Quitting my job has been the best thing I've done for my career • Hacker News Board

Re: Quitting my job has been the best thing I've done for my career

#71

Post by stephengillie » Sat, Oct 13, 2018, 1:50 AM UTC

txcwpalpha wrote: post #60

stephengillie wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why did you work so hard when you hated the job and coworkers so much? Why not find a similar role at a place you enjoyed more? Have you talked to a counselor about workaholism?

>Why did you work so hard when you hated the job and coworkers so much? I think you might have good intentions with this question, but it seem a bit silly. You could ask the same question to anyone about any job. Why do you think the millions of investment bankers or consultants or lawyers or medical residents work long hours? Why do people work long hours in shitty retail or food service jobs? Why do people work in…

> Why do you think the millions of investment bankers or consultants or lawyers or medical residents work long hours?

I thought lawyers worked reasonable hours. The medical industry is it's own special situation. Those investment bankers must be bad at math - for overtime-exempt employees, each extra hour worked past 40 reduces your hourly pay rate by 2.5%.

Retail, fast food, office, IT, software development - all jobs pay 150% pay after 40 hours, and 200% pay after 80 hours. At least in WA State, it's the law for non-exempt employees.

Aren't sweat shops illegal?

You did have the opportunity to work somewhere better. Were you suffering out of a solidarity with the less fortunate?

At least you admit this was your plan from the beginning.

Re: Quitting my job has been the best thing I've done for my career

#72

Post by lovelearning » Sat, Oct 13, 2018, 1:50 AM UTC

A "gap" seems to be almost like a crime no tech worker should dare do. I have seen otherwise rational coworkers reject resumes only for having a "gap". Most want to relax, but the same people also punish those who do just that. I thought it was a quirk of the society I live in, but from comments here, it looks like it's the norm in all countries.

Re: Quitting my job has been the best thing I've done for my career

#73

Post by ian0 » Sat, Oct 13, 2018, 1:52 AM UTC

lovelearning wrote: post #72

A "gap" seems to be almost like a crime no tech worker should dare do. I have seen otherwise rational coworkers reject resumes only for having a "gap". Most want to relax, but the same people also punish those who do just that. I thought it was a quirk of the society I live in, but from comments here, it looks like it's the norm in all countries.

Just fill the gap with something relatively interesting and your ok. You will of course need to keep your skills in practice though.

Re: Quitting my job has been the best thing I've done for my career

#74

Post by Aeolun » Sat, Oct 13, 2018, 1:55 AM UTC

nubbins wrote: post #66

txcwpalpha wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I did this, and unfortunately your fears became reality for me. Like you said, I only had a vague idea of what I wanted to do (including traveling, starting my own company, continuing education, side projects, etc). Almost 2 years into it I ended up just barely dabbling in each. I traveled for a few months, worked on some side projects, and learned some new things, but didn't really do anything "big" or traditionally…

Not sure who your friends are but where I am half the young people are creatives or otherwise not traditionally full time employed and my experience has been people are far more likely to avoid you for being a boring banker/lawyer/accountant in a suit (which I used to be) than unemployed with a good story about what you are doing, which could spark a decent conversation.

I don’t know. I’ve had to actively hide my unemployment as well to get people to take me seriously. Even switching to ‘I am a freelancer’ makes you so much more desirable as a conversation partner...

Re: Quitting my job has been the best thing I've done for my career

#75

Post by jhu247 » Sat, Oct 13, 2018, 2:10 AM UTC

lovelearning wrote: post #72

A "gap" seems to be almost like a crime no tech worker should dare do. I have seen otherwise rational coworkers reject resumes only for having a "gap". Most want to relax, but the same people also punish those who do just that. I thought it was a quirk of the society I live in, but from comments here, it looks like it's the norm in all countries.

In my own experience in SV, companies just want good engineers. If you have good experience and good projects recruiters will still find you, despite having a gap.

Re: Quitting my job has been the best thing I've done for my career

#76

Post by nwellinghoff » Sat, Oct 13, 2018, 2:11 AM UTC

nubbins wrote: post #66

txcwpalpha wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I did this, and unfortunately your fears became reality for me. Like you said, I only had a vague idea of what I wanted to do (including traveling, starting my own company, continuing education, side projects, etc). Almost 2 years into it I ended up just barely dabbling in each. I traveled for a few months, worked on some side projects, and learned some new things, but didn't really do anything "big" or traditionally…

Not sure who your friends are but where I am half the young people are creatives or otherwise not traditionally full time employed and my experience has been people are far more likely to avoid you for being a boring banker/lawyer/accountant in a suit (which I used to be) than unemployed with a good story about what you are doing, which could spark a decent conversation.

What the fuck is a "creative"?

Re: Quitting my job has been the best thing I've done for my career

#77

Post by jhu247 » Sat, Oct 13, 2018, 2:11 AM UTC

Cursuviam wrote: post #46

I've been treating my sabbatical time post graduation as basically summer vacation and honestly, it's been pretty nice. For the past 4 years, I've been researching, in school, or working an internship, so I haven't had a period of time to just be carefree for quite sometime. I'm very happy right now, but mostly that's because I have a roommate who's unemployed right now, so most of the time I'm not alone in the house…

Thanks for sharing @Cursuviam. The unstructured working part is something that I've grappled with for a long time!

Re: Quitting my job has been the best thing I've done for my career

#78

Post by projektir » Sat, Oct 13, 2018, 2:12 AM UTC

lovelearning wrote: post #72

A "gap" seems to be almost like a crime no tech worker should dare do. I have seen otherwise rational coworkers reject resumes only for having a "gap". Most want to relax, but the same people also punish those who do just that. I thought it was a quirk of the society I live in, but from comments here, it looks like it's the norm in all countries.

I can't say I've found this to be that strong of a thing. Even big companies don't seem to mind my gap.

I'm frankly confused as to why a resume gap would be relevant to anyone. If anything, my resume gap cleared up my head and I've dabbled in some things I don't usually touch so it made me a better employee, if we want to use that language.

This just seems like a cultural holdover and one we could eliminate with more people taking breaks.

Re: Quitting my job has been the best thing I've done for my career

#79

Post by 09bjb » Sat, Oct 13, 2018, 2:13 AM UTC

lovelearning wrote: post #72

A "gap" seems to be almost like a crime no tech worker should dare do. I have seen otherwise rational coworkers reject resumes only for having a "gap". Most want to relax, but the same people also punish those who do just that. I thought it was a quirk of the society I live in, but from comments here, it looks like it's the norm in all countries.

This is the kind of mindset that discourages people from taking healthy risks. There are any number of legitimate ways to explain a gap, such as, "No, I was not actually playing video games and surfing reddit the entire time! I actually wanted to invest more time in ____. Can I share with you what I learned?"

Disclaimer: my CV has often been a horrendous mess of 3-6 month "gaps" (during which time I learned many of my most valuable life lessons) and it never cost me more than a month of training myself up, networking, and interviewing.

Another disclaimer: I've always been of the habit of saving my money so that long gaps feel stress-free and I don't have to take the first job I'm offered.

Re: Quitting my job has been the best thing I've done for my career

#80

Post by txcwpalpha » Sat, Oct 13, 2018, 2:16 AM UTC

nubbins wrote: post #66

txcwpalpha wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I did this, and unfortunately your fears became reality for me. Like you said, I only had a vague idea of what I wanted to do (including traveling, starting my own company, continuing education, side projects, etc). Almost 2 years into it I ended up just barely dabbling in each. I traveled for a few months, worked on some side projects, and learned some new things, but didn't really do anything "big" or traditionally…

Not sure who your friends are but where I am half the young people are creatives or otherwise not traditionally full time employed and my experience has been people are far more likely to avoid you for being a boring banker/lawyer/accountant in a suit (which I used to be) than unemployed with a good story about what you are doing, which could spark a decent conversation.

I live in Dallas, which is notorious for being pretentious, not very creative, and pretty "corporate", so that probably contributes to the experience I've had.