Career advice for people with bad luck • Hacker News Board

Re: Career advice for people with bad luck

#271

Post by disqard » Fri, Apr 24, 2020, 5:03 PM UTC

omniscient_oce wrote: post #85

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…

You may like the Japanese phrase 一期一会 (ichi-go-ichi-e). To me it means that you should cherish each relationship and encounter, regardless of whether you know it will last a long time or not. You may never get the chance to experience that particular relationship again. I actually learnt this word firsthand from a man that it applies to, an middle-aged Japanese guy who was volunteering with kids near where I live. We…

I'm saving this one. It's "be present, here and now", applied to relationships/acquaintances.

Re: Career advice for people with bad luck

#272

Post by lovegoblin » Fri, Apr 24, 2020, 5:05 PM UTC

chosenbreed37 wrote: post #203

LarryDarrell wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suspect it's because there isn't much advice to give. My answer, having checked a few of your boxes... Your lifetime wages are going to be lower than many of your peers. This is unlikely to change. Adjust your worldview accordingly. Don't assume any debt that relies on increasing future earnings to be comfortable. By all means, keep trying, but stay level headed. Success for most is not always right around the corn…

> Read some philosophy. Buy a reliable used car. Look inward for contentment. Try therapy if your shitty childhood and shitty parents made inward a hard place to look. I'd recommend the following: 1. Meditations - Marcus Aurelius 2. 12 Rules for Life - Jordan B Peterson 3. Letters from a self made merchant - John Graham

> 12 Rules for Life - Jordan B Peterson

yikes

Re: Career advice for people with bad luck

#273

Post by giantg2 » Fri, Apr 24, 2020, 5:05 PM UTC

travisjungroth wrote: post #142

giantg2 wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good stock market advice too. It doesn't matter what your account says your balance is. It only matters what you get when you sell it.

Considering the expected value of your publicly traded stocks at 0 is not good advice. If you actually believe that, then it would make sense to trade all of your holdings for a dollar.

I think you ignored the last sentence of my previous comment :)

Re: Career advice for people with bad luck

#274

Post by throw4failure » Fri, Apr 24, 2020, 5:06 PM UTC

caymanjim wrote: post #135

throw4failure wrote: post #29

This seems like a good thread in which to try to solicit some advice, since it's at least tangentially related. I was terminated from my last job. In my opinion it was due to my chronic and major depression that I have since been seeking extensive treatment (medication, several months rent in therapy) for. I say "in my opinion" because I really can't rule out that I'm just a lazy, crappy developer who is trying to us…

Never admit that you were fired. Your prior employer isn't going to tell anyone, if they know what's good for them. Small, inexperienced companies with no lawyers might, but no real business is going to risk a lawsuit by saying anything bad about you whatsoever. They'll confirm that you worked there and that's about it. Six months is not a big deal. You've been told all your life that gaps in your resume are a proble…

Thanks for the reply and for offering a unique perspective :)

> Your prior employer isn't going to tell anyone, if they know what's good for them. Small, inexperienced companies with no lawyers might, but no real business is going to risk a lawsuit by saying anything bad about you whatsoever. They'll confirm that you worked there and that's about it.

This is an interesting point. I had been under the impression that even companies with fairly restrictive HR policies could safely disclose whether or not a former employee was terminated. After some fresh googling it seems I might have been incorrect and that now employers increasingly might just admit you existed :)

> Do not under any circumstances tell people that you were unemployed or lost your job due to depression or mental health. I'm not going to sugar coat this for you. Never admit this during an interview. It's a bad idea to mention anything health related. It's also none of their business, unless you require an accommodation that needs to be addressed before you're hired.

Sadly, I think you're very much correct re: mental health. I almost wish I could be more candid, but everyone (here and elsewhere) seems to agree that's just a terrible idea.

> It's a bad idea to mention anything health related.

I have, however, mentioned health / medical issues in some of my early conversations. I definitely understand how that could make potential employers nervous, so in some future interviews I may try to omit mentioning health at all.

> You'll be fine going forward, although now isn't a great time to be looking for a job, so it might take longer.

Thank you :)

Re: Career advice for people with bad luck

#275

Post by teddyh » Fri, Apr 24, 2020, 5:08 PM UTC

dkersten wrote: post #195

decafninja wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Why use stock ticker names instead of typing the company names out properly? It literally only takes a second or two longer and is much clearer to read.

It’s usually signalling. Specifically, it signals “I can afford to invest so much into stocks that I live and breathe stocks, and if you don’t, then I don’t care about you.” It’s a very conceited attitude.

Of course, in this case specifically, it might be because they worked for 10 years in an investment bank, and might be used to always speaking about companies in terms of stocks.

Re: Career advice for people with bad luck

#276

Post by TurkishPoptart » Fri, Apr 24, 2020, 5:09 PM UTC

xivzgrev wrote: post #263

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…

I've found that success in life is correlated with how closely you hit on actual "truths" in the world. For example, you join company X on a rocket ship. Your equity value skyrockets - those assets were actually undervalued relative to what someone would pay for them later. One of the hardest things in life is that we don't actually know the "truth", no one does. But what we can do is learn to spot ways we tell ourse…

can you link directly to the book? thanks.

Re: Career advice for people with bad luck

#277

Post by TurkishPoptart » Fri, Apr 24, 2020, 5:11 PM UTC

techpop10 wrote: post #232

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.

This is misinformation for people who are trying.

Re: Career advice for people with bad luck

#278

Post by nostrademons » Fri, Apr 24, 2020, 5:12 PM UTC

decafninja wrote: post #252

nostrademons wrote: post #234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 r…

At the start of the process, I began with comp sci/DS&A fundamentals - including books like Algorithm Design Manual, Intro to Algorithms, etc. Took a few months break to get married, then resumed, eventually starting to 100% grind leetcode problems. As my wife can amusingly attest - I no longer have any hobbies or other personal entertainment since we got married. Studying for interviews consumes all the free time I…

Sounds like you're doing a lot of the right stuff.

I started as a frontend engineer at Google, 11+ years ago, and you're right that there's a lot of Javascript/DOM/HTML trivia to understand. Google was also one of the few companies that insisted you know vanilla JS cold and don't use frameworks in the interview. It's worth studying up on MDN to make sure you really know JS corner cases. You need to know the leetcode-style problems too - when I applied (and I think this is still true), it was 2 interviews for algorithms & data structures, 2 for frontend, and 1 system design.

It also may not be the right time to apply, since many FAANGs are dramatically slowing down hiring. Your odds get much better in boom times than bust times.

Re: Career advice for people with bad luck

#279

Post by the_af » Fri, Apr 24, 2020, 5:13 PM UTC

vikramkr wrote: post #192

dkersten wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> No pain no gain. If the US and SV opportunities aren't a type of gain that's compelling to you then of course you dont need to worry about it There are many reasons why this might be out if your control, beyond visa requirements. Maybe you have dependents your can’t bring with you (sick or elderly family for example), or maybe your SO has a job that’s hard to move. Or you have a family and can’t afford the crazy SV…

I was replying to the bulk of the comments in the post above, which were along the lines of not wanting to go because of age/liking hometown etc, and specifically mentioned at the end that there are valid barriers to consider, including one in the original post about the complexity of immigration. There are true barriers in the way, my disagreement was with the ones listed above.

I disagree with your disagreement about the barriers, namely:

It is false that the US is the ideal place to live in (or to temporarily migrate to if you're in tech). It is false that, all other things being equal, one should prefer to live in the US. The US is not the default place people should aspire to live in, not even people in tech. Even within the US, SV is not the best place to live in. Living in some place means much more than just working in trendy tech companies.

For a lot of us -- I'd say the vast majority, outside the HN bubble -- the US is not a particularly interesting place to live in, even if there were no immigration barriers. Which there are, anyway.

Re: Career advice for people with bad luck

#280

Post by throw4failure » Fri, Apr 24, 2020, 5:13 PM UTC

imprettycool wrote: post #211

throw4failure wrote: post #29

This seems like a good thread in which to try to solicit some advice, since it's at least tangentially related. I was terminated from my last job. In my opinion it was due to my chronic and major depression that I have since been seeking extensive treatment (medication, several months rent in therapy) for. I say "in my opinion" because I really can't rule out that I'm just a lazy, crappy developer who is trying to us…

I am in a similar position as you. I have a medical issue and I was fired in August 2018. Differences being: - I intentionally got myself fired so I could get an extra $25k in salary/severance/unemployment. - It was my first job out of college. - I have positive references I can give. (my manager sucked, other people were cool) - Medical issue is physical and not mental. (herniated disc / sciatica). Here is my advice…

Thanks :) - you are, in fact, pretty cool

> DO NOT MENTION, OR INSINUATE, YOU WERE FIRED. And don't lie.

It's unfortunate that openness is punished so harshly, but I get it. You're not the first person to caution strongly against letting anyone learn about the termination, so I'll try to move forward accordingly :)

> I try to avoid saying negative stuff about my last job

Definitely agree. It's one of those things that's more likely to harm than to help.

> herniated disc / sciatica

my sincere sympathies. I herniated some (cervical) discs a few years back, it's an extremely frustrating condition. In my case it's gotten better with time to the point I can do almost everything I could before, but I don't see myself getting back into MMA or other full contact sports.