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Unicorn Jobs

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21–30 of 99 posts

Re: Unicorn Jobs

#21

Post by gamegoblin »

was_hellbanned wrote: post #14

The rather unethical alternative is to find a job in a fairly incompetent group at a company that's not extremely tech focused, then spend most of your time working on whatever you want to. I've had jobs (and spoken to many people with similar jobs) where I could accomplish all my tasks within a couple hours of actual, focused effort, leaving the rest of the work week for personal projects, side business, etc.

I met a guy who worked in the tech department of a large department store chain. He was one of a couple hundred programmers in a large cubicle farm. It was a pretty dead simple setup, each programmer got an assignment (generally COBOL maintenance, and new stuff was in C#, I think) that was due in 2 weeks. Rinse and repeat. Just like highschool or something. Anyway, he'd finish his "assignment" on day 1 and spend the next 2 weeks working on his own projects. Only made 40-50K, though (in the midwest).

Re: Unicorn Jobs

#22

Post by brryant »

Most founders/entrepreneurs have unicorn jobs, but it comes with a big caveat: being your own boss. Not as easy as it sounds.

Re: Unicorn Jobs

#23

Post by corbett3000 »

This setup is certainly rare. At my company (http://istrategylabs.com) we've done our best to at least feed this desire and tie it back to revenue.

1. Everyone in the company can work on R&D projects. 2. There's budget set aside for this work. 3. Everyone can pitch new ideas for new projects/products. 4. If something get green-lit you can join that project if you desire and have value to bring to it.

It's really challenging to assign dedicated "20% time" or some other formal allocation. We've tried serval times and failed. Instead, now, we just setup hackdays/internal innovation days where the entire company can work on whatever they want. It's great for morale and produces new things we can pitch to our customers.

Re: Unicorn Jobs

#24

Post by trustfundbaby »

corbett3000 wrote: post #23

This setup is certainly rare. At my company ( http://istrategylabs.com ) we've done our best to at least feed this desire and tie it back to revenue. 1. Everyone in the company can work on R&D projects. 2. There's budget set aside for this work. 3. Everyone can pitch new ideas for new projects/products. 4. If something get green-lit you can join that project if you desire and have value to bring to it. It's really ch…

> We've tried serval times and failed.

How did you fail if you don't mind me asking?

Re: Unicorn Jobs

#25

Post by dangero »

was_hellbanned wrote: post #14

The rather unethical alternative is to find a job in a fairly incompetent group at a company that's not extremely tech focused, then spend most of your time working on whatever you want to. I've had jobs (and spoken to many people with similar jobs) where I could accomplish all my tasks within a couple hours of actual, focused effort, leaving the rest of the work week for personal projects, side business, etc.

The problem that I've found with those environments is that the 60% of downtime you have is usually when people are socializing instead of working. That means it's not actually that easy to focus on your own project. Also the office laziness rubs off and you tend to be less disciplined to work on that personal project than you think you will be. Perhaps somebody out there can consistently pull it off, but I've never seen it.

Re: Unicorn Jobs

#26

Post by smtddr »

was_hellbanned wrote: post #14

The rather unethical alternative is to find a job in a fairly incompetent group at a company that's not extremely tech focused, then spend most of your time working on whatever you want to. I've had jobs (and spoken to many people with similar jobs) where I could accomplish all my tasks within a couple hours of actual, focused effort, leaving the rest of the work week for personal projects, side business, etc.

Related!

https://sites.google.com/site/forgottenemployee/

Warning, this story is long and will drain your time if you start reading it because you'll want to know exactly what happens.

Re: Unicorn Jobs

#27

Post by ra3 »

was_hellbanned wrote: post #14

The rather unethical alternative is to find a job in a fairly incompetent group at a company that's not extremely tech focused, then spend most of your time working on whatever you want to. I've had jobs (and spoken to many people with similar jobs) where I could accomplish all my tasks within a couple hours of actual, focused effort, leaving the rest of the work week for personal projects, side business, etc.

Nothing unethical there. Its the responsibility of the manager/lead to assess skill set and the amount of time one should spend on a project.

Re: Unicorn Jobs

#28

Post by UK-AL »

brryant wrote: post #22

Most founders/entrepreneurs have unicorn jobs, but it comes with a big caveat: being your own boss. Not as easy as it sounds.

Is it really unicorn? Market forces push you instead of a boss.

Re: Unicorn Jobs

#29

Post by jorde »

brryant wrote: post #22

Most founders/entrepreneurs have unicorn jobs, but it comes with a big caveat: being your own boss. Not as easy as it sounds.

Much easier path would probably to create several small SAAS product aside from your day job which create enough monthly revenue to sustain your lifestyle. While getting there might take longer, it would be definitely more stress free than running a startup.

Re: Unicorn Jobs

#30

Post by makmanalp »

smtddr wrote: post #26
was_hellbanned wrote: post #14

The rather unethical alternative is to find a job in a fairly incompetent group at a company that's not extremely tech focused, then spend most of your time working on whatever you want to. I've had jobs (and spoken to many people with similar jobs) where I could accomplish all my tasks within a couple hours of actual, focused effort, leaving the rest of the work week for personal projects, side business, etc.

Related! https://sites.google.com/site/forgottenemployee/ Warning, this story is long and will drain your time if you start reading it because you'll want to know exactly what happens.

Man, I remember reading this and I loved it. A saga of corporate wastelands. I know deep down that it's too hilarious to be real, but I like it anyway.
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