Databricks counts being laid off as “red flag” • Hacker News Board

Re: Databricks counts being laid off as “red flag”

#181

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Feb 21, 2023, 3:51 PM UTC

nicolas_t wrote: post #134

ramesh31 wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>A common way of avoiding having to lie is registering your own consulting company after getting laid off. No resume gap! As far as if it fools recruiters, no idea. It's got to sometimes, right? I see it too often on LinkedIn for it to be useless. "Consulting" is the programmer equivalent of claiming "Entrepreneur" as a job title. Sure it exists, but it generally translates to "Unemployed".

In the company I'm currently working with, 60% of employees are contractors/consultants. On average they make 30% more than fulltime employees (but they don't have benefits so it washes out). Myself, I've been either an entrepreneur (had a company with up to 12 employees for a few years) or doing consulting pretty much exclusively in the last 16 years. So no consulting/contracting doesn't mean unemployed.

[deleted]

Re: Databricks counts being laid off as “red flag”

#182

Post by gedy » Tue, Feb 21, 2023, 3:52 PM UTC

hotpotamus wrote: post #166

gedy wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there any drawback to just leaving your last company active on LinkedIn, etc? I did that one time when I quit for a 4 month break, no one seemed to ask if I had quit yet and interviews went fine?

I've been led to believe that there are brokers who have information on your employment history and that it will likely show up in a background check. Famously, employment dates are the only thing a typical HR department will give out when cold called by a potential new employer. Basically, it's not something I'd fluff beyond a month or two. I'd find something else to fill a big gap on a resume if needed (sabbatical,…

Yes if it gets to filling out background check documents, I don't fudge dates. I have though typically only needed to do those after offer has been made, etc.

Re: Databricks counts being laid off as “red flag”

#183

Post by vt100 » Tue, Feb 21, 2023, 3:54 PM UTC

kergonath wrote: post #81

ramesh31 wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>A common way of avoiding having to lie is registering your own consulting company after getting laid off. No resume gap! As far as if it fools recruiters, no idea. It's got to sometimes, right? I see it too often on LinkedIn for it to be useless. "Consulting" is the programmer equivalent of claiming "Entrepreneur" as a job title. Sure it exists, but it generally translates to "Unemployed".

I’ve seen consultants make around £30,000 a month. Including at least one case where the person in question did that after being let go, consulting for the same people who were her customers when she was employed. Not too bad for unemployed people.

Yeah, I have a day rate of about £1000, which works out to £20k a month. Not quite £30k. Maybe I need to up my rate for inflation.

Re: Databricks counts being laid off as “red flag”

#184

Post by anon7725 » Tue, Feb 21, 2023, 4:04 PM UTC

daniel-thompson wrote: post #152

SQueeeeeL wrote: post #4

Damn, the top comment on the article is about how you need to lie in tech interviews. How far have we fallen if we don't even have enough dignity to walk away from garbage tier companies who can't even put any real effort into hiring. Lying is not a solution, letting companies like Databricks die a slow painful death because they create toxic environments and all their programmers keep quitting is the solution.

> How far have we fallen if we don't even have enough dignity to walk away from garbage tier companies who can't even put any real effort into hiring. On the one hand I agree with you, on the other, you can't pay your mortgage with dignity.

Indeed. This is not a categorical issue since, as noted elsewhere in the thread, employers lie and obfuscate all the time.

Would I judge someone for fudging the dates of their last employment to get around a ridiculous recruiter screen like this? Absolutely not. Would I judge someone for directly lying about their experience or knowledge? Yes, that’s unethical.

Re: Databricks counts being laid off as “red flag”

#185

Post by anon7725 » Tue, Feb 21, 2023, 4:10 PM UTC

ianlevesque wrote: post #42

smeagull wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interviews are all lies. Sure, some people would claim "It's just about putting your best foot forward and presenting yourself in the best possible light," but those people are such liars they lie about lying. Lying by admission is still lying.

God that's cynical. In the final round of my last FAANG interview after bumbling through part of it, at a very senior level, the interviewer flat out asked me "so uh, how long has it been since you did Android?", presumably due to my poor performance. I admitted I'd spent the majority of the last 2 years on iOS even though I'd done Android in the past too, and lo and behold, hired. Honesty and respect are valued wher…

Congratulations on finding an empathetic and wise interviewer among the legions of smug know-it-alls who are enthused to watch you twist in the wind with their trick questions.

Re: Databricks counts being laid off as “red flag”

#186

Post by anon7725 » Tue, Feb 21, 2023, 4:18 PM UTC

PedroBatista wrote: post #159

cochne wrote: post #6

I think their HR culture may be a little toxic. When I told them their offer was not enough, they got very irate. They said if I only care about money I’m not a good fit for their culture of builders, and that I should watch out because there are lots of lay offs happening. It all left me with a very poor impression of them.

If money isn't that important, why are they regularly getting VC money for 10 years at something like 40 Billion valuation? The sad reality is this industry is full of assholes, I don't even mean they trying to pay as little as possible, that's "business", I mean unprofessional people who play "good cop, bad cop" and all the childish games they learn on TV movies. Some of them really think they are the "new Steve Job…

These are just recruiters, though. It’s a sales job and they have quotas and incentives. Many of them were not in the industry a short time ago and many are now leaving the industry on a rail.

Do you expect your car sales guy to be professional? I’d love for that to be the case, but the reality is usually not so.

Re: Databricks counts being laid off as “red flag”

#187

Post by deepsun » Tue, Feb 21, 2023, 4:26 PM UTC

oh_nonono wrote: post #127

deepsun wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's dishonesty on your side, and a real red flag. Laid off and fired is different things.

>That's dishonesty on your side Oh no! Oh, the humanity!

Naaah, it's for their own self-esteem and purposefulness.

Re: Databricks counts being laid off as “red flag”

#188

Post by astrange » Tue, Feb 21, 2023, 5:23 PM UTC

xyzelement wrote: post #180

astrange wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How did you know their ranking? Smells of circularity.

Two ways. Seeing who was laid off in performance rounds. Also as a manager, sat in plenty of calibration meetings where we lined up rankings across managers.

…sure, but that's what circularity means. You think it's accurate because you set it.

The problem is when people are doing something useful the managers haven't noticed. (Or is successfully bullshitting instead of contributing anything.)

Re: Databricks counts being laid off as “red flag”

#189

Post by RajT88 » Tue, Feb 21, 2023, 5:38 PM UTC

jfrbfbreudh wrote: post #40

hapless wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It doesn't fool anyone.

Fools lots of people in my experience.

At the very least it seems like it's useful for fooling the first tier recruiters who filter people out based on things like resume gaps or not having a particular keyword. It keeps your resume out of the wastebin, at least until you get to chat with the next tier recruiter.

Re: Databricks counts being laid off as “red flag”

#190

Post by kergonath » Tue, Feb 21, 2023, 7:48 PM UTC

mcv wrote: post #135

kergonath wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve seen consultants make around £30,000 a month. Including at least one case where the person in question did that after being let go, consulting for the same people who were her customers when she was employed. Not too bad for unemployed people.

When my last employer went through a technical bankruptcy and had to fire some people, I volunteered because it would enable me to start my own business. I've been doing pretty well since then. Not 30k/month, but good enough.

Congratulations! It is not for everyone, but I have friends thriving in this role. Now, to be clear they did not make £30,000 pcm year after year. Ups and downs average out over the long term, and the average certainly is lower than that. Still, they do complain about stress and such, but not really about the money.