Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

What’s good career advice you wouldn’t want to have your name on?

80000hours.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 218 posts

Re: What’s good career advice you wouldn’t want to have your name on?

#41

Post by CM30 »

nostrademons wrote: post #3

It's interesting that nearly all of these pieces of advice are fairly non-controversial. What's the point of posting stuff anonymously if it's the same stuff that most people would be happy to attach their name to?

Yeah, that tends to be the case when it comes to these things. Unpopular opinions posted on sites like Reddit are never really that unpopular, underrated sources/sites/channels are never really that underrated or unknown, and controversial articles and lists are never all that controversial.

As for why that's the case... well most people/sites don't want to become a social pariah, most underrated creators are by definition unpopular enough most haven't heard of them and truly unpopular opinions are unpopular enough that they're unlikely to get posted.

Still, when I heard 'career advice you wouldn't want your name associated with', I was thinking it'd be something like the stuff in that James Damore memo or what not. Or something inspired by Machiavelli's The Prince.

Re: What’s good career advice you wouldn’t want to have your name on?

#42

Post by mattnewton »

singingboyo wrote: post #23
opportune wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Has to be Amazon or Apple. Probably Amazon due to the skimping on RSUs and bonuses, have heard that they’re upping the PIPs lately

You know, it baffles me that Amazon is the only tech giant[1] that consistently sounds absolutely terrible to work at. (In my experience - YMMV) How do they keep finding engineers? [1] Well, except Intel. You don't hear about them much online, but around here the local office (not sure about others) bait-and-switches employee openings for contractor openings. They don't even pay that well, and no extra compensation e…

I'm sure a lot of people think the team they are joining will be different, and some of them must be right.

Re: What’s good career advice you wouldn’t want to have your name on?

#44

Post by jdauriemma »

It's actually very useful to try to visualize the social relationships that underpin the people you work with every day. Make a diagram and identify people who are supportive, people who are forthright, people who are untrustworthy, people who are obstacles, who are their friends, who are their adversaries, etc. Update it from time to time. When you want to push an agenda, you'll have a better understanding of the political context and can plan accordingly.

Re: What’s good career advice you wouldn’t want to have your name on?

#45

Post by chasd00 »

In large businesses there are channels of money flowing through the organization like blood vessels, some small, some unbelievably big. Find one and plugin a straw. If it goes dry, take off, and find another.

(this is basically the ugly side of consulting)

Re: What’s good career advice you wouldn’t want to have your name on?

#46

Post by undefined3840 »

adrianpike wrote: post #26
undefined3840 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly this is bad advice. Sure, you shouldn’t plan your life around striking it rich but if you’re going to take a job thinking the equity comp is worthless then you are probably choosing the wrong company and/or going to negotiate poorly. Late stage growth companies that offer RSUs can be sold on secondary markets, so even though it’s not as easy to sell it is probably not worth 0 unless something is very wrong,…

Strong disagree - you absolutely need to factor in liquidity effort alongside vesting schedule and face value for equity comp, and in general for most non-public companies that liquidity capability is zero. - RSU's that I can only dump on a secondary market are worth a fraction of their face value. - Grants in a company that'll never have a liquidity event are worth a fraction of their face value. - Options in a publ…

Yes, which is why you should be negotiating for more RSUs to compensate for the additional risk and illiquidity.

My point is that if you join a startup thinking your equity is and will forever be worthless, then why do you care if you get 10 or 10000 shares? To not care is bad advice for anyone joining a company that has a path toward IPO or acquisition. And if you don’t think a startup has any path then why are you joining a company that is offering you equity comp in the first place?

Re: What’s good career advice you wouldn’t want to have your name on?

#47

Post by robertwiblin »

nostrademons wrote: post #3

It's interesting that nearly all of these pieces of advice are fairly non-controversial. What's the point of posting stuff anonymously if it's the same stuff that most people would be happy to attach their name to?

Hi Nostrademos — I was involved in this project. We asked a lot of questions and the answers to some others were quite a bit more controversial (we're going to release a new question each week or thereabouts).

But one thing we learned in the process was that seriously successful people doing their thing feel pretty gagged.

It's not worth it for them to write even things that seem uncontroversial to you or me, because someone out there might hate it, or misinterpret it, and start creating problems for them.

Re: What’s good career advice you wouldn’t want to have your name on?

#48

Post by alexpotato »

dev_dull wrote: post #20

> * Gain the trust of people who have a lot of influence. One big benefit of working with such people is that you can learn a lot; another is that if you do good work, they come to respect and trust you — and that can be crucial in getting the best jobs.* Best advice in that article. Find the people who are clearly the thought leaders and ask them to mentor you.

+1

I've read multiple accounts of successful people having essentially this story and it's really stuck with me:

I went into a meeting with my mentor.

During the meeting, a lot was said by different folks.

After the meeting, my mentor asked me: "What happened in the re?"

I proceeded to give him a rough outline of what was said.

They responded: "That's what was SAID. Here is what actually happened: Person A said they were ready but they are clearly not b/c $X. Person B said they had $Y but that's not true because we already know $Z".

END OF STORY

This kind of guidance is priceless because it saves you potentially years of trial and error trying to learn how to read between the lines.

Re: What’s good career advice you wouldn’t want to have your name on?

#49

Post by stencil25 »

sterkekoffie wrote: post #37
stencil25 wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is that beneficial to someone's career though? Sure, it shows one's morals and standards, but how does that boost one's career?

Is a moral career not better than an immoral one...?

That's a question for whoever's standing up - how do they measure career success?

Going by the theme of the post, "By making as much money as possible", wouldn't be an unreasonable measure.

If you truly value a moral career, there are surely better ways to find one than to join a company and express your opinions internally, in an almost retroactive manner.

Re: What’s good career advice you wouldn’t want to have your name on?

#50

Post by mattnewton »

the_watcher wrote: post #19
dev_dull wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Definitely not Google or Netflix. Netflix they’re automatic and basically the same for Google.

Same at Facebook and Apple. At least, they're entirely formulaic.

That was not the case when I was at Apple- the formula recommended a bonus but IIRC it was officially at managerial discretion. Different orgs were run with different budgets, and while not this extreme I had seen similar things happen while I was there, including getting lower bonuses myself and one coworker quitting after their bonus was significantly lower than promised (or maybe they were denied it entirely, I don't remember exactly). We were told the same thing about organizational budgeting.
Post reply on HN