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Ask HN: Am I the only “unlucky” software engineer?

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Re: Ask HN: Am I the only “unlucky” software engineer?

#91

Post by iriri8 »

You aren’t unlucky.

Humanity is full of shit.

Take no one else seriously because they’re just projecting their own biological awareness, and since none of them matter, fuck em.

There’s billions of people on the planet that know nothing about computers. Let’s shut a lot off and see how valuable these folks are.

It’s a stupid contemporary con just like all the rest. Relying on the same biochemical addiction capacity as religion did before it.

I don’t believe in any of this shit (oh wow you can make a machine designed to do just that do just that! amazing). I just extract my $1xxk/year now and let less politically networked people bear the costs like a rich person.

Re: Ask HN: Am I the only “unlucky” software engineer?

#92

Post by plutonorm »

pseudalopex wrote: post #82
plutonorm wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He sounds like a person high in creativity trying to get along with standard developers who, by and large, are not creative people. Creativity is a one of the big 5 character traits and pretty immutable. If you are highly creative you #need# new experiences, it's not just a preference, it's necessary for your psychological well being. Moving into and working with companies dominated by non creative types, who prefer…

Creativity isn't a Big 5 trait.

You can substitute the word openness for creativity in my post, it doesn't really change the argument. The words are made up anyway, they did a factor analysis over lots of questionnaire responses and then found the largest contributing factors. Then they kind of eyeball the questions and tried to come up with a word that described the kinds of questions in that cluster. Openness is prob more accurate, but creativity is more readily understood and close enough to be used when trying to convey a message imo.

Re: Ask HN: Am I the only “unlucky” software engineer?

#93

Post by exportedm »

giantg2 wrote: post #18

"I'm at a stage where I wonder if it's raining only on me." This describes me exactly. I'm basically a cartoon character with a rain cloud following me. I'm in the US, 10 years experience, a Masters degree, and I don't even make $100k. I've spent years working with obscure tech on the initial promise that the company doesn't outsource or lay off. Now the company is doing both and I basically have to start over. The c…

If you're in a position of privilege then there is zero reason to tolerate that behaviour from an employer. If you're in a minimum wage job scraping by then it's understandable that you would tolerate uncomfortable situations, because it's a question of survival, however if you're a software engineer... just walk. You're making a choice, every day, to be treated poorly. The moment an employer mistreats you is the moment you start applying to new jobs. Don't leave your career in their hands, if you want a promotion... go out and get one.

Re: Ask HN: Am I the only “unlucky” software engineer?

#94

Post by aeortiz »

bellyfullofbac wrote: post #71
nordicengineer wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks! FWIW it's not a knee-jerk reaction post, though choice of words can always be better, especially for someone who doesn't have English as their native language. I'm not irritated. I'm more lost for words. And I honestly wanted to ask others what's their experience. In 2021. In Scandinavia or worldwide. In a so-called "hot market". Post Corona etc. My examples come from tenS of interviews, maybe even hundreds.…

I have the same thought as grandparent commenter, and your last paragraph isn't making my perception any better. IMO, go to a career coach, or psychiatrist, and get a neutral perspective of whether they see you as having a difficult personality. I've read that most people decide on hiring on the idea of whether they'd want to have a beer with that person. Yeah it's not fair, but well, they're paying for those beers (…

This strikes a chord because I struggle with social anxiety...I wouldn't want to go out for a beer with any coworker, only with friends I've vetted over months/years. I hope I am in any other way capable of being a good engineer. Should I not be hired because of it?

Re: Ask HN: Am I the only “unlucky” software engineer?

#95

Post by foogazi »

dusted wrote: post #2

I think I've read a few posts on this type on HN, and it seems to me like they are similar in a few ways, there might not be anything wrong with that, but I am still somewhat inclined to believe these things are why the job hunt is not going well for them. Almost always asking for "meaningful" jobs. What even is that? I'll challenge the notion and call it "An inability to find meaning in the available work." Feeling…

> Supposedly seniors relying on recruiters and job offers instead of using their network

This always stands out to me

I’ve had 6 jobs since college: only #5 was outside my network (which I leveraged into #6)

Re: Ask HN: Am I the only “unlucky” software engineer?

#96

Post by giantg2 »

exportedm wrote: post #93
giantg2 wrote: post #18

"I'm at a stage where I wonder if it's raining only on me." This describes me exactly. I'm basically a cartoon character with a rain cloud following me. I'm in the US, 10 years experience, a Masters degree, and I don't even make $100k. I've spent years working with obscure tech on the initial promise that the company doesn't outsource or lay off. Now the company is doing both and I basically have to start over. The c…

If you're in a position of privilege then there is zero reason to tolerate that behaviour from an employer. If you're in a minimum wage job scraping by then it's understandable that you would tolerate uncomfortable situations, because it's a question of survival, however if you're a software engineer... just walk. You're making a choice, every day, to be treated poorly. The moment an employer mistreats you is the mom…

Not so easy to walk when I've built skills in unmarketabke tech and have to support a family with multiple medical issues.

Re: Ask HN: Am I the only “unlucky” software engineer?

#97

Post by foogazi »

pbalau wrote: post #66
mvc wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Supposedly seniors relying on recruiters and job offers instead of using their network, if they've worked with people in the past, and can't draw on that, I wonder how that is, is it that everybody they worked with are not nice people and don't like them ? Half my network of previous managers has joined facebook/meta :-(

Most of them have other friends, some of whom might be founders and looking to hire.

Exactly- that should be a huge networking accelerator

Go out for lunch / coffee / beer

Or come to HN and compain

Re: Ask HN: Am I the only “unlucky” software engineer?

#98

Post by nordicengineer »

aeortiz wrote: post #94
bellyfullofbac wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have the same thought as grandparent commenter, and your last paragraph isn't making my perception any better. IMO, go to a career coach, or psychiatrist, and get a neutral perspective of whether they see you as having a difficult personality. I've read that most people decide on hiring on the idea of whether they'd want to have a beer with that person. Yeah it's not fair, but well, they're paying for those beers (…

This strikes a chord because I struggle with social anxiety...I wouldn't want to go out for a beer with any coworker, only with friends I've vetted over months/years. I hope I am in any other way capable of being a good engineer. Should I not be hired because of it?

Thanks for writing this! We're all so different, socially, stage in life (kids for instance), ways of working, etc. not to mention thinking of how this applies to hiring women. "What? You don't want to grab a drink with me?" Lost for words.

Re: Ask HN: Am I the only “unlucky” software engineer?

#99

Post by randomNumber7 »

beingflo wrote: post #4

I can't comment on the rest of the post but this bit stood out to me: > Sometimes they talk so much about fit fit fit, but they don't even bother with a personality or IQ test (which as a former hiring manager, I find very valuable because it allows you to balance the team, not because you see how high/low people score). Just for reference, if an employer ever asks me to perform an IQ test I'm definitely walking away…

Would be even illegal in germany...

Re: Ask HN: Am I the only “unlucky” software engineer?

#100

Post by randomNumber7 »

cushychicken wrote: post #25
robin_reala wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They’re the norm in Scandinavia, unfortunately.

This is one of the ickiest things I've ever read about Scandinavia

Wtf. Would be good for me but i still find it pretty scary...
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