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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?

#601
Find a big corporation. The amount of income per unit of work is proportional to the size of the corporation and how 'evil' it is.

Also, the % of all company shares which is owned by the executives and board members is also a major factor. The less 'skin in the game' the executives have, the more money you will get as an employee for the least amount of work.

Also whether or not the company has an industry monopoly has a huge impact as well.

A multi-billion dollar corporation which is considered 'evil' (e.g. gambling, corporate finance, advertising, big tech, ...) and whose executives and board members don't own many shares and which has a monopoly over its industry is going to pay much more for a lot less work because nobody cares about the company's mission. The company is just one giant piggy bank for everyone to tap into. Everyone's goal is just to extract more money out of the company, often executives will pay low level employees more because then it allows them to also pay themselves more without raising alarms (helps to keep employees happy so that nobody questions it).

When you have few executives and board members who own company shares, it means that you can factor out the shareholders from the equation. At the end of the day, the shareholders are the only ones who exert any real pressure on the employees to deliver and if they are not well represented on the company board, then the employees will not feel any pressure - Everyone will just do as little as they think they can get away with.

I've worked for companies like this in the past. One of them was a big multi-billion dollar gambling corporation with a monopoly and paid really well and I barely did any work. I literally took 1 week to implement something which could have been done in half a day and managers only gave me positive feedback. I was one of the most efficient employees there.

I spent most of the day thinking about what I would be having for lunch, checking my emails, social media, watching YouTube videos, listening to music, sharing videos with colleagues, talking with colleagues and I could always go to the restaurant for lunch because it was very well paid. I often had 2 hour lunch with colleagues. Also, it was a contract position, so if I didn't feel like coming to work one day, I would just not go (just send an email in the morning) and nobody ever complained. A colleague once came to work in his pajamas, obviously he had been taking drugs the night before and nobody said anything at the meeting.

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

#602

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For many years my partner and I operated in the same way. I paid our rent, utilities and food while she spent on her hobbies and saved. I was not unhappy during this time because I didn't want much. A few years ago though, I became a bit more financially aware after having my first soul crushing job and realizing I couldn't rely on work to produce income in the same "easy" way I had when I was younger. The emotional…

"...having my first soul crushing job and realizing I couldn't rely on work to produce income in the same "easy" way I had when I was younger. The emotional cost had become too high." I feel exactly like this. My wife has basically changed what she wants (or stopped hiding it) now that we are married. She wants a big fancy house and she wants to live in an suburbanized and expensive area. She originally told me she w…

You seriously need to consider pulling the rip cord. Life is not worth being a miserable wallet.

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

#604

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the take-away here, which I've also experienced, is to get an IT job in an industry that does not appreciate IT - find a position that seems to involve a TON of manual work - automate all of it - and DO NOT TELL anyone that you have automated those activities. If you are working from home, you could conceivably do this for multiple jobs (in theory, ethical considerations aside).

The robots are coming for you and all of your slovenly kin.

It's a Walter White moment - "I am the one who automates!"

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

#605
This is totally 2nd hand anecdote, but I've heard stories from several people who worked at MSFT (all 10 plus years ago, so maybe it's changed) who put in a handful of hours of work per week. Still got promoted. Spent most of their time doing what ever, things like playing World of Warcraft in a competitive guild full time.

In all cases, these people ended up leaving to go to highly demanding startups, because that's what they would rather have been doing. But the point is, even at large, high paying, very successful companies there are lots of niches where you can get away with doing very little.

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

#606
post #415

If you want my advice, it is simply this: look for dysfunctional companies. They're easy to recognize, because they look like pretty much the opposite of those companies everybody really want to work at. Take everything you see from a website like Elastic[1] for example and invert it: - It should NOT be clear what the value proposition is. - The website should NOT adhere to modern design standards, or at least do so…

> look for dysfunctional companies This theme is common in the thread and is wildly wrong. First I recommend reading Bullshit Jobs to get some perspective on how others have fulfilled your goals. Big, rich, process-driven companies and institutions are the easiest to do the least work in for the longest time . Process is the toxin low-effort thrives on. An admin role at Google pays more and works much less than an en…

You're not wrong, but I also firmly believe that most if not all dysfunctional companies are extremely process heavy.

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

#607

remote job at a BigCo get hired with years of experience to anchor your starting level nicely high rake in salary, bonus, stock, benefits once you get the tribal knowledge you're pretty much tenured so long as you seem busy and available might be a little low on the tech side..but that just means more time and energy to use your tech skills for your own purposes

ding ding ding

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

#608
post #579

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just make sure it is only internal software you'll be working on. Otherwise those small companies will have you doing customer support on the phone too.

That might not be a big deal if the goal is low effort work.

I personally found it very stressful but maybe not everyone would. Customers can be a PITA. There's always the guy who wants to question you on the finer details of the technology being used because he knows he could do better, and he's a passive aggressive asshole.
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