How I survived being a $220k/year intern • Hacker News Board

Re: How I survived being a $220k/year intern

#61

Post by autarch » Sun, Mar 08, 2020, 9:15 PM UTC

fancyfredbot wrote: post #6

Being paid a lot of money for not having any responsibility sounds good to me. This guy sure seems angry about it though.

I had a job for several years where I was paid a lot of money to do very little, because the company moved at a glacial pace compared to what I was capable of.

I did do a lot of FOSS work during that time but ultimately I started feeling depressed. I'm not a live to work person, but I do want to feel like my work has some sort of meaning, even if that meaning is just "building a product that people use".

Having my contract not be renewed (insourcing to China) was the best thing that could have happened to me. I got a new position where we moved at a decent pace and I was contributing to something real, and I felt way better almost immediately.

Re: How I survived being a $220k/year intern

#62

Post by ginko » Sun, Mar 08, 2020, 9:16 PM UTC

jdmichal wrote: post #47

A4ET8a8uTh0 wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ditto. Taking into consideration average salary in US it is just asking for rather uncharitable read. And that is not taking into consideration in demand skill set that could land him another like job with relative ease. I don't often go for dismissive, but cry mich ein river.

> cry mich ein river That should be "cry mir ein river". You want the dative case, because you are requesting that the river be cried for you.

"cry mir einen river" since river is masculine

Re: How I survived being a $220k/year intern

#63

Post by bob33212 » Sun, Mar 08, 2020, 9:17 PM UTC

A4ET8a8uTh0 wrote: post #42

kaiabwpdjqn wrote: post #10

I find this post to be relatively unimpressive. He spends a great amount of time complaining about how the company was shit in a way that implies he was personally offended, but the title says he got a generous salary for little expected work. It’s not clear to me why he is bitter about anything. I have no doubt that the company was genuinely poorly run. His observations about problems in the sales culture are likely…

Ditto. Taking into consideration average salary in US it is just asking for rather uncharitable read. And that is not taking into consideration in demand skill set that could land him another like job with relative ease. I don't often go for dismissive, but cry mich ein river.

It is an interesting story and I can relate. I don't think anyone should feel sorry for the author or me though. In the grand scheme of things it is a good job, just a shitty company. I find Warren Buffet's commentary to be interesting as well but I don't feel sorry for him when he makes a mistake or has a problem.

Re: How I survived being a $220k/year intern

#64

Post by meowface » Sun, Mar 08, 2020, 9:18 PM UTC

kaiabwpdjqn wrote: post #10

I find this post to be relatively unimpressive. He spends a great amount of time complaining about how the company was shit in a way that implies he was personally offended, but the title says he got a generous salary for little expected work. It’s not clear to me why he is bitter about anything. I have no doubt that the company was genuinely poorly run. His observations about problems in the sales culture are likely…

I don't read it as bitterness over his personal situation. Clearly it was pretty comfortable for him. It seemed to me more like bewilderment and amusement over the whole Kafkaesque abomination.

If I were in his position, I would've kept taking the paycheck without complaints, but once I was no longer there, I'd definitely consider writing something like this.

Re: How I survived being a $220k/year intern

#65

Post by A4ET8a8uTh0 » Sun, Mar 08, 2020, 9:18 PM UTC

jdmichal wrote: post #47

A4ET8a8uTh0 wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ditto. Taking into consideration average salary in US it is just asking for rather uncharitable read. And that is not taking into consideration in demand skill set that could land him another like job with relative ease. I don't often go for dismissive, but cry mich ein river.

> cry mich ein river That should be "cry mir ein river". You want the dative case, because you are requesting that the river be cried for you.

Thank you for that. I haven't used German since HS so I am a little rusty. I can still order a beer though.

With that said, I picked that particular version of the phrase from zero punctuation. I did not intend for it to be grammatically correct.

Re: How I survived being a $220k/year intern

#66

Post by dehrmann » Sun, Mar 08, 2020, 9:18 PM UTC

omerbensaadon wrote: post #18

I work for the "Labs" (Services) portion of Pivotal and I've seen this guy's stuff on HN before... Can't comment on what non-services teams are like at Pivotal but the services organization is pretty spectacular. Pivotal's got problems just like every other organization does, but this guy seems to be mad as hell and blowing things a _bit_ out of proportion.

> but the services organization is pretty spectacular.

Overall, the org looks decent on Glassdoor.

Re: How I survived being a $220k/year intern

#67

Post by Stratoscope » Sun, Mar 08, 2020, 9:19 PM UTC

> I Passed Up a $50,000 Severance To Write This

I wish he had taken the $50K. We would have all been better off!

(As noted in the article, the $50K severance would have been tied to a non-disparagement agreement.)

Re: How I survived being a $220k/year intern

#68

Post by dnautics » Sun, Mar 08, 2020, 9:19 PM UTC

kaiabwpdjqn wrote: post #10

I find this post to be relatively unimpressive. He spends a great amount of time complaining about how the company was shit in a way that implies he was personally offended, but the title says he got a generous salary for little expected work. It’s not clear to me why he is bitter about anything. I have no doubt that the company was genuinely poorly run. His observations about problems in the sales culture are likely…

Yeah that's fine, but it's informative to more junior people who might consider employment at pivotal so they can go in with more (if biased) information.

Re: How I survived being a $220k/year intern

#69

Post by klipt » Sun, Mar 08, 2020, 9:19 PM UTC

ginko wrote: post #62

jdmichal wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> cry mich ein river That should be "cry mir ein river". You want the dative case, because you are requesting that the river be cried for you.

"cry mir einen river" since river is masculine

"People called Romanes, they go, the house?"

Re: How I survived being a $220k/year intern

#70

Post by jdmichal » Sun, Mar 08, 2020, 9:22 PM UTC

ginko wrote: post #62

jdmichal wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> cry mich ein river That should be "cry mir ein river". You want the dative case, because you are requesting that the river be cried for you.

"cry mir einen river" since river is masculine

I mean, sure Fluss is masculine... But it seems like borrowed English nouns generally end up masculine also. So sure, why not!