Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

961–970 of 1001 posts

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

#961

Post by oblio »

throw14082020 wrote: post #768
raincom wrote: post #759

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At one of my old gigs, I asked my then-colleague a bunch of questions about the codebase for a task I was assigned. He was always like "you are a senior resource, you should not ask such questions; if you want to find answers, look into the code itself." This is how he keeps his status and job at that company, and he is still there now. When I enquired around about how he got that tribal knowledge of that codebase, I…

> there are gatekeepers in most of the companies, who don't want to train you at all. This is fear mongering for the juniors. Most people don't help because they don't get asked. Juniors, reach out and I will help. I'm the kind of person that is sociable and helpful anyway though.

It varies widely by company and by person. The unhelpful senior trope is not a myth.

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

#962

Post by oblio »

craigtp wrote: post #946
kelp wrote: post #907

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Sharing knowledge in the business world, never. That's a great way to lose a job. If you're working at a functional organization that rewards growth, never sharing knowledge will ensure you put quite a low ceiling on your advancement. I've written countless promotion justifications. Been on countless promotion review boards at several very successful tech companies. Being the best programmer, or what ever, is only…

> If you're working at a functional organization that rewards growth So that excludes about 95% of them.

True, but on the other hand these 5% pay more than almost everyone else in that 95% so...

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

#963

Post by pcglue »

mdip wrote: post #890

I've worked in a few different capacities and have seen this happen, and seen previously excellent developers decide they simply couldn't take the pressure and head out for something easier. I can respect the latter and provided your interest isn't in attempting to "get away with pretending to work[0]", desiring a less demanding role somewhere else isn't something worthy of "flak". Onto advice: I had a friend who wor…

> excellent developers decide they simply couldn't take the pressure and head out for something easier

Been working since late 90's with a 1.5 year break for grad school, but going through some extreme burnout right now and I totally want to do this. Don't want to try to "get away with pretending to work" at all, just want something easier with less pressure/stress.

> Check they're IT ops/dev organization; note whether they're using a third-party[2]. If you want that "back-end only job", look no further.

Can you name some specific companies to look at for this?

> My buddy took my advice and ended up getting an "Easy Corporate Job"

Which route did he go, the DBA team or the third-party IT org?

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

#964

Post by pcglue »

dustinmoris wrote: post #116

I really feel for your question because I have felt in similar ways recently. The pandemic has made life really dull and my days literally just consist of work, eat and sleep. Everyone on our team feels the same way and even though nobody really is asked to work long or hard everyone still feels on the verge of a burnout and a mental crisis, because we all feel stuck in a surreal world of four walls and isolation. An…

> Additionally contract work allows you to change up the projects you work more easily.

How often do you change jobs as a contractor? What range of rates would you recommend targeting?

> I'd recommend to look for a contract role where you help with the maintenance of some old boring tech project.

Would you go through a recruiter to find something like this? How would you frame this to a recruiter that this is the type of job you want? You can't really just say, "I want an easy software job". Or can you? But you especially couldn't say that to the company.

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

#965

Post by radiator »

shatnersbassoon wrote: post #40
michaelt wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But that's all synchronous work - running courses, giving presentations, coaching people. If their objective is to only work 2 hours a day, the last thing they want is hours of meetings every day where your absence will be immediately noticed.

If the organisation is big enough and dysfunctional enough, your absence will not be noticed for long periods of time. Just make sure whenever you are seen you have the appearance of being in a huge rush.

There was a well-written story about someone in a large company who was by some coincidence suddenly left without duties and went on for years doing exactly that. But I no longer remember the source or whether it was a fictional story.

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

#967

Post by mxschumacher »

groaner wrote: post #920
ascendantlogic wrote: post #868

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

I continue to be surprised by how little impact gigantic hacks seem to have on large companies. Countless media reports of deep intrusions, stock market valuations not dented in the long term.

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

#969

Post by Frazmatazz »

robertakarobin wrote: post #574
louwrentius wrote: post #555

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for sharing this. I had a good laugh. I both agree your role is necessary but also makes it feel like it’s a bit dysfunctional, that people can’t have effective meetings on their own.

Eh, it's just people being people. It's similar to how when you're learning first aid, they always tell you to not say "Someone call 911!" but rather point at one specific person and say, "You, [distinguishing characteristic of said person] , call 911!"

That's a very good analogy. Much of role is just coordinating; expecting your team to self-coordinate is expecting your team to do your job for you, and leaving things up to chance.

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

#970

Post by Frazmatazz »

beastman82 wrote: post #130
DougN7 wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This sounds like a job a friend has in city government (in the midwest US). They have to look busy but in the end it sounds like they really don’t do a whole lot (he’s the manager and knows they don’t have much to do but has to maintain head count).

This was my experience with government work and is why I'm now an advocate for small government.

The same thing happens at private enterprise because free market incentives don't apply internally; i.e. if I double my productivity it won't actually affect my income at all.
Post reply on HN