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Nissin Cup Nudist posted:Theoretically yes, but The postdoc system is bullshit for sure. It also might be your best bet for finding a job.
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Mar 14, 2024 21:35
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Hey guys, another former academic looking to find my way through this nasty world. I have a doctorate in Philosophy (focus on mathematical foundations of science). After I finished my program, I found work for a small consulting firm that builds Semantic Technology, as an ontologist. Now I get to make all my academic friends jealous with my paychecks, and the fact I get to work on cool projects. However, I really really hate the person I work for, and Im not sure I would enjoy my role entirely even in a new situation. We are a small team, 7 people and my boss also owns the company. He has every toxic trait in the book, its rubbed off on everyone else and my job satisfaction is quite low. I was wondering if you guys could help suggest some ways I could pivot, since this is my first 'real' job. I do a lot of data analysis, and modelling, and a suprisingly large amount of time coding (python). I also do research and write reports. My favorite thing by far, and my biggest strength on the team, is trailblazing on a new project - i.e. cracking open someones backend ETL process, reverse engineering it and coming up with a model of source and target domains. I am not so great on cleanliness and typical engineering precision, and get bored easily. The other engineers on my team like to joke that I would make a great sales guy. This has had me thinking. Do you folks know any types of roles to shoot for that would suit my background and personality?
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Mar 15, 2024 08:26
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sensenmann420 posted:This has had me thinking. Do you folks know any types of roles to shoot for that would suit my background and personality? It's extremely facile to suggest, but maybe a pivot to proper Artifical Intelligence? I believe it's still a hot market even in the current contraction, though there's also a lot of hype and smoke and baloneymeisters. If you have Python experience and a mathematical/philosophical background, it's my understanding that's a reasonable portion of it. I don't know if the boots-on-the-ground work would keep you from becoming bored though.
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Mar 15, 2024 09:53
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Magnetic North posted:It's extremely facile to suggest, but maybe a pivot to proper Artifical Intelligence? I believe it's still a hot market even in the current contraction, though there's also a lot of hype and smoke and baloneymeisters. If you have Python experience and a mathematical/philosophical background, it's my understanding that's a reasonable portion of it. I don't know if the boots-on-the-ground work would keep you from becoming bored though. Extremely this. If you can talk a good game and have a data science background you are ready to go.
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Mar 15, 2024 12:42
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You'll also like your job way more without a toxic boss, I promise you.
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Mar 15, 2024 13:43
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Lockback posted:You'll also like your job way more without a toxic boss, I promise you. For real. OP is kind of a classic Sales Engineer profile imo, it's an interesting kind of role and something you should look at.
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Mar 15, 2024 14:37
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ultrafilter posted:The postdoc system is bullshit for sure. It also might be your best bet for finding a job. this
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Mar 15, 2024 20:30
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sensenmann420 posted:. Do you folks know any types of roles to shoot for that would suit my background and personality? Dunno if this is helpful but the people I know with kinda similar background that found creative career path options and good work life balance work here https://www.axiomdatascience.com/ Maybe there's keywords or something to follow on
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Mar 15, 2024 21:44
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I do work for a hedge fund (as a contractor) and a huge part of the contracts I review are NDAs where the fund gets pitched a fancy new model that claims to derive statistically significant conclusions from some otherwise useless source of data, and so the research team goes in, pokes around and determines whether it’s snake oil or the real deal, before the fund committing real money.
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Mar 15, 2024 23:35
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Sup y'all I've been working in the cultural field for an artistic immersive performance company as a developer/technician for over three years and the work environment has soured a bit. And I'm looking to change that up a bit. While working here, I've gained experience with several types of VR headsets, 3D scanning techniques, motion capture systems, Unreal Engine and so on. Practically any type Extended Reality technology there is, I have worked with it. The company is also involved in some EU level R&D projects so I've gained some insights in that as well. An old client of mine shared an opening for a researcher/developer at a university that will pay 20% more than my current position. I applied for it and there seems to be a decent chance I'll have it. Fun thing about applying while having a job is that now they have to convince me. Because I still have several hesitations with the new position. It's not related to the cultural field at all which is where I've always worked so far and is still my dream field. It's also a pure R&D position. One of the things I love about my current job is that one week I'll be developing, the week after that I'll be running cables and setting up on location, and then the week after that I'll be crawling into a motion capture suit and do some demos for people. Another old friend of mine called me up recently that he will have some virtual production jobs coming in the next quarter and he was thinking of me. It would be freelance gigs, so that got me thinking of becoming a freelance contractor. I'm pretty sure I would have at least two clients, as my current employment would also keep me on as a contractor too. They'd have to because they screwed the pooch and I'm the only one who knows how to operate the equipment efficiently. (which is also a reason why I want to leave as they have become way too dependent on me) I used to be a freelancer though about 6 years ago and it didn't go too well. So I'm a bit hesitant. But in the time since then I have gained a poo poo ton of experience and through my current work I have met many people and companies and I have the impression that they have all been impressed by me and my capabilities. I'll be 32 this year, I am single with no dependents and I have savings. If there's any moment to stick my neck out and become a freelancer, now would be the time. So yeah, it's the typical dilemma of going for something comfortable or something more risky but potentially more satisfying. Fragrag fucked around with this message at 09:38 on Mar 17, 2024 |
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Mar 17, 2024 09:23
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Fragrag posted:VR freelancing stuff Sup fellow entertainment (unless you pick up that R&D job) goon! I've been freelancing full-time for my specific skillset in entertainment for about 8 years now and my freelancer words of caution are as follows: Picking up contracts right now is WAY harder than normal, having 2 starter clients is great but you should start stacking some more clients for when those windows close, like, NOW, with overlap. You probably know this but everything in entertainment has like a 33% chance of getting canned midway through or before the production starts. Freelancing also takes up WAY MORE money in taxes, so you're looking at a bare minimum of 20% of your income, plus state tax and anything else. Plus, don't forget about health insurance, depending on your state & income level you might be on the hook for either $0 or upwards of $400 per month. Good news is, you PROBABLY know all this already! Ngl, if you could swing having a full-time job WHILE building a freelance client base, you'll be in the best possible position to switch over in case you end up hating your full-time job.
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Mar 17, 2024 15:41
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Epitope posted:Dunno if this is helpful but the people I know with kinda similar background that found creative career path options and good work life balance work here Ah this is amazing, thanks much
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Mar 17, 2024 15:52
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Lieutenant Dan posted:Sup fellow entertainment (unless you pick up that R&D job) goon! I've been freelancing full-time for my specific skillset in entertainment for about 8 years now and my freelancer words of caution are as follows: Picking up contracts right now is WAY harder than normal, having 2 starter clients is great but you should start stacking some more clients for when those windows close, like, NOW, with overlap. You probably know this but everything in entertainment has like a 33% chance of getting canned midway through or before the production starts. Freelancing also takes up WAY MORE money in taxes, so you're looking at a bare minimum of 20% of your income, plus state tax and anything else. Plus, don't forget about health insurance, depending on your state & income level you might be on the hook for either $0 or upwards of $400 per month. Thanks! I know the caveats wrt to insurance and taxes. I had a freelancing stint before I stopped it during Covid and I managed to close that off without any nasty surprises. Getting clients was rather my weakness but I think my network's in a better spot now. The past weeks I was contacted out of the blue by three different contacts for professional reasons which was a huge self-esteem boost. What's the low down on etiquette with contacting potential clients that are related to my current employer? There's no non-compete clause afaik in my contract but of course I don't want to burn bridges. Like there's one stage technician we hire to assist us and I know he sometimes has work related to VR. Would it be cool to hit him up for that?
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Mar 17, 2024 19:27
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Fragrag posted:Thanks! I know the caveats wrt to insurance and taxes. I had a freelancing stint before I stopped it during Covid and I managed to close that off without any nasty surprises. I'd say as long as you're not poaching clients from the project before it's over & not violating a non-com, you're good! E.g., if your stage tech has a second project not related to your current employer they're staffing up for, it's totally cool to ask if they need a VR person for Project XYZ and that you're open! (Assuming you're in a position where Project XYZ isn't deciding between you and your employer for contracting/staffing up). If there's downtime on set and they bring it up, it's totally okay to throw in a "VR work? I do that!"
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Mar 19, 2024 15:53
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I’m up for a lead position at my tech job. I’m not anti paying many tech questions I can’t crush but what I am looking for is a good resource for management related questions. Stuff like “tell me how you dealt with a difficult team member”, “tell me about a time…” bla bla bla.
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Mar 19, 2024 22:35
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I was going to post about this elsewhere but it wouldn’t have made much sense. I’m thinking I need to find a different way to sell myself in product/UX design, because my background is so mixed. Most job listings ask for 3+ years experience in UX, and I have that, sort of. I have: — 2y solid with my last company as an all-rounder — 1.5ish years working on a site a friend and I built, received news spots and traction, then we had to drop (had to put paid roles and family stuff first) — 2.5y as a “graphic designer” (physical product family manager, print product design, photography, copywriting, and so many other things) — 1.5y in the middle of all of that pursing a professional Master’s where I generated a series of contained UX case studies I don’t know. I’ve been rejected, deep into the interview process, from two roles due to theoretically not having the experience the companies need but without further explanation. I’m trying to get feedback on the last one, because my skillset seemed to align nigh perfectly with the role. It could be an excuse, but I’d rather meet those critiques as presented and try to improve. Part of it’s a market-sucks-badly issue, but I’m in a corner trying to find a position to fill in missing income and don’t have a safety net outside of our dwindling savings. I don’t think I can sell too hard on graphic design since my graphical work is so dated or narrow (very print heavy in a Wordpress world). I’m looking at contracts, I’m eyeing the public sector, and I’m beginning to feel like a jack of all visual design concepts, master of none. I know there aren’t many folks in these UX, graphic design, and adjacent fields here, but it’s been helpful to get general advice in the past… or to simply express my thoughts someplace that isn’t whatever the hell LinkedIn culture is.
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Mar 28, 2024 09:47
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There was a couple years of probably too much UX hiring, and now the market is saturated with experienced people who were recently laid off. In the software world this tends to go in cycles but UX doesn't have the kind of volume that developers tend to have, so its hard to know when the cycle is going to pop back up. With your experience have you also looked into junior product manager/owner roles? You'd probably need to do some Agile certification but running your own site and wearing a ton of hats as the graphic designer isn't a bad foundation. That isn't to say you should pivot but just to give you a wider net. I'd suggest completely different resumes for different job families liket hat.
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Mar 28, 2024 15:17
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I’m wondering if you need some coaching on how to present your experience. Sure looks to me like you have a masters in a relevant field and 6+ years of experience.
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Mar 28, 2024 16:38
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Jordan7hm posted:I’m wondering if you need some coaching on how to present your experience. Sure looks to me like you have a masters in a relevant field and 6+ years of experience. In fact it sounds like the OP's broad based experience might be significantly more valuable in a lot of roles than just straight 3+ of UI/UX!
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Mar 28, 2024 16:42
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I read that as "pursuing a masters" not completed. But yes, the experience is v. good.
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Mar 28, 2024 16:55
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Sorry, I became depressed about jobs and disappeared for a bit. I also managed to unbookmark the thread! Thanks for the responses, all. Let me actually respond:Lockback posted:With your experience have you also looked into junior product manager/owner roles? You'd probably need to do some Agile certification but running your own site and wearing a ton of hats as the graphic designer isn't a bad foundation. That isn't to say you should pivot but just to give you a wider net. I'd suggest completely different resumes for different job families liket hat. I should do that. I know Agile, worked in Scrum, and all that. I'll look into certification and see about generating a proper PM resume. Lockback posted:I read that as "pursuing a masters" not completed. Sorry, I wasn't clear on that. I completed it in late 2022! Jordan7hm posted:I’m wondering if you need some coaching on how to present your experience. Sure looks to me like you have a masters in a relevant field and 6+ years of experience. KYOON GRIFFEY JR posted:In fact it sounds like the OP's broad based experience might be significantly more valuable in a lot of roles than just straight 3+ of UI/UX! Honestly, it surprises me to see people that think my experience looks as significant as it does. In that light, yeah, I probably need coaching. I can mask my self-confidence issues pretty well, but I genuinely don't know how my experience gets perceived from the outside. Likewise, I don't know how to pitch myself in a way that highlights what experience I, personally, have. Would a career coach or some sort of consultation be a good idea?
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Apr 4, 2024 21:49
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broken pixel posted:Honestly, it surprises me to see people that think my experience looks as significant as it does. In that light, yeah, I probably need coaching. I can mask my self-confidence issues pretty well, but I genuinely don't know how my experience gets perceived from the outside. Likewise, I don't know how to pitch myself in a way that highlights what experience I, personally, have. Would a career coach or some sort of consultation be a good idea? I would highly recommend trying to find someone who is either in or who knows your target industry / function to work with to figure out how to tell your story. Could be a career coach, a mentor (people are usually really open to talking to junior people if it’s not them directly asking for work - reach out on LinkedIn and make mentorship asks and you will get positive responses) or an experienced recruiter.
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Apr 4, 2024 22:10
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Jordan7hm posted:I would highly recommend trying to find someone who is either in or who knows your target industry / function to work with to figure out how to tell your story. Could be a career coach, a mentor (people are usually really open to talking to junior people if it’s not them directly asking for work - reach out on LinkedIn and make mentorship asks and you will get positive responses) or an experienced recruiter. Cool! I should have some connections who could do that from my master's program. I recently connected with a person whose promoting public sector roles for UX, and I'd like to know more about that landscape, anyway.
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Apr 4, 2024 22:38
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IT Consultant in the cloud space here (AWS). I was just offered a Lead Engineer position with the company I've been working at for 5 years. I'm currently a Senior Cloud Solutions Architect and I recently got a merit increase that puts me nearly exactly at the top of my pay scale. This Lead Position is more of a management track with a 60/40 engineering to management split. The Team Lead position has a LOWER max pay band of maybe 8-10%. Because I am at the top of my pay band they aren't offering any more to my salary. Supposedly there's a different bonus structure with this position which may or may not be more than my current bonus incentives. My concerns with the position are depending who I ask, VP, SVP, Director, this position will have 7-10 direct reports with some off shore contractors sprinkled in. That sounds like not a lot of time left for actual engineering work. I've asked quite a few pointed questions around the roles and responsibilities of this position to multiple higher ups and the direct quote I get is literally "we will figure it out". That doesn't inspire a lot of confidence. All that being said I think it is a good opportunity to get some management experience even if it is a bit of a trial by fire. That being said I think it will be quite a bit more work and responsibility which I believe should come with a commensurate pay increase. Now, my question is how hard do I push for even a modest bump and what do I risk by pushing? I can be very frank and respectful with my concerns about the position. The hiring manager (my direct boss) let slip in a one-on-one that they were having trouble finding candidates for the other Lead spots, likely because, of the pay discrepancy and the opaque responsibilities. So that leads me to believe I have at lease some measure of leverage here, I just don't want to overplay my hand. I'd effectively be locking myself out of any future pay raises since I'm well outside the Lead pay band. Open to thoughts.
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Apr 8, 2024 21:39
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You should ask for what you want and accept that they want to underpay you. Skipping this one seems like the right call.
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Apr 8, 2024 22:36
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I will say getting to the management track doesn't always mean more money day 1. Do you have headroom to grow in your current role? Do you want to be on the management track? Skipping on this could be the best move but it means you will likely not be offered it again or the role will be even more below your pay grade the next time it comes around. I think this is being presented as a lateral move, not a promotion. Whether or not it is more work depends on lots of things and lateral moves do sometimes mean more work. It's a question of what your career goals are at this place and in the next few years.
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Apr 8, 2024 22:56
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Lockback posted:I will say getting to the management track doesn't always mean more money day 1. Do you have headroom to grow in your current role? Do you want to be on the management track? Skipping on this could be the best move but it means you will likely not be offered it again or the role will be even more below your pay grade the next time it comes around. Do I have headroom to grow? It doesn’t seem like it. The next level up beyond lead engineer is director. My current boss was just promoted into that role (and according to the pay bands I saw may have gotten a substantial pay bump). There’s no “senior” lead engineer or principal engineer in our current org structure. Basically he just got there and probably isn’t going anywhere. The follow on question is probably can I grow in my current role and the answer there is no too as they didn’t flesh out the engineering track at all so I’m as high as I can go at this company as an engineer. I think you are correct that it is being presented as a lateral move but I’ve already made a lateral move two years ago to get into my current role. Another lateral move doesnt seem productive to me. As far as career goals: goals A B C and D are make as much money as I possibly can. Goals E and F are effectuate actual change in the organization that have hamstrung us for years and mentor the junior engies.
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Apr 8, 2024 23:20
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drhankmccoyphd posted:Do I have headroom to grow? If your goal is to make more money can I suggest seeing if you can get the director jump within consulting at another firm. That’s been my approach and it’s been very good so far at accelerating salary growth.
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Apr 9, 2024 01:11
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drhankmccoyphd posted:As far as career goals: goals A B C and D are make as much money as I possibly can. Goals E and F are effectuate actual change in the organization that have hamstrung us for years and mentor the junior engies. It sounds like this isn't the place to stay at then
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Apr 9, 2024 04:32
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May be different in your sector but that sounds like a bad mix of management and IC work to me. It's very tricky to balance personally producing the output and at the same time managing the people doing it. I've had to do that a couple of times, especially when key staff have left, and it's not great. It is possible that the bonus structure could make up for the base salary, but again it's not a good sign they won't tell you what that is. Ultimately getting onto a management track is usually the best route to getting the big bucks, and it could be worthwhile taking a salary hit and starting to look for your next move immediately. I don't think this offer is a good one though.
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Apr 9, 2024 07:18
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Yeah, it's not a good offer. And that's fine because I can push them since I think I at least have some leverage. I got a look at the bonus structure for the lead position and it's actually worse than my current position. So my bullet points for asking for more money will be: - Loss of compensation due to bonus structure - Potential impact on work/life balance - Many unknowns as far as roles and responsibilities - Profit But yeah, I'm thinking even if I don't get them to budge on pay I'll probably take the role do it for a year and use it to pad my resume to grab a new job. Jordan7hm posted:If your goal is to make more money can I suggest seeing if you can get the director jump within consulting at another firm. That’s been my approach and it’s been very good so far at accelerating salary growth. Yeah, I think that's probably the way to go. I'd be curious to know what your experience was like. drhankmccoyphd fucked around with this message at 13:41 on Apr 9, 2024 |
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Apr 9, 2024 13:24
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Are you a consultant with more strategic responsibilities or are you a technology implementation body for hire?
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Apr 9, 2024 14:02
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KYOON GRIFFEY JR posted:Are you a consultant with more strategic responsibilities or are you a technology implementation body for hire? I'm not sure I understand the question, but I'll do my best to interpret. I'm definitely more of strategic consultant but at times I am a "body for hire". I architect and deliver technical solutions. Some clients need a lot of handholding because their tech stack is broken and they need someone to figure out what's wrong and rebuild from scratch and there are clients who know exactly what they need, have detailed roadmaps and tickets ready to be executed. I am expected to perform both those roles and know when and how to differentiate between the two. Right now I'm very technical, architecting solutions, writing up the plans, executing some of it myself and delegating tasks to others on my team. This new role is pretty much all of that plus manage these 10 people.
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Apr 9, 2024 15:09
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Is all your work for the client, or do you also do work for your firm (selling business, developing staff, etc)? To me there are three legs to the consulting stool - selling the business, growing / supporting the team, and delivering the work. If you want to stay in consulting, you need to do all three, and increasingly less delivery. If you’re only being sold to your client and have no responsibilities to your actual employer, you’re staff aug and the dynamics are going to be different. drhankmccoyphd posted:Yeah, I think that's probably the way to go. I'd be curious to know what your experience was like. I started at a big 4 firm in SAP consulting, bounced for a promotion in strategy consulting at another firm (it was still tech implementation but with a more business / process bent), and recently jumped for a non-equity partner role at one of the big tech SIs. I’ve been in consulting for a bit over 7 years and quadrupled my base salary over that period. The two jumps helped a lot. The first move was a lucky LinkedIn recruitment based on having the right skills for a new contract. The more recent move was a referral from a former manager who worked at the first place.
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Apr 9, 2024 15:32
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Ornery and Hornery posted:I was gonna request a reclassification to a higher title from my boss because I deserve it but then I found out my manager had something terrible happen in their personal life and also I have made more work mistakes in the last two weeks than in the last two years. So the timing is not quite right. Ornery and Hornery posted:Might get a promotion this year and there’s an off chance I get the double promotion this year. Well good news. Looks like conversations have continued. They want me to put documents together to:
I’ve already begun researching other organizations. Any tips or resources to conduct this work? Example slide decks or reports? I know that I’m going to summarize and share the different organization charts.
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Apr 9, 2024 21:56
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Went back to your posts to make sure I wasn’t completely off base here. You should spend that time looking for a promotion through a new job. e: a less serious answer is that reclassification is something that happens in the public sector in a formalized manner and there’s likely good material out there talking through the process, so that might be a reference point. Other than that, I guess you could see if there are existing job descriptions for the role you want to be promoted into and do a mapping between your current activities and the new role. Seems like a worse use of your time than looking for a new job though. Jordan7hm fucked around with this message at 22:33 on Apr 9, 2024 |
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Apr 9, 2024 22:31
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Hey All, just looking for some general thoughts on a niche career. For the last 10 years, I've worked with a specialty construction company for Museums. I work in the Audio-Visual portion, and that means my day-to-day skillset encompasses typical AV, lighting, control systems, interfacing with mechanicals, and arduino programming. A year ago, I received an offer to interview with a company adjacent to my industry, but I didn't really like the location or the pitch... but it got me thinking. So, I told my boss, hey, I'd like to move up or move out, I'll stay till this particular Children's Museum is complete, but after that no promises. Well, that time is nearing, and there's been no discussion of moving up. Honestly, even if they did, I don't know that I want it. I don't like upper management at my company, and I feel pretty disrespected over this not being taken seriously. Things have been more chaotic and messy than ever, I'm working too much overtime. My wife and I want to move closer to home, so I'm seeking out some options. One was a cold-email - a company a little smaller than where I am, but well-established. They weren't actively hiring for a role like mine... but they pretty quickly emailed me back. From teh interview, they see me as an opportunity they could take on for growth. The culture seems much healthier, and the work seems fun. They don't really have a formal department for the type of work I do, just a handful of people that do it when needed. This could be an opportunity to build something with them and become the more managerial role I seek, long term. I've received an offer, but it's less than I'd like. I currently run at about $32/Hr. Last year my income was around $76000. This job, in Chicago, is offering me $35/hr. According to calculators, I'm seeing Chicago is about 8% higher cost to live in vs Nashville, where I currently am, and this is about a 9% raise. However, I also need to worry about State taxes now (TN doesn't do income tax, only sales tax). This place tries to do less overtime.... which is good, and part of what I'm seeking, but I really don't want to risk a dip in pay when moving. I've asked some followup questions about how often overtime is seen, some details about travel rates (they pay more during travel, but I can't tell if that's in addition to per diem or without it) etc. Even if I work half the overtime I did last year (only 130 hours instead of 260), I end up pretty close to where I am now, maybe more-ish. I've also of course asked about some more details, but I'd like to get some advice here on how to negotiate further. Maybe what I'm writing here is to vague or too scatterbrained, but what say you?
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Apr 16, 2024 01:58
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you will get better input on the negotiations here: https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?noseen=0&threadid=3768531&perpage=40&pagenumber=267#pti26
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Apr 16, 2024 05:00
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ah poo poo I had both threads open and posted in the wrong one. sorry!
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Apr 16, 2024 05:22
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