Ask HN: Burnt-out, directionless but want to turn it around • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Burnt-out, directionless but want to turn it around

#371

Post by hef19898 » Tue, May 31, 2022, 1:16 PM UTC

sumtechguy wrote: post #339

Tade0 wrote: post #268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> On a related note, this "gap in resume" thing needs to stop being a thing at all. I think that at least in tech it was only ever a thing in companies that didn't know better. I mean, I throughout my career I was fired multiple times and at least twice that resulted in a 3-month gap, only one of them being voluntarily that long. I now take them on purpose and collected a total of five over the course of 10+ years. I…

My last job search it came up a lot . I took about 8 months then started looking. Because I could at that time. Since it was the current thing I was doing it came up a decent amount. Took probably double the amount of time to get a job. I finally asked someone why they cared? They said it looks like others were passing me up for some reason and they did not want to pick someone up who everyone else was passing up. Hi…

So the opposite of FOMO... Hiring is broken.

Re: Ask HN: Burnt-out, directionless but want to turn it around

#372

Post by thebean11 » Tue, May 31, 2022, 1:16 PM UTC

randomsearch wrote: post #291

koonsolo wrote: post #179

> I've put in countless hours of work every day (70-90 hrs), being on-call almost 24/7, sometimes for straight 7 days for months So why do you think you have the following: > but unable to concentrate, riddled with brain fog You're putting in WAY TOO MANY HOURS! Stop doing overtime, and read this: https://www.7pace.com/blog/overtime-kills and http://blog.approache.com/2010/11/rules-of-productivity.html On the career…

> Stop doing overtime, and read this: https://www.7pace.com/blog/overtime-kills and http://blog.approache.com/2010/11/rules-of-productivity.html That was fascinating reading, thanks for sharing. This seems like absolutely crucial data for a startup. Rationally, these links imply that a startup should work 40 hour weeks. Intuitively I'm not entirely convinced, but I want to be. I work 50 hours minimum and have regular…

How would investors know what hours the devs are working?

Re: Ask HN: Burnt-out, directionless but want to turn it around

#373

Post by lttlrck » Tue, May 31, 2022, 1:18 PM UTC

qkls wrote: post #325

swiftcoder wrote: post #312

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hang on, you are going to penalise someone for taking time off to get clean... presumably on the basis that it's better they come to work hiding the fact that they are high, than that they get help?

How would I even know they are clean? And if they are clean and they presumably have a greater chance of a relapse than other random candidates.

Why should you even know they were not clean at some point in their past. And what about the future?

Like the sibling comment, I find this very sad.

Perform drug tests if you're worried.

Re: Ask HN: Burnt-out, directionless but want to turn it around

#374

Post by GartzenDeHaes » Tue, May 31, 2022, 1:19 PM UTC

arkitaip wrote: post #365

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #352

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It depends entirely on the company and how many other candidates they have. If I receive 200 resumes and 30% of them are picture perfect - Sorry, I can’t interview or even screen everyone. The resume with unexplained gaps isn’t getting sorted into the top of the pile simply because I have to be aggressive with filtering. On the other hand, if I’m hiring for a difficult position at a less popular company and I’m only…

The entire screening process is broken when recruiters try to find any and all reasons - or negative signals as you call them - to skip over candidates. Who knows how many amazing talents are skipped over due to trivial issues in their application process.

If I give you a stack of 200 resumes, how are you going to decide which ones to interview?

Re: Ask HN: Burnt-out, directionless but want to turn it around

#375

Post by tloup » Tue, May 31, 2022, 1:21 PM UTC

distances wrote: post #257

frenchman99 wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even in France which lots of people call "socialist", the company can fire you at any time and has to pay only about 3/6 months of salary for "wrongful termination". That's low enough to not keep constantly underperforming people.

I think in many other countries like Nordics and Germany the company can be forced to just basically undo the termination.

They could, but usually you don't want this to happen as an employee. Alternatively the court can force the employer to pay a severance if they regard the working conditions as untenable. An obvious example would be bullying at the workplace. But all of this is only applicable in the case of an unlawful termination.

Mostly if they want to get rid of you they offer you a severance.

It is also much more complicated than I can explain in a single post. For example, you can be fired for working "slowly", but you can't be fired if you are doing your best - even if all your colleagues are faster workers. It mainly depends on if you are doing your best.

E.g. your colleagues are able to dish out 100 pizzas in a typical evening but you only manage to make 50, and your boss wants to fire you. You don't agree and sue him. The court now has to decide if you perform so badly because of something that is "inherent" - which is called a "personenbedingte Kündigung" or in English dismissal on grounds of personal capability, or if it is based on your conduct. A dismissal on grounds of personal capability is usually deemed unlawful, as long as you give your best, if you consistently only manage to make 50 pizzas it seems like it, right? However if you willfully (!) perform badly the dismissal is usually deemed lawful. But, if you e.g. suffer from rheumatism and you can't perform the way you used to but you want to perform better, you just can't anymore it gets a bit complicated: the employer has to make a prognosis on how and if you are able to someday perform better again or if you could do another job. So, usually it is cheaper to offer someone a severance in that case.

Re: Ask HN: Burnt-out, directionless but want to turn it around

#376

Post by lttlrck » Tue, May 31, 2022, 1:22 PM UTC

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #352

feanaro wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> No-one will care about a month or two gap on your resume. On a related note, this "gap in resume" thing needs to stop being a thing at all. I don't know when it became a thing, but it feels distinctively like forcing a wage slave class to keep their head down and continue wageslaving. Why would an employer care whether I took time off to pursue other things otherwise?

It depends entirely on the company and how many other candidates they have. If I receive 200 resumes and 30% of them are picture perfect - Sorry, I can’t interview or even screen everyone. The resume with unexplained gaps isn’t getting sorted into the top of the pile simply because I have to be aggressive with filtering. On the other hand, if I’m hiring for a difficult position at a less popular company and I’m only…

A company that doesn't respect the need for privacy and/or the need to take time off should be avoided.

Nobody should have to explain a gap between jobs upfront - they could be gardening, on pilgrimage or attending family - Or simply take advantage of between jobs to take a well earned break. There are a million none of your business reasons.

There should be no expectation for this information, until you engage with them. And even then...

Re: Ask HN: Burnt-out, directionless but want to turn it around

#377

Post by jermaustin1 » Tue, May 31, 2022, 1:26 PM UTC

RektBoy wrote: post #323

swiftcoder wrote: post #316

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Why would an employer care whether I took time off to pursue other things otherwise? Many (questionable) reasons, but among other things, it's a convenient way to exclude women trying to return to the workforce after they took time off to have kids, without overtly appearing to discriminate.

In my country, it's illegal to fire a woman(or man) on maternity leave and company must give her(him) same place back, when they return. Maternity leave is usually taken till a kid is 3yrs old, so after 3yrs they must give you your old place back, by law.

These laws usually have loopholes, in the case of the job no longer existing. Which it is very easy to make a job no longer exist, especially in a 3 year time-span.

Re: Ask HN: Burnt-out, directionless but want to turn it around

#378

Post by sgt101 » Tue, May 31, 2022, 1:27 PM UTC

mikro2nd wrote: post #353

itsoktocry wrote: post #340

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Why would an employer care whether I took time off to pursue other things otherwise? I agree, and if they do? I'm not telling you to lie on your resume, but...have a good story to tell about what you during that time off. If that doesn't cut it, you're probably not dealing with a company with a good culture.

"I was driving a startup venture that failed..." ought to do it.

yeah - you better have your background story on that straight though, my next question would be "tell me about that" and then "what happened"

Re: Ask HN: Burnt-out, directionless but want to turn it around

#379

Post by ktsangop » Tue, May 31, 2022, 1:32 PM UTC

progrus wrote: post #67

The bad part about being the ~solo developer is you don’t have as many people around you to learn from. The good part about being the ~solo developer is you learn how to deal with almost all the universal challenges involved in making software, so you will be able to understand quickly and jump in to help with just about anything at your math skill level - as long as you are on a team that supports you and complement…

Agreed! Been on a one-man team for many years, and have felt exactly the same. As others stated you are definitely not a loser. I know it because I'm not. :P

- Almost every one of us is working on boring CRUD web apps, and that's fine

- Work is not the only part of life that is supposed to make you happy (on the contrary)

- Try to spend all of your free time off screen. Exercise, meditate, read some books (not coding ones ..)

- XP >> LeetCode. A college graduate will definitely beat me at LeetCode, but I have been integrating online payment/banking systems in production web apps which have handled millions of $$ payments. Learn to promote those skills when job hunting, and don't worry about DS and Algos so much.

- We all need a bit of luck too : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3LopI4YeC4I

Re: Ask HN: Burnt-out, directionless but want to turn it around

#380

Post by tloup » Tue, May 31, 2022, 1:32 PM UTC

UncleMeat wrote: post #348

4lp wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But they are paid crap The pay is usually indicative of employer's ability to find a person with the necessary skillset to do the job and not some abstract "importance to society" value that the job has.

Wouldn't it be nice if pay was correlated with value to society? There are a lot of software engineers getting paid bank to make products that are worse for users and society but make their bosses fat stacks. The school janitor is providing more benefit to society.

As a software dev I agree, and I've worked on some products I'd deem as a net positive to society. But there is just so much shit software out there.

As a German I wonder what the people where thinking programming VWs TDI system to activate emission controls only during testing, was it worth it? Polluting the environment and peoples lungs for a bit of money? It's not like dev jobs are a rarity in Germany. And yes I'm judgemental about this. And don't get me started on the things that are legal and still a detriment to society.