41–50 of 68 posts
Join Wells Fargo. We have a lot of people like that. Plus you can work remotely!
Wow! I know this is said sarcastically but I will keep WF as an example of a Big Corp where it might be possible.
I'm in a position like that right now. And it is driving me crazy. Sure the pay is good. And the responsibilities are well-defined and reliable. But the challenge and enjoyment is not there. I find myself working like crazy after hours to carve out a new career while still maintaining the income of the day job. The balance between stressed-out and challenged can be hard to strike. But I know that for me I need to be…
Run for Congress... No accountability, don't really have to do anything, high salary, no real job requirements except age and citizenship, not a lot of work expectations, and if you are an incumbent your re-election rates are 90% for House and 91% for Senators. Perfect fit.
Marketing.
As a senior marketer who was up last night till after midnight analyzing view-through attribution data for our display efforts, I really resent that. You may not clearly understand what goes into marketing, but just as there are good and bad people in any field, a good marketer actually does quite a bit of work. In most cases, marketing is one of the most visibly measurable functions in a company and unless the compa…
It's probably a gamble. I'd imagine that these positions are at a company that's doing reasonably well, and hasn't had to make cuts anywhere. From what I've read, Yahoo had lots of these positions pre-Marissa Mayers--the company was just coasting along, not really having to change anything, but when she came in with energy & force, these kinds of people were the first to go. I'd say this is a terrible thing to aspire…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
That has not been the case everywhere I have worked. Also not anywhere I have been as an outside contractor. Perhaps it's the industry. Anyway, all I've seen is a bunch of "Cover Your Ass" and reluctance to make decisions by middle management. I think OP would love such a position. Very little "work," just a bunch of delegating and meetings to review progress. Be ready to embrace a life of looking at Excel spreadshee…
This does sound the best so far :)
At a prior job it was half and half. Half were promoted because of stellar prior work and half were promoted to remove their incompetent from harming the organization. I worked for both kinds at that organization.
Look for a big company. Easier to hide in them.
Find a place with internal fights. Same reasoning.
No external competition is a plus.
A lazy boss is a treasure. A very busy one is a close second.
Never be just under "the line" (between managemente and technical).
Have reports. Make them do everything you should.
The problem comes when you've been in that position for 10 years, doing little to no significant work, not building or honing any skills, and suddenly a new management comes in and cleans house, and you're gone. Now what?
I work for the government and we have a lot of folks like what you describe, but with less income. As long as they show up for work and answer a few emails, mostly, they can get by. This works, I guess, if you're just a few years from retiring. But we do sometimes get aggressive politicians in office who promise to "cut the fat", and we have had cuts and layoffs in the past. So imagine yourself, at 25, you take a position and intentionally don't learn, don't advance, and just do the minimum to collect the salary.
10 years later, you're 35 and still working with Java 6 on some legacy system that needs 2 hours a week of maintenance. That's your whole job. Suddenly, some political upheaval happens and a bunch of folks, including you, are laid off.
Can you get back in the game? Of course. Would it be a lot easier to get back in if you took that time to keep your skills at least somewhat up to date?
That said, I'm very sympathetic. I'm a computer programmer because I've always been good at it. When I was a kid, and in high school, and so on. That's the only skill I learned. But I don't like computers. New frameworks don't excite me, they make me feel tired. When I go home, I don't want to play with the newest technology or even gadget. I dream of getting out of computing all together, but, nothing else would bring the salary combined with the light workload. It's a "bronze handcuffs" situation (I say bronze, because, as a government worker, my salary is too low to qualify for anything else). I had a job for a while teaching remedial basic math to adults, which was pretty neat, but it was part-time, no-benefits, low wage. That's the kind of thing that is fulfilling, but doesn't pay the mortgage.
Even so, I read HN. I sometimes do make time to try new ideas, even small ones. I'm not using node.js or angular, but, at least I've heard of them and know what they are. Don't become the guy that hasn't heard of them [where them refers to whatever is fresh] and doesn't know what they are... Or I worry you'll find yourself in a very difficult spot in a few years.
I think if I were you (25, statistically likely to be single), I would live in the cheapest accommodations I could stand and use the mostly-excess portion of that 100k to buy rental homes in cash. Do that for a number of years, and it won't be long before you have passive income and you can make your 100k and work at whatever thing makes you most happy. If you don't like real estate, then pick something else: save a…