The surreal experience of my first developer job • Hacker News Board

Re: The surreal experience of my first developer job

#261

Post by jamal-kumar » Thu, Aug 05, 2021, 3:46 PM UTC

benn_88 wrote: post #128

jamal-kumar wrote: post #127

My first developer job was at some company making shit iphone apps like this, two years before this guy... but they were almost worse considering how stupid they were. People in those days would literally pay like a dollar for an app that just made a google maps search for 'ice cream' or 'liquor' because they didn't know how to use google maps. I realized pretty fast these guys were never going to make anything of ac…

This reminds me of a part I didn't mention in the article - they initially actually set up a second company called "Shady Apps" with a separate Developer account from which they upload the "people will buy anything for 99p" apps, on the basis that they would keep the "App Start" one clean for just the better quality ones. One day Alex showed me a bunch of such apps they'd made - the "orgasm button" was one I can reca…

haha yeah see if it made it past the review board (which didn't give a huge damn back then), then people WOULD pay 99p for it. Insane

Re: The surreal experience of my first developer job

#262

Post by gjvc » Thu, Aug 05, 2021, 4:52 PM UTC

clipradiowallet wrote: post #144

gjvc wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wish I had read this several years ago. This is the kind of thing which everyone instinctively knows but somehow forgets with age, or ignores due to circumstances (like needing a job having just been made redundant). I swear that CEOs like the one mentioned here specifically prefer hiring those who are in need like this, with the predictable awful behaviours. Some people will get lucky, but I expect that they are t…

> I swear that CEOs like the one mentioned here specifically prefer hiring those who are in need like this This is absolutely a thing - it's the same mentality a pimp uses to identify and groom sex workers or other exploitative labor. The less stable/independent you are, the more control they can exercise over you etc

Never again. Best of luck to all reading this who have been on the receiving end of this, and those who are now wise enough to avoid it in the future.

Re: The surreal experience of my first developer job

#263

Post by foldr » Thu, Aug 05, 2021, 5:18 PM UTC

benelvin wrote: post #256

claudiawerner wrote: post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

CoL adjusted UK salaries for anyone from junior to mid-level are terrible, and saving even 1/3 of your income on that kind of salary is hard. Not to mention, the lower CoL areas (and correspondingly low salaries) generally just aren't nice places to be. The idea that you can pay someone 24k/year to write C and Python filling a "junior" role that requires two years of expirence is crazy. Even if you adjust for healthc…

My perspective as a hiring manager at a UK based SAAS company is this: I will and do pay as much as I can afford to secure developers who are actually good at their job. I can't really comment on why they're so hard to find, but my experience is that they really are. Maybe it's the side effect of there being very few of the kind of developers who could command those SV level salaries in the UK, or maybe they just are…

Probably just the location? London has a huge gravitational pull in the UK. If you’re outside London you’re basically limited to people who can’t or won’t move to London, which excludes most (though obviously not all) of the most ambitious and talented candidates.

Re: The surreal experience of my first developer job

#264

Post by foldr » Thu, Aug 05, 2021, 5:23 PM UTC

elzbardico wrote: post #218

mmarq wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Yes, once we had a mouse in the flatshare While everybody I know who rented in London had to deal with mice or bed-bugs (and I don’t fully understand what these are, because before coming to London I never heard of them), at least those on low income, I don’t know of any other place where this is even remotely true.

Jesus! I haven’t seen stuff like that even in Lagos, Rio de Janeiro, bogota or Mexico City. Truly medieval stuff!

Mmarq is exaggerating quite a bit. It may be that they are accurately reporting their own experiences, but as a description of typical life in London, take it with a huge pinch of salt.

Re: The surreal experience of my first developer job

#265

Post by ptx » Thu, Aug 05, 2021, 9:11 PM UTC

tummybug wrote: post #240

claudiawerner wrote: post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

CoL adjusted UK salaries for anyone from junior to mid-level are terrible, and saving even 1/3 of your income on that kind of salary is hard. Not to mention, the lower CoL areas (and correspondingly low salaries) generally just aren't nice places to be. The idea that you can pay someone 24k/year to write C and Python filling a "junior" role that requires two years of expirence is crazy. Even if you adjust for healthc…

Funny in Ireland I find tech salaries quite generous with 80k+ easily achievable for someone with 5+ years experience and 6 figures being the norm for a senior worth his salt.

Are all these different ks implicitly in US dollars, UK pounds or euros? I'm very confused.

Re: The surreal experience of my first developer job

#266

Post by donatj » Thu, Aug 05, 2021, 9:13 PM UTC

cutemonster wrote: post #247

donatj wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Avoid startups where the CEO does / has done nothing but sales. I worked for a small company where this was the case. The owner had been a sales person for a large online industrial web registry and decided he could be a middleman selling the companies websites that integrated with said registry. The job was fine, my paycheck bounced a couple times, but that’s the worst of it until after. In my exit interview I had…

I wonder what became of the junior dev, when the next projects he did took a lot ? longer. Maybe he just said that those were more complicated

I know the guy personally to this day. He's a super nice guy, he was just very green at the time. If I recall they threw out everything I'd built and started over.

Re: The surreal experience of my first developer job

#267

Post by CRConrad » Thu, Aug 05, 2021, 11:03 PM UTC

RobRivera wrote: post #220

themolecularman wrote: post #207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be honest I don't pay attention to my paychecks. I work in Silicon Valley and have things direct deposited into my bank account, which I never check. Theoretically, my current (and past) employers could have left out a dozen paychecks and I may not have noticed. I don't think it's that unusual. If he doesn't have any money in his bank account it may be more noticeable.

what is the relevance of working in Silicon Valley?

(Semi-)Obliquely bragging about how much one is paid, AFAICS.

Re: The surreal experience of my first developer job

#268

Post by CRConrad » Thu, Aug 05, 2021, 11:04 PM UTC

ljm wrote: post #257

prepend wrote: post #251

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think GP thinks it is more polite than saying “I’m so rich, I don’t even know if I get paid.” But I don’t think so and seems pretty cringy.

There was a post written a while ago by someone saying what it was like to be poor when they got their first job in SV. One of the exact points was that they had colleagues who didn't really mind if they missed a couple of months of salary... they wouldn't notice as they had no need to look. Just like GP. It was totally incomprehensible for her, as someone who had to live paycheck to paycheck. My only real response t…

> My only real response to this kind of humblebrag

"Humble"?

Re: The surreal experience of my first developer job

#269

Post by heavenlyblue » Thu, Aug 05, 2021, 11:06 PM UTC

mmarq wrote: post #183

Cederfjard wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When you say ”very very bad healthcare”, are you referring to the NHS?

Yes, the NHS is weirdly worshipped in the UK, but is much worse than the Italian or the German healthcare systems (to name the 2 I experienced personally). The emergency service is good, but prevention is borderline non-existent and getting referrals to see specialists may be challenging.

NHS is a British religion. They think they invented it and take any criticism of it as a direct Tory speak for it’s privatisation.

Re: The surreal experience of my first developer job

#270

Post by prepend » Thu, Aug 05, 2021, 11:53 PM UTC

ljm wrote: post #257

prepend wrote: post #251

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think GP thinks it is more polite than saying “I’m so rich, I don’t even know if I get paid.” But I don’t think so and seems pretty cringy.

There was a post written a while ago by someone saying what it was like to be poor when they got their first job in SV. One of the exact points was that they had colleagues who didn't really mind if they missed a couple of months of salary... they wouldn't notice as they had no need to look. Just like GP. It was totally incomprehensible for her, as someone who had to live paycheck to paycheck. My only real response t…

Yeah, I’m not offended or anything. Good for GGP and whatnot, just trying to explain.

It was funny working with some people who didn’t really need the money. It was/is always an alien concept for me. We had a cool startup we were working with and they were in “stealth mode” for two years without any revenue or funding, just working without any income. Must be nice.