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How long it takes to know if a job is right for you or not

charity.wtf

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Re: How long it takes to know if a job is right for you or not

#91

This isn't at all a rebuttal of the post, more a different perspective. I started a new job while basically deeply depressed. It colored all my opinions of the company and my coworkers. As I'm coming out of that through a combination of medication and intensive CBT I'm realizing that a lot of the negativity I felt towards my job was the result of the depression. As things improve I'm realizing that the job is mostly…

On the other hand, some studies show that mildly depressed people have a more accurate model of the world. So what if you were right about your job initially, and the CBT is basically just gaslighting you into spinning things in a positive way?

> some studies show that mildly depressed people have a more accurate model of the world

This is called the “depressive realism” hypothesis and there’s more evidence against it than for it.

The studies don’t show “more accurate model of the world” like the depressive realism pushers claim. They show isolated things like depressed patients performing slightly better in some arbitrary gamified task. There are studies that have the results going the other way, too.

It’s well understood that depressive episodes cause cognitive distortions that lead to overestimating the effort required for tasks, underestimating how easily things can be changed for the better, or ruminating on things that don’t matter.

Re: How long it takes to know if a job is right for you or not

#93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the other hand, some studies show that mildly depressed people have a more accurate model of the world. So what if you were right about your job initially, and the CBT is basically just gaslighting you into spinning things in a positive way?

Mildly is doing a lot of heavy lifting here. What does mildly depressed mean?

It is a well established clinical term. It's not doing any heavy lifting.

Re: How long it takes to know if a job is right for you or not

#94
I agree with the article, except for the last section, because many times the reason for me to quit was a manager who did not give himself, but was playing the game of pleasing upper management and not giving a shit about the hard working team. Also thr suggestion that you as a software engineer does not bring yourself to the table, is wrong, otherwise there would not be any developers suffering from burn-outs.

Re: How long it takes to know if a job is right for you or not

#95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I found a correlation between Rails and lower salaries. Not sure why though. I was actively looking to move to Rails for a change of scenery, until I realised it comes with a tax.

What country were you searching in? I'm an American work-from-home Rails + React engineer (admittedly with 12 years of experience), and I'm in the 96th % income bracket for individuals of my age (mid-40s). And I just started this position a month or two ago, so it's not like I got this job during the time of ZIRP. IMO it completely depends on the company you're working for. I've seen job ads targeting my skill level…

Australia. Typ would be 50k converted to USD when I was looking a few years ago.

Re: How long it takes to know if a job is right for you or not

#96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What country were you searching in? I'm an American work-from-home Rails + React engineer (admittedly with 12 years of experience), and I'm in the 96th % income bracket for individuals of my age (mid-40s). And I just started this position a month or two ago, so it's not like I got this job during the time of ZIRP. IMO it completely depends on the company you're working for. I've seen job ads targeting my skill level…

What's the delta on Rails + React vs Rails without?

The delta in terms of salary? The median is roughly similar, maybe a slight edge for Rails + React depending on region or company. But the big difference is volume. There are way more Rails + React roles out there, and the Rails-only ones tend to be more variable in scope, stack, and compensation.

On the developer experience side, I haven’t worked extensively with the latest versions of Rails, so I don’t have a strong opinion yet on whether Hotwire provides a better frontend experience than React. That said, people I respect in the Rails community speak highly of the Hotwire approach to building modern, interactive UIs without the overhead of a full SPA. I’m sure I could pick it up with a little effort, but it’s not a top priority for me right now.

From a technical perspective, my sense is that teams adopting or reverting to a pure Rails stack, especially with Hotwire, tend to be more conscientious about keeping versions up-to-date, and generally more opinionated and deliberate about tech choices. A few years ago, replacing Rails views with React SPAs was not uncommon. But now that Rails has caught up with tools like Turbo and Stimulus, some teams are intentionally moving back toward server-driven UIs.

In terms of employability, most of the job listings I came across during my recent search were still Rails + React. And given that being fluent in multiple tech stacks broadens my opportunities, I plan to stay in the Rails + React camp for now.

Re: How long it takes to know if a job is right for you or not

#97
post #34

I find that I pick companies to work with when my goals and their goals align. I visualize this alignment like two boats travelling on the ocean together, with a rope that runs between them, connecting them. When the alignment is strong, the tension on the rope is low, and it's a great place to work at. But over time, the direction of either party can change, and it results in a better alignment, or a drift from each…

> The key is to know when the rope is about to break, and then disconnect from that company and start the process again with another company, aligned in your direction This post helped me a lot tonight, thank you I've been feeling this tension building like crazy over the past few months as my employer has been pushing AI mandates and metrics hard. It's been making me miserable, my productivity is crashing and I wish…

Not a problem, being able to put a story to what you are feeling is important.

You control when to disconnect from the company, that's 100% in your power.

Happy sailing!

Re: How long it takes to know if a job is right for you or not

#98
post #34

I find that I pick companies to work with when my goals and their goals align. I visualize this alignment like two boats travelling on the ocean together, with a rope that runs between them, connecting them. When the alignment is strong, the tension on the rope is low, and it's a great place to work at. But over time, the direction of either party can change, and it results in a better alignment, or a drift from each…

This also works for people, but sometimes you choose a longer rope. :)

Re: How long it takes to know if a job is right for you or not

#99
I like companies that do tryouts. In the last 15 years I worked for 3 employers. Two of them did tryouts - a day or two literally working in their environment. One did not.

The two that did it both were great, the one that did not turned out to not be for me.

I'm with the last employer for the last 9 years, and not looking to quit :))

Re: How long it takes to know if a job is right for you or not

#100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It does cause serious problems if you ever start needing engineers, though, unless you're a better politician than people who imagine themselves skillful politicians almost ever are.

Oh no, where will you find people with some web fundamentals who are able to learn a crud framework.

Yeah, yeah. In a year or two it will probably be in fashion to say "dev" or something again. I'm talking about the other kind, the one that's recently been fashionable to call "staff" or "architect."
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