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Career advice for people with bad luck

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Re: Career advice for people with bad luck

#331

Post by muro »

hysan wrote: post #183
username90 wrote: post #90

Step 1: Get a well paying job at a big tech company. There is very little luck involved in this, just get really good at algorithms. No need for a famous school, specific degree etc. It requires intelligence, if you don't have that then you need luck. Step 2: Save more than two thirds of your take home salary, you can still live way better than the people sweeping the office floor. Step 3: You now have a ton of money…

> Step 1: Get a well paying job at a big tech company. There is very little luck involved in this, just get really good at algorithms. No need for a famous school, specific degree etc. It requires intelligence, if you don't have that then you need luck. Sorry but no. Like everyone else has pointed out, this is so far from the truth that I’m actually in awe that someone would write this. There is a ton of luck involve…

> It takes luck for a referral to find the right hiring manager’s desk.

I only know about Google, but there is no such thing as a "hiring manager's desk". The hiring manager only gets info about a person once they passed interviews.

Re: Career advice for people with bad luck

#332

Post by lovich »

Reedx wrote: post #289
askdfjng wrote: post #251

Earlier quoted context omitted.

JBP's 12 Rules for Life is dangerous advice https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GtwP6AbbAUc

To dismiss as dangerous is silly. Here are the 12 rules. Rule 1: Stand up straight with your shoulders back Rule 2: Treat yourself like you would someone you are responsible for helping Rule 3: Make friends with people who want the best for you Rule 4: Compare yourself with who you were yesterday, not with who someone else is today Rule 5: Do not let your children do anything that makes you dislike them Rule 6: Set y…

Most of these seem fine to good, but number 5 is kind of just removing agency from children entirely. Its the same mindset of people who kick their kids out for being gay

Re: Career advice for people with bad luck

#333

Post by taurath »

blululu wrote: post #265
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. As the proud owner of a 2004 Toyota Corolla and a 2011 Philosophy Minor, this line made my day. Honestly it is just plain good advice.

How many miles does your Philosophy Minor have on it? I've heard they're not very reliable

Re: Career advice for people with bad luck

#334

Post by hysan »

muro wrote: post #331
hysan wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Step 1: Get a well paying job at a big tech company. There is very little luck involved in this, just get really good at algorithms. No need for a famous school, specific degree etc. It requires intelligence, if you don't have that then you need luck. Sorry but no. Like everyone else has pointed out, this is so far from the truth that I’m actually in awe that someone would write this. There is a ton of luck involve…

> It takes luck for a referral to find the right hiring manager’s desk. I only know about Google, but there is no such thing as a "hiring manager's desk". The hiring manager only gets info about a person once they passed interviews.

Ok, perhaps the titles are different per company, but the point still stands that the referral has to land on the desk of the right person in the right position. Doesn’t change a thing about what I wrote.

Re: Career advice for people with bad luck

#335

Post by tome »

TurkishPoptart wrote: post #276
xivzgrev wrote: post #263

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Perhaps it's this

https://www.amazon.com/Works-Famous-Little-Makes-Dreams-eboo...

It Works: The Famous Little Red Book That Makes Your Dreams Come True by RHJ

Re: Career advice for people with bad luck

#336

Post by ativzzz »

the_af wrote: post #279
vikramkr wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 m…

The U.S. is absolutely not the ideal place to live in. However, it is the ideal place to aspire to if you want to make a lot of money without being born to an already wealthy family. (Wealth of course being relative, because you need some wealth to immigrate nowadays)

Money, and opportunity for their children to earn money, is the reason so many people have immigrated to the U.S in the past century.

Money isn't everything, but you can sure buy a lot of freedom with it. Of course, nothing in life is risk-free, and making money is no exception, and the U.S. is unforgiving when it comes to those who come here and fail.

Re: Career advice for people with bad luck

#337

Post by oblio »

mettamage wrote: post #245
tlear wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Take a look at Japan as well, really easy to get in to work but money is not as good as NA. I don’t really know EU market

I'm a Dutchie, and I can't speak about the EU market as a whole, but as any European that travels around a bit, I have the following ranking in terms of lifestyle/pay: 1. Switzerland (90k or higher + mountains if you're willing to drive a bit) 2. Luxembourg (I just remember you get paid quite a bit) 3. Berlin (alright pay, low living costs, amazing city) 4. England + Scandinavia + The Netherlands (didn't look into Sc…

I can't speak for the rest of the countries in the region, but in Romania if you work in IT for a decent company you pay 0 income tax if you graduated from a local CS department and only a 10% flat rate otherwise.

A senior position at a good company in Bucharest will mean at least 3000 Euros net per month which means that you'll live like a king, since rent for a great apartment will be something like 500-600 Euros.

The downside is lower development you notice regarding infrastructure, education levels, pollution, etc.

Re: Career advice for people with bad luck

#338

Post by xcasperx »

jrumbut wrote: post #311
celestialcheese wrote: post #283

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same here - except 220k. Still running great, but looking for a new-to-me car because i'm tired of driving it.

I feel like a used car underachiever right now, looking forward to 2025 when I get a back up camera and bluetooth.

You can always buy a new stereo and install it. If you buy it from Crutchfield, for like $19 extra, you can get it prewired/harnessed so you don't have to splice the wires. Pretty sweet deal.

Also, some stereos come with a backup cam. This has to be spliced in though.

HUGE NOTE: I bought a 4.5-star receiver on Crutchfield, but the receiver didn't have Sirius XM on it, so I basically don't have radio (unless I use an app on my phone to stream the radio). I don't listen to the radio often so it's not a huge deal for me, just something to be aware of.

Re: Career advice for people with bad luck

#339

Post by blululu »

taurath wrote: post #333
blululu wrote: post #265

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> Read some philosophy. Buy a reliable used car. As the proud owner of a 2004 Toyota Corolla and a 2011 Philosophy Minor, this line made my day. Honestly it is just plain good advice.

How many miles does your Philosophy Minor have on it? I've heard they're not very reliable

In fairness it does break down constantly, but I can usually repair it on my own. I should mention that it handles well in difficult terrain, and it appreciates in value over time.

Re: Career advice for people with bad luck

#340

Post by burntoutfire »

mettamage wrote: post #245
tlear wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Take a look at Japan as well, really easy to get in to work but money is not as good as NA. I don’t really know EU market

I'm a Dutchie, and I can't speak about the EU market as a whole, but as any European that travels around a bit, I have the following ranking in terms of lifestyle/pay: 1. Switzerland (90k or higher + mountains if you're willing to drive a bit) 2. Luxembourg (I just remember you get paid quite a bit) 3. Berlin (alright pay, low living costs, amazing city) 4. England + Scandinavia + The Netherlands (didn't look into Sc…

> Countries that I wouldn't want to go to:

> 1. Eastern Europe

3-4k EUR net (after taxes) is pretty normal salary for senior enterprise dev in big cities in Poland. That's perhaps a bit less than in say Berlin (although I'm not too sure of that, given high taxes in Germany), but the costs of living are so much lower.

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