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Ask HN: What tech job would let me get away with the least real work possible?

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Re: Ask HN: What tech job would let me get away with the least real work possible?

#261

Post by chillfox »

mtberatwork wrote: post #221
DenisM wrote: post #163

I suggest being the one-man IT department in a non-IT org. E.g. a university department, a smaller school, a small-time manufacturer or retailer, etc. Automating your job on one hand and managing expectations on the other should set you up for a while. Your tech skills will degrade if you tend to them, but accumulating good will and maintaining occasional contact with people should ensure they help find you new jobs…

> one-man IT department This means you will be on call 24/7/365 though.

Not necessarily. Not everyone are willing to pay for on-call.

Re: Ask HN: What tech job would let me get away with the least real work possible?

#262

Post by SeriousM »

fergie wrote: post #128
killtimeatwork wrote: post #28

I think it's probably fairly random. I.e. you're just as likely to have a "do nothing" job in a FAANG as in some other random corps. But I don't think you can start doing nothing right after being hired - usually people are hired because there's more work in a team that the existing headcount can handle. So, you have to work for some time and then count on "falling into the cracks" - landing in a place where there's…

+1 for scrum master. Their mere existence is a strong signal that you are in an environment with a high tolerance for bureaucracy and low expectations for delivery.

This is the best description I've read!

Re: Ask HN: What tech job would let me get away with the least real work possible?

#263

Post by ClikeX »

imagine99 wrote: post #6

I do kinda understand where you're coming from but I want to warn you against this approach. These jobs you mention, they DO exist. But they break people and make them intensely miserable. Look into "boreout" (as opposed to burnout) to learn more about this. You will be very happy for the first few months, being able to browse HN, news sites and Reddit all day while nobody cares about what you do, nobody wants your i…

Not really relevant. But I finally got a word to describe my feeling at my previous job. Boreout.

Re: Ask HN: What tech job would let me get away with the least real work possible?

#264

Post by SamuelAdams »

RationPhantoms wrote: post #205
SamuelAdams wrote: post #151

You just described my job to a T. I'm a systems analyst at a university. This was a big, demanding job when I first started. But after being here for 2 years, I've automated a lot of the complicated stuff. So now most routine tasks that took the other guy a week takes me about 15 minutes. To be fair though, the other guy was *really bad*. Like, couldn't even open IIS manager and restart a single website, bad. The pay…

Some University positions can be notoriously cushy. I know a few networking folks who have been in their position at the University for a solid 25 years. Kind of unheard of in the enterprise-sector for the same position.

Yep, we recently had to give several IT staff very "motivated" retirement packages because they've been on payroll for 30 + years. One guy was here for 42 years. Literally his entire career.

Re: Ask HN: What tech job would let me get away with the least real work possible?

#265

Post by sjg007 »

giantg2 wrote: post #232
tonyedgecombe wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Partner especially, you can always raise children on a budget.

Generally true. It gets more complicated if they have medical issues or a disability.

In that case, in the US you need to live in a state with a good medicaid program and infrastructure.

Re: Ask HN: What tech job would let me get away with the least real work possible?

#266

Post by ProjectArcturis »

I had a data science position with a large non-tech company. It did B2B sales, and had a giant office for us, done up in brushed nickel and Edison light bulbs. The rest of the company was designed in standard cheap-cubicle format, but they took visitors (i.e. sales targets) through to see the data science team, so we got the fancy layout. After working there a few months, I realized that I was also there as part of the decoration. My work didn't matter (it took them 4 months to stand up a server for a project I was working on) and my boss didn't understand what I did. Very cush. Could have gotten away with a few hours a week of real work, though I still had to physically be there most of the time. I left for more money, plus ultimately having to surreptitiously waste 35 hours a week turns out to be quite draining.

Re: Ask HN: What tech job would let me get away with the least real work possible?

#267

Post by bryanrasmussen »

can you do tech support for users of the product? It can often be helpful if a tech support person also knows a bit about tech so as to be able to turn the customer's vague bug description into something the developers can actually understand.

Re: Ask HN: What tech job would let me get away with the least real work possible?

#269

Post by mtberatwork »

chillfox wrote: post #261
mtberatwork wrote: post #221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> one-man IT department This means you will be on call 24/7/365 though.

Not necessarily. Not everyone are willing to pay for on-call.

You would be payed a salary but still be expected to be on call at all times. As a one person IT department, you are now the go-to to fix any and everything.

Re: Ask HN: What tech job would let me get away with the least real work possible?

#270

Post by KerrickStaley »

Another option: work hard now, save up lots of money and invest it in low-cost index funds, then later in life (e.g. when you're 40) you can quit your day job and focus on your passion or simply kick back. This idea is called "FIRE" if you haven't heard of it.
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