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Career advice for people with bad luck

chiefofstuff.substack.com

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Re: Career advice for people with bad luck

#141

Post by kotrunga »

omniscient_oce wrote: post #85
ashtonkem wrote: post #2

> The company is not your family. Some of the people in the company are your friends in the current context. It’s like your dorm in college. Hopefully some of them will still be your friends after. But don’t stay because you’re comfortable. This one hit hard. It’s amazing how many of the close work friends I had over the years were only close because of the shitty circumstances we endured together. Once that was gone…

You may like the Japanese phrase 一期一会 (ichi-go-ichi-e). To me it means that you should cherish each relationship and encounter, regardless of whether you know it will last a long time or not. You may never get the chance to experience that particular relationship again. I actually learnt this word firsthand from a man that it applies to, an middle-aged Japanese guy who was volunteering with kids near where I live. We…

Thank you for sharing this.

Re: Career advice for people with bad luck

#142

Post by travisjungroth »

giantg2 wrote: post #55
CSMastermind wrote: post #49

> Your equity package is a lottery ticket with expected value of zero. That's good advice no matter where you're going.

Good stock market advice too. It doesn't matter what your account says your balance is. It only matters what you get when you sell it.

Considering the expected value of your publicly traded stocks at 0 is not good advice. If you actually believe that, then it would make sense to trade all of your holdings for a dollar.

Re: Career advice for people with bad luck

#143

Post by chrisandchips »

SketchySeaBeast wrote: post #113
ChuckNorris89 wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Step 1: Get a well paying job at a big tech company. There is very little luck involved in this, just get really good at algorithms. Let me stop you right there. Maybe that works in SV but in most of Europe(the world?) you aint getting in to any well paying job at a big tech company without a degree from a prestigious university or previous experience at equally big and famous companies. Companies here don't have th…

I can second that sentiment in Canada as well - I'm not even aware of what the good paying jobs would even be - there's none with FAANG fame, and every job has a hard wall with a laundry list of 5+ years of experience with a dozen web technologies that you can only climb over with the appropriate connections.

As a canadian, I disagree with how strict you’re describing the issue to be. There are a fair amount of big and well established companies that are not going to penalize you for lacking the five years and connections. With that said, they’re almost all in Toronto, but that’s a different issue ..

Re: Career advice for people with bad luck

#144

Post by mywittyname »

caymanjim wrote: post #135
throw4failure wrote: post #29

This seems like a good thread in which to try to solicit some advice, since it's at least tangentially related. I was terminated from my last job. In my opinion it was due to my chronic and major depression that I have since been seeking extensive treatment (medication, several months rent in therapy) for. I say "in my opinion" because I really can't rule out that I'm just a lazy, crappy developer who is trying to us…

Never admit that you were fired. Your prior employer isn't going to tell anyone, if they know what's good for them. Small, inexperienced companies with no lawyers might, but no real business is going to risk a lawsuit by saying anything bad about you whatsoever. They'll confirm that you worked there and that's about it. Six months is not a big deal. You've been told all your life that gaps in your resume are a proble…

> but hardly anyone speaks to references.

I'd be surprised if this were universal. I've been the reference for several people and had references checked for every job that I've had.

I can totally understand why a company wouldn't check references (bias, mainly), but HR is full of a lot of cargo cult superstitions.

Re: Career advice for people with bad luck

#145

Post by hu3 »

throw4failure wrote: post #29

This seems like a good thread in which to try to solicit some advice, since it's at least tangentially related. I was terminated from my last job. In my opinion it was due to my chronic and major depression that I have since been seeking extensive treatment (medication, several months rent in therapy) for. I say "in my opinion" because I really can't rule out that I'm just a lazy, crappy developer who is trying to us…

Been there. Hold tight, things get better. What worked for me:

- Tell the interviewer you needed some time off and that you're fine now.

- Don't mention depression.

- Don't trash-talk past jobs regardless of merit.

Remember, life is not fair. Don't overexpose yourself if you don't need to.

Re: Career advice for people with bad luck

#146

Post by the_af »

0xfaded wrote: post #114
ChuckNorris89 wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Step 1: Get a well paying job at a big tech company. There is very little luck involved in this, just get really good at algorithms. Let me stop you right there. Maybe that works in SV but in most of Europe(the world?) you aint getting in to any well paying job at a big tech company without a degree from a prestigious university or previous experience at equally big and famous companies. Companies here don't have th…

Step 1: Move to SV. I'm sorry, I'm Australian and studied and worked in Australia. I spent 4 years in SV, and now founded a startup in Europe. Even after the Covid issue has played out, I'm convinced SV will still be where a passionate technologist can optimize their impact and lifetime earnings. There's just nothing that can compare to being surrounded by so many smart people who share your interests. I've heard sto…

> Step 1: Move to SV.

What about...

- I don't want to move to SV, I'm not that young anymore.

- I don't want to move outside my country, or

- specifically to the US and SV, which are not a particularly good place to live in anyway, or

- even if I wanted it, entry to the US is stressful and not that easy, or

- I have friends/family ties where I live, and those are important to me

There's plenty of reasons why your step 1 is bad advice for a lot of people.

Re: Career advice for people with bad luck

#147

Post by mortenjorck »

ashtonkem wrote: post #2

> The company is not your family. Some of the people in the company are your friends in the current context. It’s like your dorm in college. Hopefully some of them will still be your friends after. But don’t stay because you’re comfortable. This one hit hard. It’s amazing how many of the close work friends I had over the years were only close because of the shitty circumstances we endured together. Once that was gone…

It is amazing what circumstance can do for bonding, though. I still keep in occasional touch with a handful of people I’ve worked with, but the exception is the group from a company that spectacularly imploded: A couple of years after most of us left or were let go, we still talk all the time.

Re: Career advice for people with bad luck

#148

Post by ChuckNorris89 »

username90 wrote: post #134
ChuckNorris89 wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google Europe in which city?

I moved to Zurich.

How do you find life there?

From some acquaintances who moved there to work in tech I heard integration/dating/making friends is very difficult as a foreigner especially if you come from $UNCOOL_COUNTRY and the real estate market is terrible, with cramped and expensive apartments in a poor state and buying is even more difficult if you're not a swiss citizen which is a difficult citizenship to get.

Re: Career advice for people with bad luck

#149

Post by the_af »

mywittyname wrote: post #140
karamazov wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. Any reasonably good programmer can get a job at a FANG company with three months of serious study; any reasonably intelligent person can become a good entry-level programmer with 1-2 years of serious study. The demand for engineers far outstrips supply.

This is kind of depressing for me. I've failed interviews at Amazon, MS, Google and Netflix. I studied a bunch and managed to get 5/5 on all but one section of the TripleByte test.

Don't be depressed. It's false that any reasonably good programmer can get a job at those companies. There are plenty of reasons why you may not get a job at any of them (bad luck, peer competition, interview antipatterns (google Yegge on this), maybe algorithms aren't your strong suit, ageism, etc). Even worse, from initial rejections you can spiral down into anxiety that will hinder you in future interviews, and listen to this: you cannot tell a person not to get anxious at the prospect of rejection, either.

People who say it's easy are arguing from an optimistic point of view specifically addressed as unhelpful at the start of the article.

Re: Career advice for people with bad luck

#150

Post by larrik »

2sk21 wrote: post #6

Having worked for a dying tech startup at one point in the early 2000s - I spent time agonizing over the fact that if I quit, the company would become unviable - I was one of the key technical people and was the only person with a good understanding of our entire product. After much dithering, I did ultimately leave and the company did fold shortly thereafter. I did feel bad at the time but in retrospect, I have come…

I feel like this situation calls for making you a partner. If you are SO valuable the company can't even survive without you, then you ARE the company and should be treated as such.
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