Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

451–460 of 521 posts

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

#451

Post by dudeinjapan »

feanaro wrote: post #200
colanderman wrote: post #9

1. 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?

It says here that for 22 years you "went Kerouac on everyone's ass."

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

#452

Post by bboylen »

koonsolo wrote: post #304
randomsearch wrote: post #291

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

There were periods in my life when I was obsessed with productivity. I found out that I can do about 3 to 4 hours of highly concentrated work a day. On extreme days, I could pull off 6 hours of concentration. But I always paid back that time in the days after. Now I can't do those hours in 1 go, there need to be pauses in between. Spending 40 hours a week doing 15 to 20 hours of highly concentrated work seems reasona…

I think what you described is the case for the vast majority of people, I certainly feel the same for myself.

I do believe in outliers however. Some people really do seem to just be wired differently. Problems can be caused though when average people take advice from the Elon Musks of the world and burn themselves out trying to work 90 hour weeks.

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

#453

Post by dudeinjapan »

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…

This wonderful to hear. More hidden gems for me to hire.

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

#454

Post by maerF0x0 »

BlargMcLarg wrote: post #429
maerF0x0 wrote: post #407

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Why would an employer care whether I took time off to pursue other things otherwise? Let me start off saying I dont agree with this logical fallacy. So don't downvote me if you don't like that some employers think this way. I think many interviewers/managers worry that a gap in resume is actually you got fired and then spent months looking for a new role (possibly this one). Or that you started at a company and the…

Problem being interviewers can spin almost every arbitrary detail into a "red flag", and they have done so for decades. It's the benefit which comes with being in a position of power where they get to be far pickier than most candidates can comparatively. It's the same reason so many arbitrary things go from "this is absolutely necessary" to "this would be nice" to "oh we can remove that please don't walk away!" depe…

Yeah I do think there are a ton of fallacies that the modern corporation brings to interviewing, which you'd think if someone could break the pattern they might have an advantage? Like one big one for me is the idea that holding out for a better candidate vs hiring an adequate one and giving them world class training? How many months of lost productivity from interviewing another month vs having a fully productive employee one month sooner... and your whole team back on track with building the products that customers supposedly want "right now!" ?

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

#456

Post by leaflets2 »

kayodelycaon wrote: post #415
qkls wrote: post #303

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Substance abuse related career breaks. At least recent.

In the US it is generally illegal to ask about an employee's medical history in the US due to ADA. Psychiatric care is considered medical care.

"what did you do between 2016 and 2019?"

(Silence... )

-- won't that seem suspicious, even if the interviewer can't ask:

"Oh so you had a drugs and substances career break?"

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

#457

Post by selimthegrim »

dontbenebby wrote: post #439

I felt like you once OP, and there was an HN post that was a network for depressed devs. (This was years ago). I lost the link + had issues signing up... probably due to exevutive dysfunction from feeling like I had to find some special person or social network to have my CV fairly evaluated. I'd try to take some time off, if you have the money. I cannot emphasize how deeply I regret not quitting my job last I was in…

SE = somewhere else?

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

#458

Post by balaji1 »

throwaway2037 wrote: post #259
tayo42 wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think for travel you need to make the most of it when you return. I've come back from trips feeling like I hit a refresh button, though if you don't make changes and run with the feeling you'll just fall back into old feelings and habits

I agree about feeling mentally refreshed, but I am normally knackered after travel because I don't stop moving when I travel (relaxing on a beach or beside a pool makes no sense to me). Most travel trips for me result in at least one minor epiphany about something I should be doing more or less of... Taking yourself out of a comfortable place to a new place can temporarily re-wire some neurons in your brain for more…

The current mode of travel for most people is trying to maximize trips. Find the best deal for flights, hotels, rental cars, etc. Then cramming all the "must see" spots while hopping Ubers and bars. It is hard to switch out of this mode.

Tho I am not sure about how rich people vacation, ritualistic trips to the same "summer cabins" or "winter resorts".

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

#459

Post by llllllllllll9 »

1. stop thinking in terms of "rockstar" anything. 2. wondering how other "smart" people come up with libraries etc? they do what you do. 3. people who create always have countless ideas that never see light of day. 4. you wasted your 20s because you didn't have fun. 5. working hard pays off if that is what you enjoy. 6. LeetCode takes time! years even. if you don't enjoy puzzles you need to try something else.

can you take a break? a year maybe? and reasses?

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

#460

Post by GartzenDeHaes »

Timpy wrote: post #385
sumtechguy wrote: post #339

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

If I had a voluntary gap like this and I put something like "Sabbatical" on my resume and made a few notes of how I spent my time I wonder how that would go over. The last time I was in the interview process I saw my interviewer as a kind of interviewing pro, it wasn't until I got hired that I realized he was just a guy and he had really only interviewed and on-boarded a handful of people before.

I think that is pretty common on resumes and I've never heard anyone raise it as an issue. Some examples I've seen include "cycled across europe" and went back to school to work on a new degree, but then decided that they didn't like marine biology as much as they thought they did. There's no reason most employers would be concerned about reasonable life choices.

What employers are concerned about is people problems and problem people. Dealing with problem employees is very unpleasant and a huge time sink. Since difficult people tend to have difficulty staying employed, time gaps and short engagements on resumes are a somewhat reasonable heuristic. When there are more applicants than you can interview, you have to prioritize the list somehow.

Post reply on HN