What exactly is boring about it? Not /s, I'm interested to know.
Predictability of everything.
Go try something more risky, with a big (but uncertain) upside.
You choose what the upside is, it does not have to be financial.
Ask HN: Quitting Big Tech, what is it like?
131–140 of 418 posts
Re: Ask HN: Quitting Big Tech, what is it like?
#132> First, what is the environment like for exiting high-level former-FANG employees? For most employers, it will be a positive. There may be a handful of very small startups that see it as a negative, but the reality is a very small startup is so different from a giant tech firm that the hiring team is probably correct in assuming you've never had to do something incredibly arduous without enormous support (I once had…
> I once had to spend 6 months reverse engineering a video output [...] this is the sort of shit you will do at an actual hard-tech startup
I don't know about hard-tech, but it seems to me that most startups can't afford to have a person work on one project for 6 months.
Re: Ask HN: Quitting Big Tech, what is it like?
#133Earlier quoted context omitted.
There's also big consultancy, which allows you to see all kinds of companies, work on different types of projects and still have a bit of consistency at your firm. It's not for everyone, but if you value some consistency, decent pay and working for different types of projects and companies, it's definitely worth checking it out. It's not the type of job to find a 'mission' though, usually.
I've seen consulting being suggested freq as a viable gig to support yourself when you run out of money to pay the bills. How does this work? Register on Upwork or fiverr? What if your capabilities as a consultant are inadequate? What if you struggle more than you actually did at a full time job? How do you position yourself for the gig?
Whatever you do, don't go onto those horrible, horrible websites unless you want to be banging out WordPress templates at $50 a pop.
There's freelancing and consulting. Freelancing is just you, by yourself, finding gigs, selling yourself, doing the work, invoicing clients etc. I guess freelancing is technically consulting.
Then there's contracting, where you go and find a contract job which is advertised for X months and $Z by an employer or 3rd party and you work that. That's what I'm doing now and it's pretty good money.
A consulting job (in my mind) is where you get a job at a firm which does all the client engagment, marketing, invoicing etc, and you just do the work. You could work at a consulting firm as a full time employee or a contractor, since their need for staff fluctuates.
If you have the skills and need some short term work, look out for short term contracting gigs being offered by consulting firms - they pay pretty well and they're on the market because there's a pertinent need to get a bum between a seat and a keyboard as soon as possible. For example - my current job is as a contractor working for a consulting firm which is engaged with a government agency. The firm promised the agency a warm body for X months, but for strategic reasons the firm wants to move that person elsewhere. That's where I come in. They hire me for three months so they can reallocate their employee while keeping their existing obligations. In circumstances like that, price isn't the main issue.
Re: Ask HN: Quitting Big Tech, what is it like?
#134Earlier quoted context omitted.
There's also big consultancy, which allows you to see all kinds of companies, work on different types of projects and still have a bit of consistency at your firm. It's not for everyone, but if you value some consistency, decent pay and working for different types of projects and companies, it's definitely worth checking it out. It's not the type of job to find a 'mission' though, usually.
I've seen consulting being suggested freq as a viable gig to support yourself when you run out of money to pay the bills. How does this work? Register on Upwork or fiverr? What if your capabilities as a consultant are inadequate? What if you struggle more than you actually did at a full time job? How do you position yourself for the gig?
There are a few variants of this. Most classic is to work for an actual consultancy (Accenture, ThoughtWorks et al.). That's a normal job, where you have a normal salary with the benefits etc. They will handle the sales process, and depending on the company and project you might be working with colleagues from the consultancy or you might be working as a lone contractor at the client.
The other is to be a freelancer. Then you are dependent on contracts, and you lack a lot of benefits (no guaranteed salary, no extra benefits). On the other hand, you should make a lot more money. As a freelancer, you can either work with a firm that handles the sales and account management for you, or you can try to find clients on your own. The first one has the benefit that you work with (hopefully) experienced sales people that can do the sales and contract work for you, but they can take anywhere between 10% to 30% of your rate as a commission.
Doing sales yourself is the most flexible and you likely earn the most, but I would not recommend doing it unless you have a solid contact network already. Sales is often a difficult and tedious work, and that's not always fully understood or appreciated by consultants.
I have not worked with Fiverr or Upwork, but I don't see them as a serious alternative. Too short contracts that are not paid nearly well enough. They might be nice for students that want to make a bit of extra income though.
Source: I've been a consultant and a freelancer for nearly a decade
Re: Ask HN: Quitting Big Tech, what is it like?
#135> I've spent the last decade in two FANG companies, and I've got to a high level where my total compensation is ridiculous. > The problem is that it bores me to tears, and I don't want to do it anymore. One of the nice things about working at a FAANG is the ease of changing teams. Most large companies have a formal process for doing that and it's not normally frowned upon unless you do it very frequently. You may fin…
Except when you get to a high level. Then, the powers-that-be have plans for you, and you can't really refuse (e.g. how do you refuse the CTO who says "I need you on this critical project?"). And there really aren't that many teams that can take you even if they wished to. What OP _might_ be able to do is "invent" his own project. If he has something that he believes is (longer-term) for the company good, he probably…
Google isn't like that. There is no CTO and even people in high levels can change teams.
Re: Ask HN: Quitting Big Tech, what is it like?
#136Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not all big tech companies are the same. My understanding is that Google is much less stressful with similar pay.
I’m sure they are differences, but I doubt any high-paying big tech job is going to be low-stress. I don’t mean necessarily working long hours, but you get the kind of work where you need to be figuring out ambiguous problems, always convincing other stakeholders, dealing with some level of drama, etc. Things that require expending a lot of energy. It’s unlikely you’d be just converting Jira tasks to code at these le…
I know many ex-Googlers who consider working there to be low enough stress that they joke that they'll retire one day to go work at Google.
That's probably an exaggeration, and they may have just had particularly easy jobs, but everything I know about these two companies tells me that Google would be much less stressful to work at than Amazon.
Re: Ask HN: Quitting Big Tech, what is it like?
#137Just retire and make room for other people, the world doesn't need you.
Re: Ask HN: Quitting Big Tech, what is it like?
#138Most people with this complaint have never worked in finance or big banks. Seriously, working in tech for a tech company is a techies dream, dont squander it. It sounds to me like you are too dependent on your job for the happiness in your life.
Re: Ask HN: Quitting Big Tech, what is it like?
#139I quit full-time work in 2001, after being burned out in the dot com boom. I did well for myself financially after the startup I was in got bought. The phrase "well" is of course subjective, considering that no colleague of mine quit. I left a whole lot of money on the table, but never once have I regretted it. I decided that the name of the game is to optimise quality of life. That means, infrequent brutal deadlines…
Are you a consultant then? What type of projects do you do and how do you find clients? This is something I'd love to do once my current gig is done.
Re: Ask HN: Quitting Big Tech, what is it like?
#140Earlier quoted context omitted.
OP is likely completely invested in the region. It's easy to say "move somewhere else" but I've done enough traveling and investigations in the rest of the USA to know that moving somewhere else would mean a huge setback in terms of career. (Which, go figure, many people here prioritize)
Isn’t the idea to remove somewhere else on retirement? At that point career is irrelevant.
If they were going to completely give up anything related to their career then yes but that wasn't what was described in the post - nor do I think retirement these days tends to mean "stop working". I think we're mostly past that notion since quite a few people live so long and desire fulfillment through jobs. (And jobs don't break your body as frequently as they used to)
After interacting with some people with FU money, they don't tend to give up on career very easily. They don't want to be stuck at home - they want to keep doing stuff. So, inevitably, they keep working, doing startups, taking on executive roles at big companies after they realize they suck at startups (like most people - obviously)... because that's what they know best and feel most useful for. From the people I know, once someone whose identity relies on being a provider suddenly no longer has to work to provide... they tend to have a bit low of satisfaction unless they keep working. So they work even though they don't need to because it gives them a bit more purpose/happiness/whatever.