Job thread

[Tannhauser]

I have a couple of interviews coming up, both for jobs that pay more than the one I was laid off from. So I got that going for me.  Also, one of the jobs is being offered by the guy that hired me in my previous job AND the new job is literally 100  yards down the road from my previous job.

Which is nice.

[Draegan]

So I'm at the 10month mark of my current job and I'm handing in my two weeks next week. Can't wait to leave.

My contract stipulated a one year bonus through the first year to simulate commissions. Well it turns out that in order to match that one year simulation, I would have to double or triple my current (and previous employee's) sales. Someone wasn't telling me the truth when I started. I won't be able to support my family on that.

Luckily as I was getting wind of how out of sorts this company is an old colleague of mine offered me a job with more money.

[Tannhauser]

If I take a contract job then leave to work a full time job elsewhere, am I under any restrictions from the contract job?  Am I breaking the contract by leaving? 

[Yegolev]

Depends on the contract but I expect not.

[Yegolev]

So, west-coast tech firms like to change tools every couple months?  Is this what Agile means?

[Merusk]

Yes.

[Torinak]

So, west-coast tech firms like to change tools every couple months?  Is this what Agile means?

Bad firms, yes. Frequent changes to tools/infrastructure/methodologies seems to be a sign of a dysfunctional environment, one looking for a silver bullet to solve everything.

Bonus points if they stop using some kind of code sanitizer or static analysis tool because they were showing too many errors. 

[Yegolev]

"Continuous Delivery Anti-Patterns"

[Miguel]

So, west-coast tech firms like to change tools every couple months?  Is this what Agile means?

[Torinak]

"Continuous Delivery Anti-Patterns"

Better that than "Continuous Anti-Pattern Delivery"...

[Ghambit]

edit:

life is good

[Abagadro]

Political jobs suck sometimes. I have to stress out for the next 4 months over whether the results of a (currently) toss-up election may mean I'm out of a job (although that isn't even necessarily dependent upon the outcome, but I'm a pessimist with an anxiety disorder, so).

[Yegolev]

Luckily, everyone loves a lawyer.

[Ironwood]

It would seem that 2 years is my maximum boredom threshold.

I want out.

[Yegolev]

Out of what?  Current job?  Glasgow?  UK?

Earth?

[Ironwood]

Yup.

Current job and industry would be good.  Getting out of the UK would be even better, but I have to wait until the MiL dies.

So there's that.

When I get bored, I REALLY get bored. 

[Yegolev]

Seems so.  I can't help unless you come over here, though.  I'll see if I can find a JPG of a kitten hanging onto a rope.

[Ironwood]

More a scream in the dark than a sincere plea for help.  America is right out, even if I was actually able to be mobile.  I fear it wouldn't agree with my disposition.

I really do wish I had the freedom to go back into Education or even start using my enormous IT knowledge to do training or teaching, but both are...rather fraught over here at the moment.

I am going to have to consider my future carefully though.  I don't like being bored and, franky, don't know how much future I actually have left.  Life's too short to be bored.

[Merusk]

Similar boat. We've lost 25 people since Jan 1. (company size of 220 and growing, including co-ops and contracts)  I'm feeling job ennui because I'm watching a lot of talent and years at the company walk out the door. (Several are 10+ years  here)

On top of the above, I'm getting pretty tired of trying to be a professional expert position in a company that doesn't value it. We're being asked to do grunt work like move goddamn furniture, change paper and replenish soda/ water in meeting rooms when the office manager is out ill.

Make recommendations for training or custom plug-in coding and get balked at for expense. Recommend sending people to AU ($3k expense for a week of intense training) and get told, "No, that's useless." Meanwhile the company spends 1/2 a mil to send ~20 people to Europe for a week annually.

Note that your professionals who are in the software 8-10 hours a day still use it like they've only got 6 months experience and you're told you just don't understand the workflow - even though you used to do it. Users all have ability to install their own software, which YOU then have to figure out how to use and tell them why they can't add a custom object/ layout/ whatever.

Essentially I'm a level 2 helpdesk tech in a position that's supposed to be manager/ director of software and practice.

/vent.

I need a vacation and to reassess if this is really the company I want to be doing this work for.

[Yegolev]

My 1-minute consultation would be "No, it's not."

[Ironwood]

On top of the above, I'm getting pretty tired of trying to be a professional expert position in a company that doesn't value it.

Yeah.  Totally hear you.  Sad thing is ?  Doesn't matter where you go;  personal expertise is not valued anywhere.

[Merusk]

On top of the above, I'm getting pretty tired of trying to be a professional expert position in a company that doesn't value it.

Yeah.  Totally hear you.  Sad thing is ?  Doesn't matter where you go;  personal expertise is not valued anywhere.

Granted, but there's a difference between not being valued and being a consultant whose company has been hired-on and not being valued as a part of the company. Client/ Service vs. Internal Client & Support. I'm in the latter point and previously I was in the former here.

There's much less dignity now and there doesn't have to be, because I've been places Tech was valued at least equally to the other divisions. It's one thing to have a Client tell you, "Thanks, but no" for your opinion and another for a co-worker to tell you, "No, now do it this way even though I know that's your job."

My 1-minute consultation would be "No, it's not."

Pretty much where I'm already at, yeah. The problem is where do I go from here. My current position is rare (although necessary even if Arch & design firms haven't fully realized it.) and my previous position I'm just done with. I'm not going to work 60-80 hour weeks for $55k- $60k a year and that's Architecture when you don't have an ownership stake.

[Yegolev]

Just based on my wife's background in architecture/interiors and now being a paint/floor sub, plus one of the other Scout dads owning an architecture firm (and having previously employed my wife), and the random assortment of asshats that I know in construction (commercial & residential) ... I don't know where you can go but I don't think architecture is going to be appreciative of tech anytime soon.  If ever.  I assume you know this on some level.

I can't advise you on where to go but people can and do make wacky career changes.  Don't fear the reaper.

[Torinak]

Similar boat. We've lost 25 people since Jan 1. (company size of 220 and growing, including co-ops and contracts)  I'm feeling job ennui because I'm watching a lot of talent and years at the company walk out the door. (Several are 10+ years  here)

On top of the above, I'm getting pretty tired of trying to be a professional expert position in a company that doesn't value it. We're being asked to do grunt work like move goddamn furniture, change paper and replenish soda/ water in meeting rooms when the office manager is out ill.

(snip)

Essentially I'm a level 2 helpdesk tech in a position that's supposed to be manager/ director of software and practice.

/vent.

I need a vacation and to reassess if this is really the company I want to be doing this work for.

When a company starts having its highly skilled workers do grunt work because it would be "too expensive" to hire someone else to do it, that's a pretty good sign it's time to bail. I recall an incident where a manager innocently suggested that software engineers making about $100/hr wash their own dishes so less cafeteria staff would be needed. 5 seconds of cost-benefit analysis later and the manager took back the suggestion. Upper management encouraged him to go work for a competitor shortly thereafter. 

[Paelos]

On top of the above, I'm getting pretty tired of trying to be a professional expert position in a company that doesn't value it.

Yeah.  Totally hear you.  Sad thing is ?  Doesn't matter where you go;  personal expertise is not valued anywhere.

Not true, but you have be selling your time. It's not valued if you're a salaried drone in the administrative side of a business.

[Ironwood]

Typical accountant. Being paid ain't being valued.

[Paelos]

Typical accountant. Being paid ain't being valued.

I honestly don't understand your point though. Once globalization started to happen and the internet became a thing, loyalty from both sides of the fence became a non-issue. We're all mercenaries now and if you're not acting like one it just makes you a bad mercenary.

Either you have value or you don't as an employee. People recognizing your value isn't your problem. That's you trying to control their reactions to you. If you feel you aren't being valued and you can get equal or more pay elsewhere while getting that valued feeling? Leave and do something else.

[Xanthippe]

More a scream in the dark than a sincere plea for help.  America is right out, even if I was actually able to be mobile.  I fear it wouldn't agree with my disposition.

Canada?

[Ghambit]

More a scream in the dark than a sincere plea for help.  America is right out, even if I was actually able to be mobile.  I fear it wouldn't agree with my disposition.

I really do wish I had the freedom to go back into Education or even start using my enormous IT knowledge to do training or teaching, but both are...rather fraught over here at the moment.

I am going to have to consider my future carefully though.  I don't like being bored and, franky, don't know how much future I actually have left.  Life's too short to be bored.

IT positions available in my division (spaaaaaaaace) at the lab.  Guy currently managing cybersecurity is a temp and I know other divisions are looking.  Not sure if they'd hire a foreigner though.  Probably not, as you'd need a clearance.  Nevertheless, it wouldn't hurt ya to inquire.  The American govt. lab system is a helluva thing to be involved with.

[Fabricated]

After about 4 years of my job being pretty cool and okay my bosses have decided it is now time to purge the undesirables- namely everyone they haven't personally hired and anyone who doesn't agree with their "philosophy", even if they're really productive.

I work in academia- one of my coworkers QUIT my group over a decade ago and went to work for a specific site on the campus. Well, they shuffled some papers and got him reclassified back under our group. They pulled him back in, took him from his regular gig to being in standard rotation, and now they're giving him 2 months to find a job or be fired.

Another was a relatively productive coworker who butted heads with them on their philosophy. He had a lot of expertise, was well liked by our users, and did a good job. He was given two weeks because he dared disagree with them on occasion.

We have since hired 6 newbies, 3 of which don't seem to have ever touched a PC before. This is okay I guess because these newbies are happy to be here, happy to work for less, and they can train them like monkies to do the job the way the bosses want it done.

Coincidentally, we got an internal email from the people just under the president of the university to generate a list of services we provide to the colleges we serve. To me, it came off like, "Justify your existence."

[Chimpy]

If it weren't for the fact that the state still hasn't passed s budget so little to no hiring is being done here I would keep an eye out for stuff here for you. There are plenty of people that commute from farther away than Lafayette every day.

[Ironwood]

After about 4 years of my job being pretty cool and okay my bosses have decided it is now time to purge the undesirables- namely everyone they haven't personally hired and anyone who doesn't agree with their "philosophy", even if they're really productive.

I work in academia- one of my coworkers QUIT my group over a decade ago and went to work for a specific site on the campus. Well, they shuffled some papers and got him reclassified back under our group. They pulled him back in, took him from his regular gig to being in standard rotation, and now they're giving him 2 months to find a job or be fired.

Another was a relatively productive coworker who butted heads with them on their philosophy. He had a lot of expertise, was well liked by our users, and did a good job. He was given two weeks because he dared disagree with them on occasion.

We have since hired 6 newbies, 3 of which don't seem to have ever touched a PC before. This is okay I guess because these newbies are happy to be here, happy to work for less, and they can train them like monkies to do the job the way the bosses want it done.

Coincidentally, we got an internal email from the people just under the president of the university to generate a list of services we provide to the colleges we serve. To me, it came off like, "Justify your existence."

[Rasix]

My company seems to have forgotten to pay me.  I hope I didn't just get Milton'd.

"We fixed the glitch."

[Ironwood]

Man, you really want me to put that robot to work, eh ?

 

[Yegolev]

Jesus, yes.  I mean, working in academia is bad but at least the checks are clearing for Fab.