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Career advice for people with bad luck

chiefofstuff.substack.com

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Re: Career advice for people with bad luck

#71

Post by throw4failure »

giantg2 wrote: post #52
chadash wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I interview people regularly and if I see someone with technical talent, then I'll proceed. Chances are I'm not looking up your references until I'm pretty sure I want to hire you, so up until that point, it's on you to impress me with your technical knowledge. Brush up on the fundamentals. Maybe read cracking the coding interview. And if possible, spend some time working on an open source project, preferably an exis…

Good to know you leave references until the end. I will not be able to get a reference if I leave. My company's policy does not allow employees to be a reference for anyone who is leaving.

This isn't uncommon, and as I understand it follows directly from the typical HR policy of only confirming the essentials, such as title, dates of employment and reason for leaving. Companies care more about possible litigation than they do about helping you with your next job.

However, in my experience it's haphazardly enforced. If you're on good terms with a colleague or manager, it's my understanding (IANAL) that they can still provide an informal or personal reference. In practice, for most prospective employers this is just as good as a formal reference (since most companies these days have the aforementioned policy anyways).

Re: Career advice for people with bad luck

#72

Post by kulig »

throw4failure wrote: post #29

This seems like a good thread in which to try to solicit some advice, since it's at least tangentially related. I was terminated from my last job. In my opinion it was due to my chronic and major depression that I have since been seeking extensive treatment (medication, several months rent in therapy) for. I say "in my opinion" because I really can't rule out that I'm just a lazy, crappy developer who is trying to us…

[flagged]

Re: Career advice for people with bad luck

#73

Post by [deleted] »

throw4failure wrote: post #29

This seems like a good thread in which to try to solicit some advice, since it's at least tangentially related. I was terminated from my last job. In my opinion it was due to my chronic and major depression that I have since been seeking extensive treatment (medication, several months rent in therapy) for. I say "in my opinion" because I really can't rule out that I'm just a lazy, crappy developer who is trying to us…

[deleted]

Re: Career advice for people with bad luck

#75

Post by NPMaxwell »

throw4failure wrote: post #29

This seems like a good thread in which to try to solicit some advice, since it's at least tangentially related. I was terminated from my last job. In my opinion it was due to my chronic and major depression that I have since been seeking extensive treatment (medication, several months rent in therapy) for. I say "in my opinion" because I really can't rule out that I'm just a lazy, crappy developer who is trying to us…

I'm sorry we have switched on resumes from reporting years to reporting years and months. It used to be that even 20 months off could just disappear.

When you're ready, drop this Hacker News name. Switch to something like makingChances.

Sounds like restarting may be helpful -- not expecting to continue from where you were -- getting a contracting agency to pitch you and going from there. Once you're in a job, most people don't care about earlier gaps, except that managers who don't know how to collect people who can do the work get fixated on superstitions.

To restate what you're probably already hearing from your therapist: everyone can become depressed. It's something you learn. Some people are more clever at picking it up than others, but everyone can learn it. Depression is episodic. It goes away and comes back. A common recovery is for the gaps between episodes to get larger and the episodes get smaller. Depression grants three super powers. 1) You can see probabilities and how much control you and others have. People without depression cannot. 2) You are ready to serve, even at the risk of your life. This is something that doesn't apply to most of modern life, but does come up now and then. Think of Oscar Schindler. 3) While in an episode, you can be confident that you will not enjoy things. So if you're trying to resist a bowl of ice cream, you have help: you won't enjoy it.

Your negative thoughts and feelings are a natural part of mammalian neural systems, like kicking when you're tapped under the knee and being able to see dim lights easier if you look a little away. Those thoughts and the feeling of dread are not necessary or helpful (in almost every situation). You do not have to respect them. In fact, when they appear, you can disrespect them. They are just an evolutionary glitch that served primitive communities, but were never in the best interests of the people getting them.

Re: Career advice for people with bad luck

#76

Post by shortlived »

mdorazio wrote: post #67

I really want to see more articles like this on HN. However, this is really "career advice for people at struggling companies." The luck part doesn't get discussed in the way I expected. To me, bad luck is things like: - You're in the wrong place at the wrong time. Ex. you graduated in 2008-2010/now or your business sector got wiped out by COVID - Despite your best efforts at networking, you simply never meet that ma…

>> You don't have a resilient financial and mental safety net in the form of good friends/family early in your career that enables you to take risks, or you got dealt a bad hand in the form of things like dependents or health issues and simply can't afford to take risks

+1

Re: Career advice for people with bad luck

#77

Post by Tade0 »

meddlepal wrote: post #26
Tade0 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I need to share any subset o values. Otherwise there's no space for dialogue. I believe this is the norm.

Are people using values to mean interests? I need to share some interests: sports, beer, model building, architecture etc... Values though? I can't see that being the norm unless your shared interest is politics, religion, or social order/dynamics.

I don't. I literally mean values.

I have people with shared interests added as "friends" on facebook, but my actual friends are those with whom I have some common ground - even if it's something as abstract as the shared belief that nothing is ever "100% done" or that politics is just a game of appearances and one shouldn't get too invested emotionally in them.

Re: Career advice for people with bad luck

#78

Post by harimau777 »

throw4failure wrote: post #29

This seems like a good thread in which to try to solicit some advice, since it's at least tangentially related. I was terminated from my last job. In my opinion it was due to my chronic and major depression that I have since been seeking extensive treatment (medication, several months rent in therapy) for. I say "in my opinion" because I really can't rule out that I'm just a lazy, crappy developer who is trying to us…

Its fairly likely that your previous employer has a policy that your previous employer will just confirm that you worked there. In that case, it shouldn't be too much of an issue.

There are services which you can pay to call up a previous employer pretending to be a new employer doing a background/reference check on you. They will then report back on what they say.

In the case that they do say something negative, one option would be to hire a lawyer to send them a cease and desist letter. My understanding is it's fairly affordable to do and it's usually enough to get them to stop.

Re: Career advice for people with bad luck

#79

Post by neltnerb »

collyw wrote: post #30
moneywoes wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Been working 3 months at my first job and this realization hit me. I enjoy spending time with my coworkers but is it all in vain?

Nah. Two jobs ago had wonderful people and we still regularly meet up for drinks (despite the company being a load for shite to work for). Next job was a lot more family people and we rarely went for drinks together. I am not really in touch with them any more (perfectly nice people but the bonding never happened).

Of course, the family people probably were friends with each other.

Re: Career advice for people with bad luck

#80

Post by [deleted] »

mdorazio wrote: post #67

I really want to see more articles like this on HN. However, this is really "career advice for people at struggling companies." The luck part doesn't get discussed in the way I expected. To me, bad luck is things like: - You're in the wrong place at the wrong time. Ex. you graduated in 2008-2010/now or your business sector got wiped out by COVID - Despite your best efforts at networking, you simply never meet that ma…

[deleted]
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