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

Hire me and pay what you want, just give me interesting work

truzzi.me

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

261–270 of 418 posts

Re: Hire me and pay what you want, just give me interesting work

#261

Post by ftruzzi »

wpietri wrote: post #257
cletus wrote: post #160

So there are two issues with this: 1. If I were looking to hire someone and read this, I would immediately be turned off. Why? Because part of being an engineer (or any employee really) is doing a bunch of stuff people don't enjoy doing. This includes: - Writing documentation - Writing tests - Fixing bugs - Talking to partners about a change/launch - Talking to lawyers - etc So I would be wondering: if you're signali…

I don't read this as a signal he won't do the work. From his talk about the stuff he enjoys doing, I don't doubt it includes things that feel work-like. He just wants the work to be meaningful. That seems reasonable to me, and that's how I am. As long as there's some point to the work, I'm happy to do the tedious stuff all day long. I recently user-tested a job posting for a high-meaning job. [1] Some people were ver…

Thank you.

Writing tests and documentation or diving deep into debugging hard issues is what I consider part of "good work" (and that I have also enjoyed doing), and I can't wait to do good work. It just has to be compatible with the rest of life. It's mostly the way we work that has to change rather than the content of the work.

Re: Hire me and pay what you want, just give me interesting work

#262

Post by plutonorm »

fnord77 wrote: post #215
regularemployee wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> is doing a bunch of stuff people don't enjoy I enjoy writing documentation and writing tests. To me, writing documentation is like teaching others about the awesome product / features we have built, and also the different technical tradeoff decisions we had to make. I can't grasp the mindset where an engineer builds something really cool that they are proud of, but don't enjoy talking about it / teaching people how…

it's almost like a form of solipsistic narcissism (the way The Last Psychiatrist describes it). Nobody else exists except as a supporting role. Why should they have to explain their genius work to anyone...

Or they are stimulated by new ideas and and general patterns? To those kinds of people writing how something that already exists works is supremely boring. It doesn't require narcissism

Re: Hire me and pay what you want, just give me interesting work

#263

Post by username90 »

christophergs wrote: post #174
farhadhf wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have some similar experiences. Especially with people saying "let me do what I love" or "give me a position where I can learn new things". People like variety - the initial love doesn't last long. After a few weeks/months it gets boring and repetitive. Learning the shiny new tech is only fun until you you've figured out how it works, but the project doesn't end there and you have to deliver a product in the end. Bu…

Well said. This is why engineers who know how to finish the last 10% are truly valued by good colleagues and managers.

I don't think so, most teams never do the last 10% on any project ever. They pick the low hanging fruit with the first 80% and if they are thorough they might bring it up to 90%, but 100%? I've never seen such a software project.

Re: Hire me and pay what you want, just give me interesting work

#265

Post by plutonorm »

slingnow wrote: post #234
groby_b wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you as an employer are not able to deal with the fact that different people have different preferences, you either are running a very small shop (2-4 people) which just makes that impossible, or you're probably not an employer that will attract people who aren't deliberately choosing a "cog in the machine" path. I want to be very clear: There's nothing wrong with that path. There's nothing wrong with wanting to em…

I think you're taking a very black and white view of this. For example, ANY shop, of ANY size, is going to have issues with tricky-but-hard-to-reproduce bugs. The parent comment is highlighting the fact that they can't be sure if this sort of prima donna is going to be willing to run that issue to ground, or if they'll put up a stink about it being "boring". Additionally, even if this person were working for free, th…

"Do you honestly believe only "cogs in a machine" should be / would be interested in fixing that sort of issue?"

No but there are many types of people for whom it has no motivational value. Like they'd rather watch paint dry.

And that's their personality not something that can just be worked around.

Re: Hire me and pay what you want, just give me interesting work

#266

Post by lnsru »

sturgeongeneral wrote: post #236
lnsru wrote: post #13

I have nice boring job. Few years ago I was upset with the boring part. But with kids and mortgage I don’t really care anymore. I am very happy to be paid more than a manager in a small company being only individual contributor in big Corp. I also have approval to sell my hardware from big Corp. So I can explore new things with commercial potential without a fear. Life is good.

I may be conflating 'boring' with 'rote', but how do you think the nature of your work may affect your job security? This is something I worry about sometimes, because I find that the work I'm doing could eventually be de-valued or automated. Still, I very much appreciate your position as I'm in a similar boat.

Big Corp lost a big project few months ago. Big Corp will loose another one soon. I hope, I can get senior title before shit hits the fan. Contribution does not matter for the title, only employment duration is important.

However I am consulting a cool startup for free, do code reviews for them for free and could start immediately there with ~8% lower salary but 100% home office. That’s my plan C. Plan B is my own small hardware business selling Raspberry Pi based lidar and radar. I am not far away from the first product. I love these topics and compensate boredom at day job this way. As I mentioned, big Corp does not see interest conflict and I may sell these cool gadgets for wide Raspberry Pi community.

Re: Hire me and pay what you want, just give me interesting work

#267

Post by username90 »

sidlls wrote: post #182
dkasper wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s pretty sad and disempowering. For what it’s worth at companies like Facebook it’s completely the opposite. If you aren’t taking any initiative you will not meet expectations at performance review.

I just had a good chuckle at this. I’m skeptical, to say the least. I don’t have direct experience. But I do work at a company that has poached several FAANG employees this past year and whose thoughts...differ from yours.

Likely you were able to poach them since they didn't thrive in that environment. Or you got them from the more traditional top-down Microsoft, Apple or Amazon.

Re: Hire me and pay what you want, just give me interesting work

#268

Post by bryanrasmussen »

part of my company's long term onboarding of this prospective employee will include an intensive course in Buddhism, with the purpose of slowly teaching him to find something interesting in everything he works on. I believe that within 6 months to a year we can have the perfect highly competent employee, willing to work for very little and doing whatever asked of them because every task, no matter how mundane, is filled with interest.

Re: Hire me and pay what you want, just give me interesting work

#269

Post by spartanliving4u »

cletus wrote: post #160

So there are two issues with this: 1. If I were looking to hire someone and read this, I would immediately be turned off. Why? Because part of being an engineer (or any employee really) is doing a bunch of stuff people don't enjoy doing. This includes: - Writing documentation - Writing tests - Fixing bugs - Talking to partners about a change/launch - Talking to lawyers - etc So I would be wondering: if you're signali…

Exactly. Most developers do not seem to understand the cost of onboarding, dealing with them, dealing with their code and so on

Re: Hire me and pay what you want, just give me interesting work

#270

Post by bitboop »

jrockway wrote: post #212
regularemployee wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> is doing a bunch of stuff people don't enjoy I enjoy writing documentation and writing tests. To me, writing documentation is like teaching others about the awesome product / features we have built, and also the different technical tradeoff decisions we had to make. I can't grasp the mindset where an engineer builds something really cool that they are proud of, but don't enjoy talking about it / teaching people how…

Explaining how you did the thing that you already did cuts into the time for building the next thing. The difficulty that people wrestle with isn't whether or not documenting something is valuable, but rather whether documenting that thing should cut into their sleep, recreational activity, or The Next Thing.

Personally, I'd rather not immediately jump into building the next thing. After having worked on any significant project, I find writing documentation helpful on a selfish level: I use it to wind down and let my brain idle for a while. I don't think it's a good thing to go full tilt from building one thing to the next. It's good to pause in between, appreciate what's been accomplished, reflect on lessons learned, and take a well deserved break. I find writing documentation an excellent vehicle for that.
Post reply on HN