"For the next three or six months, I'm just going to work on interesting things."
Right on! Have fun :)
I quit my job
131–140 of 197 posts
Re: I quit my job
#132Man, kids in the valley gettin' paid too much.
Re: I quit my job
#133Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not sure if you're being serious or not.. Especially since you profile reads: I'm on sabbatical.
I'm actually fairly serious. I've been bored before, so I hear you. But, I guess I'm kind of surprised that you chose to jump into nothing rather than parlay your way to something else. Seems a little impulsive. Impulsive is a red flag, despite what many on HN think (you can be impulsive, but you better be brilliant too). Now you've got to explain a gap in your res to a potential employer (should you choose to go tha…
You say, "after spending my 20s earning enough to justify it" like it's a distinguishing mark. It seems to me like Loren has enough savings to say he has "earned enough to justify it" too. Just what do you think makes your situation different? If nothing, I think you should at least be consistent in your appraisals of your and his situations.
Re: I quit my job
#134Earlier quoted context omitted.
It would be criminal negligence if I didn't mention Michael O'Church's seminal work on this issue [1]. There is surprising depth and complexity to the power dynamics in companies, both large and small. What you've discovered first hand is that, unfortunately, politics determine the fate of nations and companies alike. 1. http://michaelochurch.wordpress.com/2013/02/19/gervais-princ...
I'm sorry, but it's really difficult to take that "seminal work" seriously when that work is an in-depth analysis of the "MacLeod Model of organizational sociology". Do you know what the "MacLeod Model" is? A cartoon on the back of a business card, posted to the web without comment nine years ago: http://gapingvoid.com/2004/06/27/company-hierarchy/ Michael O'Church might have some interesting things to say, but when…
Whoa! Given all the reference Michael makes to MacLeod's hierarchy, I'd just tacitly assumed it was a well-known model in organisational studies. I guess the "I should really read the original work" pangs I occasionally have when reading Michael's stuff can go away now...
Re: I quit my job
#135Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm sorry, but it's really difficult to take that "seminal work" seriously when that work is an in-depth analysis of the "MacLeod Model of organizational sociology". Do you know what the "MacLeod Model" is? A cartoon on the back of a business card, posted to the web without comment nine years ago: http://gapingvoid.com/2004/06/27/company-hierarchy/ Michael O'Church might have some interesting things to say, but when…
Whoa! Given all the reference Michael makes to MacLeod's hierarchy, I'd just tacitly assumed it was a well-known model in organisational studies. I guess the "I should really read the original work" pangs I occasionally have when reading Michael's stuff can go away now...
You really should read the original work. I mean, it's just a cartoon drawn on the back of a business card, how much time could that possibly take?
Re: I quit my job
#136Earlier quoted context omitted.
Working at a single place for 10 years and having 0 connections to other companies is not going to put you in a good place to find a job. I imagine they would struggle to find a job regardless of whether or not they quit.
Yea, you really need to change job every 2 years at least. Otherwise you become unemployable. Unless you manages to get on the gravy train, in which case, congrats!
That's a negative signal as well: it shows that you job-hop frequently, get bored easily, and can't commit to any one company. In some companies (particularly startups) that's fine, in many it's the kiss of death.
I think that what hiring managers want to see is that you fully exploit the opportunities available to you. That means that if you're in a good employer and given a lot of responsibility, you stay. If you're in a dead-end job where you're not learning anything, you leave. If it's a good company going through a rough patch, you stay. If it's just a bad company, you leave.
Oftentimes that means you'll have stints of varying lengths on your resume: you may have a few of 1-2 years when starting out to find your footing, then a longer stint of 4-5 years at an industry-leader, then a shorter stint at a smaller company where you're given more responsibility, then a startup, and so on.
Re: I quit my job
#137Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm actually fairly serious. I've been bored before, so I hear you. But, I guess I'm kind of surprised that you chose to jump into nothing rather than parlay your way to something else. Seems a little impulsive. Impulsive is a red flag, despite what many on HN think (you can be impulsive, but you better be brilliant too). Now you've got to explain a gap in your res to a potential employer (should you choose to go tha…
You say, "after spending my 20s earning enough to justify it" like it's a distinguishing mark. It seems to me like Loren has enough savings to say he has "earned enough to justify it" too. Just what do you think makes your situation different? If nothing, I think you should at least be consistent in your appraisals of your and his situations.
Earning enough experience and savings (just shy of a decade in quant finance). I claim those years do make a difference. I further claim this time off sounds like lost time rather than experience building.
Everybody gets bored and frustrated with work. Up & quit after a year and sell it as wisdom on HN? Fuck that.
Re: I quit my job
#138Earlier quoted context omitted.
Can't emphasize this enough. I used to eat at Subway, every single day and one day I stopped going there. I have never been able to go there again. Passion does not turn you into a machine, you are still a human and your brain and body has limits.
I did the same thing. Six months straight. I now haven't been in years.
to Subway?
Re: I quit my job
#139Earlier quoted context omitted.
You didn't really read the post. When she started, it was like that. But eventually it turned into "just-another-9-to-5" with uninteresting problems. That's why she quit.
I'm a 'he' :)
You must get tired of that. I would have changed my name to 'Lorenzo' or something at age 18.
Re: I quit my job
#140Earlier quoted context omitted.
For software developers the "CV gap" problem (if it really is a problem) seems easily solvable to me: do a little freelancing, and put that in the gap.
Um, or just put 'years' not 'months': Corp X: 1999-2004 Corp Y: 2005-2009 Corp Z: 2009-2013 Last day at X could have been 12/31/2004, last day at Y could have been 1/1/2009, first day at Z could have been 12/31/2009, but no 'suddenly suspicious gap' shows?
This is the correct answer as far as I can tell, or saying something along the lines of free-lancing as someone else mentioned.
There's no reason for hyper-precision on a resume when it comes to dates.