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Ask HN: Burnt-out, directionless but want to turn it around
391–400 of 521 posts
Re: Ask HN: Burnt-out, directionless but want to turn it around
#392Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
> Who knows how many amazing talents are skipped over due to trivial issues in their application process. No one has an actual number, but I expect it's A LOT. The best thing folks can do is to NOT rely on just dropping their resumes into some anonymous web-based corporate application system. Instead, it's much better to network and to use your contacts (previous co-workers, folks you know, family, friends-- anyone r…
I've gotten a fair amount of side work in the last 20-odd years, largely because most of my admin and programming skill set is antique. Setting up printers on Microsoft Xenix? Updating a business inventory system that was written in BASIC? Making serial cables to hook up old industrial equipment to new controllers?
Lots of C# and Haskell wonks around here, but none of them want to dirty their fingers doing maintenance work, particularly maintenance work on software written in no-longer-fashionable languages before they were born.
Re: Ask HN: Burnt-out, directionless but want to turn it around
#393Earlier 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.
The only reason you should care is if you're employing someone in a position where it's dangerous to themselves or others _on the job_ if they're intoxicated, or if it's legally required.
Otherwise it's none of your business.
Re: Ask HN: Burnt-out, directionless but want to turn it around
#3941. Take time off, like a month or more. [1] Use it to do anything other than coding. Hone a hobby, travel, volunteer, etc. No-one will care about a month or two gap on your resume. 2. You are worth more than you currently think you are. Internalize this, know this, that is key. "I am a sole developer for Mobile and Web platforms at this startup in a very small team" --> is a desirable skill in and of itself. 3. Stop…
> 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?
Its a thing for legacy organisations. If someone is puzzled and gives me a red flag that I had time to rest after my 6 month depression and burnout => its a huge red flag for me that people don't understand the world we live in these days and probably a culture that I will never fit it.
I have 4 gaps on my resume (1 failed startup, 1 burnout episode, 1 travel the world & 1 family care). My resume is a total mess of jobs in sales, growth & product. And yet the best organisations I ever worked for, always tried to understand the context before judging.
Re: Ask HN: Burnt-out, directionless but want to turn it around
#395Earlier 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.
>How would I even know they are clean?
This question applies to all employees. You don't, because it's none of your business if it doesn't affect their work performance. It is entirely possible, and probably likely that some your current employees use drugs. And almost 100% sure that some of them use alcohol, which is stronger and more problematic than many illicit substances. Many companies even throw parties where they give out free booze to the employees! How's that for a double standard?
People have always used drugs, and always will. Pretending to care about substance abuse only when you come across someone who openly admits their history is insane. You are treating the honest people worse than the people who hide their problems from you.
Re: Ask HN: Burnt-out, directionless but want to turn it around
#3961. Take time off, like a month or more. [1] Use it to do anything other than coding. Hone a hobby, travel, volunteer, etc. No-one will care about a month or two gap on your resume. 2. You are worth more than you currently think you are. Internalize this, know this, that is key. "I am a sole developer for Mobile and Web platforms at this startup in a very small team" --> is a desirable skill in and of itself. 3. Stop…
> 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?
I have a three year gap in my resume and getting a good tech job afterwards was EASY. If anything it made me more employable because people tend like people who do more than write code all day. (Of course the lack of career progression was probably a net disadvantage in terms of raw money-making ability, but I don't care about that).
Incidentally I like to also tell people who are a bit behind the times that these days it seems like having visible tattoos is a net benefit for your employability. Everyone likes hiring interesting people who aren't mindless drones. Tattoos, piercings, quirky style .. all serves as evidence of that. At least on the west coast!
Re: Ask HN: Burnt-out, directionless but want to turn it around
#3971. Take time off, you need it, try to do it without regrets/feeling bad that you are wasting time. Sometimes we go beyond that point of exhaustion and kid that we are productive.
2. Exhaustion leads to bugs: This is a vicious cycle. Late hour bugfix leads to next bug and so on. Both short term and long term exhaustion.
3. I felt like you when I went for grad school. As an EE Major, I could hack my code to work, find resources to get it to work etc. At that time, my interest was doing cool animations with flash (yeah, long time ago, levitated.net anyone)
4. I got the high of solving interesting problems but was always wondering how good coders do it, do they hack it all the way too. (hack here as in, band-aided, spaghetti code with no theoretical underpinnings, using arrays when I should hash-tables etc).
5. What I learned is that, good coders, imho, they hack the last bits too (caveats apply) but often have good theoretical foundation. DS/Data representation for example is the fabric of code you write (you are making a choice even if you didn't explicitly decide). I knew it sort of then but didn't know it my bone like I do today and apply it like I do today. I had an amazing teacher who made big difference (Thanks to Brian Dean, some of you IOI folks might know him).
6. Leetcode is great once you have some bit of theory else you are still hacking your code to work. Abstractions escape you. So now you have to learn each problem separately whereas someone who knows the abstraction compress the knowledge into those few abstractions and its minor variations.
7. Find a good mentor, someone who knows what the heck they are doing. This can help.
Disclaimer: We run a bootcamp for students who want to understand how to write good code from first principles (autoinfer.com).
Re: Ask HN: Burnt-out, directionless but want to turn it around
#398LOTS of good advice here.
My only addition would be to further specialize in something you don't hate working in. Becoming a subject-matter expert will afford you the opportunity to take time off or just work whenever you feel like working.
Re: Ask HN: Burnt-out, directionless but want to turn it around
#399Earlier 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?
In 40 years I have only ever put the start and end year of each item on my resume. I guess this dates to when most jobs / education lasted multiple years. But I've stuck with it and no-one has ever questioned it. The couple of jobs I have had which were less than one year spanned a year-end so it never looked odd. When I am reviewing incoming resumes small gaps never bother me. Ocassionally I have seen multi-year gap…
I also only put years on my resume. 15 years into my career and I have never once been asked to elaborate on the exact timeline of my resume. I've taken breaks, some voluntarily and some not so much.
If I ever take a multi-year break I'll just take occasional freelance clients and list it as "consulting".
Re: Ask HN: Burnt-out, directionless but want to turn it around
#400Earlier quoted context omitted.
Wow, this is a textbook example of trying to solve a deeply personal/emotional problem with logics and data instead of compassion. To anyone who activates their empathy sensors it's evidently clear that the OP is having a mild burnout crisis (not surprising after 70h weeks), and needs a bit of support first and foremost. What's really doing damage is your language, not a biased estimate of which percentile of a bell…
>What's really doing damage is your language, not a biased estimate of which percentile of a bell curve we're looking at here. I don't know, maybe setting unrealistic expectations and telling everyone they are worth more which implies they are doing something wrong to not get that worth out isn't doing them favours either in the long run.
Even if you think objectively, in this case, he's most likely underpaid and undervalued by the startup.
1. He's working much longer hours than he's paid for, probably for pie-in-the-sky options that 95% chance won't amount to a true pay-off for his hustle
2. He doesn't seem to have advocated for himself or his own happiness, he's going along with this burnout inducing program
3. He's clearly modest -- he's been coding for ~10 years and he's in his mid-20's. That is a highly employable situation in our field, he could easily get another job IMO.