Charge 80% of what the other company is charging and negotiate as a contractor to do the work instead, leaving your job as an enployee. Don't disclose that you've done it "already". All you've done is built a proof of concept. When you win the contract, rebuild it clean room style from memory and reap profits.
Ask HN: I automated part of someone else's job in my free time – how to proceed?
101–110 of 131 posts
Re: Ask HN: I automated part of someone else's job in my free time – how to proceed?
#102To reiterate what others have already said about letting your manger decide how / whether to implement this, I have seen an employee be shown the door immediately over something as simple as optimising an excel spreadsheet. Tread carefully, dont present yourself as a hero.. Automation is a sombre subject and should be treated as such.
Re: Ask HN: I automated part of someone else's job in my free time – how to proceed?
#103Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think Americans over estimate how much investment in defense is needed. Massive defense spending is needed when you’re abusing the rest of the world. Less so if you’re not.
Ukraine seems to be happy with the military aid the US is supplying
I guess I should note that I never said anything about abolishing the existing state. But for us regular people I think there are better models for an economy. And we can form cooperatives and do things however we want. I just happen to believe it would be better for pretty much everyone to abandon things like patents and private wealth accumulation in favor of cooperative economic models.
Re: Ask HN: I automated part of someone else's job in my free time – how to proceed?
#104I think there is a genuine divide between people who view repititive tasks as an insufferable hell vs. those who either don't mind or even might enjoy the work. Most software engineers, for obvious reasons, fall into the category of the former. They will always be a minority of the general working population. The toiling majority generally does not take kindly to having been made redundant. Proceed with caution.
This is well said! This is to get burned at the stake!
Re: Ask HN: I automated part of someone else's job in my free time – how to proceed?
#105The first person who needs to know, and approve, is your manager. Don't blindside them. Managers do not like that, and your manager is definitely going to find out if anyone else does. After you tell your manager, you won't be in control of what happens next. Consider whether or not you should just keep this to yourself and treat this as a fun learning experience. Perhaps you can gauge their potential reaction by ask…
Sounds like awesome energy and hustle on your part.... If you work somewhere especially good, you will get recognized and rewarded for it. If you work somewhere especially bad you'll somehow get punished for helping.
Telling your manager feels like the right first move and will likely help make it the best it can be, but the biggest thing is going to be the culture of your team/company.
(p.s. If it doesn't work out and you like working with data...I am hiring https://jobs.lever.co/bateau).
Re: Ask HN: I automated part of someone else's job in my free time – how to proceed?
#106> I automated part of someone else's job in my free time – how to proceed? Fist, a misconception, there is no such thing as "free" time (opportunity cost: whatever you do means you're not doing something else in that same time that might benefit you more). You likely used an hour in which you were not expected to work as work time (as others pointed out, check your employment contract's IP clause and the IP laws of y…
> Fist, a misconception, there is no such thing as "free" time (opportunity cost: whatever you do means you're not doing something else in that same time that might benefit you more).
"Free" doesn't only refer to monetarily free. What OP did was in their free time, as in, free to do whatever they want with. i.e. Not work time.
“free” as in “free speech,” not as in “free beer”, and all that.
Re: Ask HN: I automated part of someone else's job in my free time – how to proceed?
#107No idea if this is you but the number of times I've seen an over eager employee (usually more junior but not always) think they've stumbled upon a great solution to a problem but really they were just missing some details is very high ... we are a very overconfident bunch. > As I understand it, significant time is spent on the manual part of it all. Get more details about the problem space before doing anything else.
Years ago I was in the US merchant marine and a very enterprising young deckhand joined my crew and figured out a “much faster process to get the power plant fired up.” Well, after we got the fire extinguished there was about $600k in damage and he was back to being a landlubber. Sometimes talking with more experienced colleagues is good before striking out on a new adventure.
Re: Ask HN: I automated part of someone else's job in my free time – how to proceed?
#108What you did was a prototype. It's not something that can go into production. Tell your employer that you believe part of the manual effort can be made more efficient via automation. The reason you feel that way is that you've created a prototype that shows it working just enough to prove it to yourself, but it's not production ready. You'd like to work on it on company time and so that it's ready.
Consider what you already did as the prototype. Whether you believe it's already ready now, or isn't, is immaterial. No software is "done". It just whether it meets a set of requirements. No doubt there will be additional changes waiting to be done, and maintenance. Consider those to be part of the formal implementation plan.
Hopefully they will appreciate your initiative, and now you can continue to get paid for the thing that you were previously doing for free. And, maybe, you can help automate other things. This is good experience for you that you can use elsewhere.
The last thing you want to do is worry about compensation for the work you've already done on your free time. You're being penny-wise / pound-foolish about that. The good will you'll have with your current employer will far outweigh that.
And if it doesn't go as you describe, don't make a big deal about it, but clearly that's not department for you. Either transfer or go to a different company.
This exact scenario happened to me, and this is what I did; my future career benefit from it.
Re: Ask HN: I automated part of someone else's job in my free time – how to proceed?
#109Make it into a product, put someone elses name on it then promote it with the employer with straight face. Could even include an email exchange where you list the missing features and respond with willingness to implement them.
Re: Ask HN: I automated part of someone else's job in my free time – how to proceed?
#110Make it into a product, put someone elses name on it then promote it with the employer with straight face. Could even include an email exchange where you list the missing features and respond with willingness to implement them.
That sounds an awful lot like fraud. You’re promoting a product to your employer while actively hiding your financial stake in it.