51–60 of 93 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Who are these people living on $40k/yr, and what size cardboard box do they live in?
With a roommate, a paid off used car, and a not extravagant lifestyle in a smaller city/town, it's not impossible. It ain't as easy as it was ~8 years ago when I was doing that though
start your own company
I think a lot of younger people in the workforce today have never witnessed a bear market or a real tech downturn, where literally nobody was hiring, like the first dotCom crash and to a lesser extent the 2008 one. I'd argue that no amount of "skills" or networking are going to help in that macroeconomic environment. Instead, you need an F-you financial cushion because you _will_ be helplessly out of work for an exte…
I lost my job during the .com bust, in 2002, I think. There were plenty of software development jobs, even within my city. I was pretty junior, no CS degree (but I did have a science bachelors). I applied to one or two a week, found a job within three or four months. I was also looking for work sometime around 2009. Again, found a job within four to six months, although I was a little choosier then. Ended up with a contract job at BigCo and they hired me W2 six months or so later. During a downturn contract work can be more available, because BigCo doesn't have a budget for new hires (= can't easily downsize), but part of what contractors are selling is that you can end the contract tomorrow and they say "it's been a pleasure, let me know if you have anything I can help with in the future".
All that to say, having lived through the worst downturn, I think a tech downturn where literally nobody is hiring is unlikely. Of course, a financial cushion is always wise.
1. Live below your means. 2. Have 6+ months living expenses in cash equivalent. 3. Build retirement / investment savings. 4. Build skills and be able to demonstrate you can ship product. I've seen many co-workers get laid off in my career, they all landed back on their feet.
Advice from someone who didn't do this and should now have waaaaaaaay more savings than he does: don't reduce your spending on experiences (dinner, drinks with friends, holidays), but try to reduce your spending on objects.
It is so true that the dopamine hit from buying a thing is short-lived. Now you have that thing, which you probably won't use all that much, and you have to carry it around your life. It wasn't worth it.
Of course this applies more to more expensive objects. Cars boggle my mind. I'm lucky enough to live somewhere that I can walk or cycle everywhere, but still. If I needed a car, people spend what? A hundred k on a fucking Toyota? Are you out of your goddamned mind?
I found out that the most important skills in the IT industry is the bullshit skill. That's the kind of skill you need to build.
I agree. I strongly suspect the people telling OP they aren't worried about finding another job are bullshitting him. Or in some cases, maybe their egos have them believing it too.
Instead, I like to think of it in terms of having the ability to walk away with your head held high, rather than your middle finger held high. In other words, when they take the low ground, you continue to take the high ground -- right on out the door.
To do this, I think most people can rely on two objective values and one psychological one.
The two objective values are:
1) knowing what you're worth in the current market (e.g. by regularly interviewing, even when you're not actively looking), and
2) having sufficient savings to cover your expenses until your next job starts.
The psychological value is harder to work out, but it has to do with developing a clear sense of your own self-worth and identifying the sort of treatment within the workplace that you will and will not tolerate. I don't mean acting like a prima donna and viewing certain work as beneath you. I mean stuff like if a toxic boss is fundamentally mistreating you, or if you're promised a certain set of working hours or working conditions and then find out that it was an empty promise.
- As long as you have healthy body, healthy mind, healthy spirituality, money can always be made
- Always be studying
- Don't be ashamed to do low paying jobs, i.e, dishwashing, delivery driving
- Don't follow consumerism. Don't have credit card debt. Don't have student loan debt. Don't have mortgage. If you do, and you can't pay it off, just let it be. Escape to another country, be undocumented, build a new life
- Tell your wife and kids that they need to be ready leave you to a better person that can take care of them if things go south
Basically, just have the attitude "It is what it is, I tried my best".
A lot of our problems in life are because we want this and that. We want a nice house, we want a nice car, we want a beautiful wife, we want kids, we want good career, we want a nice vacation, we want the latest phone, etc. Get rid of your current life style, or just have the attitude "eh, this thing can be gone and I will be okay".
Those aren't that important. Nothing lasts forever. In the end, things happened.
Of course, modern society will break down if all of us think and have this kind of freedom. Society is built upon hard labors of those who have chains like a mortgage.
But you do you. Neither you nor society is all that important. Forget about all of those pressure.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I wonder if the confidence OP is detecting from their collegues is more due to unspoken 1, 2 and 3 rather than the explicitly mentioned 4. In our society it's considered kind of gauche to say something like "I could take a 100k pay cut and still pay the bills" or "I've got enough savings to go years without a job" but for many software engineers living well below their means these could easily be true. There are lots…
Who are these people living on $40k/yr, and what size cardboard box do they live in?
$37k mortgage $15k bills - electric, water, Internet, car insurance, cell phones, etc. $15k - food, gasoline, clothing, haircuts, other "necessities" (many of which are not)
Then of course there's vacations, Christmas/birthdays, and unexpected large purchases (e.g. the out of warranty laptop broke), so maybe add on another $10k?
But we could also easily tighten the belt a bit and cut those bottom 2 items to $20k with only a little bit of pain.
When you're walking home after taxes with $175k/year you definitely get a little flabby on what should be sensible cost cutting (e.g. I'm sure I'm paying a few hundred dollars a year for streaming/subscription services I don't use enough to justify, but it's not worth the hassle.)
We are of course extremely privileged to not have any major medical issues, a good support system for child care, 2 work from home parents, and to have somehow avoided most of the crazy tuition hikes of the 21st century.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
You may not like it, but you should at least acknowledge the perspective. I can think of several examples of people whose primary skill is “managing up” and can impress those writing the checks. I take pride in doing what I consider to be generating business value, but I strongly believe that my compensation would be higher if I spent more time self-promoting rather than doing “real work”.
I consider managing up to be critical skill for me at least. my version is that I tell them naked truth...some people appreciate that
It's possible to play both games.