Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

How to Quit a Top Tier Tech Job

oliverzheng.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

91–100 of 231 posts

Re: How to Quit a Top Tier Tech Job

#91

Post by metaobject »

kettlecorn wrote: post #39
throwaway289910 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm currently about to quit Microsoft and am going through the exact same set of questions in my head. I joined the company a few months ago and am blown away by how bad the culture is - or how badly I fit into the culture, take your pick. If you don't fit the culture, it's time to leave.

A massive issue with Microsoft's college recruiting pipeline (this may not apply to you) is that college hires are placed pretty much arbitrarily without input from the hire themselves. People interested in backend work get placed on frontend, people interested in frontend work get placed on backend. As a result, retention for Microsoft college hires is rather poor. Contrast this with Google where once you're selecte…

I worked full time as a software engineer before I finished my CS degree, but I wasn't really happy with my situation and wanted to do something else. As I was interviewing with companies through the my university's Career Services department, I recall being complimented by several interviewers on how specific I was regarding my goals and desired position. I wanted to work on a specific OS/platform with specific languages.

I guess I was lucky because I'd already had relevant experience, so I knew exactly what I did and did not want to do. Luckily, the offer I went with was up-front and I ended up doing exactly what I wanted to do.

Playing devils advocate, could it be a lack of experience that is the issue with new hires?

Re: How to Quit a Top Tier Tech Job

#92

Post by PunchTornado »

minimaxir wrote: post #63
jonjojr wrote: post #51

How to Quit? really? "Hey Jerry, got a min? Look, I don't think this is working out. Here is my letter of resignation, and my two week notice. Thank you." Done! How hard is that to do? There is nothing holding you in chain in that job unless you are actually being held in chain in that job, at which point you should seriously analyze your life choices.

> at which point you should seriously analyze your life choices As the article notes, there are very common cases where you can't just pick-up-and-leave (visas, debts, etc.)

Like any job. since the meaningless "top tier tech" in the title. being a top tier tech doesn't make it any different.

Re: How to Quit a Top Tier Tech Job

#94

Post by danShumway »

coastal-fiesta wrote: post #69
CiPHPerCoder wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> and my two week notice That might not be a good idea to give.

What makes you say that?

Some companies may not accept the two week notice, and may ask you to leave immediately. This may be true even if you have a good manager or relationship with the company.

When I quit my job, I intended to give four weeks notice, and to offer to work part time for a month later if they wanted it. Manager took the offer to their upper-management, upper-management came back and said, "nope, two weeks max."

I had prepared for that, but did not expect it, at all. Generally speaking you should only give notice if you're also willing to leave that day.

Re: How to Quit a Top Tier Tech Job

#95

Post by pathseeker »

dandr01d wrote: post #78
matte_black wrote: post #71

I find the only people whose eyes go wide almost popping out of their head are younger people just entering the workforce whom may have never met someone who works at a big company whose products they use everyday (or recruiters I guess). It's like you're a celebrity to them. Hell, some of these kids used to get pumped when I was telling them I was merely heading to some Apple conference or Google I/O. No one with ex…

Speak for yourself. I would definitely give a shit if someone who applied to my theoretical company worked at a top-tier company.

Do so at your own peril. Google is approaching 100,000 employees. The vast majority do boring data pipelines for CRUD apps.

Top-tier company != top-tier employees.

Re: How to Quit a Top Tier Tech Job

#96

Post by wil421 »

delbel wrote: post #87

You know, in this day in age you really need to give more then a two weeks notice. Maybe 6 weeks or more. I've had to fire clients before by giving notice and I always try to work out the best possible scenario where the least amount of damage is done. I even had to deal with yelling, screaming, threats of lawsuits. I always keep my cool and do everything I can to de-escalate the situation, stay professional, etc and…

Why would you give companies this kind of consideration? Most will not certainly hesitate to walk you out the door when times are bad.

I have some friends who have told bosses they and leaving. By the end of the day they are told to pack their personal belongings and leave.

Two weeks is the law for an employee giving notice. There aren’t many laws protecting employees especially in Work at will states.

Re: How to Quit a Top Tier Tech Job

#97

Post by protonimitate »

ttul wrote: post #73
yfiapo wrote: post #33

Yeesh, the mindwash is strong. I had a hard time continuing to read this post after the Prestige by Association section. Working at a respected company known for cutting edge work is generally a good sign but it does not make you an Internet God or widen my eyes. It is like saying you went to Harvard or MIT. That's neat. You are probably reasonably intelligent. However, even that isn't an automatic and I'll reserve j…

Two fucking years of savings? What world is this guy living in?

Those types of statements are usually made by people who have never had to scrape by to survive for any major time period.

Work 6 months for minimum wage in a major city and you'll find what most people consider 'low wages' to be laughable.

Of course, you should do everything your power to have and maintain an emergency fund, but two years of savings is insane. Don't waste two years of life if you are unhappy in your job just because you're afraid of not finding new work. 6 months is a good target to shoot for.

Re: How to Quit a Top Tier Tech Job

#98

Post by jogjayr »

ttul wrote: post #73
yfiapo wrote: post #33

Yeesh, the mindwash is strong. I had a hard time continuing to read this post after the Prestige by Association section. Working at a respected company known for cutting edge work is generally a good sign but it does not make you an Internet God or widen my eyes. It is like saying you went to Harvard or MIT. That's neat. You are probably reasonably intelligent. However, even that isn't an automatic and I'll reserve j…

Two fucking years of savings? What world is this guy living in?

You are aware Facebook pays well right?

Unless what you're saying is "Only 2 years?"

Re: How to Quit a Top Tier Tech Job

#99

Post by throwaway7230 »

jjtheblunt wrote: post #35
minimaxir wrote: post #2

About a year ago, I quit my job at Apple because I wasn't able to apply my technical skills in my role and I was not successful in transferring to another department (full blog post: http://minimaxir.com/2017/05/leaving-apple/ | HN discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14270897 ) Despite the loss of a salary and frustration in getting another job (Tweetstorm about data science job hunting: https://twitter.…

I don't know if we know one another, but the same here: quit my job of many years at Apple (engineering, very good rank, loved Apple) because I also wasn't able to apply my technical skills, and transferring to another department is really hard to time such that it works.

Same here, left same company, for similar reasons. It was also about advancement though. Once you’re at level 4 it takes god like technical skills and a lot of political showing-off to get promoted to level 5 or move into management. If you’re an “up or out” kind of person you’re going to be frustrated there!

Do you remember hearing the saying: “It’s easier to get hired at [other very selective tech company] than to move internally at Apple”? So true!

Re: How to Quit a Top Tier Tech Job

#100

Post by pathseeker »

fwdpropaganda wrote: post #70
yfiapo wrote: post #33

Yeesh, the mindwash is strong. I had a hard time continuing to read this post after the Prestige by Association section. Working at a respected company known for cutting edge work is generally a good sign but it does not make you an Internet God or widen my eyes. It is like saying you went to Harvard or MIT. That's neat. You are probably reasonably intelligent. However, even that isn't an automatic and I'll reserve j…

> Working at a respected company known for cutting edge work is generally a good sign but it does not make you an Internet God or widen my eyes. I suggest you take a walk in the real world.

What real world are you referring to? Non-techies are not blown away by people who work at Google/Facebook/Apple. In my experience they are just always interested in the perks, etc.
Post reply on HN