Quitting a New Job • Hacker News Board

Re: Quitting a New Job

#141

Post by pearjuice » Mon, Jan 04, 2021, 10:24 PM UTC

jmkd wrote: post #91

pearjuice wrote: post #50

Though I like the sentiment of the post, it's funny and maybe remarkable how software engineers are in such a privileged bubble most probably don't even realize. Quitting jobs after a year at arguably the most innovative fintech company because you didn't feel satisfied, taking a vacation, casually mentioning you can "hack" interviews by focusing on leetcode problems for some weekends, working somewhere for 2 days, t…

I didn't enjoy the sentiment of the post as it came across as far too entitled. - Disappointed that Stripe wouldn't just give him a job and the same pay back. - Referring to the new job as a downgrade when in fact it was simply a bad fit. - Job hopping every 18 months as if that is perfectly acceptable and sustainable for the employers.

I don't agree with all his actions but I appreciate the transparency. The writing gives exposure, documentation of his CV and is arguably showcasing a skill. Job hopping isn't sustainable and shouldn't become a permanent pattern, but it's not unacceptable. Early career it's the fastest way to gain salary, experience different kitchens/industries and arguably just how the job economy is; you will not be rewarded for job loyalty so why optimize for it.

Re: Quitting a New Job

#142

Post by fastball » Mon, Jan 04, 2021, 10:24 PM UTC

narag wrote: post #110

I quit a job before even starting. They called me and told me that they had decided to pay me a good chunk less than we had agreed upon. I was in the last days of my two weeks notice for my current job. I had no option. Except that... five minutes later, my current boss made a counter-offer. And ten minutes later it was me who called those charming people to apologize for the inconvenience. After what they had done,…

Given their behavior, sounds like you dodged a bullet anyway, but this is also a good time to point out if you're job hunting while already employed, you should never give in your notice at current co until you have a signed employment contract from the new one.

Re: Quitting a New Job

#143

Post by mperham » Mon, Jan 04, 2021, 10:25 PM UTC

JMTQp8lwXL wrote: post #131

dvt wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Some of the highest-paid engineers, AIUI, devote their considerable expertise to optimising ad click rates. I worked on an ad product with a team of 10 or so data scientists + engineers. I'd wager most of us made between 100k-175k + some tiny bonuses here and there. The product we built was making the company $2.5 million a month . But hey we all got some cool jackets and a pat on the back. Give me a break. Money t…

It typically costs an employer double what your pay is, once including benefits, matching social security contributions, etc. So your employer had 10 people it was spending 200k-350k a month on, so 2000k-3500k in expenses, for a product that made 2500k a month.

200k per year * 10 people is $2m/yr.

It was making $2.5m/mo.

Re: Quitting a New Job

#144

Post by hasmolo » Mon, Jan 04, 2021, 10:26 PM UTC

gregkerzhner wrote: post #118

dilly_li wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, most companies run background checks which would reveal all the short and long jobs. At that point, you would still need to explain it somehow.

A few things here: 1. Background check companies usually only contact the positions you list to verify your dates of employment and title. They probably won't contact a job you don't let them know about. 2. If it helps you sleep at night, you can still fill out the background check form accurately, but leave stuff off your resume / not talk about it in the interview. Again, there is no rule that you need to talk abou…

i’ve actually done this. my tact was to leave off resume and disclose in background check.

i got an email asking why the job i left out wasn’t that n my resume. i simply said having it on there always drives the conversation to why i’m morally opposed to that business after working there. that’s apparently a fine answer and i was given the offer.

going forward i’m just gonna leave it off the resume and the background check. i simply updated my other job dates to 2/2002 - 3/2003 && 5/2003 - 8/2005. if asked i say i took a long break. been fine since

Re: Quitting a New Job

#145

Post by hluska » Mon, Jan 04, 2021, 10:27 PM UTC

pavel_lishin wrote: post #3

> As I noted in a previous post, switching teams is a lot easier than switching jobs. I didn’t do this before I left Stripe because there weren’t any other teams that I was super enthusiastic about at the time. But, in retrospect, I probably should have given this a try before quitting. A few years ago, I was looking for a new job after being laid off. I had two competing companies to choose from, and chose the one t…

This story isn't boring at all - it's valuable advice, particularly for younger engineers. This is yet another comment on here that I really wish I could email myself twenty years ago.....:)

Re: Quitting a New Job

#146

Post by hinkley » Mon, Jan 04, 2021, 10:27 PM UTC

lhorie wrote: post #54

MattGaiser wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does this solve the other problem, that job hopping is the best way to get a raise?

In my experience, no. I did an internal team transition at a company several years ago, and while it gave me a pretty good salary increase, it was not as big an increase (percentage-wise) compared to my wife's job hopping during roughly the same time span. I hopped jobs a couple more times a few years later and currently make three times more than I did back then. Some of this is attributable to differences in pay le…

It could even go the other way because now your yearly review is thrown out of whack.

Re: Quitting a New Job

#147

Post by wins32767 » Mon, Jan 04, 2021, 10:28 PM UTC

kickout wrote: post #123

dvt wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Some of the highest-paid engineers, AIUI, devote their considerable expertise to optimising ad click rates. I worked on an ad product with a team of 10 or so data scientists + engineers. I'd wager most of us made between 100k-175k + some tiny bonuses here and there. The product we built was making the company $2.5 million a month . But hey we all got some cool jackets and a pat on the back. Give me a break. Money t…

Double your teams salary to get the cost to the company including benefits like health insurance (which are very real).

Depends on where you are. Cost of benefits doesn't really scale with geographical increases. In Boston, my last several startups have used 1.35x salary as the fully loaded cost for engineers.

Re: Quitting a New Job

#148

Post by goodpoint » Mon, Jan 04, 2021, 10:28 PM UTC

Animats wrote: post #34

At Stripe and each of my jobs before that, I had had a short commute to a beautiful office, and got to experience the instant gratification associated with developing purely software-based products. Now, I was stuck taking a crowded train to a dark office littered with hardware parts, working on a product that would take many years to reach mass-market adoption due to pesky little things like manufacturing and road s…

This person in the article is whining because hardware is difficult and software is easy in comparison. And calls it as "littered with hardware parts"

And HN responds by upvoting the article and downvoting @Animats!

Re: Quitting a New Job

#149

Post by jupiter90000 » Mon, Jan 04, 2021, 10:31 PM UTC

paxys wrote: post #81

01100011 wrote: post #44

I realized a few days into my current job that it was a bad fit for me. Unfortunately I'd have to pay back the $10k relocation package if I left, so I decided to stick it out. Last year I interviewed with a company and was ready to take the job but I had drinks with the manager and decided it was too much of a brogrammer shop for me. Looking back, if I had taken the job, I would have worked with friends, the brogramm…

> Unfortunately I'd have to pay back the $10k relocation package if I left, so I decided to stick it out. For the future, this kind of stuff is very easy to negotiate with the new company, and should definitely not be the thing holding you back. E.g. "you would have paid relocation for me but I'm in the same city so help me pay back my current company for it instead".

Not necessarily, but worth a try. Had to turn down an offer from a prospective employer due to a company unwilling to help with this, ended up burning alot of my and their time for no good reason and it was made clear early in the process this was needed.

Re: Quitting a New Job

#150

Post by hinkley » Mon, Jan 04, 2021, 10:31 PM UTC

richardwhiuk wrote: post #27

> the upper rungs of Stripe’s engineering individual contributor (IC) ladder put a lot of emphasis on cross-team coordination and other, managerial-like activities that I didn’t enjoy and felt I wasn’t very good at. That's just the reality of senior IC engineering positions. At some point, there's a limit to the amount that you can contribute by sheerly by your own work - to have a bigger impact, you'll need to need…

Not every place is so enlightened. Plenty of places will focus on your individual contributions at review time, essentially devaluing any communication or force multiplication work you've done.

Gee it's too bad you saved everyone on the team 8 hours of work a week because you only got 80% as much work done as they did (ie, we're actually punishing you for making everyone else more productive by comparing you to the yard stick that you just changed).