-holiday days) is pretty normal in the US, even if you get more. I get 4 paid but I barely take two and bank the rest. My European parents think I'm crazy but they're used to a pretty nice safety net when you get old, and the concept of early financial independence never entered their mind.

There is a curious symmetry in that the idea that you only do certain things when you are young(er) or may not live (or be healthy enough) to harvest (or enjoy) the fruits of your early financial independence does not seem to enter the mind of many people chasing this.

In my thirties I worked in many different countries for many different companies. Going new places with different cultures and being able to enjoy my time there was always the main driver: i.e. experiences & work/life balance over salary.

I would never trade these experiences for early financial independence at maybe age 50. I think there is a best before date for some experiences in life.

Maybe now it is possible for a select minority to have both. But most of of my friends in their 30s who work 'normal' jobs and have this early financial independence aim it doesn't hold true.

I.e. they will simply not have made these experiences when they reach that goal. Few have ever managed to leave their country of birth for anything else but holidays.

Some personal examples:

Living & working in Japan and thereby traveling the country on weekends or going to a cool club in Tokyo. When you're 35 vs when you're 55. Would you even do the latter at that age? Would it be the same?

Living and working in India and thereby going for a weekend hiking trip in the western Ghats were you're sleeping in an abandoned train station in the middle of the jungle. When you're 35 vs 55. Would you even do the latter at that age? Would it be the same?

Living and working in Sydney, going to a party of friends on a yacht on Friday after work and on a diving excursion to the Great Barrier Reef on Saturday morning when you're 35 vs 55. Would you even do the latter? Would it be the same? I was still hung over when I put on the diving gear but it was ok. With almost 55? You would simply have to skip the diving trip.

None of the above are made up. The pandemic-related lockdown made me realize what rich tapestry of experiences my past life choices have afforded me.

I have four people in my circle of friends who are actively working on early retirement. They do 'compensate' a lot on the weekends and when they go on holidays but that is not the same as the above.

Re: Ask HN: Strategies to land fully remote $250k+ job

#324

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Keep learning new tech. I would expect major retraining to be required much more often than even 10 or 20 years ago. Personally, I am a big fan of Coursera and eDX online courses, but any form of study is good. Someone from HN just emailed me about this HN thread, and I will make the same comment to you as I did in an e-mail: “”” Every morning first thing, I spend a minute or two thinking of everything that I am grat…

I agree. I'm 50 and don't feel as though the sun has set on my usefulness yet. I'm definitely experiencing more demand than ever. My personal philosophy is similar and I very much love the work I do. 1. My role is to help the team. 2. Stay humble. There is always a better way to do something and we're very lucky to be in our position. 3. Practice not talking. Let others have the experience of figuring it out for them…

I'm 55. I'm tired of learning. I've been learning for 30+ years of professional software work, and none of it applies to any new jobs I might want to seek (I'm talking about specific languages, platforms, buzzwords, etc.)

The pace of change is faster than the average person can keep up with and still be competent.

I can see that by the time I retire, the knowledge I have spent my adult life acquiring will be useless historical trivia. It's depressing. My plan when I retire is to have nothing whatsoever to do with software. It can't come soon enough.

Re: Ask HN: Strategies to land fully remote $250k+ job

#325
post #79

Oh hey, I did this recently. The pandemic seemed like it was winding down (remember those naive days of 5 months ago?) and I decided I don't want to go back to the office, ever. Got a kid on the way, and I decided that the time I spend commuting would be better spent with my child. And my employers was making lots of whining noises that sounded like "we're never going to make this easy on you". First, pick the right…

In what niche in what country is the company you got into?

I'm a pretty general Staff Developer at Shopify. No niche. I live in Canada.

Re: Ask HN: Strategies to land fully remote $250k+ job

#326
post #298

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why in God’s name would you list them both? It’s a resume not a deposition. Your resume should make it easier for you to get your next job not harder . Be accurate when it comes to the truth but not necessarily the facts.

> Why in God’s name would you list them both? It’s a resume not a deposition. In the US resume fraud is a thing. Some companies like telecoms selectively check resumes for accuracy. Resume fraud can be a fireable offense.

"Employment relationships are presumed to be “at-will” in all U.S. states except Montana. The U.S. is one of a handful of countries where employment is predominantly at-will."

https://www.ncsl.org/research/labor-and-employment/at-will-e...

Anything (or nothing) in the US can be a fireable offense, so I wouldn't worry too much about what you put on a resume.

Re: Ask HN: Strategies to land fully remote $250k+ job

#327

Earlier quoted context omitted.

$150 per hour consulting is not the same as $150/h salary. With consulting you have to pay for your downtime, the time you use to acquire clients, your insurance, etc.

It is especially not the same due to loss of tax advantaged benefits like health insurance ($20k+ per year if you have a family), 401k matching ($10k+), DCFSA and HSA matches ($5k), and then the 8% FICA taxes up to $10k that have to come out of your pocket.

What these comments ignore is that, if you form an LLC for your consulting work you have access to a massive number of deductions that do not exist for someone who is an employee. My recommendation is to have a conversation with a good accountant and have them quantify the potential differences for you.

Re: Ask HN: Strategies to land fully remote $250k+ job

#328

Earlier quoted context omitted.

3 years receiving vested stocks. If price stayed the same, it would be worth 200k. Today it is worth 80k. So no, thanks. Stocks are not worth unless you're FAANG

Incredibly untrue. I’m sorry that your particular company saw a 60% decrease in stock price over 3 years. But this is not the norm for any reasonably healthy company.

In reality, most stocks decline. You know this from VCs hitting 10x semi-frequently and still losing money.

Statistically speaking, they're correct.

Re: Ask HN: Strategies to land fully remote $250k+ job

#329

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think many people on HN may be too young to remember the early 2000s, when you’d kill someone for your stock price to be down only 60% over 3 years, but it absolutely happens to good companies too.

We can talk about normal expectations without having to explicitly state that black swan events can happen. If you took a stance of “I’m not going to take any pay in equity because I saw what happened in 2001” you would have left millions of dollars on the table over the last 20 years.

I think that once you start looking for hard evidence on software company stocks, you're in for a learning experience.

Re: Ask HN: Strategies to land fully remote $250k+ job

#330
post #298

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why in God’s name would you list them both? It’s a resume not a deposition. Your resume should make it easier for you to get your next job not harder . Be accurate when it comes to the truth but not necessarily the facts.

> Why in God’s name would you list them both? It’s a resume not a deposition. In the US resume fraud is a thing. Some companies like telecoms selectively check resumes for accuracy. Resume fraud can be a fireable offense.

But isn't employment in the US largely at-will? Meaning that the employer can fire the employee for any reason except for protected classes discrimination?

So it doesn't matter if it's fraud or the employer just doesn't like the employee. The implications are the same.

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