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Dead End Jobs: Are You Suffering from Stockholm Syndrome?

chadfowler.com

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Re: Dead End Jobs: Are You Suffering from Stockholm Syndrome?

#71

Post by yannickt »

dev_jim wrote: post #8

I don't know why anyone would put up with this nonsense. The market for tech is amazing right now and has been for years. It's inexcusable that anyone worth their salt should feel trapped in a dead-end job.

People often stay to build up their fuck you fund, and to prepare their exit. Finding the right job can be a long process. And even when you find it, taking it is not necessarily the right decision. If you're married and you have kids, for example, that Apple offer might not be a no-brainer if you have to move to a new city. Also, once they've been burned by a shitty corporation, people can become very picky on the job hunt.

Re: Dead End Jobs: Are You Suffering from Stockholm Syndrome?

#72

Post by parfe »

pchristensen wrote: post #65
parfe wrote: post #37

I'm in the process of cleaning up my resume to send out today. * My responsibilities as a programmer have constantly been increasing. Every year I become the maintainer of more projects as others quit. * We fired a sys admin and now I'm outright doing his job in addition to my own. Management was slow to get a job posting up and has not brought people in to interview. I feel like my breadth of abilities are being abu…

Send me your resume and portfolio. I'm recruiting for my company outside of HR because we need more awesome people with initiative. The month since I started at Groupon has been the best month of my career. Mtn View or Chicago, your pick.

I was only ranting in what I thought was an appropriate thread, but thank you very much for replying. I appreciate the good will on HN.

Keep in mind, I may just be declaring myself Parfe, King of Idiots but when I'm happy with my resume I'll definitely be in touch.

Re: Dead End Jobs: Are You Suffering from Stockholm Syndrome?

#73

Post by president »

sophacles wrote: post #44
jakevoytko wrote: post #16

I just left a job that afflicts Stockholm Syndrome on employees. Thankfully as a systems programmer in a research firm, I avoided the worst of it, but most people weren't so lucky. Here are some management behaviors that were effective: Never thank people for finishing something on time, on budget, and to the project specifications. Instead, heap attention on those who finish in an all-nighter that ends in the final…

A couple others I've witnessed: Ideas only go down When employees tell you of actually useful innovations to a product do NOT agree it is a good idea. Mention that it is cute they are trying, and pretend to forget about it. In 3-6 months have a VP flash brilliance and push that innovation down from the top. All employee protests of "I have been pushing for this for months" are to be stonewalled, possibly with discipl…

Funny, the company I just got out followed all of those points. Many "emergency fix this" moments and "problems" processing checks. Often times, paychecks were lower than they were supposed to be.

Glad I'm out..

Re: Dead End Jobs: Are You Suffering from Stockholm Syndrome?

#75

Post by notJim »

patio11 wrote: post #54
SandB0x wrote: post #12

Dead end jobs destroy transferable technical skills. I've witnessed miserable scenes. Many people are stuck maintaining large pieces of poorly written software. They forget how to actually program because their work involves very little development, and becomes all about knowing how the specific piece of software works (and the company's admin procedures) so that they can fight fires and make minor changes. Escape in…

I did three years of maintenance programming on a proprietary enterprise Java Big Feaking Web App framework, fighting fires and making minor changes. I learned more about engineering in those years than in college, first job, and building two software businesses from scratch. Possibly combined. YMMV.

Writing and maintaining terribly-designed software is actually a really great way to learn software design. It makes it so that when you read about a technique or pattern, the application of that pattern is very real to you, in the sense of "Oh, if we had done this on component X of product Z, it would have prevent bugs like Y."

Re: Dead End Jobs: Are You Suffering from Stockholm Syndrome?

#76

Post by ulf »

SandB0x wrote: post #12

Dead end jobs destroy transferable technical skills. I've witnessed miserable scenes. Many people are stuck maintaining large pieces of poorly written software. They forget how to actually program because their work involves very little development, and becomes all about knowing how the specific piece of software works (and the company's admin procedures) so that they can fight fires and make minor changes. Escape in…

I would say a lot depends on your perspective. If you are aware of the situation and the specific environment you are trapped in, you can nonetheless extract a lot of transferable skill from that kind of work. You just need to look beyond the surface

Re: Dead End Jobs: Are You Suffering from Stockholm Syndrome?

#77

Post by sp4rki »

The author should add "Founder's or CEO's promises of grandeur, huge exits, and unbelievable equity". I'm currently leaving for greener pastures (after three years), but this is so common in our industry that it's not even funny. If you're promised fame, fortune, equity, and power, and in two or three years you're not at least one step closer to those goals - you're being played. Over confident founders with delusions about how great their idea really is are the life force of said Stockholm Syndrome for employees.

Re: Dead End Jobs: Are You Suffering from Stockholm Syndrome?

#78

Post by HeyLaughingBoy »

pavel_lishin wrote: post #64
HeyLaughingBoy wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Glassdoor weirds me out a bit from the other side. It's a little unsettling going there the day after a round of interviews and basically reading a description of what it was like to be interviewed by me. No names, but I can definitely identify myself and some other co-workers by the questions we asked candidates.

A little weird, but getting good feedback on your performance sounds like it would be pretty nice to me. I mean, it might not feel great, but at least you'd know what needs improvement.

It wasn't feedback so much as it felt...disconnected and impersonal. The candidates didn't offer opinions, just descriptions of the interview flow (number of interviewers, how it was structured) and the types of questions asked. It felt like I was reading a transcript of a wiretap or something.

Re: Dead End Jobs: Are You Suffering from Stockholm Syndrome?

#79

Post by ecounysis »

cake wrote: post #32
rdrimmie wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think imposter syndrome ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impostor_syndrome ) contributes, and a grim view of prospects combined with lack of knowledge on how to find jobs. If all you're doing is reading monster.com postings or whatever then the majority of jobs postings that are out there are terribly written and deeply discouraging.

Any advice on what could be better than reading monster.com ? (genuinely interested)

linkedin.com

Re: Dead End Jobs: Are You Suffering from Stockholm Syndrome?

#80

Post by ecounysis »

hysterix wrote: post #68

I remember working at a very large, technically oriented company. After it was discovered I had actual development skills, I was asked to work on a project in my off time without any extra compensation for it. They pretty much wanted me to go home after a full days work, and put in more work to develop a system for them, totally unpaid. Later that month I gave my two weeks.

Why did you give two weeks as opposed to just boxing up your stuff and letting them know you were done? Would they have shown you the same courtesy?
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