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Ask HN: Why won't you quit a job you hate?

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31–35 of 35 posts

Re: Ask HN: Why won't you quit a job you hate?

#31
I am 90% sure I would fail any interview I went for so I am pretty sure I am stuck where I am :)

But being serious.. the thought of preparing for an interview is so demotivating. I do good work and I am good at pretty much anything I do in my current job but I don't match any job descriptions I see. I've moved out of a pure coding role in my current job but that is what I would like to apply for.

Re: Ask HN: Why won't you quit a job you hate?

#32

I work for a startup, but I'm bored. The biggest hurdle to overcome when wanting to switch jobs, for me and for all the people I know, is going through the interview process. This isn't the sort of discussion you're looking for. But I'd say for most people who are bored at work, working on a CRUD app in a startup isn't going to be intellectually stimulating.

I'm a bit surprised to see folks mentioning interviews. Sure they suck, but HN crowd should just be crushing them. And given the heated market employers should already streamline the process for their advantage.

You should definitely check some of the threads over the last 5 years on HN around interviewing. My personal rule of thumb is even if I'm 110% qualified for a position, landing a good job as an engineer requires 1-2 months of hard leetcode study. Then, assuming a good personality, no red flags, you get up to a 50-60% chance of passing any given interview.

Its incredibly time consuming and can also be quite stressful and dehumanizing, as you'll be leaving a lot of interview rooms thinking you're an imposter when the process is just awful.

Re: Ask HN: Why won't you quit a job you hate?

#33

"Bored" != "hate". If you're getting good money, and your management is relatively sane, and you like the people you work with, think twice before you leave. I've been around enough to know that you can easily wind up in a much worse situation.

You haven't lived until you've had a psychopath as a boss and for whatever reason they've decided they don't like you. Do you feel lucky?

Been there & won the battle. Talked to the other tech leads and convinced HR and the CTO with our position, that psychopath of a manager ended up getting fired during his probation period.

Re: Ask HN: Why won't you quit a job you hate?

#34
My screen name says it all. I have top-notch skills, but I will be forever haunted by white-collar crimes I committed over 20 years ago, and have even been pardoned for.

I stay with the company I hate (love the job, hate the politics) because it's almost insurmountably hard to get a good job somewhere else.

The pay is just okay here, but if someone else would give me a chance, I could easily make 20%+ somewhere else, for the same work.

Re: Ask HN: Why won't you quit a job you hate?

#35
Why would a company and a person ever have aligned values, unless that person owns/runs that company? Companies are ultimately tethered to the will of its stakeholders and the stakeholders only hold stake because they expect a return on investment. People value things like family, travel, friendships, romance, spirituality, pursuit of passion, personal fulfillment etc. Why would a company ever value these things?
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