141–150 of 197 posts
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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!
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> People seem to have this idea of lavish Zynga style life styles. It's not. It's really really hard work. Yes, I absolutely agree with you. But in this particular case, I didn't leave because it was hard. I left because it was easy. Too easy. I wasn't challenged. The work I was doing was mundane and repetitive, and I didn't feel like what I was working on was important (or fulfilling). My productivity was great. I e…
But at the end of the day, I was just another dev. This. A thousand times. At every company I've EVER worked for, I eventually had this exact same feeling. Even as the lead engineer, team lead, tech lead, or whatever other "top developer" role I've held, I always feel like this. And I always eventually quit too. It's gotten worse in the past few years. I can barely make it one year before I feel like "just another de…
The only thing to look forward to are starting your own company or becoming a CTO, but let's face it, a very small percentage of people are going to ever actually do that. Some people look forward to that big pay day, but it turns out that's not too realistic for a ground-level engineer anyway.
I think in other types of role people look forward to the next step in their career, whatever that step might be. As an engineer, you just look forward to becoming an older engineer.
Even for employees, startups are hard and take commitment. It's not for everyone, in fact it's probably not for most. People seem to have this idea of lavish Zynga style life styles. It's not. It's really really hard work. You still have to do as you're told. Everything is always going wrong. You still have to be responsible for your productivity. In fact you have to do a lot more. You cannot just hide. As startups a…
I feel like working for a startup in this way is for suckers. I've seen it so many times: You work really hard on a project and either the startup goes under or it gets bought out and you get a very small percentage (this almost never happens, however).
If I'm going to make that kind of commitment and take that kind of risk, I might as well start my own company. The risks are almost the same and the payout is much higher.
Yes, you may learn a lot from the experience, but does it have to be at the expense of your mental health and self-worth?
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I tend to be fairly transparent and vocal. Sometimes it gets me into trouble, but usually it works out for the best. If a potential employer asks why I left my job (which I entirely expect), I will be straightforward. Heck, I'll even send them a link to the blog post. I'll tell them how I don't think sticking to what is easy is the best approach to building a successful business, even though it feels safe. I'll tell…
I tend to be fairly transparent and vocal. Sometimes it gets me into trouble, but usually it works out for the best. Good. Me too. Gets me in trouble all the time; I'll never change. And I agree with you motivation for leaving... I just would have rather read "I quit X to start Y." I don't care what "Y" is. Might not have made front page. Hmm, karma or cash... which is better?
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Careful, if things get ugly the company might end up owning anything you put work into while they were paying you.
In California there's recent law that makes it clear how you can avoid this (from memory, the obvious of using your own time and resources).
That phrase can mean different things for different employers. If you work at Morgan Stanley then doing a social bookmarking tool in your spare time is probably fine, if you work at Intuit then doing an iPhone game is probably fine. If you work at Google then everything is potentially problematic, as Google has a knack for poking its head into any line of business imaginable.
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I tend to be fairly transparent and vocal. Sometimes it gets me into trouble, but usually it works out for the best. Good. Me too. Gets me in trouble all the time; I'll never change. And I agree with you motivation for leaving... I just would have rather read "I quit X to start Y." I don't care what "Y" is. Might not have made front page. Hmm, karma or cash... which is better?
Y == "For the next three or six months, I'm just going to work on interesting things."
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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?
That said, I'll never just up and quit a job now. Did it once, and those were some of the most stressful months of my life. No matter how crappy a job is, it doesn't compare to watching your hard-earned savings decline and facing the real, terrifying possibility that you won't make rent/mortgage payments.