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My First Job: Fired and Rehired on Day 1

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Re: My First Job: Fired and Rehired on Day 1

#81

Post by prawks »

icebraining wrote: post #68
kissickas wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe he doesn't click linkedin links because they track and report what you've viewed if you're logged in, but once it was on pastebin he was happy to give the original source.

Maybe he doesn't click linkedin links because they track and report what you've viewed if you're logged in All decent browsers support private tabs/windows nowadays, you can just open the context menu to open the link in one. It'd take less time than writing the post.

I don't believe private browsing masks your IP, and I'm not sure it changes your user agent either. It's very likely LinkedIn can still track your activity if you're browsing in a Private tab.

Re: My First Job: Fired and Rehired on Day 1

#82

Post by gregd »

mercer wrote: post #77
gregd wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not everyone enjoys their work. It's a sad reality. Most of us are just lucky enough to keep a monthly paycheck in our chosen fields at a rate that is almost a living wage. Having said that, and I don't mean this as a slight to you or your particular lifestyle, do you have a significant other or children? This is probably a key question when talking about work/life balance. Because, as with all things, it's very impo…

No offense taken. I do not have children and currently no SO, and I do realize that this makes a big difference. As I mentioned, I do understand that not everyone has the luxury of finding 'nice' work. What I said applies mainly to those that DO have this luxury. I just think a lot of people, especially in Western Europe, have this luxury and don't use it. Shouldn't the knowledge that your freedom is likely to dimini…

Great response mercer.

I have to clarify one thing for you though. Having a family IS extremely gratifying but it doesn't come at the expense of freedom. Simply put, your priorities change. What may seem like a loss of freedom to you now, will probably become less and less important to you as you take on a family.

There is something immensely gratifying in doing work that you're also passionate about..don't get me wrong. I'm just saying that for a lot of people I know, a job is simply a means to an end. That end being, putting food on the table to feed your family and if you're lucky, your SO can stay home with the kids for a while (which I was fortunate to be able to provide for). I wouldn't say that I'm passionate about my work. I enjoy it but it's not who I am. I don't identify with it anymore. I identify with how my children are as people and I identify with my relationships with others. The old adage is true, I will never say to myself (on my deathbed) that I'd wish I'd spent more time in the office...

Re: My First Job: Fired and Rehired on Day 1

#83

Post by vidarh »

Tyrannosaurs wrote: post #58
jiggy2011 wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where are you? In the UK we technically have a similar thing but the employee can voluntarily opt out. Pretty much every job will request that you sign the opt-out form on day 1. Does the rule apply to an individual or just to the individuals employment at a particular company? For example can a person work 40 hours for company A and then 20 hours of company B, in which case can company B take on work contracts from…

The UK negotiated an opt out to the 48 hour maximum enforced by the European Working Time directive, though as you say it's something the individual has to agree to (though that can be just by agreeing to a job that stipulates the opt out in the contract). I live in the UK and work in IT and have never had a contract that didn't automatically opt me out of it, however my wife is a doctor and they're all covered by it…

Of course there are substantial subsets of UK workers that "can" stick to 48 hour working hours, but where "everyone" know full well their career is fucked if you don't opt out.

Major law firms, for example, where the expected level of billable hours might eek in below an average of 48 hours, but given the amount of non-billable time, it's basically impossible to meet expectations and get promotions if you don't opt out, and you'll eventually find yourself sidetracked so thoroughly there's little reason to stay.

My ex works in one of those places - one of the magic circle law firms -, and she keeps fantasising about opting back in once she's set aside enough money that she can risk having legal career go down in flames.

I live in the UK too, and work in IT, and have never seen a contract that even mentions the working hour directive at all. If I did come across one, I'd probably laugh in their faces and leave, as it'd indicate bad things about the working environment to me.

At the moment I work strictly 9-5 due to childcare commitments (though I do occasionally have to handle emergencies from home). As in, I leave between 5pm and 5.04pm or so, every day.

Re: My First Job: Fired and Rehired on Day 1

#84

Post by vidarh »

xerophtye wrote: post #67
cperciva wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> People wanting to run companies take note. True, but people with time machines set to return them to January 1976 (when this story took place) probably don't need to worry about such details.

Eh? 1976? did i miss something? O_o

The name of the person who wrote the story:

http://steveblank.com/about/

Re: My First Job: Fired and Rehired on Day 1

#85

Post by pradocchia »

JoshTriplett wrote: post #13

> Two weeks before the class was over, the head of the deployment team asked, “Steve, are you single?” Yes. “Do you like to travel?” Sure. “Why don’t you come to Korea with us when we ship the system overseas.” The first of those questions was completely unnecessary, and invited a potential employment discrimination lawsuit; it fairly directly implies they might not have made the offer if he wasn't. It would have suf…

It would have sufficed to find out if he was willing to travel.

Ah, but it would not have sufficed. They were planning to go whoring in Korea. (Yes I am reading between the lines here.)

That's why they asked, "are you single?" A committed man is more likely to spoil their fun. He might abstain, he might look askance at the other men, he might underscore their infidelity.

Re: My First Job: Fired and Rehired on Day 1

#86

Post by drone »

xerophtye wrote: post #67
cperciva wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> People wanting to run companies take note. True, but people with time machines set to return them to January 1976 (when this story took place) probably don't need to worry about such details.

Eh? 1976? did i miss something? O_o

It was Steve Blank's first job. "Training Manager, ESL, 1976-1978" [0]

The article mentions the author and has a link to his profile =)

[0] http://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=95015

Re: My First Job: Fired and Rehired on Day 1

#87

Post by lotyrin »

rfnslyr wrote: post #80
ignostic wrote: post #6

I feel like I'm a different species when I hear someone excited about working 80+ hours a week. Having so little free time and so little time to spend with friends and family seems like a sad life regardless of the paycheck. I agree with this: "Have a passion for Doing something rather than Being a title on a business card." I also agree that "Showing up a lot increases your odds" (in this case meaning working a lot…

I absolutely hate the idiots that praise long work. Praise hard work. Praise efficient work. If you're working 80 hours a week (and aren't a founder), then you are a chump. The whole point of work is to fund your life. People lose sight of this and started romanticizing long hours.

I guess I'm possibly damaged in that I don't find life (including my own) to be inherently valuable unless I'm doing something I'm good at and/or effecting some kind of change on things (it just happens that the things I'm good at and changes I can effect are fairly marketable and so they became my job).

I don't work to live, or live to work, I work to work and live because the alternative (very probably, at least) lacks opportunities for interesting work or socialization.

I try to get into hobbies (which seem to by definition be doing sorts of work which aren't marketable or impactful) but it's hard to find the point in them. I'll likely never get good enough at say, guitar for it to matter in any way.

If I've got nothing social to do on a Sunday evening, closing a ticket at least makes the customer and/or a few hundred of their end users a bit happier come Monday morning. If I'm hourly on the project then it's a few more bucks for my retirement account. All in all, it handily beats feeling like an idiot clumsily flailing on my guitar for a few hours - though I sometimes choose to do that anyway.

Re: My First Job: Fired and Rehired on Day 1

#88

Post by hackula1 »

ignostic wrote: post #6

I feel like I'm a different species when I hear someone excited about working 80+ hours a week. Having so little free time and so little time to spend with friends and family seems like a sad life regardless of the paycheck. I agree with this: "Have a passion for Doing something rather than Being a title on a business card." I also agree that "Showing up a lot increases your odds" (in this case meaning working a lot…

Da Vinci most certainly worked 80 hour weeks, and I am sure he loved every minute of it. Why? Because he got paid to think up cool shit day in and day out. I have worked jobs that were so mind numbingly boring that I could barely muster 30 hours a week when I was single. Now I am married and could easily pull 60-70 hours a week at my significantly more interesting job. Work is the place you will spend most of your life. Do your best to find a place you can live with.

Re: My First Job: Fired and Rehired on Day 1

#89

Post by peterwwillis » 

  > Trust your instincts
  > Showing up a lot increases your odds
  > Trust that the dots in your career will connect
  > Have a passion for Doing something rather than Being a title on a business card.
So basically, his advice is to just hope everything works out okay. What he doesn't explicitly point out is that all of the success in his story is based on being a really good bullshitter. If you can bullshit well, you can get promotions, you can get jobs, you can get a lot of things. If you can't bullshit well, you're out of a job with barely any cash in a place you're not familiar with, and probably soon calling your parents to wire you gas money to get back home.

I've also been fired the first day on a job. But I had savings to fall back on, and then got a much better job a few months after. Trust your back-up plan, not connecting the dots.

Re: My First Job: Fired and Rehired on Day 1

#90

Post by hackula1 »

z92 wrote: post #24
ryanjshaw wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem with this parable is that it equates two different scenarios. A fisherman without extensive financial resources is not the same as a person with extensive financial resources choosing to fish. Here's some alternative endings, in a country without social and medical support in place, for you to consider: 1. The fisherman develops a serious illness and finds he can no longer support his family. His wife, wh…

On the other hand you can get bankrupt due to: 1. Share market crash. 2. Change in government regulations. 3. Getting sued. 4. Or simply bad luck. 90% of all business fail anyway.

None of those would bankrupt me, without everybody getting bankrupt. An emergency fund and a modest lifestyle + a decent tech income = lots of security. I also avoid "straight tech" jobs, where there is no strong vertical experience. I work on data analysis and predictive analytics applications, which means I could easily make a jump into several other fields in no time. Call me paranoid, but I refuse to be the "HTML Designer" of the next crash.
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