Job thread

[Paelos]

Any tips for how to find a job that pays the bills and provides value to society?

Work for a construction firm. You'll get to see the value in providing housing and space for people, and you can see the actual impact you make on your town. There are downsides, but I find it much more rewarding than doing taxes.

Or work for an HVAC firm. You're keeping people alive.

[Merusk]

Those work, too. Although Yeg and I can give you examples of where they are as equally soul-sucking and predatory as other industries.

[Yegolev]

Oh, don't work in construction if you like to believe that other humans are not worthless scum.

[Ironwood]

What is 3rd sector?  New term to me.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voluntary_sector

What we call charities over here.

[Teleku]

Any tips for how to find a job that pays the bills and provides value to society?

Peace Corp is pretty value added (to the global society, not local).   

Though specific government sectors overall can give you the warm and fuzzies in terms of helping out society and/or your country depending on how you feel about that.  Idiocy, corruption, and laziness are abound (just like private sector), but you actually can work towards a goal that is for the greater good.  And if you are actually one of the few people who is good at their job and passionate enough to push change forward?  Honest to god real positive impact on society.

Benefits tend to be nice as well.  Just don't expect an overly large salary number.

[Tannhauser]

Well the interview went really well.  Really liked all the folks I spoke to.  State of the art facility bursting at the seams with work.  However they threw a number out there for salary that was 6k lower than expected.  OK we can discuss that if you make an offer to hire me.  Bu then they said since they are paying a recruiter for this I'd have to sign a two year contract.  If I bailed before that two years I'd have to pay the company 20-30% on one years salary as a penalty for leaving early.

Has anyone experience or knowledge of this?  What do?

[Trippy]

Yes this sort of thing does happen though I haven't heard of it at startups here in the Bay Area since competition for people is so high. Normally what startups here do is negotiate with the recruiters that they only pay the recruiters fee if the employee stays for a certain amount of time (like 6 months).

Personally I wouldn't join a company that made me sign such a contract but that's easy for me to say since my skills are in such high demand.

[Viin]

Any tips for how to find a job that pays the bills and provides value to society?

What do you do?

It's called different things in different industries, but I basically run new product development and delivery for tech companies (software of various type (mobile, saas, enterprise) and hardware). I've been trying to do as suggested so far: identify companies doing good stuff and see if they are hiring. Targets I have today are companies like McKesson (healthcare systems, EHR, etc), SpaceX (though not really in my wheelhouse), and others.

I'm not looking to work for a charity due to the issues mentioned above. Really I'm looking for a tech oriented company that is making disruptive changes to industries in socially positive ways (better healthcare for less, as an example). So far the hard part has been identifying them.

[Tannhauser]

Yes this sort of thing does happen though I haven't heard of it at startups here in the Bay Area since competition for people is so high. Normally what startups here do is negotiate with the recruiters that they only pay the recruiters fee if the employee stays for a certain amount of time (like 6 months).

Personally I wouldn't join a company that made me sign such a contract but that's easy for me to say since my skills are in such high demand.

Thanks Tripp.  Yes I have a certain skill high in demand around here but everyone wants to pay me peanuts and this 2 year contract thing is a pain when this job is just a placeholder until I land a really nice one.  Will probably pass on it.  Monday I'm applying for a job at SpaceX; it's on the other side of the country but hell yeah I'd move for an opportunity like that!

[Trippy]

Any tips for how to find a job that pays the bills and provides value to society?

What do you do?

It's called different things in different industries, but I basically run new product development and delivery for tech companies (software of various type (mobile, saas, enterprise) and hardware). I've been trying to do as suggested so far: identify companies doing good stuff and see if they are hiring. Targets I have today are companies like McKesson (healthcare systems, EHR, etc), SpaceX (though not really in my wheelhouse), and others.

I'm not looking to work for a charity due to the issues mentioned above. Really I'm looking for a tech oriented company that is making disruptive changes to industries in socially positive ways (better healthcare for less, as an example). So far the hard part has been identifying them.

If you know a few companies like this then something like CrunchBase or even just Googling "<company_x> competitors" is a decent way of finding out companies in the same space. Also following sites like TechCrunch and others that cover the startup scene will get you names of companies.

[Merusk]

[Yegolev]

I should have checked this earlier: my new Verizon discount is magically better than the one I had prior.

[Yegolev]

If I can't read your Google Voice transcript, I'm probably not going to call you back.

Hey Gary, Ole, Good Afternoon portion of the site big next of the stuff so i was just so hope you're doing great. This is regarding devil some in Kenya. Would you should I go to my client down. Your profile seems to be a good one for this position. So just want to talk to you regarding the same awesome search. Just let me know what you know if you're in the job market. My number is #####. And I also sent an email to you with the complete job details. At your email account. Please cooperate. If you feel comfortable then send me a call. Position resume on that. The best time and we can connect Again, my number is #### Looking forward to speak to you soon. Thank you. Bye bye.

[Merusk]

Someone has an awesome job in Kenya you would be a good fit ifyou'rein the market. Please cooperate if you're comfortable and he can position your resume.

Sounds like a great line on being a sex worker. Go for it!

[Paelos]

Please do the needful.

[Yegolev]

Judges?  I'm sorry, we were looking for "Kindly do the needful."


"Kindly."

[Paelos]

Damn. 

[Xuri]

Meeting with bosses last week:
"Focus on X. Get this up and running as soon as possible. This should be the priority, we need this in order to move forward."

Me for the last three days:
Making X happen, on a browser (javascript, ajax, html, css), server (php) and database (mysql) level. Finished earlier today. X is up and running, works as intended, and I estimated the time I'd need for it correctly. Yay!

Meeting with bosses this week, and just before I can give a status update of where I'm at:
"Scratch X. It's not needed. Stop working on it, and focus on Y instead. Also, I've been thinking... wouldn't it be better if ... *boss and owner (and non-developer) of company redesigns already completed parts of system on paper for 20 seconds, waving away arguments about system-side considerations*. Update the plan and email us. We need to get some visible progress on this, so lets focus and blahblahblah"

 

[Yegolev]

You need to learn The Game.

[Fabricated]

One of my co-workers who was maybe a year or two off retirement got handed a terminal cancer diagnosis this week. Yeesh.

[Viin]

One of my co-workers who was maybe a year or two off retirement got handed a terminal cancer diagnosis this week. Yeesh.

Moral of the story? Retire now! Before it's too late!
That really sucks.

[Yegolev]

Retirony at its worst.

[Tannhauser]

Crap.  Poor guy probably worked his whole life looking forward to years of easy retirement living and yelling at kids to get off his lawn.

Really makes you want to cash out your 401k and go on a coke and hookers binge.

Can't speak for everyone.

[Merusk]

If you hate your job so much now all you can think of is quitting, you probably should. Yes it really is that simple sometime.

I love my job. I hate my workplace. These are resolvable.

[Tannhauser]

Who are you talking to?

[Fabricated]

Crap.  Poor guy probably worked his whole life looking forward to years of easy retirement living and yelling at kids to get off his lawn.

Really makes you want to cash out your 401k and go on a coke and hookers binge.

Can't speak for everyone.

It's a woman, and yeah she was looking forward to it. Pancreatic, 6-12 months no treatment, maybe 2 years with. There's totally a god you guys!

[Yegolev]

HOW DO I MANAGED KEYS ?

[Ghambit]

So the project I've been working on all summer just had a "successful" demo but now the ones with the money (and the project leads) are all-ears when it comes to design changes that made sense 3 months ago, when I first got here and suggested them.     Back to the drawing board.

There's this fine line between pushing a new tech. and making something viable.  I've learned a lot this summer about how to navigate that space.  Mostly, it's not very fun... because people.  And those people are the ones that need to actually push the tech., because if you do it, it won't get done.

[Yegolev]

Just remember that it all pays the same.

[Khaldun]

In the meantime, there's always working for Amazon.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/16/technology/inside-amazon-wrestling-big-ideas-in-a-bruising-workplace.html

(The headline undersells the contents, which are pretty 

[Torinak]

In the meantime, there's always working for Amazon.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/16/technology/inside-amazon-wrestling-big-ideas-in-a-bruising-workplace.html

(The headline undersells the contents, which are pretty 

Sounds like it's just gotten worse over the past few years. I know people who left there several years ago who willingly gave up 5 and 6 figure bonuses/options because the environment was killing them. Always on call, always expected to be working every hour of the day and night. Turnover back then was already insane; I guess Amazon saves a lot on bonuses and stock options by firing or burning employees out before they have to pay them.

It's strange, because many people who can get jobs at Amazon can get equivalent or better jobs at many other high tech companies.

At least they're not as bad as Netflix is supposed to be, where you have all kinds of perks dangled in front of you (like "unlimited vacations" and now extensive paternity leave) and then using those perks are justification for being fired for "underperforming" compared to one's peers who never take time off.

[Rasix]

A friend of my wife tried to recruit me to Amazon like 2 or 3 years back.  He described the environment as "like a start up".  The alarm bells went off immediately.  I thanked him for the interest, and then said I was happy where I was.  Which wasn't completely true, but "like a start up" in an established company is code for "we will work you to death, you shitty, replaceable cog".

[Nebu]

If you hate your job so much now all you can think of is quitting, you probably should. Yes it really is that simple sometime.

I love my job. I hate my workplace. These are resolvable.

I love my job but hate where I live.  That's a tough one to resolve.

[Ironwood]

Can you do your job somewhere you'd like ?

[Khaldun]

Not if he's an academic. I tell students who are going into graduate school who are planning to be professors that among the things that they just need to flat out accept from the outset is that they will have almost no control over where they live for the rest of their lives. (I tell them also that the odds are that they'll end up making less money that someone at the official federal poverty line, etc.)  Generally there are only a small number of openings in your field in a given year, and if you get a tenure-track job and then get tenure, you are only mobile after that to an even smaller handful of positions and only if you achieve sufficient reputation to be able to attract a place looking to make a senior hire. So the likelihood is that if you get a good position, that's where you'll be. Nebu probably has a bit more mobility than most--STEM faculty have a few options--but it's still pretty constrained.