Live data from Hacker News

How I survived being a $220k/year intern

matt.sh

161–170 of 197 posts

Re: How I survived being a $220k/year intern

#161
I really feel the need to rebuke hacker news commenters on this. The number of comments shouting "You made 220k! STFU!" is ridiculous. I don't care how much you pay me, you don't get to treat me like shit. Once you reach a certain salary a job is more about fulfilment/ego/interest/motivation than $$, there's a reason we're not all whoring ourselves out on street corners for an extra couple of dollars in the evening.

What the author is talking about is a real issue - there is a very significant portion of enterprise (and b2b) software that basically adds little or no value compared to a competitor. Often the money is made by leveraging relationships with contacts in large corporations who frankly won't notice the money is missing - and for a plethora of reasons are more incentivised to push for buying something than to actually see the company succeed. I've personally seen sales organisations pay hundreds of thousands to external contractors when we had more competent staff literally sitting waiting to be asked to do the work. Even then, there's a hell of a lot of software out there that isn't difficult and isn't interesting, so the defining feature of who provides it is what their sales organisation looks like.

The result of that dynamic though, is the engineering organisation can be crap- because they're not where the company derives its value. Which might not be what an software engineer wants to hear, but it's true. (as an aside, find out what sales folks are paid at your current job - it's probably more than you).

Re: How I survived being a $220k/year intern

#162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> but the services organization is pretty spectacular. Overall, the org looks decent on Glassdoor.

Separately from this specific case, Glassdoor is a very imperfect way to evaluate an org. Companies will encourage employees to juice the reviews ( https://www.mercurynews.com/2019/01/22/companies-gaming-glas... ). Anecdotally, Glassdoor will often remove negative reviews for paying employers by giving flimsy excuses like "They are against the 'Community Guidelines'" (something that's so broad it's impossible to hold…

Can confirm. Old employer started asking employees to post positive reviews when their rating tanked following a series of poorly integrated acquisitions

Re: How I survived being a $220k/year intern

#163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I was in Kuwait on military deployment last year one of my three roommates was a pediatric cardiologist. I remember hearing a conversation between him and another of my roommates who was disgruntled because they couldn’t get a real job. I butted in saying I have a six figure job in a low cost of living economy and I don’t do shit. I hate it so much they could take my job. I would happily give it to them. They we…

> the cardiologist voiced the greasiest envy. I guess you meant greatest but I love the idea of greasy envy. (Apologies for the diversion.)

Good catch. Phone auto-correction.

Re: How I survived being a $220k/year intern

#164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What was the time frame on your $40k -> $500k jump, if you don't mind my asking?

Not OP, but, guessing less than 2 years.

Unfortunately a fair bit longer - I'd say 6 years?

It took me a bit to catch on to the right approach and had to learn along the way (wasting time forever with a folks who were set on doing it their way into the ground and learning from clients doing a good job).

But what happened is once you focus on clients that work well with you (and you with them) then the reputation value just goes through the roof. It looks like everything you do "works" - but half of that is you are picking clients ready to make it work?

Now of course I have lots of different stress - you can grow too quickly - and even with staff can fall behind your clients now high standards - so a quick fall is possible. People paying premium $ expect a good result not unreasonably - especially if they themselves are delivering on a high level. No one minds if you screw up and are getting paid $25/hr. In some ways I miss those days. I def went out drinking a lot more back then.

Re: How I survived being a $220k/year intern

#165
post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Rachel had something about fixing corporate culture recently (hint: you can't), and sometimes really you can't leave. Some are shackled to their jobs through their visa, others because of healthcare needs (their health insurance has favourable terms, and they need to care for a family member), and others because of the nature of the industry (university faculty comes to mind, especially post-2008). The fact that you…

Insider club here? Who is 'Rachel'?

[deleted]

Re: How I survived being a $220k/year intern

#166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> this idea that people should (or can) just leave employment, needs to stop I don't think this applies when you are pulling down nearly a quarter of a million dollars a year - then I think you probably have quite a lot of freedom to just walk out the door anytime you want.

If the mortage/rental and family expense is in the same order of magnitude as the salary, it's little different than everywhere else.

Does this really apply to people earning as much as a quarter of a million? Surely at that point most of your money is disposable income?

Re: How I survived being a $220k/year intern

#167
post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The fact that he turned down $50k to write this post makes me think it's more than just out of amusement

If he had another job lined up, the $50k was $0. He wrote about the other conditions which you are ignoring.

Is severance contingent on unemployment? I thought it was usually a flat amount.

Re: How I survived being a $220k/year intern

#168
post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If he had another job lined up, the $50k was $0. He wrote about the other conditions which you are ignoring.

Is severance contingent on unemployment? I thought it was usually a flat amount.

It was an explicit condition of the contract. Not sure if it is legal though.

Re: How I survived being a $220k/year intern

#169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> but the services organization is pretty spectacular. Overall, the org looks decent on Glassdoor.

Separately from this specific case, Glassdoor is a very imperfect way to evaluate an org. Companies will encourage employees to juice the reviews ( https://www.mercurynews.com/2019/01/22/companies-gaming-glas... ). Anecdotally, Glassdoor will often remove negative reviews for paying employers by giving flimsy excuses like "They are against the 'Community Guidelines'" (something that's so broad it's impossible to hold…

Adding another anecdote, I worked for a company which paid Glassdoor to remove a bunch of negative reviews. The score jumped from 2 to 4 overnight and a bunch of well-written negative reviews disappeared.

Re: How I survived being a $220k/year intern

#170

the weirdest thing to me about pivotal is that they require full-time pair programming. how do people survive in that company at all? i can't fathom being yoked to someone (literally) 40-50 hours a week.

When working alone remotely from home, I simulate pair programming with a methodology I call "The Stranger". I sit on one of my hands until it becomes numb and tingly, and then it feels like somebody else is typing and moving the mouse!

lol I get the reference
Post reply on HN