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After landing a lucrative job at a tech startup, I had made a terrible mistake

torontolife.com

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Re: After landing a lucrative job at a tech startup, I had made a terrible mistake

#131

Post by diminoten »

lucidone wrote: post #22

I'm surprised by the amount of salt (for lack of a better word in my vocabulary) in the comments. I've worked at a Canadian start up. It was not a unicorn, but you were expected to work long hours, be a "10xer", always be responsive, and put in hours on the weekend. Those expectations were never made explicit, but the company had a lot of churn for those who didn't "fit the culture" or acquiesce to the cult of person…

For me, it's a frustration with the writer and people like him because they project their problems onto everyone else. Not everyone agrees with what your ideal job is, why are you making sweeping statements about how bad the company is, when in reality there are plenty of people who do enjoy this "10xer" culture?

It's classic, "I know more than you" mentality, where the author believes the people who buy into the culture are being duped, and he's the only one who can see clearly.

I'm so sick of being told to be less optimistic and positive about the company I work for, because my optimism is just me subscribing to the "cult". It reeks of that classic teenage "it's cool to hate/dislike/criticize stuff" attitude that I'd expect my colleagues to have grown out of by now.

Re: After landing a lucrative job at a tech startup, I had made a terrible mistake

#132

Post by joeax »

Shihan wrote: post #115

Did I miss something, what was the mistake the author was referring to?

The story was a bit anti-climatic. I was waiting for that "oh crap" key moment where he uncovered something profound and it would punch me in the gut as a reader. The title could have been something as plain as "What I learned working at a couple startups in Toronto"

Re: After landing a lucrative job at a tech startup, I had made a terrible mistake

#133

Post by Profan »

brailsafe wrote: post #82
starkingclojure wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's Blind? Is it a community? Tried googling but could only find a consultancy of some sort.

Seems like that's what it is. Only heard about it recently through another offhand reference in another HN comment. https://www.teamblind.com/articles/Topics

Even just a quick glance at the stuff visible is pretty uhh.. interesting, I'd think it was a parody site if I didn't know better

Re: After landing a lucrative job at a tech startup, I had made a terrible mistake

#135

Post by SpicyLemonZest »

wpietri wrote: post #29
lucidone wrote: post #22

I'm surprised by the amount of salt (for lack of a better word in my vocabulary) in the comments. I've worked at a Canadian start up. It was not a unicorn, but you were expected to work long hours, be a "10xer", always be responsive, and put in hours on the weekend. Those expectations were never made explicit, but the company had a lot of churn for those who didn't "fit the culture" or acquiesce to the cult of person…

I enjoyed the article; I find the description entirely plausible and totally depressing. It definitely reminds me of Dan Lyons' book "Disrupted", which was also perfectly believable. I've been around since Bubble 1.0; I started working in San Francisco in 1997. The thing I find horrifying about this article is the way Vision Critical apparently takes the worst aspects of startups and amplifies them, while taking the…

The sales-bro culture is tightly coupled with the standard sales compensation model. You generally have to give salespeople large commissions, both because they expect it and because the best salespeople are too expensive to justify as a fixed cost. And it's only natural that people want a bell to ring and drinks to chug when they're regularly earning five-figure bonuses.

Re: After landing a lucrative job at a tech startup, I had made a terrible mistake

#136

Post by asianthrowaway »

pjc50 wrote: post #130
mdpopescu wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I never understood this objection. The interface adds flexibility in the present - it allows other classes to depend on an abstraction instead of a concrete class. The future is absolutely irrelevant here, since YAGNI.

> it allows other classes to depend on an abstraction instead of a concrete class. ... which has exactly zero concrete advantages if there's only one implementation of the class.

A good programmer plans ahead.

Edit: of course it is up to individual judgement on a case by case basis, and there are instances were it is obvious that no other concrete implementation of an interface will be required. But otherwise, writing an interface is good practice because it helps safeguard against time consuming future refactoring.

Re: After landing a lucrative job at a tech startup, I had made a terrible mistake

#137

Post by teagee »

Fittingly, the wikipedia page for this startup [1] warns:

> This article appears to contain a large number of buzzwords.

Wikipedia's definition sure falls neatly into the author's thesis:

> ...often have much of the original technical meaning removed through fashionable use, being simply used to impress others... Examples of overworked business buzzwords include synergy, vertical, dynamic, cyber and strategy...

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vision_Critical

Re: After landing a lucrative job at a tech startup, I had made a terrible mistake

#139

Post by golergka »

Delmania wrote: post #81

Whenever I find myself falling for this, I keenly remember the advice given to me from Your Money or Your Life, which is that you are at work for 1 reason and 1 reason only: money. Many people say they work for other reasons, like socialization, meaning, etc. Robinson (the author) makes a point that you can find these things in volunteer activities, and that your loyalty ends at the paycheck. Your company will not he…

Because you don't have to have only one reason to work. I mean, everybody needs some amount of money for basic neccessities, but after that, it's a complicated equation of different priorities. And if you choose money only, then you're spending the best time of your day maximizing only one resources, while letting everything else take the back seat. Why do it if you can get socialization and meaning from work too?

Also, I don't understand your point about company not being hesitant to eliminate you. Yes, but so what? There are two parties in the work-for-hire transactions, and of course, both parties are looking out for their own self-interest. I see no reason why they should extract the same exact resources from this transaction, though.

Re: After landing a lucrative job at a tech startup, I had made a terrible mistake

#140

Post by golergka »

scandox wrote: post #77

> A job for life also meant that your job was your life. You went into teaching or sports reporting or proctology because it was a calling—it was who you were meant to be. But it’s been a long time since anyone has been able to count on a job for life. The tech industry led the way: our shift to precarious employment was hastened by more efficient algorithms, apps and Amazon. What is the real history of employment st…

I'm also very surprised to see "employment stability" as something good. I'm the kind of person who likes to change things in life pretty often, and I change jobs around once a year, also taking shorter contracts. In the "old" world of job-for-life employment I would be complete outcast; I am really happy to work in the industry that is much more friendlier to my temperament.
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