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Thank HN: Five months ago, I was feeling like a loser, now I am opposite

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Re: Thank HN: Five months ago, I was feeling like a loser, now I am opposite

#111

Post by rattray »

Can't believe the negativity I see on some of the top comments right now.

Congrats and thanks for sharing, you rock :)

It's really nice to get updates from folks who posted an Ask HN. Especially with a positive outcome.

It's really not uncommon for humans to find energizing work energizing, and for that to affect their overall quality of life. Plenty of people are comfortable checking boxes and going home early, sure, but that can be a slow death to a lot of folks (even some who might not realize it).

Re: Thank HN: Five months ago, I was feeling like a loser, now I am opposite

#112

Post by rattray »

drewcoo wrote: post #63

Seek counseling. You're making life decisions based on web boards. Somehow programming and your relationship with your spouse are tied up together. You're riding really high now. You were really low before. Emotional roller coasters mean you should talk with someone, regardless of how you're feeling right now.

Your first paragraph does not come across as considerate.

Your second sounds like good advice to me too, if a little presumptuous. How well do you know OP?

Re: Thank HN: Five months ago, I was feeling like a loser, now I am opposite

#113

Post by ac2022 »

happyopossum wrote: post #3

Happy to hear you've made some positive changes! That said, as a cybersecurity practitioner, this: >a lot of compliance and security related tasks which added zero benefit to our service scares the bejeezus out of me. Security is never of zero benefit.

I agree in principle but where I worked a lot of it was just for show. We had a lot of security people who only knew how to generate pdfs. They were very hard to work with.

Or some day, they will decide that one part of our service should move from one network to another for security or compliance reasons. But they have no idea how to do it, who to talk to, etc.

But since it is security issue, we will need drop everything and figure out how to move part of our infrastructure to another network. Things like these were pretty common.

Re: Thank HN: Five months ago, I was feeling like a loser, now I am opposite

#115

Post by rattray »

fny wrote: post #62

Congrats! But be very careful about the start up you're working for. Make sure they have enough cash to survive the next 4-5 years and have a steady revenue stream.

Uh, why? They already work there.

If things tank in a year or two, OP will just be the target of a recruiter feeding frenzy, and they'll come out more qualified than they went in.

Quitting immediately would look bad in comparison, and staying but exuding pessimism and paranoia would not be adaptive.

Re: Thank HN: Five months ago, I was feeling like a loser, now I am opposite

#116

Post by 20after4 »

daneel_w wrote: post #21

Glad to hear it worked out for the better. My current employment is no longer fulfilling and I wish to "move on", but I can only do remote and such vacancies are very hard to come by in Sweden.

The wikimedia foundation hires remote workers all over the world. They are also very stable with good job security. Some things are dysfunctional but it was a pretty awesome job in many ways - so much that I stuck with it for 7 years and only recently moved on to seek more exciting and challenging work. Wikimedia is almost always hiring and although it’s not the easiest job interview it’s worth a shot.

Re: Thank HN: Five months ago, I was feeling like a loser, now I am opposite

#117

Post by rattray »

ac2022 wrote: post #106
qzw wrote: post #18

Congrats on fixing the job issue. Now that times are better, might want to consider working on improving communications with the wife, so that the next time you go through a rough patch it won't go as far as divorce.

Thank you and yes we are working on it. BTW I thought about divorce but never said that word to my wife. Those thoughts luckily were very brief.

Very happy to hear that :)

Re: Thank HN: Five months ago, I was feeling like a loser, now I am opposite

#118

Post by ywain »

qq66 wrote: post #23

"Series D startup" may be a very bad place to be very soon. Keep grinding LeetCode.

There are studies indicating that past a certain level of income, more money doesn't bring more happiness. As a software engineer you can likely hit that threshold fairly easily even at a startup. I'd choose gratifying work at a startup I believe in rather than grind LC so I can work on some shitty adtech that nobody wants any day.

(That is not to say you shouldn't assume your pre-IPO equity to be worth anything though.)

Re: Thank HN: Five months ago, I was feeling like a loser, now I am opposite

#119

Post by ac2022 »

qq66 wrote: post #23

"Series D startup" may be a very bad place to be very soon. Keep grinding LeetCode.

Yeah, with recent economic developments, I am a little worried but stock of my previous company is also down. I am hearing rumors of layoffs there. So I could still be laid off even if I had stayed with the big company.

A new goal for myself is to always be interview ready. I ll resume LeetCode pretty soon.

Re: Thank HN: Five months ago, I was feeling like a loser, now I am opposite

#120

Post by ac2022 »

d23 wrote: post #88

Congrats! I'm happy for you. Funny how being more engaged and working more can leave you with more energy at the end of the day. I've felt the same way in the past.

Yes, it is amazing. They say Heart Rate Variability is pretty good indicator of stress. My HRV graph for last 6 months clearly shows when I made decision to change job and when I gave 2 weeks notice.
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