Ask HN: Who Wants to Be Fired? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Who Wants to Be Fired?

#311

Post by nexus2045 » Thu, Oct 03, 2019, 3:42 AM UTC

toop43 wrote: post #69

throwaway29488 wrote: post #2

Not with the job in particular, just want to take a break from tech especially from being a programmer. Tired of staring at a screen for 80% of my awake time and constant puzzle solving. Sick of people in this industry making you feel you're not smart enough, that you're not enough no matter how many times you prove yourself in past work.

> Sick of people in this industry making you feel you're not smart enough, that you're not enough no matter how many times you prove yourself in past work. Dealing with this in the heavy right now. I've built a lot in my 10 years as a programmer. Infinitely, and automatically scaled application server based on load. Hasn't crashed or had a single downtime ever since release. I've built mobile applications 100% myself…

I’m currently prepping for these kind of questions and “online assessments” as well. I have accepted that my worth as a developer is in most part going to be dictated by how diligently I can game this glorified IQ test.

There are common patterns to these questions and I’ve found that they get more predictable after having done 50-100 of them, with very careful attentiveness to what your mind is coming up with to solve them. All these questions can only vary so much in how they are asked, and unfortunately we just have to do use repetition by numbers to enforce better pattern recognition.

Re: Ask HN: Who Wants to Be Fired?

#312

Post by finkin1 » Thu, Oct 03, 2019, 3:42 AM UTC

bloopernova wrote: post #218

rjplatte wrote: post #100

I'm the sole developer working on my current project, which is overhauling a massive DOS era application, as well as overhauling an early 2000s era CRM/business management tool, that almost all of our work happens through. Did I mention that the DOS application is a HIPAA billing application that must meet all HIPAA guidelines as well as write EDI X12 billing files? I'm very junior, been coding for ~5 years, 3 profes…

You do know that HIPAA violations can land you in jail, right? Run. Don't walk. Vacate immediately. Leave. I'm finding myself hoping that this is a fake, because I wouldn't wish this situation on anyone at all.

Yeah...as someone who works on HIPAA compliant software, this sounds very scary to me. We carry a $1M insurance policy at all times. Did you sign a business associate agreement?

Re: Ask HN: Who Wants to Be Fired?

#313

Post by kbenson » Thu, Oct 03, 2019, 3:42 AM UTC

seizethecheese wrote: post #267

I sure hope this format doesn't take off. Having worked as a dishwasher, line cook, pool manager, business analyst, software engineer, and startup founder, I have to say software engineer was, by far, the most coddled job. How about this: I'm a line cook, and I can't afford to be fired. I make minimum wage, and burn or cut myself badly at least once per week. I'm not allowed to take the day off and have to work throu…

You realize one of the most popular to level comments is about someone who is 18 amd working on modernizing an old DOS HIPAA app alone and not allowed to use version control and is being advised by people to quit ASAP because HIPAA laws mean they might be personally liable for some violations and face prison time?

Suddenly, your line cook job doesn't sound so bad. Maybe we should just accept that every job might have circumstances that make it a bad place to be, and judge on the details rather than the title.

Re: Ask HN: Who Wants to Be Fired?

#314

Post by hamiltont » Thu, Oct 03, 2019, 3:43 AM UTC

seizethecheese wrote: post #267

I sure hope this format doesn't take off. Having worked as a dishwasher, line cook, pool manager, business analyst, software engineer, and startup founder, I have to say software engineer was, by far, the most coddled job. How about this: I'm a line cook, and I can't afford to be fired. I make minimum wage, and burn or cut myself badly at least once per week. I'm not allowed to take the day off and have to work throu…

Contrasting point - I dislike the thought that folks who've "got it good" should just stay quiet and never complain because they are much better off than others. To me, this is immoral and ineffective.

Everyone in a shitty position has a right to speak up. You're absolutely right that some people cannot exercise that right - they can't risk losing what they have. That is unfair to every single person in that situation (and personally, I find this to be a shameful reflection on the world).

But using that to justify that other workers should stay quiet is equally wrong. It's using something wrong happening to one group of people to justify something wrong happening to another group. Even if you don't believe the moral reasoning, there's the pragmatic angle - this attitude leads to overall worse employee treatment. If 'better off' workers are shamed into not discussing poor treatment (because they should be embarrassed complaining about such trivialities), then minor poor treatment is allowed to escalate unchecked.

In my opinion, a better approach overall is to think "all of us have some rights, including good treatment by an employer and a right to a life not straddled by anxiety or debt". Anyone crusading against that is on the same side.

Re: Ask HN: Who Wants to Be Fired?

#315

Post by taneq » Thu, Oct 03, 2019, 3:44 AM UTC

seizethecheese wrote: post #285

whatshisface wrote: post #279

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm a third world sweathop worker. I was forced to make clothes here ever since I could walk. There are hundreds of people packed in to this tiny windowless room, and every time there is a fire I die. My coworkers can't even afford alcohol. Every time I hear decadent American line cooks complain about their working conditions, all I can think is, they have it so easy.

Yes, this illuminates the point even better. Software devs are among the best treated first world employees. In a global perspective, most (but not all) complaints are laughable.

Stop complaining, there are starving children in Africa!

Re: Ask HN: Who Wants to Be Fired?

#316

Post by jpeg_hero » Thu, Oct 03, 2019, 3:47 AM UTC

lstamour wrote: post #155

toop43 wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Sick of people in this industry making you feel you're not smart enough, that you're not enough no matter how many times you prove yourself in past work. Dealing with this in the heavy right now. I've built a lot in my 10 years as a programmer. Infinitely, and automatically scaled application server based on load. Hasn't crashed or had a single downtime ever since release. I've built mobile applications 100% myself…

I’d recommend trying the graded exercises in https://www.coursera.org/specializations/data-structures-alg... or https://www.edx.org/course/data-structures-an-active-learnin... — unfortunately, for the most benefit (online automatic grading), you’ll have to pay either EdX or Coursera, but EdX offers a small sample of exercises to start, if I recall correctly. And there are a few more courses after those. If you’re any…

Agreed, but as OP was alluding to lots of people need solid business logic written that doesn’t have to hyperscale. Just lame that all the shovel-sharing apps interview as if they want to process petabytes of requests :)

Re: Ask HN: Who Wants to Be Fired?

#317

Post by wswope » Thu, Oct 03, 2019, 3:48 AM UTC

arkades wrote: post #239

paulcole wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

HIPAA is absolutely to be trifled with. Look up who is actually fined and face actual consequences from HIPAA violations. It is 99.99% big universities, hospitals, and insurance companies. Everyone else gets (at most) a slap on the wrist and has to promise not to do it again. Once in a while they’ll fine a small family practitioner $25k for not shredding papers properly but it’s a total joke. HIPAA Compliance Service…

Seconded. I’m a physician that got so pissed off at how a practice was repeatedly and willfully violating HIPAA that I risked my standing in the local physician community and reported them. I was basically told by the case manager, or whatever they call themselves, to fuck off.

Preach it. Reported my own psychiatrist for having a bunch of highly sensitive "followup" forms asking about medication, emotional state, etc. (and including patient name, address, other PII) on the practice website that transfered data over plaintext to a shared hosting server running PHP5 in debug mode that had been hacked by an automated script and was redirecting people on first visit from a fresh IP to a "Congrats! You're our 1000000th visitor" spam site. Haven't heard from OCR in over a year.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Re: Ask HN: Who Wants to Be Fired?

#318

Post by toop43 » Thu, Oct 03, 2019, 3:50 AM UTC

mkoryak wrote: post #185

toop43 wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Sick of people in this industry making you feel you're not smart enough, that you're not enough no matter how many times you prove yourself in past work. Dealing with this in the heavy right now. I've built a lot in my 10 years as a programmer. Infinitely, and automatically scaled application server based on load. Hasn't crashed or had a single downtime ever since release. I've built mobile applications 100% myself…

I have news for you: You can study for technical interviews and get good at doing them. "Cracking the coding interview" is a good start, then there is interviewing.io and other resources. You can learn to be good at that shit with a bit of practice. You're probably not dumb.

Well, I'm currently taking the Algorithms 1 (Princeton) course on Coursera, while tackling as many problems on leetcode.com as I can. I purchased a Premium subscription on leetcode.com.

I'm just finding that my progress is SLOW. Like, I look around and it seems like everyone can find all these creative solutions to problems... meanwhile, I'm lucky if I can solve the brute force solution.

Re: Ask HN: Who Wants to Be Fired?

#319

Post by MichaelMoser123 » Thu, Oct 03, 2019, 3:51 AM UTC

seizethecheese wrote: post #267

I sure hope this format doesn't take off. Having worked as a dishwasher, line cook, pool manager, business analyst, software engineer, and startup founder, I have to say software engineer was, by far, the most coddled job. How about this: I'm a line cook, and I can't afford to be fired. I make minimum wage, and burn or cut myself badly at least once per week. I'm not allowed to take the day off and have to work throu…

I also wouldnt like to be fired again (me as a programmer); the prospect of doing job interviews again and again scares the shit out of me. I have this suspicion that the interview ritual was invented once upon a time, a long time ago by management as a means to cuddle the ego of a local alpha geek.

Re: Ask HN: Who Wants to Be Fired?

#320

Post by jl2718 » Thu, Oct 03, 2019, 3:52 AM UTC

So many ideas in my head that I really want to be working on, and I can’t seem to separate myself from the mental model of having a set position in a heirarchy, taking confused and/or hostile direction from seemingly arbitrary sources of authority. Some kind of fear, not even financial, more like the idea of getting lost, losing touch, never finding my way back, being abandoned and undesirable, dying alone. And beyond that, I can’t seem to rationalize why my job is so stressful; I’ve kept my head in war zones and extreme sports, but corporate politics feels like it’s killing me. I don’t know why, or whether I should give up hope that it will get better. The lay-off fantasy disappears when it becomes reality. Dreams give way to fears, preparing for interviews, obsessing over things which I have no control, thinking I’m the only one that feels this way.