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Changing jobs during the Great Resignation

adamconrad.dev

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Re: Changing jobs during the Great Resignation

#311

Post by Apocryphon »

djcapelis wrote: post #283
wayne-li2 wrote: post #279

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reading judgmental comments like this also upsets me. It’s not selling your soul. It’s called being disillusioned with your impact on the world, a feeling that more and more people are feeling. Long gone are the days where you believed an individual could make a difference. At big corp, you are a small cog in the big machine. You are replaceable. I’ve volunteered on political campaigns. I’ve volunteered for non profi…

Because not everyone is a twenty year old second generation immigrant with no family wealth who needs a lifeboat. Are you under the impression the blog post author is? Look if people need money I don’t think many of us are passing judgement on that. But if you’re privileged and your sole criteria for a new job is accruing capital, you bet I pass judgement on it. And honestly once you get over 200k a year I think the…

The author elaborates on their motivations here:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30963856

Re: Changing jobs during the Great Resignation

#312

Post by dragonwriter »

BeFlatXIII wrote: post #163
claudiulodro wrote: post #8

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.

> If the primary purpose of your job is to raise funds for the things that actually matter, what other method would you use?

Primary isn’t sole, and even if it was, all jobs aren’t equal in other ways, so the tradeoff varies by more than just compensation. Particularly, for someone without a myopic view but whose sole concern is providing money is sustainability of working conditions, because burnout is a thing.

Re: Changing jobs during the Great Resignation

#313

Post by sillysaurusx »

georgeburdell wrote: post #276
lostcolony wrote: post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

...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. H…

No, it’s weird and I suspect there’s more to the story on how they arrived at this kind of system. It sounds mechanical and low-trust. Granted, I am not as ambitious as the author, but my wife and I do not ask each other for permission to do things. What we do do is let the other know that we’re taking on an extra responsibility, and specific help needed. We both work in tech and are raising two toddlers.

My wife works at a YC co that recently closed their series A.

It’s weird to me that you view it as “asking permission” and not “chatting about a thing before committing to it.”

You’re not alone in this thread. It feels like most men here view it through the lens of permission.

I don’t get it.

Re: Changing jobs during the Great Resignation

#314

Post by sillysaurusx »

oblio wrote: post #308
sillysaurusx wrote: post #304

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right? I feel like you and I are living in some alternate reality where we actually talk with our partners before making major life changes.

My guess is that some of the people crititicizing here are either macho bragging about stuff they don't actually do, have dysfunctional relationships but don't realize it, or much more likely just aren't or haven't been in long term relationships. Some probably misread or are taking a very negative interpretation to what they're reading. Don't worry about it :-)

Exactly! It’s wild to me that so many people here seem to think of it as a permission grant, like they’re upset their wife hasn’t added them to sudoers or something. “How dare I not have admin rights to our life” feels like the tone of the majority of comments in this subtree.

It was just surprising.

Re: Changing jobs during the Great Resignation

#315

Post by R0b0t1 »

vln wrote: post #265
gleenn wrote: 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.

I think it's because he's on the eng management track. I don't think they're asking hard leetcode questions.

Then why is he making ~$500k/yr?

Re: Changing jobs during the Great Resignation

#316

Post by R0b0t1 »

solarmist wrote: post #264
sarchertech wrote: post #247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Is it really necessary to cram like you're taking the SATs again to get a good job as a software engineer? >Frankly, yes. Just as the SATs and ACTs are IQ tests with a shitty veil on top If you can prep for them they aren't really IQ tests.

There isn’t an IQ test that’s been created that wouldn’t benefit from practice. That’s why the materials are so highly guarded for actual IQ tests. So technically true, but reality doesn’t have any true IQ tests either.

Yes and no. They have patterns to create IQ tests, and those patterns change less frequently.

Re: Changing jobs during the Great Resignation

#317

Post by higeorge13 »

nostrademons wrote: post #134
cebert wrote: post #124

Is something wrong with software engineering interviews that one could reasonably need to spend months prepping for interviews? Leetcode problems can be fun and interesting, but seldom represent problems and skills I employ daily as a more senior software engineer. Studying these problems won’t help me much at my current employer and likely wouldn’t after I passed the interview gauntlet at another firm.

It's because of the time constraints required in an interview. At my job, the assumption is that you won't have enough context and experience to be effective in the job until you've been there for 6 months. You can't fit 6 months of prep into an interview. Good interview questions are ones that boil that 6mo+ of experience down to something that can be explained in 5 minutes and solved in 45. Ideally you'd just work…

He interviewed as an engineering manager, his job will be probably people management, hiring and moving tickets around. Do engineering managers in meta do any technical work in order to require lc mindset? What 6 month experience do you expect from an new joiner engineering manager other that attending meetings and get to know the projects in high level and what do you expect to see in these interviews through lc questions?

Re: Changing jobs during the Great Resignation

#318

Post by WastingMyTime89 »

jseban wrote: post #292
wayne-li2 wrote: post #279

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reading judgmental comments like this also upsets me. It’s not selling your soul. It’s called being disillusioned with your impact on the world, a feeling that more and more people are feeling. Long gone are the days where you believed an individual could make a difference. At big corp, you are a small cog in the big machine. You are replaceable. I’ve volunteered on political campaigns. I’ve volunteered for non profi…

> It’s not selling your soul. It’s called being disillusioned with your impact on the world, a feeling that more and more people are feeling. Not even this, it's just seeing a job exactly and only for what it is. As opposed to having some pompous judgemental false self-image of "helping the world" when in reality you are way too lazy and selfish to actually do that, like most other people. It's a common leftist agend…

I don’t see the link between thinking it’s a bit sad that money seems to be the only driver of a growing part of the population and the left-right political divide. I don’t personally think it’s a very new phenomena however. My main takeaway from it is that in the USA software jobs have started replacing or at least being seen as as attractive as finance and consulting as a career of choice for people who are mostly interested in money which to me partially explain why we now see so little valuable and interesting innovation and new products coming out of the big tech companies.

Re: Changing jobs during the Great Resignation

#319

Post by philosopher1234 »

jseban wrote: post #292
wayne-li2 wrote: post #279

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reading judgmental comments like this also upsets me. It’s not selling your soul. It’s called being disillusioned with your impact on the world, a feeling that more and more people are feeling. Long gone are the days where you believed an individual could make a difference. At big corp, you are a small cog in the big machine. You are replaceable. I’ve volunteered on political campaigns. I’ve volunteered for non profi…

> It’s not selling your soul. It’s called being disillusioned with your impact on the world, a feeling that more and more people are feeling. Not even this, it's just seeing a job exactly and only for what it is. As opposed to having some pompous judgemental false self-image of "helping the world" when in reality you are way too lazy and selfish to actually do that, like most other people. It's a common leftist agend…

The most fantastic teacher in the world will make less money than most software developers. This they’re mediocre? Your logic is gross, and idiotic.

Re: Changing jobs during the Great Resignation

#320

Post by jseban »

munificent wrote: post #125
toomuchtodo wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Comp is king, everything else is window dressing; only the comp pays the bills and gets you closer to financial independence (wealth is options, options are freedom).

What are you planning to do with all that financial independence? If the answer is, "Live a meaningful and satisfying life." then... some people seek out work that gives them some of that while they are earning money. Obviously, the idea that work can provide all of the meaning in your life is a toxic meme that leads to people being exploited. But the idea that work should provide no meaning is equally toxic. You're…

> only meaning gives you a reason to get out of bed in the morning. The sooner you start finding avenues for that in your life, the sooner you'll realize you don't need to focus completely on some distant exit strategy like financial independence.

The problem is that meaning is undefined and this leads you down a rabbit hole of trying to figure out what is the meaning of life, which will make you very disappointed and lead to constructing a psychological bubble of "beliefs" that you appoint as facts to find a way out of this burdensome brooding.

Not everyone wants to live a lie like that, and have that sort of pseudo religious lifestyle. It's much easier to just go for the highest paying job, then making sure to also do some good (if you feel like it's too "evil"), by for example donating some of your salary, or doing some volunteer work. Why is this better? Because it's clear practical actionable goals that you can rely on, and that you know will have the desired outcome.

But it's more work to do this, assigning some superficial "meaning" to your job that you demand of all people around to validate and support, it's a way to be more lazy, to turn your social circle into a mini-cult where you all tell each other that you really can have the cake and eat it too.

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