What age is the 80 hour slogger? The younger you are then the likelihood is that you're willing to work to burn out either because you don't know any better or you don't have a life outside work. Older folk who have been there, done that, know that $CORP is there to suck the life out of you before tossing you aside. That's why $CORP love new college grads and hate more experienced folk who call them out.
I worked 80 hour weeks to deliver a platform for a hedge fund,then they fired me
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Re: I worked 80 hour weeks to deliver a platform for a hedge fund,then they fired me
#92The specifics seem off (firing OMS dev right after launch) but I’ve seen my share of crazy fires in this space.
People fired day before launch after 2 year build out etc.
It’s always more of a clash of personalities than anything else.
Re: I worked 80 hour weeks to deliver a platform for a hedge fund,then they fired me
#93Just keep in mind that a business's role in society is to deliver something and bring in a profit. So if you don't bring revenue directly to the bottom line you are in line for layoffs. Don't fall in love with your job. The business is not in love with you. I suspect the fund's trading strategy was less than great so they had to cut expenses ASAP. I can't imagine why they would get rid of the person who would have to…
That is the role as envisioned by a particular, relatively modern theory. It was invented to destroy many existing institutions.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shareholder_value
And it's been profoundly destructive.
Re: I worked 80 hour weeks to deliver a platform for a hedge fund,then they fired me
#94Just keep in mind that a business's role in society is to deliver something and bring in a profit. So if you don't bring revenue directly to the bottom line you are in line for layoffs. Don't fall in love with your job. The business is not in love with you. I suspect the fund's trading strategy was less than great so they had to cut expenses ASAP. I can't imagine why they would get rid of the person who would have to…
You overstate their role when you say it includes 'delivering something'. The people who run most businesses would be perfectly happy delivering nothing at all and bringing in a profit. That's why businesses in the western economic system all end up turning purely into investment funds if left unchecked. All profit, no product.
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Re: I worked 80 hour weeks to deliver a platform for a hedge fund,then they fired me
#95This story sounds fairly made-up. I have worked in quant hedge funds before, and being let go 2 days after algos start trading just doesn't sound right, unless there was absolute cause that had nothing related to performance.
Re: I worked 80 hour weeks to deliver a platform for a hedge fund,then they fired me
#96I don’t believe this. Either the traders are too stupid to understand they need someone to maintain the system and iterate on it or they found and alternative in the time the original system was being developed.
Re: I worked 80 hour weeks to deliver a platform for a hedge fund,then they fired me
#97I just do not believe this story. Nobody in the right mind will fire key software engineer 48 hours after system goes live. This is where all the bugs/problems show up and you need all hands on deck to fix them. Six months after launch when all problems are solved - absolutely, you can fire engineer. 48 hours after launch? absolutely not.
I worked for a storage startup in the South Bay in the late 00s which did something like this. After staff crunched to deliver the base operating system and kernel controllers, management gave across-the-board poor reviews to all IC staff to justify no raise. Those with the ability quickly left for greener pastures; Google hired some of the best. Only those who had to (work visas, lack of experience, etc.) remained.…
Sounds like the Igneous playbook, from what I've heard. Immediately after launch they laid off a majority of the dev team, as they'd outlived their usefulness after completing the crunch. I interviewed there but fortunately declined the offer - I felt like I dodged a bullet when my friend (who survived the layoffs, only to be conscripted as a sales grunt) told me about it. I also gather that the CEO had pulled similar shenanigans with Isilon in the past.
If it's any consolation, Igneous died and the execs didn't make out like bandits this time.
Re: I worked 80 hour weeks to deliver a platform for a hedge fund,then they fired me
#98> I worked 80 hour weeks I don't know how the work culture is there but that seems completely insane. I've said it many times and I'll say it again. The first thing I tell anyone that enters the work force: Do not play the hero. You don't have to save the world. You will only be rewarded with more work. Put that passion and energy into something you created and own and control.
A few years ago I clocked like a 110 hour week. I was the director but also hands on so I was doing a ton of work but also responsible for delivery. Work was at a job site away from home. Worked straight through two weekends. I felt like I was doing this because I owned it. It culminated in a big demo for the client executive team that went flawlessly. At the end nobody said a word to me. I thought I did something really valuable for the company with direct visibility to leadership and they still didn't seem to care. I poured so much energy into that job and it just went nowhere. I wasn't fired on the spot but I ended up being laid off less than year later.
Re: I worked 80 hour weeks to deliver a platform for a hedge fund,then they fired me
#99Count yourself lucky that you got out with your liberty. It's not unheard of for quants that try to leave to be criminally prosecuted and placed in isolated incarceration. Getting fired sounds pretty good, no?
Got some stories for that?
The Goldman guy?
UBS had similar? Perhaps.
Try searching for these.
Re: I worked 80 hour weeks to deliver a platform for a hedge fund,then they fired me
#100Never trust any promise not in a signed contract and with said contract reviewed by a lawyer in a high stakes situation like that.
Never trust finance people, they are the scum of this planet. They only respect leverage.
Anyway, I have no much of sympathy for quants. So, poetic justice maybe.