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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

#161

Post by clutchdude »

jorblumesea wrote: post #116

This is why people do LC problems daily and interview regularly. You will find that you need to constantly play the game if you want to stay in the game. It's a sliding scale of preparedness. Those out of step with the interview meta and out of practice will find it more painful. The biggest mistake is losing your job, then having to prep to get a new one.

Biggest mistake is thinking you have to grind in leetcode outside of work to edge out others.

If your job right now isn't preparing you for your next job, then you are in the wrong job.

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

#162

Post by fxtentacle »

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.

I guess that depends on how much you enjoy your side projects.

Over the Christmas holidays, I rooted the vacuum robot, built a workstation from parts, worked on a new compression algorithm, and enhanced my papwrcraft design software... Because that's what I enjoy doing in my free time.

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

#163

Post by jchw »

Regarding #6: I've found through experimentation that it's totally OK for me to just be opaque about my identity online. I'm not anonymous at all, just that if a prospective employer were to Google me, they'd not find my meager internet presence. It's not that I'm hiding anything, but in the spirit of #6, not hiding something doesn't mean you have to advertise it either. I've never had an employer give enough of a shit to see my social media accounts. And while I admit this is probably a position of privilege in some ways, I feel like almost anyone in SWE or wanting to get into SWE is better off this way anyways.

Again, it's not about deception. If I were asked, I'd say I don't have any professional internet presence (which is true, I don't. This is me as a person here, not me as an employee.) I of course will link my GitHub, but links from my internet presence only point in the direction of my GitHub, and not the other way around. So if you were really curious, you could dig. Nobody cares to do that, though. I think employers that search are mostly just looking for blatant red flags to try to simplify their lives, and thus it's mutually beneficial to keep a lower profile online even if you don't do anything wrong.

Of course, in my case, it also helps to have a super common name :) But still. Being "just" a pseudonym most places is fine.

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

#164

Post by enraged_camel »

anon50118810 wrote: post #149
rjh29 wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

No need to incorporate or give yourself a fancy title IMO. "Founder @ sideproject.io" works well enough.

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

#167

Post by icedchai »

anon50118810 wrote: post #149
rjh29 wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I disagree. Incorporating, giving yourself a title, and a LinkedIn page are things anyone can do. People who "play business" spend tons of time on this stuff, along with designing company logos, hiring accountants (for their zero revenue business), and lawyers (for NDAs to protect their non-existent idea.) I've seen it first hand. They'll do anything to avoid actual work: building and selling a product.

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

#168

Post by scarface74 »

hinkley wrote: post #134
itake wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just wondering, what is your TC? My understanding is that story works at Tier 3 companies that lack a structured interview process and are desperate for candidates (e.g. startups).

Reversing a binary tree is a reference to a FAANG interview. Money makes life easier. It isn’t the goal of your life. We aren’t playing a video game where the person who made the most money “wins” at life.

See my other reply for more context.

But given a choice in 2020 of working at any large company as a software developer where I would have had to relocate and staying at smaller companies, I would have definitely chosen smaller companies.

By 2020, I already had the big overvalued house in the burbs, decent retirement savings, a good work life balance, etc.

I fell into a role at BigTech almost by accident doing the type of work I enjoy - seeing a company’s problem, solving the problem, training, and putting myself out of job and moving on.

Heck, my expenses are lower now than they were in 2020. Within the past year, I’ve sold my house, we sold our cars, and now we have a cheaper investment property/winter home where we stay half the year and we fly across the US the other half of the year staying in hotels. We own nothing physically can’t fit in three suitcases - two of which have to stay under 50 pounds.

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

#169

Post by anon50118810 »

awillen wrote: post #106
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've taken time off between jobs without taking on any meaningful projects, and I generally haven't found it to be an issue. When I tell recruiters I just wanted time off to relax, they're sometimes skeptical, but hiring managers more often than not either respond with some variety of "Oh yeah, I did that too and it was amazing" or "Oh man that sounds so great, I'm jealous." I do apply almost entirely to smaller star…

It's important to quantify how long your time off was for this anecdote to be meaningful. No good employer will bat an eye if you worked at a place for five years then spent three months on a tropical beach. A year spent job searching with no luck like the OP is a different situation altogether.

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

#170

Post by Aloha »

fxtentacle wrote: post #162
jimmaswell wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I guess that depends on how much you enjoy your side projects. Over the Christmas holidays, I rooted the vacuum robot, built a workstation from parts, worked on a new compression algorithm, and enhanced my papwrcraft design software... Because that's what I enjoy doing in my free time.

I work a job to pay for my side projects. If I could just work on those, taking care of the house, etc, and still make a living, I'd be very happy.
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