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Hard truths I learned when I got laid off from my SWE job

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Re: Hard truths I learned when I got laid off from my SWE job

#141

Post by k__ »

ejb999 wrote: post #88
k__ wrote: post #45

"If you’re like me, work is the primary shaper of your life" It's sad to see people again and again sell their life.

>>It's sad to see people again and again sell their life. Why? I don't find that sad at all - some people really enjoy their work, and it becomes a big part of their identity. What better way to spend you life than doing something you truly enjoy and provides you an income to be comfortable and take care of your family/friends? I know a lot of doctors, they have spent their entire lives taking care of people, saving…

There is a difference between having passion for your profession and selling your life to one specific company.

If you have passion, you don't need to care where to follow it. But OP seemingly traded a fulfilling privat life with friends for a company with coworkers.

Re: Hard truths I learned when I got laid off from my SWE job

#142

Post by axetheone »

As someone recently laid off, I strongly ressonate with points #1 and #5 and the amount of platitudes and empty words (but to be honest, some people were truly earnest/helpful on helping me get through this) involved in this makes the whole experience almost feel like being gaslighted by (almost) everyone. I was already quite aware on how unaunthentic and fake things are in the corporate world but this layoff (and several others in the industry right now) was really something else.

And then companies wonder why employees are more and more "mercenary"...

Re: Hard truths I learned when I got laid off from my SWE job

#143

Post by rjh29 »

blagie wrote: post #74

My advice: Have one or more side projects going all the time. If you get laid off, immediately start doing a startup, open-source project, or volunteering full time. A year of unemployment? Lonely, depressing, and not good on a resume. A year of launching an unsuccessful venture? Running coding classes for the underserved? Focusing full-time on contributing to pytorch? That's a lot better, both at the time and in ret…

I have a decent amount of savings and a side project I want to do which could potentially earn money. Are you saying if I quit my job and do this for a year or so, it'll fill a hole in my resume and not affect future interviews?

Re: Hard truths I learned when I got laid off from my SWE job

#144

Post by carlmr »

martythemaniak wrote: post #122
eulers_secret wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is exactly what happened to me when I quit. “Now I’ll have time for my projects!!” Instead it’s been “Grokking Algorithms”, “The Competitive Programmers Handbook”, Alex Xu’s “System Design”, and enough leetcode that I’m actually doing more than I did at work. What sucks is that there are still lots of medium problems I cannot do. Hards are right out. Dunno what I’ll do.

Not a widely shared opinion here, but this process will make you a better engineer. Keep at it.

I see this all the time, "coding interviews suck", "leetcode doesn't test if you're a good coder", but in the end it's better than nothing, and having worked at places without coding interviews there's almost no bottom to people's abilities. So a low, but existing, floor is a good thing.

Re: Hard truths I learned when I got laid off from my SWE job

#145

Post by throwawaysleep »

martythemaniak wrote: post #122
eulers_secret wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is exactly what happened to me when I quit. “Now I’ll have time for my projects!!” Instead it’s been “Grokking Algorithms”, “The Competitive Programmers Handbook”, Alex Xu’s “System Design”, and enough leetcode that I’m actually doing more than I did at work. What sucks is that there are still lots of medium problems I cannot do. Hards are right out. Dunno what I’ll do.

Not a widely shared opinion here, but this process will make you a better engineer. Keep at it.

Memorizing decks of leetcode problems improved your engineering skills?

Re: Hard truths I learned when I got laid off from my SWE job

#146

Post by dj_mc_merlin »

cahoot_bird wrote: post #109
dj_mc_merlin wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Embrace distributed WFH and you can spend 4 hours in the morning, have a nice picnic, play some basketball, have a couple beers, then retire to your room to do another 4hrs. Or just fuck off some days and counterbalance it by doing hyper focused 12hrs days some other time. Also: unless you're genuinely curing cancer or flying food to starving African villages or something, 95% of software companies are pretty damn us…

Counter opinion: You're going to be one of many applicant because everyone else is embracing WFH trend too, so you are competing with everyone, especially with some much experience to show, or a portfolio of trending technologies. It might be that a dev that has a money cushion and is willing and able to relocate can compete on a level others can't because competition would only be localized. OP was unemployed a year…

> OP was unemployed a year. Time adds up, that's a lot of money.

Luckily my government gives me a full year of unemployment benefits at 2/3rds of my salary besides my savings. Obviously, I don't wish to test my luck regardless, but not everywhere is as cutthroat as the US.

Re: Hard truths I learned when I got laid off from my SWE job

#147

Post by fullstackchris »

jimmaswell wrote: post #124
blagie wrote: post #74

My advice: Have one or more side projects going all the time. If you get laid off, immediately start doing a startup, open-source project, or volunteering full time. A year of unemployment? Lonely, depressing, and not good on a resume. A year of launching an unsuccessful venture? Running coding classes for the underserved? Focusing full-time on contributing to pytorch? That's a lot better, both at the time and in ret…

This is a live-to-work attitude. Have some other hobbies and goals, and a year of unemployment will be neither lonely nor depressing. Personally I've gone farther in the work-to-live direction, with an easygoing, "boring" (still fulfilling enough to see some javascript doodad come to life, but not world changing) WFH job I perform well in that supports my homesteading and other hobbies.

The author anyway had this mentality:

> If you’re like me, work is the primary shaper of your life. Work gives your life rhythm. It is the gravitational center around which the other activities in your life revolve.

Re: Hard truths I learned when I got laid off from my SWE job

#148

Post by rjh29 »

k__ wrote: post #45

"If you’re like me, work is the primary shaper of your life" It's sad to see people again and again sell their life.

I work to live, and if I quit I would not be lonely at all because I have hobbies and a social life that is intentionally completely separate from work.

But not everyone is the same. Some people derive great value and pleasure from their job.

Re: Hard truths I learned when I got laid off from my SWE job

#149

Post by anon50118810 »

rjh29 wrote: post #143
blagie wrote: post #74

My advice: Have one or more side projects going all the time. If you get laid off, immediately start doing a startup, open-source project, or volunteering full time. A year of unemployment? Lonely, depressing, and not good on a resume. A year of launching an unsuccessful venture? Running coding classes for the underserved? Focusing full-time on contributing to pytorch? That's a lot better, both at the time and in ret…

I have a decent amount of savings and a side project I want to do which could potentially earn money. Are you saying if I quit my job and do this for a year or so, it'll fill a hole in my resume and not affect future interviews?

I would only hope to use that as a substitute for paid employment if you actually incorporate, give yourself a title, put your company on LinkedIn and otherwise treat it like a business. Noodling around on a side project that you might monetize eventually is not a substitute.

Re: Hard truths I learned when I got laid off from my SWE job

#150

Post by tra3 »

scarface74 wrote: post #137
tra3 wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The intent is to learn and produce and be an able to talk about rather than try to make money.

So if you aren’t “learning and producing” at your day job, what are you doing 40 hours a week?

I believe the gp was talking about the year of unemployment referred to in the original post.

I was laid off for about a month earlier this year and it was the most productive I’ve ever been, open source contributions wise. Pragmatically, I should’ve grinded leetcode but I couldn’t bring myself to do it. I was really enjoying the open source work though, a combination of react and lisp. I did talk about it during the interviews and maybe that came across.

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