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Tell HN: Job interview canceled due to looming recession

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Re: Tell HN: Job interview canceled due to looming recession

#441

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s really bad advice unless you’re going into a field where you can’t possibly ever pay it back. My sister wouldn’t be a pharmacist without student loans and she is about as far from living in pain as someone can get.

>That’s really bad advice unless you’re going into a field where you can’t possibly ever pay it back. This is really bad advice if a degree doesn't increase your salary enough to offset the cost. >My sister wouldn’t be a pharmacist without student loans She would if the degree didn't cost out of pocket in the first place.

This is your advice for the first person on my mom’s side of the family to graduate from college, “don’t follow your dreams because education should be free”?

That’s how they keep the dirty okies who moved to California during the dust bowl (aka my grandparents) as second class citizens. My parents sacrificed a lot to send her to college. I mean, a lot.

Re: Tell HN: Job interview canceled due to looming recession

#442

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The fact that you cite VC funded and then headcount as your only metric of success is hilarious.

I wasn't trying to communicate level of success, just economic context and the fact that jobs are available there. But since you ask: $57M ARR, 117% NRR, 97% YoY growth, 51 NPS, named a best place to work in [insert regional business journal] for the last 4 years in a row, customers really love us, and employees really love working here. I don't know how reliable Glassdoor is considered to be these days, but we're ra…

Not OP but if I may, these numbers alone also does not necessarily indicate that you can successfully weather a downturn in near future or is well on the path to future success. Your headcount doubled last year and so did your revenue, maybe you doubled your sales team and the model won't scale further (I don't know what is your industry/product is so just speculating). Your revenue per employee is ~$114K, if most of these employees are in tech, maybe there is already too much bloat that you may need to shed soon if the growth does not materialize. If half of your customers just came onboard last year, maybe you are being too quick to boast a 117% NRR. NPS, Glassdoor and best place to work can also be dismissed as easily manipulatable stats.

I am not trying to dismiss anything or being cynical but just trying to point out that a lot of things goes into determining if you are a "good" VC backed startup. In my opinion, a smaller growth in headcount (compared with revenue growth) would have been a better indicator of a healthy startup.

Re: Tell HN: Job interview canceled due to looming recession

#443

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My student loan payments will probably be around $1200 a month after I graduate and a studio apartment in my pretty small city is $900 without utilities. I could probably survive on a $35k salary but I'd have to switch to income based repayment on my loans which would suck because I'd like to eventually be able to buy a house

That's one of the big differences: the only thing a normal person in France, Germany or the rest of western Europe* could do that involves a 1200/month repayment is buy property (or an absolutely ridiculous car). A lot of the younger employees I work with got paid while doing their bachelor's degrees because they did dual degree programs, where they're employed by a big industrial company and alternate terms having i…

The only way you'd be paying back £1200 a month on student loans (plan 2) in the UK is if you were earning £180,180/year or more. And at that income, it's probably not the student loans giving you trouble.

Re: Tell HN: Job interview canceled due to looming recession

#444

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My student loan payments will probably be around $1200 a month after I graduate and a studio apartment in my pretty small city is $900 without utilities. I could probably survive on a $35k salary but I'd have to switch to income based repayment on my loans which would suck because I'd like to eventually be able to buy a house

That's one of the big differences: the only thing a normal person in France, Germany or the rest of western Europe* could do that involves a 1200/month repayment is buy property (or an absolutely ridiculous car). A lot of the younger employees I work with got paid while doing their bachelor's degrees because they did dual degree programs, where they're employed by a big industrial company and alternate terms having i…

> involves a 1200/month repayment is buy property

Rent?

Re: Tell HN: Job interview canceled due to looming recession

#445

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At risk? We’ll just stop having overinflated salaries. The current situation is insane for employers: - Employees are not willing to put a little extra (paid extra, I mean - and we’re at the 35hrs week here), - Not willing to study afterwork to improve their career, - Not willing to work on legacy products where we pay them 40% more. - In the first 2 years, I can pay someone 35 -> 50 -> +10k bonus, and they’ll leave…

Where are you located that you have a 35h week while enjoying such great benefits like employer investing in your training? I'd like to move there. In my EU country the working hours are 38.5 which isn't as good as 35h, but it isn't that bad, but no employer hires you to invest in your training. Every company wants only seniors, preferably for junior wages, and scream there's a shortage while offering no WFH because…

I am also interested in the geography here, especially wrt to the currency/units in "35 -> 50 -> +10k"

Are those numbers maybe denominated in Kuwaiti or Bahraini dinars? Or in some country-specific unspoken convenience unit such as tens-of-thousands of Japanese yen, or hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese Dong, or something like that?

Re: Tell HN: Job interview canceled due to looming recession

#446
post #344

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That sounds amazing. How do I get in on that ride? :)

Find a company that thinks it's doing well, tell them you can start in three weeks, and then pray for failure?

Unfortunately whenever we test intercessory prayer we find that it doesn't work.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16569567/

Re: Tell HN: Job interview canceled due to looming recession

#447
post #429
post #414

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's easy: if you want your employee to do something, all you have to do is pay them for their time. Not willing to? Then I guess it's not important to you.

It takes two to tango. If you want to get paid, become someone who's useful. This attitude where employees sit like bags of potatoes waiting for knowledge to permeate their brains via osmosis is awful.

You’re missing the point. It’s that companies shouldn’t expect employees to improve themselves for the companies benefit on their own time. Not that employees shouldn’t improve themselves for their own benefit on their own time if they want to. Ergo if companies expect employees to work specifically to get better at their jobs they should provide resources and training in work time as its part of the job itself.

Re: Tell HN: Job interview canceled due to looming recession

#448
post #429
post #414

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's easy: if you want your employee to do something, all you have to do is pay them for their time. Not willing to? Then I guess it's not important to you.

It takes two to tango. If you want to get paid, become someone who's useful. This attitude where employees sit like bags of potatoes waiting for knowledge to permeate their brains via osmosis is awful.

> This attitude where employees sit like bags of potatoes waiting for knowledge to permeate their brains via osmosis is awful.

I think you misunderstand. A person who is getting paid is already useful. That is why they were hired. By studying you want them to be more useful and that is an extra demand over their contract.

Re: Tell HN: Job interview canceled due to looming recession

#449

Well, as someone who (re)entered the industry in 2003 after the fallout of the dotcom crash, one thing that helped me get a job was the fact that tons of people just straight-up abandoned the industry during that period and the pipeline of new applicants dried up. So all those people who got a CS degree or went to a bootcamp because coding looked like an easy ticket to a high paying job? Poof - gone. Not to mention a…

This is a great piece of advice! I second that 100%.

Re: Tell HN: Job interview canceled due to looming recession

#450

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Heresy!

Home time is personal time. Here I deal with family, chores and self-connection. If you want me to learn stuff and be better and my job you will have to give me time, company time, for that. We are not machine. In France it is mandatory for the company to give time for training. Thanks unions. https://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/codes/id/LEGISCTA000006189881...

Then you also don't have any problem if better candidate appears and challenges your position, right?
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