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

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

#671

Post by mattbrewsbytes » Wed, Apr 07, 2021, 5:04 PM UTC

dontreact wrote: post #550

mattbrewsbytes wrote: post #382

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tesla is a car manufacturer. They operate in the luxury segment which is ~5% of all cars and they only have a slice of that. Nothing they have done, yet, has made a change in the climate that can be measured. You can believe in their mission statement about changing the world but what I've stated are facts based on data. The classification on the stock market has them in the "Consumer Cyclical - Auto Manufacturers" i…

> Maybe one exception of Renewable Energy, literally could help our planet. That isn't "tech" though. without moving the goalposts to "have achieved measurable impact on climate change" let's just ask the following two questions. Is Tesla working on renewable energy technology? I believe the answer is yes, what do you think? Is Tesla a technology company hiring software engineers? I believe the answer is yes, what do…

Tesla is classified as a car company. They also produce renewable energy products in the form of battery packs. I would consider this an offshoot of the main business, kinda like a lumber mill might also produce bark chips or mulch for landscaping.

To get pedantic, if a classification existed of energy storage companies, that's sort of where Tesla is right? They don't have products that produce energy via solar/wind/nuclear, they have products that consume energy and store it for later use. Is Duracell a renewable energy company? (sarcasm)

All car companies have software engineers. Practically any company past a certain size hires software engineers. That isn't really a criteria being a "tech" company is it? By that definition Caterpillar (makes giant diggers and construction equip) is a tech company. CAT has over 200 software jobs open now.

I'm not denouncing Tesla or what they are doing. I'm just pointing out that I don't classify them as Tech and those that are in the business of classifying companies don't either.

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

#672

Post by throwawayboise » Wed, Apr 07, 2021, 5:05 PM UTC

cj wrote: post #523

bazooka_penguin wrote: post #511

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is it immoral? As long as the asked work gets done there's nothing wrong with splitting your time. How it any different from spending that time slacking off and working on hobbies, which could be monetized (ie art)

It's immoral because to be hired for a 40/hr full time job by 2 companies at the same time, you'll need to lie to both companies, representing to both that you're working full time, while in fact you aren't. And presumably the lies aren't limited to the interview process. You'll probably have to lie on a daily/weekly basis to keep up the ruse (for example, what will you say when both companies want you in a meeting a…

If you are paid by the hour it's immoral (and fradulent) to submit a time sheet for more hours than you actually work. However if you are paid a salary, you are being paid to do a job without regard to how much time it takes. If you can get the work done in 10 hours, and your supervisors are happy, then that's all you're obligated to do.

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

#673

Post by threepio » Wed, Apr 07, 2021, 5:05 PM UTC

Once it reaches a certain size, many tech companies grow a department called "business development". This department always seems to contain highly paid people who take a lot of meetings and promote various big ideas, but who hold no actual operational responsibility or revenue accountability. For this reason, they only tend to be fired during massive cost-cutting campaigns, because otherwise the value of their work is entirely in the eye of the beholder. They are like human Bitcoin.

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

#674

Post by rrrrrrrrrrrryan » Wed, Apr 07, 2021, 5:05 PM UTC

sevensor wrote: post #385

mywittyname wrote: post #331

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The pay is usually very noncompetitive. But the OP is okay with that. The local universities around me have some dev/it positions posted on various job sites, and they are all offering bottom 30% or so in pay, like $45-60k/yr

It's interesting to look at this in the context of ballooning tuition costs. Could it be that part of the problem is that university staff positions attract a high proportion of unmotivated time-servers? How is this possible at the same time that instructional staff are being squeezed so hard?

Some tuition reimbursement is often baked into the salary.

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

#675

Post by ironmagma » Wed, Apr 07, 2021, 5:06 PM UTC

knightofmars wrote: post #654

wayoutthere wrote: post #583

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because that’s not what it’s about; it’s about having a diverse leadership that more closely resembles the makeup of our nation and communities. Cis white men make up only about 30% of our population but account for probably 80% (and that’s being generous) of positions above middle management. It’s the cultural homogeneity that’s the business problem, and that doesn’t get solved without the right optics. Most of thes…

> But the entitlement (“you’re gonna take the job I’ve been working towards for years and give it to a new ‘diversity’ hire!?”) is the problem, especially in the upper ranks. Thank you for pointing out this exact mindset. As a cis white man myself, if I was up against someone else for the same position and we were equally matched in all ways except the other individual was in the minority when compared against the ov…

> except the other individual was in the minority when compared against the overall make-up of the position's peers

Problem: that's everyone. No one brings your unique viewpoint of life. Just because two people look the same doesn't mean a lick about their life experiences or who they are on the inside. Everyone at your company, wherever you are, is fundamentally a completely different person from you. If you want real variety, the way to do that is by interviewing people, not by looking at them.

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

#676

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Apr 07, 2021, 5:06 PM UTC

burnoutguru wrote: post #33

Senior DevOps Engineer at a mid-sized, stagnant californian “startup”, roughly $150k salary. Seriously. My last three jobs were at companies which were 10-15 years old, had burned through $75m-$150m in VC and had flat revenues of $12-$15m for years. These are my bread and butter. I “work” remotely from utc+2. Theoretically I am working from home, but pre-covid 60% of my time I was “working” from cafes around Europe/t…

[deleted]

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

#677

Post by 6510 » Wed, Apr 07, 2021, 5:07 PM UTC

> No / very little involvement in the product itself (I do not care.)

This is the bug! What you want in stead is do something you actually care about or presents puzzles that you find interesting.

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

#678

Post by temp20100407 » Wed, Apr 07, 2021, 5:08 PM UTC

giantg2 wrote: post #455

lifeslogit wrote: post #413

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…

Get a divorce attorney now, because you'll need one later.

For now, just because you're married doesn't mean you have to have complete sharing of finances. Get your finances completely separate. Create your own bank account; have your salary go there. Cancel any shared credit cards. Lock your credit report so new accounts cannot be made using your social security.

Then, offer to pay 1/2 the mortgage each month; or, better yet, let her pay the full amount from her own wages.

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

#679

Post by redisman » Wed, Apr 07, 2021, 5:10 PM UTC

pbronez wrote: post #277

ProjectArcturis wrote: post #266

I had a data science position with a large non-tech company. It did B2B sales, and had a giant office for us, done up in brushed nickel and Edison light bulbs. The rest of the company was designed in standard cheap-cubicle format, but they took visitors (i.e. sales targets) through to see the data science team, so we got the fancy layout. After working there a few months, I realized that I was also there as part of t…

> My work didn't matter (it took them 4 months to stand up a server for a project I was working on) and my boss didn't understand what I did. Very cush. Could have gotten away with a few hours a week of real work, though I still had to physically be there most of the time. I left for more money, plus ultimately having to surreptitiously waste 35 hours a week turns out to be quite draining. Yup. I've occasionally land…

Pretending to work at an office for 7-8h is soul killing. If it was remote then it might be a different story as you could just work on something else.

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

#680

Post by throwawayboise » Wed, Apr 07, 2021, 5:11 PM UTC

codegeek wrote: post #324

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 may be naive but why would you hire someone who repeatedly says "I don't care". I have no problem hiring someone who just wants to get their shit done and get the f out and if that means, they only work 2 hours, so be it as long as expectations are clear BUT they still have to care when they are working those 2 hours. May be I am too simplistic but when someone tells me "I don't care", I generally won't hire them r…

Watch Office Space. It's funny, but it's really based on a lot of truth.