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Restarting my career after motherhood

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Re: Restarting my career after motherhood

#201
post #128

Never understood this employer fixation on unbroken careers. A career break may happen to anyone by infinite reasons beyond motherhood. Most people have such career-pausing or career-delaying events (health issues, depression, fatherhood , taking care of an elderly relative), most conceal it, motherhood just happens not to be concealable. And things don't change as fast. Not even in IT. And even if changed, legacy is…

I’ve been doing this stuff for over 30 years and I don’t think technology has appreciably changed in 30 years, it’s just refinements of the same old stuff over and over again with slightly different focuses depending on what has recently improved. The paradigm shifts are usually just caused by some bottleneck in the architecture getting a significant improvement allowing stuff that everyone knew could be possible to…

> As a hiring manager, As long as someone can think about technology in the right way I’m happy to hire them and let them grow into a new tool chain. The thinking right part is the rare piece, the knowing XYZ tool of 2022 that’s an improvement on XYZ’ of 2012 doesn’t concern e.

Fantastic attitude.

Re: Restarting my career after motherhood

#202
post #128

Never understood this employer fixation on unbroken careers. A career break may happen to anyone by infinite reasons beyond motherhood. Most people have such career-pausing or career-delaying events (health issues, depression, fatherhood , taking care of an elderly relative), most conceal it, motherhood just happens not to be concealable. And things don't change as fast. Not even in IT. And even if changed, legacy is…

The intent is to neg you. That's why no matter how much impressive stuff there is on your resume at the end they'll say "oh but you're not a rocket scientist, whoops, yeah our advertised wage required rocket scientists." Neg you and get you to take in the neg.

Re: Restarting my career after motherhood

#203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The process of shrinking to fewer humans is painful however: less people working, more people old and unable to work.

Painful for who? Maybe asset owners and the few deciles below them who live a decent life due to globally cheap labor. For the young and poor who only have their labor to sell, the situation would seem pretty decent.

Old people need a pension, which is paid by the workers through taxes.

Re: Restarting my career after motherhood

#204
post #128

Never understood this employer fixation on unbroken careers. A career break may happen to anyone by infinite reasons beyond motherhood. Most people have such career-pausing or career-delaying events (health issues, depression, fatherhood , taking care of an elderly relative), most conceal it, motherhood just happens not to be concealable. And things don't change as fast. Not even in IT. And even if changed, legacy is…

The intent is to neg you. That's why no matter how much impressive stuff there is on your resume at the end they'll say "oh but you're not a rocket scientist, whoops, yeah our advertised wage required rocket scientists." Neg you and get you to take in the neg.

In addition, one obstacle I've encountered is they want people that are pliable and easy to browbeat. That means they can be robbed with wage theft. I've heard the term "good little bitch."

Re: Restarting my career after motherhood

#205
post #19

One thing to remember is that while you might not feel as qualified for as many positions as you wish, in the end you only need one. And since you have a demonstrated willingness and ability to forgo maximum income in pursuit of higher ideals, I suspect many mission oriented organizations would be thrilled to have you for roles they might not even have bothered to post on the assumption they couldn’t compete for tale…

This is a great example of how women face income gaps after childbirth.

No post body was provided.

Re: Restarting my career after motherhood

#206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It could be a fun exercise to consider why someone might find it horrendous. You know, just to put yourself in someone else's shoes for a bit.

Instead of my supposing or assuming, I'd rather you speak for your own position. Pretending to be a different person may be a fun exercise, but it doesn't get me any closer to understanding that person's motives or thoughts as they are.

The point behind the exercise is specifically to avoid an oppositional dialogue. It is a way to flex the muscles of empathy and authentically arguing an opposing position is one way to get there. Supposing and assuming is 100% the point. It's a shortcut to the frontiers of one's knowledge.

Re: Restarting my career after motherhood

#207
post #32
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Parenthood is by far the most subsidized personal choice in the universe. Let's not pretend it's not. Some countries give more than a year paid parental leave, in what can only be described as vote purchasing. Parenthood is compensated.

It is absolutely not! We live in Germany which has good options compared to other countries and it is still not enough. My wife earns 5000€+ in her job. Guess what, you can earn a maximum of 1800€ during parental leave. It gets even better, now that she takes a few hours less because somebody needs to take care of our child, kid number 2 will even be compensated with less (1400€). How is this fair? This is without th…

You're saying it's "absolutely not" compensated, and then you enumerating just some of the ways it's compensated?

I'm confused.

I didn't say it was fully compensated. Of course it's not.

But why should you have children, and expect "someone else" to pay for everything?

Nothing else in life works like that.

But yes, I've heard of the German child benefits, and tax rules for married couples, that are not optimal for an equal and fair society.

You say the compensation is "not enough". What would be? That "someone else" pays for the entire cost of your child? Why stop there? Why not demand salary from the government for choosing to raise a child?

Re: Restarting my career after motherhood

#208
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Parenthood is by far the most subsidized personal choice in the universe. Let's not pretend it's not. Some countries give more than a year paid parental leave, in what can only be described as vote purchasing. Parenthood is compensated.

>Parenthood is by far the most subsidized personal choice in the universe. The amount spent on keeping shipping lanes protected, the world "stable", and older people having access to medical care are, in the US, subsidized more I believe.

Not a personal choice, though.

It's not my choice to need care when I get old.

Re: Restarting my career after motherhood

#209
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Parenthood is by far the most subsidized personal choice in the universe. Let's not pretend it's not. Some countries give more than a year paid parental leave, in what can only be described as vote purchasing. Parenthood is compensated.

Parenthood is vital to society and it's very much in the interest of countries with declining birthrates to promote it. It is currently subsidized but not nearly enough to make it a rational choice for individuals from a purely economic perspective. If we want to stabilize declining birthrates, we will need to increase subsidies by a lot.

The population pyramid is not sustainable. The exponential function just will not allow for the combination of age pyramid and our increasingly effective health care keeping us alive to all become parents.

Watch this talk: https://youtu.be/O133ppiVnWY

Tl;DW: we can not prevent the end of exponential population growth. We can only choose how it ends. By starvation, war, disease, or fewer births.

Pension systems have relied on growth for a long time, but it's just not mathematically possible is the long run.

Re: Restarting my career after motherhood

#210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Painful for who? Maybe asset owners and the few deciles below them who live a decent life due to globally cheap labor. For the young and poor who only have their labor to sell, the situation would seem pretty decent.

Old people need a pension, which is paid by the workers through taxes.

Political will for transferring wealth from certain portions of the population to others can change quickly. Also, the pension amount likely will not keep up with real inflation, as is the case today.
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