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Unicorn Jobs

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Re: Unicorn Jobs

#71

Post by AYBABTME »

was_hellbanned wrote: post #14

The rather unethical alternative is to find a job in a fairly incompetent group at a company that's not extremely tech focused, then spend most of your time working on whatever you want to. I've had jobs (and spoken to many people with similar jobs) where I could accomplish all my tasks within a couple hours of actual, focused effort, leaving the rest of the work week for personal projects, side business, etc.

I see a flaw in this, as being surrounded by fairly incompetent people will have an effect on you by osmosis. It will slowly erode your skills/happyness/motivation.

Re: Unicorn Jobs

#72

Post by AYBABTME »

PaulHoule wrote: post #15
was_hellbanned wrote: post #14

The rather unethical alternative is to find a job in a fairly incompetent group at a company that's not extremely tech focused, then spend most of your time working on whatever you want to. I've had jobs (and spoken to many people with similar jobs) where I could accomplish all my tasks within a couple hours of actual, focused effort, leaving the rest of the work week for personal projects, side business, etc.

The weirdest thing is that I've worked at places where I couldn't get other people to move fast enough to stay busy. That is, if I tried to work at 80% utilization I'd always be arguing with people to get them to pick up the pace. Once I decided to work at 40% utilization I found I got along better with people. My boss bitched me out once for "not being fully committed" but he quit the next month, so things went on f…

What I did in a previous situation like that went:

   Phase 1: Get angry at people being slow.
   Phase 2: Write tool to make slow people incapable of being slow.
   Phase 3: Profit.
Phase 2 keeps you busy in while the slow people are slow, so you don't get as angry. Then in phase 3, the slow people become irrelevant so they don't frustrate you anymore. Plus you get recognition for improving the efficiency of the office.

Re: Unicorn Jobs

#73

Post by ossdev1 »

sauravt wrote: post #19
ossdev1 wrote: post #7

I have an unicorn job. 100% to my own projects. My secret? I don't use any standard technologies: Python, Ruby, PHP, etc. Too much competition there.

I bet its haskell , isn't it ?

No, it isn't Haskell. But I respect a lot functional programmers.

Re: Unicorn Jobs

#74

Post by bikamonki »

A rather narrow view, of the thousands of occupations and careers you are just looking in the mirror. How about my friend who owns a bike shop? Or my other friend who runs an art/design webzine? Or my other friend with the micro-brewery? None of them are particularly skilled at what they do nor have the right networking. I think their secret lies between living within their means and choosing to do what they love. Anyone can do that and if that is what you are looking for, a sabbatical with enough money to go by and full time to inmerse in a great idea: go ahead and do it, do not over think it, do not be afraid to fail.

Re: Unicorn Jobs

#75

Post by derefr »

KaoruAoiShiho wrote: post #69
derefr wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 'unicorns' designer + developers positions conjoined I've always found the resistance to this so strange. My CV has Erlang, Haskell, IA32 assembler, and HTML5/CSS3 on it in various places. The first question any company inevitably asks me, when I send it in, is "what position are you applying for?" (Even though I answer this in the cover letter. Good evidence that they don't bother to read it.) I should probably ju…

The problem is that a less than A player in either design or backend programming will more likely shit things up instead of contributing in a minor way. It's just hard to believe that you are an A player in both.

Your statement hinges on the implicit premise that most of the skills required in programming share no common knowledge, and each must be learned entirely anew (so that time spent learning X is time not spent learning Y.)

I would pose the opposite: that learning more "parts" of programming at the same time, makes learning each individual part easier and faster. Epiphanies from learning functional programming will explain bits of compiler design; patterns you learn in macro assembler will clarify instruction-optimization vs. space-optimization choices; working with message-passing systems will revise your views on networking protocols; etc.

You'd expect, for a similar reason, someone with training in book publishing and communications design to not need much help getting into web design.

Re: Unicorn Jobs

#76

Post by EGreg »

A better way is to make a technology and keep reusing it for clients. Have clients find you more clients, make commissions and eventually earn their money back. Give old clients features developed for new clients. Eventually build out a productized service, get a bank loan, market it and sell the company. Or open source the tech and get a community around it (like symfony, etc)

This is the outline of working on your own stuff and just charging clients for high-margin projects, all the while building your technology.

Re: Unicorn Jobs

#77

Post by darkbot »

smtddr wrote: post #26
was_hellbanned wrote: post #14

The rather unethical alternative is to find a job in a fairly incompetent group at a company that's not extremely tech focused, then spend most of your time working on whatever you want to. I've had jobs (and spoken to many people with similar jobs) where I could accomplish all my tasks within a couple hours of actual, focused effort, leaving the rest of the work week for personal projects, side business, etc.

Related! https://sites.google.com/site/forgottenemployee/ Warning, this story is long and will drain your time if you start reading it because you'll want to know exactly what happens.

Brilliant! Made my day. Thank you, sir.

Re: Unicorn Jobs

#78

Post by AnonJ »

I have to say that looks a weird and potentially very harmful way of thinking. Why by default pit yourself against your job? Why you have to work on some "personal project" which seems to be completely isolated from, even contrary to your job? I guess it has to do with some "unsuccessful intern experiences" by the author, but I don't believe it's the correct perceptions of things. The ideal scenario, obviously, is to blend personal interest/fun together with the job you are doing. And I believe a lot of, even the majority, of top people in their field do things by such principle, and are living a happy + productive life, not only satisfying their own intellectual appetite, but also benefiting the company, and more broadly the world as a whole.

Re: Unicorn Jobs

#79

Post by FLUX-YOU »

abhiv wrote: post #34

This article might not be applicable to that many people. My guess is that many people are actually happiest working on things that are given to them. Working on your own projects requires that you think of an idea, and have the self-discipline to work on it in the absence of externally enforced constraints. I think a better question for most people might be: how do I get a job where work on the job is itself interes…

I'd just be happy having a job where someone paid me to learn after showing some basic competency. In return, I would stick my neck out for the company and stay 10 hour days trying to solve problems and not ditch at the first whiff of a higher paycheck.

Re: Unicorn Jobs

#80

Post by AnonJ »

tway9999 wrote: post #33

I think this is why some people go into Finance. Spend 10 years in some miserable high stress job, but hopefully gather enough wealth to retire in your early 30s and work on whatever you want. Also why people work part time and spend their off time painting or playing music. Be poor but have time to work on what you care about. Edit: Grammar

I always find such logic incomprehensible. Is a job that suits your interest, contributes to others in a meaningful way, and makes your life rewarding while at the same time keeps you a decent living ever so hard to find? I don't really think so. Why do people have to think like "it's I against the world, the job I do is the enemy of my personal enjoyment"? It's weird and potentially harmful.

In fact quite some people who I see getting into finance jobs with the "getting-enough-money" mentality often end up miserably. Without any love for their jobs, then no wonder.

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