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Changing jobs during the Great Resignation

adamconrad.dev

221–230 of 447 posts

Re: Changing jobs during the Great Resignation

#221
post #180
post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I thought maybe the author meant that they'd retain enough of the months of prep that they'd already done.

Generally, once you've practiced enough to clear most tech rounds once - it's not too difficult to do it again. If I'm going in for an interview then I might still need to spend ~1-2 weeks practicing again to do well. Earlier in my career I spent months practicing LC.

Eh, I'm 8 years into the same company now, have been shipping the entire time across multiple teams, wearing multiple hats, etc., and am 15 years into my career. I'd have to put some non-trivial effort into refreshing my memory of a great deal of the sorts of things that are (anecdotally) commonplace in interview settings today. And with a full-time job and 3 young kids, time is hard to come by.

8 years ago, I spent time with CtcI, etc., and was immensely prepared to interview but, for me, that's all largely lost to the ages now.

Re: Changing jobs during the Great Resignation

#222

"Once I showed the potential salaries to my wife, we both agreed it would be perfectly reasonable for me to ask for 30 minutes of additional “me time” per day to prepare for my next job," What the hell? If he wants 30m to himself each day he needs to clear with his wife? Don't most people get more than 30m free time each day away from their partner? Just what kind of unhealthy relationship is this dude in?

it's 30 min additional time. when you have a small kid someone is always oncall. This phrase does not seem odd at all to me (and is a very good way of separating people that have a kid from people that don't have a kid)

Re: Changing jobs during the Great Resignation

#223
post #201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The blog said he needed an additional 30 minutes of time each day, not just 30 minutes period. Presumably they already have a system worked out where they each get some personal time during the day and the job quest shifted this balance.

Call it what it is. That's no way to live and that's not a healthy relationship.

...it's totally healthy. He had developed a routine and set of expectations with his wife, that ensured their mutual needs for time together, and the needs of the kid, were being met. As he looked into how much time he'd need to take to adequately prepare, he first looked to cut down on something important to him without losing progress in it, which gave him most of the time he felt he needed, but still felt short. He then engaged with his wife to discuss his plan, and what he felt would be necessary for it, ensuring she was in agreement that reducing 30 minutes per day of "family time" was an acceptable decision. She was, so that's what they did.

What do you think would have been healthier?

Re: Changing jobs during the Great Resignation

#224

That is the saddest self-realization post I have ever read. Boils down to accepting being a tool and proceeds with optimizing ROI on said tool.

you are a tool. that's the reality.

we all like to believe that we are somehow better than this and that there is meaning in the work we do, but at the end of the day if you were to disappear tomorrow things will go on without you. you might as well optimize for personal gain from being a tool

Re: Changing jobs during the Great Resignation

#225
post #47

He spends a good chunk talking about figuring out how to get prep work without negatively impacting his life, but it's interesting that there was no mention of how the actual new job would impact his life. Especially since he literally just picked the highest paying ones.

the vibe i get from this guy is that he is a very organized and meticulous dude. he's going to be fine.

i can tell you that anyone that has a 1 yo kid and has time to lift either is very good at managing his time or has a lot of outside help.

Re: Changing jobs during the Great Resignation

#226

Hi folks! Author here - did not expect this post to blow up. Figured it might be helpful to provide some context on points of confusion: 1. Money > everything: an alternative way to look at this is that if you sort by offers, you notice there are a lot of neat companies in that list. I didn't just sort and then blindly apply. I sorted, and noticed that they all had something I was really interested in. I use Amazon w…

asking the real questions here: what is your power lifting routine? how much can you squat and bench?

Re: Changing jobs during the Great Resignation

#227

It's wild to me that his way of figuring out what companies to apply for was to make a list of the top-paying ones and just pick the top 10 highest-paying. Is that a common strategy? No thought about product, industry, impact on the world, just $$$. It looks like it worked out for them though, since I guess they got like a million dollar offer, so maybe I'm the one approaching this the wrong way?

It’s wild to me that the only reason his wife gave him 30 mins/day of personal time was because of the financial payoff. Bizarre dude and story.

That...isn't what happened. He has his routine. That routine includes some amount of "family time", whatever that means. It is probably one they have discussed before, in ensuring that their mutual needs for companionship/childcare vs alone time are being met. The plan he came up with would cut into that time. Rather than just make that change on his own, he talked to her about it, ensuring that she was also on board with the tradeoff. That's called "a healthy relationship".

Re: Changing jobs during the Great Resignation

#228
post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The very last bit of the article interestingly stated that they author wouldn't spend time doing prep again, they would only make sure they applied with a referral. I definitely agree, it's kind of a blight on our industry that the interview process is so contorted compared to the actual work we're supposed to do.

> they would only make sure they applied with a referral. How is referral useful in general. You still have to go through the whole song and dance anyways?

Until the recent two years, no referral means no response whatsoever, for me anyway... referral usually guarantees I will hear back, even if it is rejection, all else equal, including the exact same resume of mine.

EDIT: Forgot to mention, I work for a bigg-ish Tech, and the bulk of the new hires are referrals. Very very few candidates get hired without referral. The referral fee is so high, the hiring manager is usually inundated with candidates the moment a role is available. Very seldom do we need to seriously consider non-referred candidates.

Re: Changing jobs during the Great Resignation

#229

It's wild to me that his way of figuring out what companies to apply for was to make a list of the top-paying ones and just pick the top 10 highest-paying. Is that a common strategy? No thought about product, industry, impact on the world, just $$$. It looks like it worked out for them though, since I guess they got like a million dollar offer, so maybe I'm the one approaching this the wrong way?

Reading these responses is pretty upsetting. No wonder big tech is so evil. So many talented developers willing to sell their soul for more money. No thought to whether what they’re doing is causing harm to the world.

I have to agree. I do understand human desire to put themselves and their families first, and that it's a job at corporations, and that some people view themselves as cogs in capitalism no matter what

However when one the pick of the litter, there's a spectrum between getting $1M for a company responsible for polarization, breeding hate, and damaging democracy...to living well comfortably on $200k+ (or even $300k+) to at least try to do something meaningful. It's 8 hours a day of your time, you vote with how you want it to affect the world

Re: Changing jobs during the Great Resignation

#230

It's wild to me that his way of figuring out what companies to apply for was to make a list of the top-paying ones and just pick the top 10 highest-paying. Is that a common strategy? No thought about product, industry, impact on the world, just $$$. It looks like it worked out for them though, since I guess they got like a million dollar offer, so maybe I'm the one approaching this the wrong way?

If the primary purpose of your job is to raise funds for the things that actually matter, what other method would you use? Take the biggest bag that leaves you with enough time to enjoy what you worked so hard to spend that money on.

Experienced engineers will have plenty of time and plenty of cheese to do whatever they want, up to them whether they choose to go to somewhere like Meta. The only thing I can imagine that $300k can't do that $750k-$1m can is buy up a bunch of property and price people out
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