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I'm Begging for Work

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Re: I'm Begging for Work

#141

Post by sgk284 »

Bonogongo wrote: post #87
nilkn wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It sounds like you've had a bad experience with a former employee, but this is not blackmail. That's just standing up for himself. The OP was working there contingent on his boss's promise of a raise, and both parties knew this, including the boss. In fact, the OP was remarkably generous towards his boss by doing something very foolish: knowingly taking an unlivable wage out of trust that the boss would live up to hi…

It sounds like you have done this in the past, and it is blackmail. And I understand that you don't want to see yourself as a blackmailer. "I'm more worth than that" and leaving is standing up. "Give me more money or I leave" is blackmail. "Regarding your Wikipedia quote, leaving a job in which you are abused and underpaid is not at all unjustified." Leaving is not the blackmail part, threatening to leave is the blac…

Have you never negotiated anything? This isn't blackmail. He's leveraging an asset (his talents) for compensation. If Netflix is negotiating licensing rights to a movie and the owner of the rights says "We want more money or we won't license this to you." that's not blackmail. It's negotiating a deal. In this case the guy is saying "I want more money or I won't work for you any more."

It is absolutely the correct call. He was being taken advantage of. He used his only point of leverage to get a fairer deal.

Re: I'm Begging for Work

#142

Post by brokedev »

Bonogongo wrote: post #69

As a manager if someone tries to blackmail me with leaving, I usually say "Then leave". Never let people blackmail you. Would I hire someone who swears and uses f* in a conversation with his boss? No. Would I hire someone who creates a blog to make his boss look bad? No. All of this with 4 kids I surely would not trust on you any responsibibility acting so irresponsible. So everyone here who wants to hire this guy, a…

I understand your disagreement, but I never blackmailed him. When he told me my new salary, it was nothing like he'd indicated, and nothing like what other entry-level developers were paid. I understand that I'm self taught, but I was there nine months and haven't had any complaints about my work, only a few corrections like any other junior developer.

1. I didn't blackmail him. I had made it clear from the day I was hired full time that I wouldn't be able to afford living on that amount. And yesterday when I finally found out what I'd be making, it turned out he'd reneged on his side, and I called him out on it.

2. Technically I said fuck in a conversation with my ex-boss. This was after he fired me and called me disloyal. My conversations with him as an employee were more than respectful.

3. The blog was not about him, it was about my desperation. I don't care that he offered me the $45k, I care that he strung me along like it would be more. It might have been an overreaction, but if so I still feel like it's an understandable one given what state of mind anyone would be in, having the rug pulled out from under them like this.

And for what it's worth, I'm a really quiet, easy-going person. I don't blow up on people, but I also don't do weird passive-aggressive office politics. I work and generally get along with everyone.

Re: I'm Begging for Work

#144

Post by anonfounder1980 »

I'm sorry, but brokedev did EVERYTHING WRONG here, NOT the CEO. You don't get paid based on what you think you are worth or what other employees think you should be paid. Your salary is set by market forces. And from what I read, this CEO took a chance on brokedev in the first place. He gave him a job doing something that brokedev had no background in and has been compensating him not just with salary but also with work experience that would be hard to get otherwise.

I mean really, coming back less than a year later and demanding nearly TWICE the salary? Come on.

If brokedev really thought he was being underpaid, he should have tried to silently get another job while he was still employed. Then he could see the market realities for what a programmer with 8 months of work experience is really worth. If he could find a job that offered him $75k, then he could go back to the CEO and say: "I am worth $75k because someone else is willing to pay it, but you were the one who took a chance on me so if you can match the salary I would rather stay with you."

Then he wouldn't be in this mess in the first place.

It's sad how self-righteous some people are these days. No sense of honor or dignity for themselves or the people who try to help them out.

Re: I'm Begging for Work

#145

Post by tikumo »

I am sensing that you've asked for the 75k a very wrong way. Also first search a new job before you threaten to leave current one, burned bridges and stuff. Did you have a contract and talks preceding the contract?

Re: I'm Begging for Work

#146

Post by bazzargh »

mmaunder wrote: post #25

Time to get your game face on. I'm a CEO, we're hiring but not in your skill area. Having interviewed a lot of candidates lately and looked at many more, I wanted to give you my 2c on getting into extremely hirable shape fast: Update your LinkedIn profile as someone has mentioned already. Sweeten it up, get a great looking but professional profile pic up there, get kudos from friends, etc. Do the online profile clean…

http://www.eeoc.gov/laws/practices/

"As a general rule, the information obtained and requested through the pre-employment process should be limited to those essential for determining if a person is qualified for the job;...employers should not ask for a photograph of an applicant. If needed for identification purposes, a photograph may be obtained after an offer of employment is made and accepted."

It surprised me when you attached any importance to "a great looking but professional profile pic", since it's such an obvious way for discrimination to work, so I checked if that was allowed. I don't recall being asked for a photo pre-employment in 30 years.

Re: I'm Begging for Work

#147

Post by tomhagen »

ericdykstra wrote: post #106
Bonogongo wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hiring is a filtering game. With 100 candidates, first thing you do is filter out 80, I wish more candidates would understand this.

Using something like "professional-looking LinkedIn picture" as a filter is just throwing out candidates for the sake of getting the number lower. Any company that would be this lazy as to potentially throw away their best candidates in the first round of filtering on criteria that has such little actual signalling is not one that I would want to work for anyway.

I doubt people get filtered out solely on their profile picture. Yet when you have two similar resumes, things like this might (and probably will) decide who'll be filtered out.

Pro-tip: no one wants to see a Nikon in your profile picture and no one cares about your photography hobby on your resume. I'm talking to you, half of the tech community on Linkedin!

Re: I'm Begging for Work

#148

Post by timwaagh »

pretty silly to think devs get a lot of money. only if you are really good. and with so little experience, you are not going to be much better than me. and i know what i'm getting.

Re: I'm Begging for Work

#149

Post by nekopa »

mmaunder wrote: post #25

Time to get your game face on. I'm a CEO, we're hiring but not in your skill area. Having interviewed a lot of candidates lately and looked at many more, I wanted to give you my 2c on getting into extremely hirable shape fast: Update your LinkedIn profile as someone has mentioned already. Sweeten it up, get a great looking but professional profile pic up there, get kudos from friends, etc. Do the online profile clean…

For anyone interested in improving their profile pic, this is a good article:

http://www.diyphotography.net/take-professional-linkedin-pro...

Read all the way through, as he points out that it is not the equipment that matters, its the setup with the reflectors, which can easily be improvised...

Re: I'm Begging for Work

#150

Post by etchalon »

cplease wrote: post #48

Dude, you got shit on, but your entire post screams unprofessional. If you want to be a professional, and be treated like a professional, you need to act professional. Harsh perhaps but that's the truth. If this is a serious job solicitation and not just catharsis you are doing it all wrong. Starting with how desperate you are, how proud you made your mom, and how shitty you've been doing and been treated does not ma…

Well, that's a pretty terrible and vastly incorrect thing to say.

As someone who actually hires people, allow me to assure the poster that nothing about his story says anything of the sort.

It screams "person of good faith who got taken advantage of by an asshole."

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