Earlier quoted context omitted.
I agree with you but if a startup really wants people working 80 hours a week, then a family man who wants to work 40 hrs isn't a good match for the firm.
There exists no good match for a company that pays their employees for 40 hours but demands 80.
How the Valley treats experienced people
261–270 of 508 posts
Re: How the Valley treats experienced people
#262Re: How the Valley treats experienced people
#263Earlier quoted context omitted.
Ironically I would be fine with that but the recruitment agents (and everyone else) kept telling me to aim high.
The higher offer you get, the more the recruiter gets paid. Consider the interests of the advice giver.
The recruiter has little interest in you being paid more. He's strongly incentivized to push candidates toward the average of the company.
Going over average is risking the company to bail out, too expensive. Going under average is undermining your credibility and leaving commission on the table.
Re: How the Valley treats experienced people
#264Earlier quoted context omitted.
So what does that value imply about ppl without kids? That they should be putting more hours in or have less flexible schedules? Why not have resonable work schedules for everyone, children or not. I just dont' get why employers have to come up with discriminatory policies for the 'good of the economy'. I would rather support a transparent 'tax childess ppl more' govt policies that these insidious "values". Whatever…
I think you might have misunderstood the suggestion. Giving people enough time to manage a family is different from giving more time to people who have families. An employer might prefer having employees with children for a variety of reason and mostly would treat "family benefits" as method to hire older more experienced people.
Isn't this straight up illegal? Only straight ppl can have children, for example.
Re: How the Valley treats experienced people
#265Sometimes you don't make enough money to retire early from a combination of bad luck and poor financial decisions. In my career, I followed a pattern of going to a company just a bit too late to get the really low priced options. I've ended up with dozens of former co-workers who are multimillionaires. I had a family and was (in hindsight) too conservative about when I went to a company. I also was a "paper" milliona…
Re: How the Valley treats experienced people
#266Earlier quoted context omitted.
What's funny is that many young people in the industry now would never think of staying at one place for 3-5 years cause they don't want to invest the time. A neighbor of mine is in his 60s and lost his job the same way. He can run rings around anyone I know but he can't find a job or even get an interview. Bjarne Stroustrup, the C++ creator, wrote a blog post about going for a job interview and being told he "didn't…
Not being able to have an interview is a red flag. Companies can't tell the age from a resume. If they can, take off the date of birth, remove the year on your degrees and don't list experiences beyond 20 years.
Re: How the Valley treats experienced people
#267Earlier quoted context omitted.
> It is still possible the older person is going to become a wizard later, but the question is: if they have it in them, why aren’t they a wizard already? The vast majority of coders are not and will never be a "wizard". And that's OK. You can still be valuable to a company if you aren't a recent college graduate or a wizard. Edit: also, be ready to pay through the nose for any actual wizard you want to hire. They ca…
My experience over 25 years suggests that wizards can readily command 1.5-2x and deliver beyond 10x. If you can find and engage them, they're one of the best semi-secret bargains in tech.
Re: How the Valley treats experienced people
#268If one thinks 35+ is to old to code, well I have news for you. At 35+ you learn how to manage time and prioritize better. Life throws another ranch in your bucket of problems, marriage and children. When you are young, you are hired as an engineer to work 40 hours, which we all know very well that working for startups that means 80 hours or you are not putting good effort. Well with a family that’s not possible, as y…
I don't discriminate on age but realistically someone is not senior until they have 10 years experience. That generally puts them in their 30s. The younger ones can overwork themselves, job hop, write bad code. And then an experienced coder can sigh and fix it.
Re: How the Valley treats experienced people
#269Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm 34, left my 7 years relation two years ago, am gay and never thought I could have kids and am not planning on having kids any time soon. This kind of thinking about that the traits that one develops with age and experience only come about with raising a family kind of worries me, I have a pretty good idea on what I'm missing on since absolutely all my good friends from university and most of my close friends from…
> I just don't think I'm in te proper situation to do it. In my experience there are two kinds of pre-kid people: those who aren't ready for it and those who lie about being ready for it.
Re: How the Valley treats experienced people
#270For example, do you think it's undergraduates who come up with the design and architecture for AWS? No, it's years of pain and lessons that go into it. Then the elders productize their pain and lessons so that undergrads never need to learn it.
This is why FAANG want undergrads: their processes keep noobs from making super stupid mistakes, through the law of large numbers, some survive, feel some pain, learn and make it to architect level enough to affect the next iteration of AWS/Google/Azure. At the same time, the company saves on salaries/benefits/work-life balance.
It won't change because it works. Act accordingly.