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“Great resignation” wave coming for companies

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Re: “Great resignation” wave coming for companies

#351

Post by JKCalhoun »

ahelwer wrote: post #62
aphextron wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Im quitting and not looking for another job. Gonna use the savings to take a gap year, or a couple, work on some stuff I want maybe. Maybe more involvement in OSS is coming too? Unless you have some serious FU money saved up, I'd strongly reconsider. A "gap year" as an adult can make you radioactive to potential employers. And that cash goes quick when there's none coming in. Trust me I know. It's alluring to just w…

Beyond the distasteful idea that we should always act in a way demonstrating obedience to potential employers, the solution to this is extremely easy. Gap year? No! I am merely doing independent consulting. Do I actually have any contracts? So many questions! Plus if you actually use the time to work on OSS instead of traveling or whatever I have no idea how an employer (that you'd want to work at) could fault you fo…

> Beyond the distasteful idea that we should always act in a way demonstrating obedience to potential employers

Maybe even more than distasteful, perhaps soul nullifying? (Pardon the awkward phrase, it's what I get when looking for an antonym for affirming.)

For myself, when I leave the engineering field it will not be to return to engineering again unless it's strictly on my own terms. More than likely teaching or similar would follow a "gap year".

Re: “Great resignation” wave coming for companies

#352

Post by CoastalCoder »

yawaworht1978 wrote: post #26

Most people are open for new opportunities and are proactively or passively checking at all times anyway. If a recruiter calls me and has an up to date cv, I will have a chat with them. This might lead to something, if not, at least they have their crm updated for the next calls. And when the need arises, you can get back at them, one of them placed me in a FAANG with full remote recently, totally unexpected. I think…

Sorry for the tangent, but have you found any benefit in maintaining a traditional CV / resume?

I'm not actively looking for a job, so I just tell them to have a look at my LinkedIn profile. But I wonder if that's keeping me from some worthwhile opportunities.

Re: “Great resignation” wave coming for companies

#353

Post by screye »

tgtweak wrote: post #289
screye wrote: post #263

> Surveys show anywhere from 25% to upwards of 40% of workers are thinking about quitting their jobs. This number is meaningless without previous year trends. In my circles, everyone from 25-35 is simultaneously preparing to FIRE and no-one that's 35+ has actually changed jobs despite being 'financially independent'. Expressing intent to resign, and actually resigning are completely different things. (edit: to clarif…

I appreciate the alternative perspective and productive-pessimism, but anecdotally in my immediate social circle of engineers, 5 have changed jobs - all for substantial upgrades, and not 1 of them was for a job that required office presence or downgrade in quality of environment. The last year has been so strong for online tech that there is a heavy vacuum effect on the available talent. FAANG are struggling to fill…

Agreed. My point was more about taking a break or negotiating better QOL. My anecdotal experience is similar to yours in terms of compensation. However, I haven't seen anyone be able to negotiate lower hours, more vacation or periodic employment that would allow them to pursue the 'RE' once they have reached the 'FI' of FIRE.

Lifestyle creep only moves in one direction and is usually permanent.

Re: “Great resignation” wave coming for companies

#354

Post by jason0597 »

benjaminwootton wrote: post #159
samvher wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess we have different social circles, but I know many people who have done this and none of them are "trust fund crowd". Have done it myself for multiple half-year-or-so periods as well. Maybe it's more of a European thing to do. I spent 3 months as a research assistant in Australia and used savings from that period to travel in South-East Asia and South America for 6 months or so. Shortly after graduating, havin…

It is a very popular thing to do in the UK before or after university. Around 20% of people at my university did the whole travel around Europe or Australia thing. Edit - Sorry, see all the peer comments made the same point.

I'm studying at a UK university too, and I always scratch my head as to how on earth people get the money to travel around Europe or Australia before they go to uni. Who funds it?

Re: “Great resignation” wave coming for companies

#355

Post by jonfw »

jokoon wrote: post #270
jonfw wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here's the pro fast food take. There are productive people working jobs that have massive necessity, and they need to eat. The least somebody who isn't productive can do is help feed them.

There are not many such people, and everybody knows how to cook. Ready to eat meals are good enough, collective food preparation is good too. Not to mention fast food is generally of poor quality.

There are plenty of people building houses, growing food, and maintaining infrastructure like water treatment that directly contribute to sustaining life. And there are plenty of people in the industries that are required to support those people.

I'm not saying they don't know how to cook- but I'm saying that the least the rest of society who aren't responsible for sustaining us can do is make life better for those who do

Re: “Great resignation” wave coming for companies

#357

Post by baron_harkonnen »

Goronmon wrote: post #320
baron_harkonnen wrote: post #245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> A "gap year" as an adult can make you radioactive to potential employers. I'm not sure where you got this idea in your head but it is demonstrably false in tech right now. I took a gap year after getting fired from an extremely toxic company. I didn't want to rush into a new role right away after such an awful experience. Once I was ready to go back it took ~1 month to go from starting my search to signing an offer…

I interviewed at a large range of companies and was pretty picky after my previous experience. I wonder, realistically, how many people out there actually get to be "pretty picky after my previous experience"?

In the world? Very, very few. I know it's it a tremendous fortune and privileged to be able to search for a job you think is a good match. Most people work in near slavery conditions with little choice.

At the same time, squandering that privilege out of some misplaced guilt only helps employers exert control of employees.

In tech? Virtually everyone has that level of privilege so long as they have some experience. I'm fairly certain I couldn't get hired by a FAANG company (I don't have too much interest in it, but I won't deny the possibility of sour grapes), so I'm not in some super-elite category of tech worker.

In addition, not everything lasts forever. I used to work for minimum wage in customer support jobs and I wouldn't be surprised if in 10-20 years (or sooner) I'm back in a much less desirable role.

It took me a long time to recognize that my market value had increase over time, and one of my biggest career mistakes was underestimating that and not acting on it sooner. As the saying goes, from a time when most people had to work on farms, "make hay while the sun shines".

Re: “Great resignation” wave coming for companies

#358

Post by gibbonsrcool »

I quit last June after 13 mostly consecutive years in tech. I haven't saved enough to be financially independent but I can coast for a while. Even at a company that seemed to have good work life balance, I couldn't take it so I have no idea how you FAANG folks do it. I don't know if I'm just not suited for the career or what, but working as a software engineer caused several stress related health problems that have either gone away or drastically improved over the past year. I can't imagine going back, it's not worth sacrificing my health and happiness.

Re: “Great resignation” wave coming for companies

#359

Post by ghaff »

lastofthemojito wrote: post #332
dreen wrote: post #7

Im quitting and not looking for another job. Gonna use the savings to take a gap year, or a couple, work on some stuff I want maybe. Maybe more involvement in OSS is coming too? I've never had a gap year, it was all school, then immigration, work, university, more work. Any holiday time you fly back home. I kept hearing its not unusual for people in the west to take gap years, so thats what Im doing. edit: thank you…

Obviously "the West" is a big place and there are lots of cultures and in-groups within it. I can tell you as a non-elite, middle-class American that I've almost never heard of someone taking a gap year after beginning professional work. The one case that comes to mind was an ex's father who was burnt out on his accountant career. He took a year to follow his dreams on music-related stuff, which didn't pan out in ter…

>I did however take a 6 week gap between jobs a few years back.

I've never had enough time off between (my few) jobs since grad school. The circumstances have never been quite right. I did get a 3-4 week vacation the last time and that was mostly because I had done everything except pull the trigger while waiting to see if an offer came through--then pushed things out as far as I could.

I actually had a month off the prior time as well but that was because of a post-9/11 layoff. As it turned out a conversation I had with someone I knew pretty much the following day panned out. But I didn't know that of course and it wasn't the time to just head off and vacation.

Re: “Great resignation” wave coming for companies

#360

Post by setBoolean »

paulcole wrote: post #137
hutzlibu wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I recommend traveling. See all the places, you want to see, with no pressure of having to go back to work by a fixed date, soon. Meet people, make new connections, chances are, you will find new opportunities to work, along the way. Bonus points, if you have all your stuff packed somewhere and not have to pay any rent. But it depends what you want, if you like your home, keep it. Have projects in your home ... There…

I took 3 years off, didn’t do anything other than read, watch tv, go to the movies, and walk/ride my bicycle. Never traveled once. Loved every minute of it. Doing nothing doesn’t get boring for everyone. And it’s my time not yours so who’s to say what a waste is? My biggest advice is to do what you want and don’t feel like you have to live up to some HN-gap-year fantasy. You might regret sitting in your apartment sur…

I just want to thank you for sharing your story and for me it's really a wholesome one. Best of luck to you on your further ways.
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