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How Some Consultants Fake an 80-Hour Workweek (2015)

nytimes.com

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Re: How Some Consultants Fake an 80-Hour Workweek (2015)

#91

Post by JamesBarney »

chris_mc wrote: post #76
JamesBarney wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the OP is talking about knowledge workers specifically. If you're a security guard, I think it's obvious you could do your job for 100 hrs with very little drop off in performance.

Don't think that's true, watchstanding positions are amongst the most mind numbing jobs that actually require your full attention. I stood watch in the Navy as officer of the deck in port, and I can truly say that 6 hour shift was torture for the mind, much worse than coding 6 hours.

Granted I've only met 5 security guards in my life. But not a single one gave the job their full attention. All basically saw the job as a warm body position.

Re: How Some Consultants Fake an 80-Hour Workweek (2015)

#92

Post by Letmesleep69 »

kaikau wrote: post #85
Letmesleep69 wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can I ask why? I did similar hours for a while but I couldn't date or see friends or exercise and even sit done and read a book for long. If I was forced to do that often I would have quit. Its not like its hard to get another job as a developer. When working 80 hours or more you're basically doing the work of two developers and the company should really just hire another IMO.

The startup is my baby and I'm solo. I don't just develop, I design, market, handle investor relations, etc. I wouldn't do this if it wasn't this specific situation. Edit: Haven't had a girlfriend or dated or regularly socialized with friends in years, but I don't feel bad about it. Most of my friends who I respect the most are just as busy as I am pursuing their goals in music and neuroscience. :) Edit2: I do hire a…

If you're working for yourself I suppose I can understand that.

Re: How Some Consultants Fake an 80-Hour Workweek (2015)

#93

Post by spiderfarmer »

leroy_masochist wrote: post #38
spiderfarmer wrote: post #23

You Americans are messing eachother up with your workaholic culture. Relax folks, there’s much more to life.

The tens of thousands of highly educated Europeans who voluntarily work in stressful finance jobs in New York provide an interesting counterpoint to your argument.

I guess there always will be some masochists.

Re: How Some Consultants Fake an 80-Hour Workweek (2015)

#94

Post by jaclaz »

Infernal wrote: post #52
foxfired wrote: post #29

When I was hired as a consultant, the very first day I was asked to give an estimate on how long it will take me to complete the project. (Coincidentally, it was for a New York Times) I spent my time studying the code base and the requirement. By the end of the day, I told them around ~20 hours. It was a fairly easy project. I spent a month and a half to complete the project. What I didn't take into account was how l…

My rule of thumb (can't recall where I first heard of this, but it's not original) for translating from an engineer "how long will it take me to create a technical solution" estimate into the real world is to convert the estimate into the largest whole-number unit (so ~20 hours would be 3 days), then double the scalar and increment the unit, in this case 3 days would become 6 weeks - which while not perfect, is much…

Yes, this is what has been defined as "Latin" Time, JFYI:

http://reboot.pro/topic/1013-h7pluginbuilder/?p=16104

and it doesn't affect only software projects.

Shouldn't apply - in theory - to Germans, but as the following post suggests about the Brandenburg airport, it may.

Empirically this rule of thumb tends to be more accurate that the better known ninety-ninety rule:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ninety-ninety_rule

Re: How Some Consultants Fake an 80-Hour Workweek (2015)

#95

Post by screye »

georgewsinger wrote: post #35

"You shouldn't work long hours" is consensus advice masquerading as contrarian advice. You can see this for two reasons: (i) count the number of people in threads like this who advise against working long hours; (ii) go to Amazon.com and count the number of books that advocate (often using empirical evidence) against working long hours. The same is true for "you shouldn't multitask". Everyone thinks they're clever fo…

I feel working in an executive role, where most of the day goes into meetings is easier than working for the same time in a technical role.

I do not think it is possible to work in a software only role for 80 hrs/week productively. That that's just me.

Re: How Some Consultants Fake an 80-Hour Workweek (2015)

#96

Post by screye »

bluGill wrote: post #56
horsecaptin wrote: post #12

It is possible to do 80 hour workweeks if: - The rest of your life is exactly where you want it to be. So, this one isn't true for 99% of the population. - You have the correct mental attitude for it. This isn't true for most of the population either. - You are doing exactly what you want to do in life. The chance that you could be distracted by another possibility / avenue is next to nil. None of the above are impos…

It is possible for anyone to work a 80 hour week. However is it worth it? If you are single and getting paid a lot it might be - with the idea that you save everything and retire early. If you have a social life at all (including a family) and this is a less than once a year request, taking one for the team is probably the right thing to do, but only if it really is a rare thing.

It is not like you are getting paid more hourly for each extra your put in right ?

If what you suggest is done, then you are basically selling your youth for equivalent time with an older body.

It may even be worse, since a 50 year old you may be worth a lot more /hr than you are now. So it isn't even an equal trade.

I have struggled to understand workoholic mentality for a while. Sure you work more, but to what end. For what ?

Re: How Some Consultants Fake an 80-Hour Workweek (2015)

#97

Post by gringoDan »

rohitb91 wrote: post #81
da02 wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Was this the reason or part of the reason you left being an investment banking analyst? What's the educational requirements/qualifications to for an investment banking analyst?

Not OP but to get in generally go to an ivy league school, or go to a non target with an amazing GPA, ECs and luck, or have connections.

OP here - I agree with this. If you're at an Ivy the banks and consulting firms come to you, then it's just a matter of 1) studying the basic interview questions and being able to speak semi-intelligently about financial topics and 2) interviewing a ton until you find a firm with people similar to you and like your personality.

I left because I was depressed during the job and realized I wanted work with fewer hours that was more intellectually challenging. I saw people 2-3 years ahead of me in their careers leaving for startups and thought I'd skip the 2 years of misery and do that straight away.

Re: How Some Consultants Fake an 80-Hour Workweek (2015)

#98

Post by projectramo »

Swenrekcah wrote: post #57
Infernal wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My rule of thumb (can't recall where I first heard of this, but it's not original) for translating from an engineer "how long will it take me to create a technical solution" estimate into the real world is to convert the estimate into the largest whole-number unit (so ~20 hours would be 3 days), then double the scalar and increment the unit, in this case 3 days would become 6 weeks - which while not perfect, is much…

Berlin Brandenburg Airport was originally supposed to take 5 years, so according to this it will take 10 decades. Currently 1.5 decades in.

IF they're smart, they'll just change the estimate to 5 more months and get it done in 10 years.

Re: How Some Consultants Fake an 80-Hour Workweek (2015)

#99

Post by joezydeco »

ryanwaggoner wrote: post #84
joezydeco wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The old rule of thumb is "take the estimate, double the number, and increase the units by one." 1 day = 2 weeks 20 hours = 40 days 1 month = 2 quarters 1 year = 2 decades. =)

These rules of thumb are humorous, but they indicate an appalling lack of ability to both estimate and manage a project. I've been a self-employed software engineer for more than a decade and I've worked on 100+ projects. Very few of them got done on the original timeline, but none of them were overdue to anything close to this degree. If I tell a client it'll take 3 weeks and it takes 6 months, there will be a mount…

I agree, they're humorous, but looking back at the larger scale projects I've done over my career in larger companies, the results have always slid into the double/double category more times than I'd like to remember.

If you're a 1:1 consultant, you can probably estimate things a lot easier and that's a good thing.

Re: How Some Consultants Fake an 80-Hour Workweek (2015)

#100

Post by Boulth »

ryanwaggoner wrote: post #84
joezydeco wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The old rule of thumb is "take the estimate, double the number, and increase the units by one." 1 day = 2 weeks 20 hours = 40 days 1 month = 2 quarters 1 year = 2 decades. =)

These rules of thumb are humorous, but they indicate an appalling lack of ability to both estimate and manage a project. I've been a self-employed software engineer for more than a decade and I've worked on 100+ projects. Very few of them got done on the original timeline, but none of them were overdue to anything close to this degree. If I tell a client it'll take 3 weeks and it takes 6 months, there will be a mount…

Do you have any resources about good estimation? I have good intuition how to approach it and generally I'm close to estimated values but I'd like improve still.
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