Ask HN: Burnt-out, directionless but want to turn it around • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Burnt-out, directionless but want to turn it around

#401

Post by inkblotuniverse » Tue, May 31, 2022, 2:08 PM UTC

ajkjk wrote: post #396

feanaro wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> No-one will care about a month or two gap on your resume. On a related note, this "gap in resume" thing needs to stop being a thing at all. I don't know when it became a thing, but it feels distinctively like forcing a wage slave class to keep their head down and continue wageslaving. Why would an employer care whether I took time off to pursue other things otherwise?

I have a three year gap in my resume and getting a good tech job afterwards was EASY. If anything it made me more employable because people tend like people who do more than write code all day. (Of course the lack of career progression was probably a net disadvantage in terms of raw money-making ability, but I don't care about that). Incidentally I like to also tell people who are a bit behind the times that these da…

Tattoos, piercings, and a quirky style signal you're the right kind of (cultural) drone.

(A corporate wageslave could run away and integrate somewhere else; better to brand them with distinctive, permanent markers.)

Re: Ask HN: Burnt-out, directionless but want to turn it around

#402

Post by vsareto » Tue, May 31, 2022, 2:10 PM UTC

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #361

madeofpalk wrote: post #306

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've taken multiple six month stints off, and in the UK no one has ever asked about it.

The issue is earlier in the resume screening process, before they’re talking to you at all. If a company receives 200 applications and 50 of them have flawless resumes, even something as small as a couple unexplained gaps could be enough to move you below the cutoff for getting a call back. I think the thing that confuses people about gaps is that it doesn’t make it impossible to get any job. It just raises questions…

This makes sense from the company perspective, but gaps still shouldn't bother candidates because there are many thousands of companies in the world. Since companies give no feedback on an initial rejection, you can't even see how often you're being rejected for gaps vs. other things, so it's not even worth worrying about.

Re: Ask HN: Burnt-out, directionless but want to turn it around

#403

Post by WhompingWindows » Tue, May 31, 2022, 2:10 PM UTC

Wow! Give yourself some credit, you're doing great friend, holding down all those systems, that's a very hard job!

From personal experience, I haven't written any libraries or frameworks and I'm definitely a like 40th-50th percentile coder at best. But I do have family, friends, hobbies, outdoor recreation, exercise, and meaningful contemplation in my life.

This means that though I'm not shreking code 24/7, I have all these wonderful things to recharge my batteries. When I do sit down at work for those 30-40 hours, I get what I need to done, not worrying if it's via stack overflow, copy-pasta, or any method.

And that's totally fine, you don't need to re-invent the wheel or be a wunderkind, just be yourself and take AMPLE time to do things you love outside of work.

Re: Ask HN: Burnt-out, directionless but want to turn it around

#404

Post by faramarz » Tue, May 31, 2022, 2:11 PM UTC

Go outside more and in nature; feel the earth, digital detox once a day every week. in these times of quiet, introduce play in to your life. Introverts like myself do great on bikes. it's a solo experience, it gets your blood pumping and you benefit from the outdoors. I can't state this enough, take your socks off and feel the earth underneath you.

You are worthy of all that you desire, don't let some bullshit title misguide you into comparing yourself to others. DM me on twitter if you like chat on this.

Burn out anxiety is real and will spiral out of control if you don't pause, and breathe in order to re-evaluate from an inspired/excited mental and energetic space.

Re: Ask HN: Burnt-out, directionless but want to turn it around

#405

Post by giantg2 » Tue, May 31, 2022, 2:12 PM UTC

qkls wrote: post #387

giantg2 wrote: post #367

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Drug tests are pretty common. If they pass that, there's no reason to prevent hiring. It could even be illegal since it's a health condition. This comment makes me sad. It seems illegal biases in hiring and management practices are rampant. Worker protections seem to be a joke when they're blatantly ignored.

Well... I don't hire people so don't take my comment as proof that any illegal biases are rampant. I was just stating one possible issue an employer might have with career breaks.

I do hear a lot of illegal things from other discussions on here too. So it wasn't based on just you.

Re: Ask HN: Burnt-out, directionless but want to turn it around

#406

Post by ravenstine » Tue, May 31, 2022, 2:13 PM UTC

frading wrote: post #231

finikytou wrote: post #224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

trust me they care. especially in a fast moving technology space like cloud, k8s, ML. if you are hired for COBOL yes sure a gap wont matter

Trust me they don't. I've had all sorts of gaps in my career. 6 months, 1 year and more, to explore different domains. I'm in computer graphics/front end, pretty fast paced. Nobody ever asked. Please, never feel guilty about taking a single month off. If your body needs rest, you need to listen to it.

Yup, I second this. I took almost a year off to work on a personal project and drive GrubHub to make rent. Had no problem getting interviews and hired after a few weeks of looking.

Not every industry is like this, but tech has little reason to care. If anything, employees with more life experience are a benefit to the employer.

Re: Ask HN: Burnt-out, directionless but want to turn it around

#407

Post by maerF0x0 » Tue, May 31, 2022, 2:15 PM UTC

feanaro wrote: post #200

colanderman wrote: post #9

1. Take time off, like a month or more. [1] Use it to do anything other than coding. Hone a hobby, travel, volunteer, etc. No-one will care about a month or two gap on your resume. 2. You are worth more than you currently think you are. Internalize this, know this, that is key. "I am a sole developer for Mobile and Web platforms at this startup in a very small team" --> is a desirable skill in and of itself. 3. Stop…

> No-one will care about a month or two gap on your resume. On a related note, this "gap in resume" thing needs to stop being a thing at all. I don't know when it became a thing, but it feels distinctively like forcing a wage slave class to keep their head down and continue wageslaving. Why would an employer care whether I took time off to pursue other things otherwise?

> Why would an employer care whether I took time off to pursue other things otherwise?

Let me start off saying I dont agree with this logical fallacy. So don't downvote me if you don't like that some employers think this way.

I think many interviewers/managers worry that a gap in resume is actually you got fired and then spent months looking for a new role (possibly this one). Or that you started at a company and then left within a month or two.

I guess the belief is an employee who gets fired ought to be red lettered and too big a risk to employ ever again? (fallacy)

Now starting at a company and leaving early could be a red flag on the employee in that they agreed to do something and then didnt follow through. But it could just as easily be that the company really misrepresented themselves during the interviewing process and lo and behold it's actually a shit show once you start working for them.

Re: Ask HN: Burnt-out, directionless but want to turn it around

#408

Post by am391 » Tue, May 31, 2022, 2:23 PM UTC

First of all, you are not alone. When I read your post it really resonated with me. I've been developing software professionally for 25+ years and have had 3 bouts of burnout and have gone through the same fear, uncertainty and doubt you seem to be going through. It can get better and there are a few things you can do to help (at least these helped me):

1) Take a break, even 1-2 weeks can make a huge difference. You need to rest and recover so you can get persepective. It's really easy when your in the thick of things to loose sight of how bad things are or see a way out. If you can get away from that for a week or 2 you can start to think clearly again and figure out what you want (and do not want) to do next.

2) Stop working crazy hours. There are times when we need to work really hard to get something delivered, but if you're doing those hours all the time you're going to be exhausted which means you're getting less done in the regular hours and have nothing left to give when it's really needed.

3) Don't sweat about side projects. I have several hard drives full of half-finished or abandoned side projects that will never see the light of day. It used to bother me that I couldn't get them done, but now I treat them as hobbies which should be fun. If it stops being fun I stop working on it.

4) Believe in your abilities. It sounds corny but if you're shipping software then by you're doing the job. Sure we all have things we wish we could do better, but accept that you have skilla and then figure out where you want to go next. As an aside, hacking together snippets of code found on the web is how most software gets built...it's our indeustry's worst kept secret :)

5) Learn from smart people. This one is harder to do but if you can find some really smart people to work with you will learn more than from any other source. This doesn't have to mean changing jobs (although that really helps) it could mean contributing to an open source project you really like.

Hope some of that helps.

Re: Ask HN: Burnt-out, directionless but want to turn it around

#409

Post by randerp » Tue, May 31, 2022, 2:23 PM UTC

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #359

UncleMeat wrote: post #346

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Common gaps are for protected things (raising children) and can cause problems if put on CVs. The idea that employers need to treat every applicant with maximum suspicion is frustrating.

The concern is that someone was fired for cause or has a pattern of abandoning jobs. Taking time off to raise children isn’t a big deal at most companies (at any big company, you’re more likely to find more parents than non-parents in hiring manager positions). Even gaps for things like travel aren’t really an issue as long as the candidate explains it. You have to consider that hiring managers aren’t only seeing res…

just curious - if someone is "fired for cause" (don't feel that this term is universally accurate in its implications but thats another discussion), do you feel they should never get a job again? its some sort of Scarlett letter or brand on them?

Re: Ask HN: Burnt-out, directionless but want to turn it around

#410

Post by sarojmoh1 » Tue, May 31, 2022, 2:30 PM UTC

Wow, we sound like exactly the same person.

I was also lone-dev. Leave. If possible, leave asap, or save enough $ to do so. Life is short...you may not even want to get back into tech at all. You're not being respected being the only dev and they're only taking advantage of you.

Yes..knowing how to solve leetcode problems seems the only way to get a decent paying dev job nowadays. I think it's bs but that's unfortunately how it is. There's no way you can study this if you're working FT (more than that) and killing yourself at a job you hate.