Start ups when that VC funding kicks in : programmer

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago (8 children)

and god help you if you ever use any of them, obviously you have time to play games you don't have enough work to do. It's all for show.

I remember a Meta recruiter reached out to me. We had a couple of talks, and then on one of them I asked "So how's the work life balance"

Oh it's great! We have a 24/7 cafeteria here, so if you ever need a snack it's always available. We have sleeping pods, so you can easily sleep, and even 24/7 laundry services, so it's all around a very relaxing place.

Uhhh yeah man. I'm not some kid fresh out of college. I own a home, and I'm very aware of my work time vs my personal time. Hard pass all around. Kids, if the company sounds too good to be true, there's an ulterior motive. Those things sound super great..... but they're of course all meant to keep you working around the clock, meeting deadlines. The companies aren't "hip" or "cool", it's all to attract you, and then work you to the bone. A strict 40 hour work week is better than foosball anyday.

I know I'm preaching to the choir but for the people interviewing for their first software gig - well maybe one of them will read this.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago (3 children)

I agree with work life balance, but working at meta for 2-3 years for $300k might be worth the sacrifice

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

If I were a kid right out of college, I'd honestly consider it. The key is truly knowing what you're getting into. Companies gobble up those kids out of college because they're naiive, and they want to prove themselves. MAANG knows that and take advantage of it. As long as you're aware of that going into it, and plan to use them too, then go for it. Just don't plan to be a lifer, know that they don't care about you going in.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

My soul is worth more than that, and I don't even have one.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

$300k might be worth the sacrifice

Right? I realistically just need 150k/yr to be stable in my area, I could chuck the other 150k/yr into savings and quit after 3 years with 450k in the bank

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

If I rember right google had an AI driving division that had huge cash incentives based on performance metrics that essentially crashed and burned because they hit targets so fast that main time retired for life in like a year or two

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

I know I'm preaching to the choir but for the people interviewing for their first software gig

First software gig? In this market, take whatever to get experience imo.

But that second/third/etc job? Culture, then salary, then everything else. Last interview I went to bragged about giving everyone brand new sneakers yet pay $25k less than average.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Who does laundry at work?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

Implication was that you stayed there overnight, and didn't have to worry about needing clean clothes

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

The companies aren't "hip" or "cool"

I believe the industry term is "agile".

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

Those things sound super great..... but they're of course all meant to keep you working around the clock, meeting deadlines.

This is not going to be universally true at all big tech-companies. There are places with perfectly reasonable WLB on top of huge salaries and fantastic perks.

These places are usually big enough that you're going to see extremes on both ends within the same company - some departments with huge deadline pressure cultures, and some with highly relaxed work settings. It can be a bit of a gamble.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

We've got free local artisan coffee, organic fruit, mineral water, and beer. We turn the kitchen table into a ping pong table with a net after lunch for however long people want to use it and people do. At 17:00 everyone's got a beer on their desk and by 18:00 the doors are locked and the lights are out. One Thursday a month the table is used for beer pong after work and we play card games like Exploding Kittens. Idk I like it here.

Not everywhere sucks. I've never worked an hour over my full-time requirements (ever), I get unlimited sick leave and no one shames me for missing a week as long as I call in properly. 31 Vacation days and company parties are nice too, plus paid travel time and nice hotel rooms. Also I've never made more money in my life and we're all getting extra bonuses to cover the unexpected inflation.

Oh and I can work from home four days a week if I want to. Gotta come in that one day, but it's a fifteen minute walk from my house so that's just fine for me. I come in on Tuesdays because that's when the company orders lunch for everyone (just one day a week but still cool).

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

Wow you're lucky. I've always wanted a job like that.

And for a while I had something similar but unfortunately rotten. We had a ping pong table, afterwork parties, no overtime, lunch, even a swimming pool. And we could use all of it.

However we were seriously underpaid, I got an 80% raise just by saying hello in another company. No remote work without any reason at all (most of my team was in other countries). And awful decision making by upper management.

Made me cynical if something like it is even possible. Glad to hear it is.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

My office has two ping pong tables. They're literally roped off with caution tape, and nobody is allowed to use them. I wish I were kidding.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Would you rather spend 40h a week in a dull environment exchanging your time and mental focus for money or spend 50h in a fun and relaxed environment working on something interesting, but also having great nutrition available and with a laundry, so no more household chores for you?

To me #1 seems like you're stuck exchanging the best of yourself for some paycheck. #2 sounds more like fun, but also gets you your paycheck.

If you're at a point in your life where all you want from your job, office and colleagues is to see as little as possible of that and get as much money as you could, you need to make some serious changes.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

No, I have a home, a great family, and I cherish my hobbies and free time. I work to live, I don't live to work.

A job will let you go the minute they need to. Your family will be with you for life, and it's much more important.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 3 months ago (2 children)

You're wasting the majority of your life. In order to enjoy the minority part. Nothing to be proud of, even less so is it justifying to be so toxic about people who do enjoy their jobs.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

Why would I call it wasting? It's funding the worthwhile part of my life, and it does a great job at it. I've been on several vacations already this year. I get to live where I want to. I have a great family that I love spending time with. To allow that I have firm limits with my job of 40 hours a week, then I go home. I enjoy several hours every night with them, and on weekends we usually go out and do something fun.

You keep trying to convince me I'm not happy, and I assure you I'm very happy with my lifestyle. If other people want to work more, more power to them. I don't understand it, but I guess do what you enjoy. I don't enjoy working - I enjoy my personal time. So I found a job that pays me well, respects my time, and every day promptly at 4 I clock off, and I enjoy my evening. Whatever work there is will be ready for me at 8am.

There are always things that get in the way, sometimes I need to work the occasional night, there's a deadline, I've missed a few weekends - but I always take the time off the following week to make up for it. Your younger years are gone in a blip, these times become memories quickly. I have many fond memories of trips, time with loved ones, friends, and even coworkers. You know what I don't remember? Projects, deadlines, and meetings.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

Did you just call "family" the "minor part of life"‽ Or am I misunderstanding you?

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

#3 spend 30-50 hours a week working on projects you find interesting working from home so you do laundry or make a sand which on a break.

Sometimes even cook a b8gger meal during training and such

That said, I never want to work a bullshit job, I know people who've ridden them out to retirement and I would rather just be homeless than that.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 3 months ago

you might prefer a lonely isolated lifestyle, or your social environment being only your wife, kids and your suburban neighbors. But that's absolutely not the case for most people who gladly socialize at work and prefer to have a great environment there. You all collectively shitting on it and praising work from home only shows that lemmy is a club of extreme introverts.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago (2 children)

When employers can't afford pizza parties, they come up with stuff like "dogs at work"

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I'm amazed when companies can't simply afford 100% remote work. IT'S FREE!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

It's not always about the money. You've never had a control-freak supervisor?

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

i work for a big multinational and there was this woman who walks around with a little yappy thing. she's the only one and i haven't seen any rules about it in the employee handbook. i think she just turned up with it one day.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (2 children)

I've seen this kind of thing too many times to count. First it was in high school, then the workplace.

Person notices there is no explicit rule for a thing, or maybe there's a loophole somewhere
Does the thing
Annoys someone
Now there's a rule for the thing

Some people just want to push the envelope. Other times, people can have a poor grasp of social norms, or they simply don't respect others. But on the other side of the coin, people get annoyed for good and bad reasons; sometimes, no reason at all.

Bottom line: it's a mess, so we get rules. But nobody wants to spend time writing these things and enforcing them, so there's usually a reason/person/event why they're there.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Those times you see an oddly specific and very weird rule and you just know there's probably a great story around it.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

The worst ones are safety rules: those are (sometimes) written in blood, with stories to match.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

Yeah. But it's still rare to see "no unicycling" signs so the unicyclers need to get on that.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

How about you only have to work 28.8 hours a week?

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Smart move. I recently upgraded from 14.4 to 33.6 and regret it.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

Honestly sounds like a downgrade...

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

I'm allergic to dogs and don't drink, bad recruiter, shoo! Shoo! spray bottle noises

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

mobbing-free Fridays!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I wish I hadn't needed to learn these lessons about start ups by working in start ups. I just want to be a mailman or something at this point.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

That's crazy to me because I had the exact opposite experience. I went in hoping for a certain amount, and they offered me knowing full well what I was hoping for, 20,000 more. Plus all the other benefits like video games and dogs at work. In fact I don't think I've ever had a bad experience with startups except that your job is essentially temporary cuz they will either close or sell

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

If they offered you 20,000 more than what you expected, might be you are underselling your actual worth and could have negotiated for more.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

Or they knew they weren't going to last more than 1 year, so why not spend all that tasty VC money?

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Did you say "Dogs at work"? Deal.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Some of them are your coworkers though.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

And not all of them are house trained.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

So you're saying there are no cats? That could be a problem.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I'm glad my workplace has a cat. Although, the cat does cat like things at the most inopportune moments.

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[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

People bring their dogs to work all the time in my office. Fortunately, all of us are dog lovers, so we all enjoy it.

The other trend that doesn't bother me, but surprises me is that I'd estimate about two thirds of the people in my office vape at their desks.

We also have bean to cup espresso, which is nice. People will go find high end beans and contribute them. It works out nicely.

We're highly educated professionals, damnit!

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Vaping indoors, at the desk ?! I would hate to work there.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

It's not me and I have an office. It doesn't get to me.

But I can definitely see that it would bother a whole lot of people.

On that, I'm old enough to have begun my working life when people smoked cigarettes at their desks. This is a much, much better alternative.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Damn the smoking at the desk must have been awful. Dont get me wrong, im a smoker and do enjoy a indoor cig every so often but sitting around it all the time cant be nice.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I smoke too, and I would HATE to bask in my own. Or someone else’s. Just an icky feeling and experience.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I know it's wrong and that I'm going to Internet hell for admitting to it, but there's a smell when Grandma would light her cigarette in the hot box car with the windows up that I find nostalgic to this day even though I find the concept of smoking in a car repugnant

[–] [email protected] -1 points 3 months ago

Nah, plenty of people have that olfactory nostalgia. It’s a pretty normal thing.

Also, my dad has NEVER smoked but he says he likes the way my cigarettes smell lol

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