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I worked 80 hour weeks to deliver a platform for a hedge fund,then they fired me

efinancialcareers.com

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Re: I worked 80 hour weeks to deliver a platform for a hedge fund,then they fired me

#101

Post by neilv »

dfadsadsf wrote: post #24

I 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.

There are many possibilities (and I can't really tell from skimming this writeup), but the possibilities absolutely include someone thinking "We got what we needed, now let's drop this person, and free the salary and bonus obligations".

Or they might've decided they didn't want that employee for some reason, maybe even dudebro culture fit mismatch when he showed up looking fatigued, and were "sux2bu" about how they got rid of the person, firing fast. Or that project got scrapped. Or some other person had a look at the code and decided they didn't like it (or didn't like the partner whose pet project it was). Etc.

A factor to keep in mind is that many, many shops nowadays really don't know how to build software that works sufficiently well, or they have low standards for what "sufficiently" means. For example, a few years ago, if your experience was only when the top priority was the appearance of growth, and then the next funding rounds and then exit, and there were all sorts of memes about moving fast and breaking things, etc., and you have no idea how to build systems that work, even if you wanted to... you might well think that developers are disposable and interchangeable commodities. (Someone else here noted the practice of a startup using offshoring contractors for key tech early on, which I think is strong evidence of this kind of thinking.)

Re: I worked 80 hour weeks to deliver a platform for a hedge fund,then they fired me

#102

Post by gottorf »

dopylitty wrote: post #59
WheelsAtLarge wrote: post #43

Just 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.

> The people who run most businesses would be perfectly happy delivering nothing at all and bringing in a profit.

To be fair, to the degree that your statement is true, then I think most people who are employed by businesses would be perfectly happy delivering nothing at all and bringing home a paycheck.

Re: I worked 80 hour weeks to deliver a platform for a hedge fund,then they fired me

#103

Post by sirspacey »

dfadsadsf wrote: post #24

I 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’ve seen it happen so many times that I envy your disbelief.

Re: I worked 80 hour weeks to deliver a platform for a hedge fund,then they fired me

#104

Post by moate »

dopylitty wrote: post #59
WheelsAtLarge wrote: post #43

Just 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.

As someone who worked in pricing for a SAAS company I often explained what I called the “greed-charity” scale with 0 being “full greed, take in money but provide nothing” and 10 being “full charity, provide everything for free” and ask “what does a 5 look like for this product/feature”?

Re: I worked 80 hour weeks to deliver a platform for a hedge fund,then they fired me

#105

Post by WalterBright »

Xunjin wrote: post #60
WheelsAtLarge wrote: post #43

Just 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…

Today business are more focused in making profit, delivering something to society is just a side effect.

That's always been true. It's also why free markets work so well - they make money by providing to society what society wants.

Re: I worked 80 hour weeks to deliver a platform for a hedge fund,then they fired me

#106

Post by coliveira »

dfadsadsf wrote: post #24

I 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.

You have no idea of what companies are capable of doing. They probably wanted to do it much earlier but had to wait until the work was "complete".

Re: I worked 80 hour weeks to deliver a platform for a hedge fund,then they fired me

#107

Post by chii »

nytesky wrote: post #35
dfadsadsf wrote: post #24

I 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.

Well, Netflix was famous for firing when the business need had passed. You have a seat in company for what you will do, not what you have done. These high speed trading platforms do a ton of transactions in 48 hours. They assume nothing material will change in 6 months vs 48 hours; and anyways if it breaks why keep paying the dude who built it so flimsy? Not my way of doing things of all, to be clear, just my interpr…

> You have a seat in company for what you will do, not what you have done.

that's fine, but netflix pays for this privilege by high salary from the get go.

If you worked for a startup, i assume the salary isn't going to be as high. Instead, you'd expect to be paid in equity.

So by firing someone as soon as they're done (meaning their future equity vesting is lost now), they lose a lot of what would've been theirs had the company's long term potential been great as a result of their work.

Re: I worked 80 hour weeks to deliver a platform for a hedge fund,then they fired me

#108

Post by sillysaurusx »

Please stop working more than 40 hours a week. It’s your choice, and you don’t need to choose to.

When it goes badly, you also don’t need to use it as a point of honor. It’s not. It just means you let your employer exploit you.

Doing it because you want to is a little different. I often do. But you have to understand that the only thing you’ll get out of it is mild intellectual gratification, and sometimes not even that.

Re: I worked 80 hour weeks to deliver a platform for a hedge fund,then they fired me

#109

Post by WalterBright »

namuol wrote: post #63

Nobody deserves to be treated like this, but unless it’s in a contract in actual cash terms, treat all compensatory promises from your employer as Monopoly money. This goes for bonuses as well as equity payouts.

It's not about what you deserve. It's about your contract with the employer.

For example, when you hire a plumber to fix something, do you pay him what he deserves, or do you pay him the amount agreed upon in advance?

Re: I worked 80 hour weeks to deliver a platform for a hedge fund,then they fired me

#110

Post by earthwalker99 »

sillysaurusx wrote: post #108

Please stop working more than 40 hours a week. It’s your choice, and you don’t need to choose to. When it goes badly, you also don’t need to use it as a point of honor. It’s not. It just means you let your employer exploit you. Doing it because you want to is a little different. I often do. But you have to understand that the only thing you’ll get out of it is mild intellectual gratification, and sometimes not even t…

>It just means you let your employer exploit you.

By definition, all labor on which another profits is a case of exploitation, regardless of length in time.

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