This is a good post however the author computes a ratio of two quantities without defining how they are measured. But the decision boundary seems spot on.
What are the “trophy jobs” in tech?
41–50 of 81 posts
Re: What are the “trophy jobs” in tech?
#42Trophy job:
One where I earn enough to retire early and own all my own time.
Seriously? Trophy Jobs now? Take a step back and think how absurd that is.
Re: What are the “trophy jobs” in tech?
#43Quants at prop trading or buy-side HFT (not banks). There’s a lot of substance in those jobs (denominator), but the status is insanely high (numerator). Smart. Quants are generally “smart” with diverse software, hardware, and math knowledge. Scarcity. In the United States, the entire industry might hire 1,000 to 2,000 new grad quants per year. And most importantly, a realistic path to $1M+ TC by 5 YOE, and $10M+ TC i…
“ And most importantly, a realistic path to $1M+ TC by 5 YOE, and $10M+ TC is not uncommon for 15-20 YOE.” That’s wild, if true.
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Re: What are the “trophy jobs” in tech?
#44CTO / VP of engineering at small VC-backed companies that employ less than 50 engineers. My current CTO spends most of his time spamming ChatGPT-related stuff, and discussing "key objectives" he replaces every few months, thus having next to no accountability. It was the same at my previous job.
Oh lord, I ended up working at a place that had one of those. He would always carry this huge stack of old-school fan folded green and white dot matrix printer paper to prove his bona fides and would spend every meeting furiously scribbling circles and boxes on it and then throwing it away after. His catch phrase (in like 2013) was “I could probably whip together an AI solution for this but I’m too busy, you guys jus…
> huge stack of old-school fan folded green and white dot matrix printer paper
My mom just got rid of 2 unopened cases of the stuff sitting in her basement from the late 80s.
Re: What are the “trophy jobs” in tech?
#45That definition of "trophy job" is one that I can agree with. However, I can't think of any tech job that I'd consider a "trophy job" by that definition. Am I weird?
The issue I had with that article is that things like prestige and being mixed in with comp in the context of status. They probably correlate to some degree but, if If I personally enjoy a job and I'm very well-compensated for it, I actually don't care that much if my friends go "OOOH. You're a $X at $Y." (Though I may care--as the article does touch on to some degree--if the prestige makes it a better springboard to other opportunities.)
Re: What are the “trophy jobs” in tech?
#46Earlier quoted context omitted.
Besides maybe janitor, what skillset in the chain of production doesn't make or break a product?
Oh, you’d be surprised how much damage a janitor can do (me remembering the time the cleaning guy at my dad’s lab accidentally tipped over a whole shelf of mice)
Wasn't there a story recently about a janitor ruining 20 years of research or something?
Re: What are the “trophy jobs” in tech?
#47Earlier quoted context omitted.
The quality of talent at VC backed businesses could actually be quite abyssmal. I have even companies where directors of entire orgs never worked as an engineer and it's laughable how little some of these people actually know about the field.
Well, as they say it's about who you know not what you know.
True that. Sadly not much progress has been made to get rid of that status quo.
Re: What are the “trophy jobs” in tech?
#48[deleted]
Re: What are the “trophy jobs” in tech?
#49Re: What are the “trophy jobs” in tech?
#50I get the feeling that "tech evangalist" is a pretty sweet gig, provided that you can find somebody who will pay you to do it ;)