Ask HN: Shitty job but well paid • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Shitty job but well paid

#71

Post by borplk » Wed, May 10, 2017, 4:14 AM UTC

cookiecaper wrote: post #33

borplk wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a "feel good" answer that is statistically very unlikely to work out.

I'm not the guy you replied to but I agree with him. It's not really unlikely to work out if you approach the problem deftly, he just states the plan in simplistic terms. Also, if you hop around a lot, you'll realize that these problems are not constrained to one bad company. You'll run across it basically everywhere if you wait long enough. You might have a boss who protects a "good culture", but when he's gone (vol…

I appreciate the explanation and I get it. My point still remains that from a practical standpoint you are statistically unlikely to be able to cause significant change as a low-level employee no matter how you go about it.

A lot of these companies are intentionally and systematically dysfunctional. You can have all the charisma in the world, they are not interested in changing.

And when your official role and purpose is not to shake things up, you wont be allowed to shake things up.

Again, notice I said statistically, not absolutely.

Re: Ask HN: Shitty job but well paid

#72

Post by yakaas » Wed, May 10, 2017, 4:46 AM UTC

Here's how i'd access the situation,

- less money, no learning: leave immediately, you will feel much better.

- good money, limited learning: most of the jobs fall under this category for experienced people, use your spare time to learn new things. look out for new opportunities don't rush.

- good money, lots of learning: you must be starting out. for people with years of experience this will be momentary, enjoy while you can. look out for the next gig.

Most important thing here is never stop learning and continue to do what you enjoy most.

All the other things around: shitty management, inexperienced teams (jerks), politics, etc don't waste your energy and time unless if you have a "good" manager to work with.

Re: Ask HN: Shitty job but well paid

#73

Post by meric » Thu, May 11, 2017, 10:16 AM UTC

Do as much as you can to improve the place then move on.

Re: Ask HN: Shitty job but well paid

#74

Post by cookiecaper » Thu, May 11, 2017, 9:56 PM UTC

borplk wrote: post #71

cookiecaper wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not the guy you replied to but I agree with him. It's not really unlikely to work out if you approach the problem deftly, he just states the plan in simplistic terms. Also, if you hop around a lot, you'll realize that these problems are not constrained to one bad company. You'll run across it basically everywhere if you wait long enough. You might have a boss who protects a "good culture", but when he's gone (vol…

I appreciate the explanation and I get it. My point still remains that from a practical standpoint you are statistically unlikely to be able to cause significant change as a low-level employee no matter how you go about it. A lot of these companies are intentionally and systematically dysfunctional. You can have all the charisma in the world, they are not interested in changing. And when your official role and purpos…

That's the defeatist perspective people are arguing against. It's like saying "there is a bug in this compiler; you won't be able to compile that." True, you won't be able to pursue exactly the same route, but you don't just accept that there's a bug. You find a workaround and get the result you need.

People can and should do the same thing in the office. The entire point of politics is to navigate the hierarchies that impede access to what you want.