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Software Engineer, Machine Learning

deeplearning.ai

11–20 of 66 posts

Re: Software Engineer, Machine Learning

#11
post #3

So basically they are discriminating against people who would like to see their children? 90 hours per week == 12.86 hours per day. That means I clock in close to 7AM and clock out at 8PM every day of the week. This excludes any travel time, meals, etc. My wife called the first two years of graduate school her "grad-student widow years". Even now on occasion I put in that much time, but a consistent 70-90 hour work w…

Not even family life. Any sort of relationship at all? Nope.

Any sort of hobbies or things outside of grinding away to get someone else rich? Nope.

Why does anyone accept this shit anymore? This guy should be laughed at.

Re: Software Engineer, Machine Learning

#12
All modern research/studies tend to demonstrate that, beyond 40 hours, productivity does not rise, and, beyond 50 hours, it actually plunge, with quality dropping, employees driven to burn-out, etc.

But still, the stupid mantra from the Silicon Valley is "you have to work 80 hours to be successful"

Why are these CEO/CTO unable to comprehend studies and adopting a totally irrational position ?

https://www.inc.com/tom-popomaronis/science-says-you-shouldn... https://www.cnbc.com/2015/01/26/working-more-than-50-hours-m... https://cs.stanford.edu/people/eroberts/cs181/projects/crunc...

Re: Software Engineer, Machine Learning

#13
post #9

I genuinely don't understand the criticism. You don't find or enjoy working 70-90 hours healthy? That's your view and you likely shouldn't apply for this position. Even assuming this is crazy, what's wrong with crazy people recruiting similarly minded crazy people? It's most obviously not a fit for anyone who wants to work 40 hours or wants to see their kids or whatever, but for those, there are plenty of other jobs.…

[deleted]

Re: Software Engineer, Machine Learning

#14
post #9

I genuinely don't understand the criticism. You don't find or enjoy working 70-90 hours healthy? That's your view and you likely shouldn't apply for this position. Even assuming this is crazy, what's wrong with crazy people recruiting similarly minded crazy people? It's most obviously not a fit for anyone who wants to work 40 hours or wants to see their kids or whatever, but for those, there are plenty of other jobs.…

All I can see are the economics of it. If he was paying his engineers $600,000 / yr in compensation for all the overtime they're working, I would have no trouble with the arrangement.

However, software engineers rarely get any form of compensation for extra hours work outside of small vanity bonuses. This is just someone looking to take advantage of the fact they can get free labor out of their employees by "encouraging" them to work an extra 30 to 40 hours a week.

Re: Software Engineer, Machine Learning

#15
post #6

Since the job description includes 70-80 hours I expect that they are paying more. It would be normal to assume a 70/40 or 80/40 pay rate, that is, about twice the normal rate for a leading edge programmer. So, base salary should probably start north of $500,000 per year. And those hours will require working both at work and at home so you should expect a fully funded home-office and half-coverage of your rent. I'm w…

Personally, I would expect at least time and a half applied to those last 30-40 hours as well. Which would be 85/40 to 100/40.

Stupid question: what does a pay rate in the form "x/y" mean?

Re: Software Engineer, Machine Learning

#16
post #3

So basically they are discriminating against people who would like to see their children? 90 hours per week == 12.86 hours per day. That means I clock in close to 7AM and clock out at 8PM every day of the week. This excludes any travel time, meals, etc. My wife called the first two years of graduate school her "grad-student widow years". Even now on occasion I put in that much time, but a consistent 70-90 hour work w…

I don't understand why is it a "discrimination". Yes, even 50 hour week severely limits family time; so what? Just do not apply then, especially since they are totally upfront about the desired working hours. It is not as if you do not have choice - you are already employed, and if you were to switch jobs - there are plenty of places available with sustainable work-life balance. Some people are willing to put in actual effort and time in the work (and get compensated for it accordingly); removing the 70+ hour week part of the job would be the very same "discrimination" against them.

Re: Software Engineer, Machine Learning

#18
post #6

Since the job description includes 70-80 hours I expect that they are paying more. It would be normal to assume a 70/40 or 80/40 pay rate, that is, about twice the normal rate for a leading edge programmer. So, base salary should probably start north of $500,000 per year. And those hours will require working both at work and at home so you should expect a fully funded home-office and half-coverage of your rent. I'm w…

Agreed. If this was a hourly position, and if the base pay was around $150,000, that would put it just shy of the $400,000 range just to account for all the overtime.

Of course, it won't be paid hourly; it's much easier to abuse salaried individuals.

Re: Software Engineer, Machine Learning

#19
I expect very few engineers are actually productive beyond 50 hours a week.

A young engineer may be able to burn at 70 hours a week for 2 weeks if one is highly motivated. But after a couple of weeks, the amount of productivity will fall off a lot.

more hours != productivity

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