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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?

#911

Post by nikisweeting »

krmmalik wrote: post #796
hnarn wrote: 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…

This is great advice but if I could just add one thing, from experience, and that is, do treat the interview with dispassion. I have consistently found employers (esp in a dysfunctional organisation) often read dispassion as confidence and that is always a plus point.

+1 for this advice. In my experience skepticism and hesitation (within reason) are often highly regarded in these environments, and enthusiastic upstart types are seen as inexperienced / naive, even when that's not the case.

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

#912

Post by nikisweeting »

xtracto wrote: post #625
redisman wrote: post #614

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dysfunctional companies in my experience have been horrible places to work where they work the devs to death and make them do all kinds of unrelated tasks.

This or, these are companies where managers need people to "look busy", which in a "remote allowed" environment will not be possible or will mean surveillance software.

If you're a dev working from home, surveillance software might be easy to get around ;)

Automate some real-looking work processes and just use your personal computer for everything else.

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

#913

Post by hauget »

Try looking for jobs at international development organizations (e.g. World bank, Inter-American Development Bank, etc). They're pretty chill and pay ok. https://www.devex.com/ is a good place to start. NOTE: most IT jobs will require either a masters in CS or certifications.

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

#914

Post by SixDouble5321 »

codethief wrote: post #808

This reminds me of this old crazy internet legend about a guy who accidentally ended up in a position where the company he worked for literally forgot about him while still paying him. It's a rather long story but totally worth it: https://github.com/bibanon/bibanon/blob/master/Stories/Ameri...

This story is just as enjoyable today as it was when it was posted on SA.

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

#916

Post by knodi123 »

nikisweeting wrote: post #910
sixdimensional wrote: post #732

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For what it's worth (sample size of 1 - me) - if you are at all competent and bad at setting boundaries, the dysfunction will absolutely frustrate the heck out of you. Seeing what is broken, knowing that it can be fixed, and having even the slightest bit of motivation or knowledge of how to do so, and how it goes on forever and ever and doesn't get fixed becomes incredibly tiring. I suppose, if you go into a dysfunct…

If I were being paid like $250k/yr+, think I could tolerate it for enough years to retire and go do my own things.

lol, well the slow motion trainwrecks are, in my experience, about a quarter of that. But it's still enough for a comfortable life, especially if you have a side hustle or you're self-teaching stuff that will help your resume.

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

#917

Post by nikisweeting »

knodi123 wrote: post #916
nikisweeting wrote: post #910

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I were being paid like $250k/yr+, think I could tolerate it for enough years to retire and go do my own things.

lol, well the slow motion trainwrecks are, in my experience, about a quarter of that. But it's still enough for a comfortable life, especially if you have a side hustle or you're self-teaching stuff that will help your resume.

I know some Google teams that might qualify.

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

#918

Post by bartvk »

gyc wrote: post #789
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

>The pay is usually very noncompetitive. But the benefits are usually top notch (e.g. healthcare). If the position comes with a generous defined-benefits government pension, it can actually end up being more lucrative than working in the private sector.

> generous defined-benefits government pension

You have to make sure that this pension actually pans out. I've worked at a semi-government job for 10 years. However only 1 of the ten years, they indexed their current payouts with inflation.

I'm a freelancer now, and I've been counting on that pension. But if this continues, that government pension will be worth a whole lot less. I'll probably have to work longer.

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

#919

Post by techlatest_net »

Is there any reason you are limiting your option to a job only? If there is no particular reason and if Your ultimate goal is to earn minimum required income for least amount of effort, there are other options than a job, specially something which can generate passive income over time with minimum to no maintenance efforts. Some of such options which I can think of are:

  1. Create online courses
  2. Create a SaaS application for niche, do some online marketing to get potential customer. indiehackers.com , solopreneur related subreddits has good resources on this.
  3. Do online gigs as per your convenience and skills on platforms like fiverr, linkedin etc.
  4. Publish regular freemium newsletter for your area of expertise on platforms like substack, medium etc. Newsletters has gotten lot of traction these days and good source of income for indie developers.

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

#920

Post by groaner »

ascendantlogic wrote: post #868
colecut wrote: post #617

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes this is one of the most true things I have ever read based on my own experience.. In 2009 I was hired to do mostly helpdesk / IT support for a printer/copier sales company, making $36k By 2012 I was making over $80k, being taken on the annual company trips with the high sales earners (cabo, hawaii), etc.. All basically because I set up a web based dashboard that aggregated numbers that their Sales CRM stored in a…

> None of that mattered though. After doing this professionally for 20 years I've found that clients don't care what language, framework, hosting provider, etc you use to solve their problems. They don't care about your code quality, they don't care about your CI pipeline or any of that shit. They care if you have solved their problem for them, and that's it.

They also don't care about security, until one day it bites them in the ass.
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