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Bruegels Fuckbooks
Sep 14, 2004

Now, listen - I know the two of you are very different from each other in a lot of ways, but you have to understand that as far as Grandpa's concerned, you're both pieces of shit! Yeah. I can prove it mathematically.
If I make it through this year using less than three weeks of sick time for mental health leave i'd consider it a success.

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minato
Jun 7, 2004

cutty cain't hang, say 7-up.
Taco Defender

Good Will Hrunting posted:

Didn’t you get a job at Google? If you get employment at a place like Google and still have imposter syndrome is there no hope???
Impostor syndrome is definitely a big enough problem at the BigTechCos that they have to warn you about it in onboarding. But at least in my experience they did very little to tell you how to combat it.

Over time I learned that having some small successes definitely helps. Even just fixing a couple of long-standing bugs feels like a big win.

But ultimately humans suck at figuring out how good they are relative to other people, because it's so variable, peoples' successes tend to be more visible than their failures, and they don't have any solid data. A good analogy is going to the gym and seeing all these amazingly fit people and wondering if you'll ever reach those heights. Maybe you can, and maybe you just haven't got the genes & drive to look like Schwarzenegger or run like Usain Bolt. So the best attitude is to only use those people as inspiration and work on improving yourself. Don't feel bad for not reaching their level.

It was a small comfort to me when I realized that although I saw various super-smart people who were famous for inventing $AmazingThing, they were far outnumbered by the people who hadn't done anything particularly noteworthy.

Good Will Hrunting
Oct 8, 2012

I changed my mind.
I'm not sorry.
I really just get it when I look for new jobs, and when I start to prep again. I think the interview style of white boarding contributes to this a lot because I’ll see questions I can’t solve terribly easily or without a lot of thought and immediately jump to “well I’m dumb and have to study this for X amount of time before I get a job at a relatively good place I guess!!!”

Paolomania
Apr 26, 2006

Goal: go for promo until I get promo.

sink
Sep 10, 2005

gerby gerb gerb in my mouf

Pollyanna posted:

Happy new year! What’re your career resolutions this year? Mine is to be better about getting work done right the first time, to ask better questions, and to have more confidence.

Hire 6 engineers.
Open a new office in the SF Bay Area.

sink
Sep 10, 2005

gerby gerb gerb in my mouf

minato posted:

Impostor syndrome is definitely a big enough problem at the BigTechCos that they have to warn you about it in onboarding. But at least in my experience they did very little to tell you how to combat it.

Over time I learned that having some small successes definitely helps. Even just fixing a couple of long-standing bugs feels like a big win.

But ultimately humans suck at figuring out how good they are relative to other people, because it's so variable, peoples' successes tend to be more visible than their failures, and they don't have any solid data. A good analogy is going to the gym and seeing all these amazingly fit people and wondering if you'll ever reach those heights. Maybe you can, and maybe you just haven't got the genes & drive to look like Schwarzenegger or run like Usain Bolt. So the best attitude is to only use those people as inspiration and work on improving yourself. Don't feel bad for not reaching their level.

It was a small comfort to me when I realized that although I saw various super-smart people who were famous for inventing $AmazingThing, they were far outnumbered by the people who hadn't done anything particularly noteworthy.

I agree. And to add to that: For better or worse, tech can be very hero-oriented. But it's good to know that the reality is: at BigTechCo, $AmazingThing was probably a large project involving multiple teams and roles, and more than a few non-tech folks. It was likely an iterative improvement on someone else's research or product. And it might have taken a long time with a couple of false starts and dead ends. It was hard for the celebrities, so it's okay if it's hard for you too.

Blinkz0rz
May 27, 2001

MY CONTEMPT FOR MY OWN EMPLOYEES IS ONLY MATCHED BY MY LOVE FOR TOM BRADY'S SWEATY MAGA BALLS

sink posted:

Hire 6 engineers.
Open a new office in the SF Bay Area.

Same, except 3 engineers and lead an acquisition, maybe.

Also, get more figgies and begin to drive the long term strategy of my team now that my former boss has left.

Naar
Aug 19, 2003

The Time of the Eye is now
Fun Shoe
Continue my magical journey into contracting, where people will pay me twice as much money for less work. Also, finally learn Elixir properly.

CPColin
Sep 9, 2003

Big ol' smile.
At the end of this year, I hope I like what I'm doing at the job I'm starting tomorrow! Also, I hope California gets a hundred inches of rain, but very slowly.

Love Stole the Day
Nov 4, 2012
Please give me free quality professional advice so I can be a baby about it and insult you
edit-- nevermind

Love Stole the Day fucked around with this message at 05:30 on Aug 31, 2018

fantastic in plastic
Jun 15, 2007

The Socialist Workers Party's newspaper proved to be a tough sell to downtown businessmen.

Pollyanna posted:

Happy new year! What’re your career resolutions this year? Mine is to be better about getting work done right the first time, to ask better questions, and to have more confidence.

Mine is to connive a way to afford an MBA.

MrMoo
Sep 14, 2000

Love Stole the Day posted:

Here is how trying to change careers to the tech industry went in 2017 for me...
  • # Job applications filled out: 70
  • # Interviews: 4
  • # Offers: 2

Getting offers is a good start, I had over 40+ onsite interviews in NYC and PA and all I could raise was a contract-to-hire and a contract of unspecified duration. 2018 I might be working in Bitcoin land :2bong:

After a year of working contract still no offers :derp:

Good Will Hrunting
Oct 8, 2012

I changed my mind.
I'm not sorry.
I had 5 onsite and got two offers in NYC but look where I wound up.. the job where my lunatic boss closes months old PRs (52 files changed, most quite large) on New Years Day only to replace almost all of the work with his own code because he lacks any ability to spec, define, or delegate work in any capacity and everything ends up "non-performant" to him, and nothing is "correct" because these ideas exist solely in his head. At least he's redoing the senior and team lead's work too I guess?

geeves
Sep 16, 2004

Getting promoted to management or deciding what I want my next role in the company to be or perhaps finally taking the plunge and moving to the Bay Area where a lot of my friends have gone to over the last couple years.

mrmcd
Feb 22, 2003

Pictured: The only good cop (a fictional one).

Jose Valasquez posted:

I was at least partially joking, but one of the things they stress during orientation is that something like 75% of people who work at Google experience imposter syndrome at some point. It's a natural reaction to working with a bunch of really smart people. It's really easy to feel like an imposter when you're working at the same place as the guy who wrote your college AI text book.

One of my interviewers was one of the letters in awk. Thankfully I didn't realize it until like a day later so no opportunity to freak out.

Hunter2 Thompson
Feb 3, 2005

Ramrod XTreme
My 2018 computer job goals are:
* Quit my current job.
* Work on my project car. Work on some electronics and programming projects. Enjoy life.
* Pay the bills with programming contract work when not working isn't fun anymore. Maybe even get an interesting non-computer part-time job.
* Do a foreign language immersion program around June.
* Study interview questions and find a good new computer job after I get back around August.

Hopefully the programming job market doesn't collapse while I'm out of it

Keetron
Sep 26, 2008

Check out my enormous testicles in my TFLC log!

sink posted:

I agree. And to add to that: For better or worse, tech can be very hero-oriented. But it's good to know that the reality is: at BigTechCo, $AmazingThing was probably a large project involving multiple teams and roles, and more than a few non-tech folks. It was likely an iterative improvement on someone else's research or product. And it might have taken a long time with a couple of false starts and dead ends. It was hard for the celebrities, so it's okay if it's hard for you too.

The best team I worked on had:
- One hero who did not even develop features but made sure everyone else kept moving forward by implementing very smart things
- One rockstar who build not working concepts that were super useful if they would only work
- One silent guy who made the rockstars code actually work by fixing typo's and other silly bugs
- Two test developers who build regression tests to make sure the rockstar did not gently caress up older code (I was one of this)
- One front ender who made it work for the customer side of things
- One Business consultant who would talk all the time, half of this to clients and half to the team. If not talking, he would work in Jira.

Software is build by teams and all succesful teams are in a large part silent guys who write working code that are paired with a hero who propelles the team to great heights that (s)he could not reach by himself either. Personally I prefer to keep my head down and be a silent guy, plenty of work there.

Jaded Burnout
Jul 10, 2004


meatpotato posted:

My 2018 computer job goals are:
* Quit my current job.
* Work on my project car. Work on some electronics and programming projects. Enjoy life.
* Pay the bills with programming contract work when not working isn't fun anymore. Maybe even get an interesting non-computer part-time job.
* Do a foreign language immersion program around June.
* Study interview questions and find a good new computer job after I get back around August.

Hopefully the programming job market doesn't collapse while I'm out of it

I like this plan. It was also my plan, then I bought a house and renovated it and now I'm broke again.

Keetron posted:

The best team I worked on had:
- One hero who did not even develop features but made sure everyone else kept moving forward by implementing very smart things
- One rockstar who build not working concepts that were super useful if they would only work
- One silent guy who made the rockstars code actually work by fixing typo's and other silly bugs
- Two test developers who build regression tests to make sure the rockstar did not gently caress up older code (I was one of this)
- One front ender who made it work for the customer side of things
- One Business consultant who would talk all the time, half of this to clients and half to the team. If not talking, he would work in Jira.

Software is build by teams and all succesful teams are in a large part silent guys who write working code that are paired with a hero who propelles the team to great heights that (s)he could not reach by himself either. Personally I prefer to keep my head down and be a silent guy, plenty of work there.

I've spent my entire career cleaning up projects started by shiny-seeking startup devs and the work has only gone up.

Doh004
Apr 22, 2007

Mmmmm Donuts...
Professional goals for 2018: Double the size of our engineering guild, successfully navigate managing 2x the number of people I did last year.

Personal goals: Redo my website in one of the newer front end web frameworks as I've been out of webdev for 5+ years. Need to keep my knowledge about these systems more up to date than just cursory reading. Keep doing freelance native iOS work as it allows me to keep working in the platform I love while working on features completely outside of my day to day.

Space Kablooey
May 6, 2009


Pollyanna posted:

Happy new year! What’re your career resolutions this year? Mine is to be better about getting work done right the first time, to ask better questions, and to have more confidence.

quit my current job

FlapYoJacks
Feb 12, 2009

HardDiskD posted:

quit my current job

Space Kablooey
May 6, 2009


:yotj: just handed in my notice

Space Kablooey fucked around with this message at 15:51 on Jan 2, 2018

Ither
Jan 30, 2010
More money

Good Will Hrunting
Oct 8, 2012

I changed my mind.
I'm not sorry.

Pollyanna posted:

Happy new year! What’re your career resolutions this year? Mine is to be better about getting work done right the first time, to ask better questions, and to have more confidence.

Move to SV and go to a sex orgy while getting at least 25% raise

Jose Valasquez
Apr 8, 2005


OK I change my answer to this but I need more than a 25% raise to make up for COL

Jaded Burnout
Jul 10, 2004


Jose Valasquez posted:

OK I change my answer to this but I need more than a 25% raise to make up for COL

Also an antibiotics prescription.

Munkeymon
Aug 14, 2003

Motherfucker's got an
armor-piercing crowbar! Rigoddamndicu𝜆ous.



HardDiskD posted:

:yotj: just handed in my notice

She said this year, not today. Now you don't have anything planned for the next 363 days!

Keetron
Sep 26, 2008

Check out my enormous testicles in my TFLC log!

Munkeymon posted:

She said this year, not today. Now you don't have anything planned for the next 363 days!

I guess the question and his answer got him thinking.
Now is a good time to improve your life, no reason to wait until tomorrow!

Good Will Hrunting
Oct 8, 2012

I changed my mind.
I'm not sorry.

Keetron posted:

I guess the question and his answer got him thinking.
Now is a good time to improve your life, no reason to wait until tomorrow!

I'm IMPROVING MY LIFE at this current job!!!!

Investing
Money
Properly,
Reluctantly
Overworking,
Voicing
Increasingly
Negative
Grievinces

Maygodhavemercyon
You

Leader
I
loving
Enable

geeves
Sep 16, 2004


SV is halfway to admitting they are all secretly Mormons living in a drug fueled compound.

The funny thing is in SF, you don't have to be some tech elite to attend parties like this. They might not be fueled by tons of money, but women probably won't have their careers derailed because the VC brotatos aren't there.

geeves fucked around with this message at 20:33 on Jan 2, 2018

Pollyanna
Mar 5, 2005

Milk's on them.


How common are non-disparagement clauses?

geeves
Sep 16, 2004

Pollyanna posted:

How common are non-disparagement clauses?

I personally have never signed one, but I know a few friends who received them when they have been laid off in order to receive their severance.

A company usually knows their lovely (even if they are in denial about it) when they start making non-disparage agreements part of employment contracts.

Pollyanna
Mar 5, 2005

Milk's on them.


geeves posted:

I personally have never signed one, but I know a few friends who received them when they have been laid off in order to receive their severance.

A company usually knows their lovely (even if they are in denial about it) when they start making non-disparage agreements part of employment contracts.

Good to know, thanks.

minato
Jun 7, 2004

cutty cain't hang, say 7-up.
Taco Defender

Pollyanna posted:

How common are non-disparagement clauses?
I think they're pretty common, but like NDAs are practically unenforceable unless someone was to really go all out (like writing a book or a viral blog post). They're not gonna go after anyone who anonymously writes a bad Glassdoor review.

Doctor w-rw-rw-
Jun 24, 2008
I signed one and regretted it.

mrmcd
Feb 22, 2003

Pictured: The only good cop (a fictional one).

Yeah supposedly they are pretty common for severance packages, but I've never seen one as a requirement for being hired. I'm not sure what value they would even have that isn't covered by an NDA and at-will employment. If you go on TV and call the CEO a piece of poo poo you're probably expecting to get fired anyway.

Pollyanna
Mar 5, 2005

Milk's on them.


Given what we've covered, let's say that someone was served a separation agreement with a non-disparagement clause and a release of claims, and they wanted to consult a lawyer regarding the language, bindings, etc. in the agreement and what their options were. What would the lawyer be able to do for them, and what should said former employee's goals be in reviewing the agreement and possibly the employment contract as well?

:shepface:

Good Will Hrunting
Oct 8, 2012

I changed my mind.
I'm not sorry.

minato posted:

They're not gonna go after anyone who anonymously writes a bad Glassdoor review.

Challenge accepted.

mrmcd
Feb 22, 2003

Pictured: The only good cop (a fictional one).

Pollyanna posted:

Given what we've covered, let's say that someone was served a separation agreement with a non-disparagement clause and a release of claims, and they wanted to consult a lawyer regarding the language, bindings, etc. in the agreement and what their options were. What would the lawyer be able to do for them, and what should said former employee's goals be in reviewing the agreement and possibly the employment contract as well?

:shepface:

Generally, you want the lawyer to tell you if you have a good case for wrongful termination or not. If so, don't sign poo poo and prepare for battle. If not, they can tell you if it's a good severance package, if you can get more, and if there's anything tricky hiding in there.

Signing it is more or less saying "I promise not to sure or publicly poo poo on you in exchange for x amounts of money and benefits." Whether to sign it or not depends on the particulars of the employees situation and the employers offer.

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minato
Jun 7, 2004

cutty cain't hang, say 7-up.
Taco Defender

Pollyanna posted:

Given what we've covered, let's say that someone was served a separation agreement with a non-disparagement clause and a release of claims, and they wanted to consult a lawyer regarding the language, bindings, etc. in the agreement and what their options were. What would the lawyer be able to do for them, and what should said former employee's goals be in reviewing the agreement and possibly the employment contract as well?

A lawyer will be able to tell you:
- if what they're asking is actually legal
- if it's practically enforceable (and if so, where the practical boundaries lie, e.g. can you disparage them in another state or country)
- help evaluate how valuable the clauses are to the company and to you, which in turn will assist in any negotiations if you want to change the terms.

The "release of claims" is probably more of a concern than the non-disparagement clause. If you're waiving your right to sue them to get a severance package then that needs to be balanced against how much you might potentially get out of them if you had justification to sue for wrongful dismissal, balanced against legal fees. However if you're being dismissed and the HR dept aren't complete muppets, then they'll already have prepared a thick file of evidence to back up that dismissal to fend off just such a lawsuit.

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