Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Career advice for people with bad luck

chiefofstuff.substack.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

231–240 of 511 posts

Re: Career advice for people with bad luck

#231

Post by designium »

mdorazio wrote: post #67

I really want to see more articles like this on HN. However, this is really "career advice for people at struggling companies." The luck part doesn't get discussed in the way I expected. To me, bad luck is things like: - You're in the wrong place at the wrong time. Ex. you graduated in 2008-2010/now or your business sector got wiped out by COVID - Despite your best efforts at networking, you simply never meet that ma…

Most opinions and suggestions are based on the "standard path of success". If we use beauty contest as an analogy of success, only one will be the winner and all losers. In case of North American perspective, success looks like this:

- Have good academic credentials - Have good big corporation names on your resume - Have good connections - Have nice car - Have nice house - Have kids, partner, etc. - Travel a lot when retired

If we based our life against that standard, then it is going to be easier to be depressed once a person's life deviates from it.

The other extreme, suggested by some others here, is to accept and be content about "c'est la vie" concept - life will suck and get over it, and its variations. I think that is wrong because it reinforces the idea there is only one way to succeed and have a good life.

My suggestion is simpler:

- Cover your base: do you have a place to live? do you feel safe where you live? do you have good quality food that you like to eat? do you have a group of friends to hangout and rely on? do you have an income source that is relatively stable?

- Then you can focus on whatever you want to do; free yourself from rigid standards and paths. You can even pursue the stereotypical success lifestyle knowing that even if you fail, you can recover fast and try again.

Re: Career advice for people with bad luck

#232

Post by techpop10 »

mdorazio wrote: post #67

I really want to see more articles like this on HN. However, this is really "career advice for people at struggling companies." The luck part doesn't get discussed in the way I expected. To me, bad luck is things like: - You're in the wrong place at the wrong time. Ex. you graduated in 2008-2010/now or your business sector got wiped out by COVID - Despite your best efforts at networking, you simply never meet that ma…

The one big thing I see missing here is the ability to increase your luck by networking and personal branding. You absolutely have to build your personal network. More exposure, more potential opportunity. Plain and simple - no matter what field you are in.

Re: Career advice for people with bad luck

#233

Post by specialist »

mdorazio wrote: post #67

I really want to see more articles like this on HN. However, this is really "career advice for people at struggling companies." The luck part doesn't get discussed in the way I expected. To me, bad luck is things like: - You're in the wrong place at the wrong time. Ex. you graduated in 2008-2010/now or your business sector got wiped out by COVID - Despite your best efforts at networking, you simply never meet that ma…

- Mentorship, and how to find it

Reflecting on my career of failure, unfulfilled potential, compared to the biographies of "successful" people, what they all seem to have which I lacked was a mentor.

That person who said "You can do this. I believe in you. Let's talk it thru."

To counterbalance all the people who actively or passively tear you down.

Re: Career advice for people with bad luck

#234

Post by nostrademons »

decafninja wrote: post #138
karamazov wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. Any reasonably good programmer can get a job at a FANG company with three months of serious study; any reasonably intelligent person can become a good entry-level programmer with 1-2 years of serious study. The demand for engineers far outstrips supply.

I've been studying for the past two years and have failed at multiple FAANGs, some twice. Failed at FB, NFLX, AMZN, in addition to MSFT and UBER. Then again, I'm not entry level (10 yoe), so I might be competing at a higher bar. However, I'd gladly join any of these companies as a junior engineer without hesitation. I've seen stories of, amongst others, someone who studied while in prison get into GOOG, someone who w…

How much time are you spending specifically on interview question practice (HackerRank/Leetcode)?

I've got close to 20 years of programming experience, including working at Google for several years and launching some very high-profile projects. I still fail interviews if I haven't studied for them. You could argue that it's a stupid system where they test 20-minute coding exercises with a trick answer, and you'd be right [1]. But it's a system that can be gamed, and can be gamed with relatively little time. Putting in a week full-time, or working a problem a day for 3 months, will put you way ahead of most of the rest of the competition.

[1] But the interview bullshit serves another less-obvious purpose: it tests how much you actually want to work at the organization. It's relatively easy to bullshit enthusiasm in a calm chat with a hiring manager. It's pretty hard to do it when your brain is occupied by solving a hard problem and you're frustrated because you have 5 minutes left to solve a problem and there's still a sticky bug.

Re: Career advice for people with bad luck

#235

Post by esoterica »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #207
dkersten wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Potentially very unpopular opinion, but to add to this, I think it’s irresponsible and unfair to the children if you choose to have have kids before your finances are in order. And selfish to put your desires above the wellbeing of the potential child’s.

We're talking in the thread about bad luck. It's entirely possible - and common - to have finances in order, decide to have children, and then experience sudden events causing financial hardships. Also, we're in a subthread of "saving lots o'moneys by working for big tech", so this applies also to people wanting to improve your situation. I personally didn't realize how bad the calculus of chasing after companies in…

> I personally didn't realize how bad the calculus of chasing after companies in tech hubs looks until I started doing costs-of-living calculations while evaluating job offers with relocation.

Your mistake was waiting until mid-career to try to pivot to a higher paying job in a HCOL area, because then you'll be 10+ years behind your peers. If you start your career in a HCOL area it's not unfeasible to reach 400k+ by your 30s, at which point you can afford a family even in San Francisco if you wanted one. It's also much easier to find a higher income spouse in a HCOL area, which helps the math too.

Re: Career advice for people with bad luck

#236

Post by foreigner »

jorblumesea wrote: post #194

> Your equity package is a lottery ticket with expected value of zero. While this is true, it's vastly more true for startups and privately owned companies vs publicly owned. Amazon's stock price might fluctuate but the chances of it being worthless are slim.

But equity packages are typically stock options, not stock. So they're only worth anything if the stock price goes way up.

Re: Career advice for people with bad luck

#237

Post by Balgair »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #205
robertlagrant wrote: post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> A lot of countries are spending a lot of money to reverse that sentiment right now. Yes, they are currently expensive, but blaming people for having children isn't going to fix anything. I think it's more about why people blame the government or society for the economic ramifications of this choice.

Which people? Environmentalist maybe. But those worrying about failing retirement pension system or the amount of migrant labor probably do realize both are caused by low population growth in their country.

> But those worrying about failing retirement pension system or the amount of migrant labor probably do realize both are caused by low population growth in their country.

The more years that pass, the less I am certain that many people realize anything beyond their front bumper.

Re: Career advice for people with bad luck

#239

Post by marcus_holmes »

decafninja wrote: post #179
marcus_holmes wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm over 50 and been working in the industry for >25 years... what are my odds?

Disclaimer: I don't work at a FAANG. However this is my observations from interviewing at FAANGs. Seems random to be honest. Some of my interviewers have been older people. Some of the people waiting with me at lobbies prior to interview have been older people. I'm 38 FYI. Seems your ability to pass the leetcode problems is the most important factor, so long as you don't torpedo yourself with odd behavior during the…

Thanks, useful :)

Re: Career advice for people with bad luck

#240

Post by kradroy »

ashtonkem wrote: post #2

> The company is not your family. Some of the people in the company are your friends in the current context. It’s like your dorm in college. Hopefully some of them will still be your friends after. But don’t stay because you’re comfortable. This one hit hard. It’s amazing how many of the close work friends I had over the years were only close because of the shitty circumstances we endured together. Once that was gone…

My view is: "You can be 'friendly' with coworkers without being 'friends'." My test for friendship is: "Would I call this person to bail me out of jail?" The answer to that question from me has always excluded all my coworkers and managers, despite them being nice and helpful people.

I've also worked at a family company. They may claim you're "family" too, but that's just marketing hype. The truth is the family members will always be better compensated than you for doing far less. And when tough times come, you will take a hit before any family member.

Post reply on HN