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I'm Begging for Work

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Re: I'm Begging for Work

#211

Post by calibraxis »

Mikushi wrote: post #185
vellum wrote: post #158

1.) The best time to find a job is when you already have one. Next time, find another job before you quit or make an ultimatum. 2.) Don't spend so much time thinking about why your company is screwing you. People job hop every 2 years, because it's the only way they'll get a 20k raise. Your salary will eventually hit a plateau as you move up, but early in your career, you shouldn't stay too long at one place. 3.) Don…

Right, blame the guy for being exploited like so many others. 1/ He did not quit or made any ultimatum. He acted on what was promised, nothing wrong with that. But right you should always lower your head and submit to the startups and their heads. 2/ Typical protection of abusive companies by telling employees who are being openly screwed : "Deal with it". Such a healthy advice, lets not question the ethics and worki…

> If I were in his position I would have made sure that their name are public and known to prevent others from being exploited.

I respect and agree with your points, but do not agree 100% with this advice. Exploiters are the default. (Just the higher up you go, the nicer face they show you. Because you can hurt them more.) I only agree with this advice if you can do it without suffering serious blowback.

I try to carefully assist non-dev coworkers screwed by their bosses. This includes talking with crying coworkers who swear revenge because their boss humiliated them and thieved money — and they can't just quit because the next company may be even worse. One thing that helps is understanding this is an institutional problem. Not necessarily a "bad boss", nor their fault. Even with completely different people, the overall functioning would be pretty much the same. (That's why I keep recommending books like "Disciplined Minds".)

Then we take effective steps to make their resume look good, increase their bargaining power, learning tech/PM/etc skills, start winning internal company politics...

Re: I'm Begging for Work

#212

Post by wisty »

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.

People looking for jobs are usually far more motivated than managers looking to hire (or worse, people who aren't going to work with directly with the employee).

Even the CEO, who has skin in the game, won't be entirely dependent on making the best possible hire (hopefully).

Most job seekers are terrible at job seeking. What does that say about how good managers are at hiring?

(Also, managers has to look at hundreds of different candidates.)

Re: I'm Begging for Work

#213

Post by maze-le »

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…

> threatening to leave is the blackmail part.

That is bs, leaving is the only leverage you have as an employee. If you do't use it, you might have a problem, because you lack the ability to negotiate. The age of feudalism is over you know...

To be fair, this could have been wrapped up in some better language, like "I don't think my salary is reflecting my talents", but in the end it all boils down to leaving for a better opportunity

Re: I'm Begging for Work

#214

Post by wyclif »

nekopa wrote: post #149
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...

This is good advice, don't get me wrong (I read the article), but you don't absolutely have to have a pro photo. What you do need is a good, clear headshot. Advice like yours is necessary because I've seen a lot of really bad, unprofessional LI photos:

1/ Don't use your Facebook profile photo

2/ Don't use anything blurry: photo should be well lit and clear

3/ Don't use a photo that isn't a headshot—make sure your face is clearly visible and smiling

4/ Don't use anything where you're engaging in unprofessional behaviour

Re: I'm Begging for Work

#215

Post by vellum »

Mikushi wrote: post #185
vellum wrote: post #158

1.) The best time to find a job is when you already have one. Next time, find another job before you quit or make an ultimatum. 2.) Don't spend so much time thinking about why your company is screwing you. People job hop every 2 years, because it's the only way they'll get a 20k raise. Your salary will eventually hit a plateau as you move up, but early in your career, you shouldn't stay too long at one place. 3.) Don…

Right, blame the guy for being exploited like so many others. 1/ He did not quit or made any ultimatum. He acted on what was promised, nothing wrong with that. But right you should always lower your head and submit to the startups and their heads. 2/ Typical protection of abusive companies by telling employees who are being openly screwed : "Deal with it". Such a healthy advice, lets not question the ethics and worki…

I think the CEO's a sociopath, and I could care less if he gets shamed like that dentist that shot Cecil the Lion. But the OP is supporting a wife and 4 kids, so I'm giving him tactical advice.

>That I’d been told $75k was reasonable, and that I would have to look for work elsewhere if it was going to be $44k.

That sounds like an ultimatum. The problem is he's bluffing. He gets his bluff called, and then what? He's out on the street, in a worse place then he started from. My advice is not to bluff. Get a job first, don't look back. When you take a counter-offer, you also run the risk of having them get resentful, and firing you the first chance possible.

>2/ Typical protection of abusive companies by telling employees who are being openly screwed

This is based on what I've seen. I think companies should pay their employees market wages. But most companies will only give you a 5% raise, not a 20k one. If you know how to consistently get companies to give you a 20k raise, please share.

>3/ Easy to say when you're not living paycheck to paycheck and you see your dream slowly crumble before your eyes

I'm being realistic. Companies don't like hiring people who will take any job. He doesn't have to walk in there like Don Draper. Being nervous is fine. A lot of people get anxious. But going in there with a sob story isn't going to help his case. Even if they don’t turn him away, they can still use his living situation to lowball his salary.

Re: I'm Begging for Work

#216

Post by HiYaBarbie »

fsloth wrote: post #201
HiYaBarbie wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For the record, your boss there is a psychopath, which means he's physically incapable of feeling remorse or guilt, and has no conscience. That's why he was able and willing to screw you over like that. Here's a brief overview: http://www.sociopathworld.com/p/portrait-of-sociopath.html .. but the rabbit hole goes pretty fucking deep. While I sympathize with your situation, it serves as a good reminder to others that…

Remote diagnosis of people is not advisable. It's good to be aware of these facts, sure. Reading a one sided three paragraph description is not sufficient evidence.

One central reason for why psychopaths are having such a great time in the world is that we keep giving them the benefit of the doubt.

In general, it's good to be "rigorous", but in this case, it's not.

Re: I'm Begging for Work

#217

Post by throwaway5752 »

brokedev wrote: post #100

My email is blowing up. Sorry I haven't answered anyone, I really didn't expect much of a response and this on top of everything else is overwhelming. I really can't post my personal account names publicly, that would give away the company and, as I've said previously, I do really like the dev team. My team leader has a kid as well and works his ass off, and I want to see that pay off for him when they get through so…

Some people think being supportive means being nice, but I think you may be legit and I need to give you some harsh feedback: 1) Don't lead with "I fucked up bad" when begging for work. It doesn't make me want to hire you and many workplaces are still require professionalism and cursing is going to mean you're not getting hired or going to be fired in pretty short order (debating the merits is pointless because you need the work and their money is green) 2) I wish you luck but I don't see how this gets you any leads. I don't know where you are and have no idea about how good you are. You are self-taught so I have to assume the worst absent a portfolio or references. Obviously you can't link to either here for reasons you mention, so it just seems unproductive. 3) You have poor people skills and you don't seem to realize it. Seriously, stop using the "fuck" at work RIGHT NOW. Full stop. Don't curse at all. You have four kids and a nonworking spouse, and being edgy is a really unwise indulgence. Also you were an intern without a degree in the field and really misjudged your leverage and value. Your exchange with the CEO after being let go was in very poor judgement and probably burned bridges that might be valuable to you now, regardless of what you think of him. 4) Why aren't you submitting resumes to every temp agency in the area? In your financial situation and given what your prior salary was, why aren't you applying for any retail job that you can? 5) The financials of your ex-job are uninteresting and irrelevant. Knowing them does nothing for your situation, and you have made it absolutely certain you will never work there again. They fired you, so it doesn't really behoove you to put them in a good light. 6) Your wife is going to find out about this so you should tell her.

edit: I wrestled with bringing this up, but you mention several times what kind of laptop you had versus what kind your coworkers had and that you bought an unaffordable laptop for a part time internship. You can usually find passable used laptops on craigslist and such that are very inexpensive. Getting by on one of those is a lot more impressive than a loaded out Macbook, so why should this have mattered to you?

Re: I'm Begging for Work

#218

Post by sdoering »

Jach wrote: post #194
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…

Obligatory XKCD: https://xkcd.com/137/ Not that your advice is bad -- it's about the same as any college advisor would give -- but to those with whom such fakery leaves a foul taste, just remember the tech industry still has plenty of opportunities where that's unnecessary.

Thanks. And glad to read this. Got a job with an very holidayish image on my professional resume (me climbing in Greece). Got my job having a personal site with quite left wing blogposts.

Got a job in a great environment with great colleagues - without having to constantly denying myself.

For me these things work as a filter for companies, where I would not want to work. But for the OP I would first say - get any dev job at all and after that look for a great job to then jump ship.

Re: I'm Begging for Work

#219

Post by lagadu »

gayprogrammer wrote: post #123
Bonogongo wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

@nilkin "You give me more money or I leave." vs. Just walking away from the negotiation. From my experience if you give in to "You give me more money or I leave" 6 months down the road it will be another "You give me more money or I leave" and then another. Wikipedia: "Blackmail is an act [..] involving unjustified threats to make [..] cause loss to another unless a demand is met."

Paying an employee for work and services is not "a loss". It's an exchange.

I'll go further and say it's an investment.

Re: I'm Begging for Work

#220

Post by stuaxo »

ecliptik wrote: post #23

I'd suggest the following, active twitter account completed Linkedin profile active github account active website (Github Pages allows free static hosting) For a remote job search, sign up for a free RSS site (I recommend https://newsblur.com/ ) and add some remote-only feeds, https://goremote.io/rss https://jobs.github.com/positions.atom https://careers.stackoverflow.com/jobs/feed?allowsremote=True Other good remote…

Having an online presence where you talk about dev things is really useful, often in interviews I'm often surprised when they ask about projects I've put up (though shouldn't be - that's the whole point of my blog).
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