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Poll: Why are people leaving their jobs?

news.ycombinator.com

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Re: Poll: Why are people leaving their jobs?

#441

Post by mLuby »

blobbers wrote: post #288

Curious to find out if anyone is able to achieve strong career satisfaction working less than less than 20 hours a week. For me, I've always looked at the exchange of time for money. The problem with that is that you can't exchange money for time, only time for money. Realizing this, I set work to 0. There seems to be a step function at 40 hours - the "full time job", but I haven't heard of many people that are succe…

> you can't exchange money for time, only time for money.

Most of the money people spend is to save them massive amounts of time.

  - Don't want to farm for a season to eat? Go buy food at the market.
  - Don't want to build yourself a small cabin on the outskirts? Buy or rent a home somewhere convenient.
  - Don't want to walk from NYC to SF like the pioneers? Buy a plane ticket and be there in 6h.
  - Don't want to make some item yourself? Buy it from a store and pay extra for delivery.
  - Don't want to (learn to) do some maintenance task yourself? Hire a handyperson.

Re: Poll: Why are people leaving their jobs?

#442

Post by hiq »

jermeh wrote: post #319

Today is my last day at my current job. I had a colleague leave last year after he had some issues with his team, and I learned that a significant salary bump was pretty easy to get. I was _really_ bored at my role, and didn't see a strong future for our project and company, so I started looking. I'll be starting a new job at the end of the month. Salary is over 2x my current pay, and if you include equity the total…

> I will have to relocate (which I wanted to do anyway), but I can't fathom why anyone _wouldn't_ be looking right now given the state of the job market.

Could it be that most of your compensation bump is due to the relocation rather than the current market? To take extremes, moving to SV from almost anywhere in the world would result in such bumps, but that was already the case a few years ago.

Re: Poll: Why are people leaving their jobs?

#443

Post by NotSammyHagar »

simplestats wrote: post #313
NotSammyHagar wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Explain what you mean by 2,3,4x more please. You can look at levels.fyi and if you are in a big tech see what the big companies are paying, that sets the market. In my experience the amounts of sometimes shockingly high, but eliminate a few crazy outliers and I see accurate rates. I'm a 20 year experienced principal engineer, and I see rates that match what I get. So what would 2,3,4x mean. Do you mean that much over…

Is principal engineer typical for 20 years experience where you are? Or are they typically stuck at senior engineer? Because if you're ahead of the average already like that, then indeed it will be hard to do better elsewhere. Having said that, yes I agree it does seem that at higher levels companies are a lot better about fitting compensation to that of competitors.

Where I'm at, which is a near faang, previously I was working at one and had offers from them, it's not about time, it's about working on multiple projects with significant accomplishments, a mixture of leader and IC usually, but you can still code today. Even if I admit to myself it's harder to code these days :-)

I also see people really early in career 10;years getting principal jobs and I think that's just from competition.

Re: Poll: Why are people leaving their jobs?

#444

Post by travisjungroth »

maxsilver wrote: post #435
steveBK123 wrote: post #266

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Too many roles / too many hats is far too common and why I find it hard to stay anywhere more than 4-5 years. As a senior IC in a super-flat & growing org.. I'm almost like a customer successs engineer, product manager, scrum master, senior developer and tech lead all rolled into one. Management administrivia I accumulate administrative things my manager doesn't want to do & pushes down I do unofficially own a part o…

> I'm almost like a customer successs engineer, product manager, scrum master, senior developer and tech lead all rolled into one. This is also me. Except I really like it. But I'm not sure what to do about it, it can reflect super poorly on a resume for some reason. "Oh, your applying to be a Senior Engineer? Look at all this product management and developer manager experience on your resume, you must not really be…

I believe you, but that's surprising. I've generally had my well-roundedness very well-received.

Re: Poll: Why are people leaving their jobs?

#445

Post by narrator »

To make a crude but I think apt analogy, the boom in remote work is like Tinder opening up the dating market. If you are the hot item, you now have a vastly larger number of suitors to choose from and can up your standards. Before, things were much more geographically constrained and the market was less efficient.

Re: Poll: Why are people leaving their jobs?

#446

Post by davemtl »

I selected other. I was working in the Air Transport Industry as the pandemic kicked off. Three months in we started having weekly meetings to "update" us on the situation, saying the company has money to weather the storm, expecting that storm to be just a couple of months at the time. Then there was the call for voluntary redundancies, reduced hours, discontinuation of bonuses, reduction of benefits. Once that talk started, I decided I wasn't going to hang around. I've seen situations like this play out before and this time I didn't want to be part of it. One night, a recruiter on LinkedIn slid into my DMs with a position that I was interested in. Two weeks later I had an offer on the table and accepted. Now I'm happily working in the Video Games industry.

Re: Poll: Why are people leaving their jobs?

#447

Post by froaway4job »

Uncomfortable/unpopular reasons:

  1. More money, companies are throwing money at engineers
  2. Companies are having trouble hiring and it's getting easier to get a job
  3. Inflation concerns, need more money
  4. Most jobs suck (I work at 4 companies now and have worked at 30 companies in my 10 year career)
  5. Retiring early, read reason 4. Working for a company sucks.

Re: Poll: Why are people leaving their jobs?

#448

Post by travisjungroth »

y4mi wrote: post #208
Flow wrote: post #155

For more than a year I've been trying to get it clear to my boss that I'm too stressed and need a less chaotic workplace. The last months I've had constant headache and fuzzy vision. I checked my blood pressure and it was 180/95. Ten months earlier when I last checked it it was 130/83. On medication now, but my heart beats so hard sometimes I think I need more medication. When I told my boss about this, he said the u…

> Leave, and start my own company. I don't think that's going to be less stressful... Good luck though!

No joke. When I was founding a startup, I went cave diving on the weekends to relax.

Re: Poll: Why are people leaving their jobs?

#449

Post by coldsunrays »

scottLobster wrote: post #416

Reading through the comments is interesting, I seem to be one of the few looking for a more intense job rather than less. My current job, given who our customers are (the code does something a little more serious than advertising), should be a lot more intense than it is. At present we're just half-assing everything and cashing the checks. Sure it's easy, the pay is industry median, and the benefits are above average…

One thing to consider is that some of the folks looking for less intensity at work are hoping to shift that intensity into hobbies or other endeavors. I think and hope the example this would set is more along the lines of: do whatever you need to make enough money to sustain yourself and maximize the time you have to live life and explore what the things you're curious about. This might work especially well if you'd prefer pursuing your passions as a hobby instead of a career.

Less intensity shouldn't necessarily mean the product is half-assed, though, so I think I understand your perspective.

Re: Poll: Why are people leaving their jobs?

#450

Post by wanderingmind »

artificialLimbs wrote: post #231
newsbinator wrote: post #211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I hinted about what my decision would have to be if these accomodations couldn't be made I don't hint because it's too confusing. I try to very politely offer options, where one option is me looking for another opportunity. It's not as though it's a secret to either party that's always an option.

This. Employer might not have even known quitting was on the table if there is only a hint. Be bold and direct to reduce miscommunication and you'll be the one standing with integrity.

This is a bad idea. Never tell an employer you might leave until you have an alternative option. This only gives them an opportunity to look for an alternative to you.
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