What’s good career advice you wouldn’t want to have your name on?
80000hours.org
80000hours.org
Sure, it shows one's morals and standards, but how does that boost one's career?
This has a number of predictable benefits.
Sure, if you leave the company and go somewhere else, then you're potentially going to find your moral environment. But, there are better ways to find these environments, versus job hopping.
Without leaving, how often will your conflicts affect your situation?
Would like to hear more about the predicted benefits.
Similarly, a middle manager who has to downsize houses because he stopped working on weapons for example, it could be even harder for him because he won’t even get famous for it.
I should know, I’ve made one of those choices in another area.
Going by the theme of the post, "By making as much money as possible", wouldn't be an unreasonable measure.
If you truly value a moral career, there are surely better ways to find one than to join a company and express your opinions internally, in an almost retroactive manner.
If your only considering career benefits in terms of career advancement compensation, then perhaps doing the right thing won't be "beneficial" to you.
However, if you aim to be a good person, doing the right thing is the correct path.
This might be an important distinction between ethical and moral. Standing up against unethical behavior protects one career, but if the behavior is ethical but immoral (that is to say, it violates your own standards but is deemed acceptable in the larger community) then it doesn't really protect one's career. But the self image protection might still be worth it.
Honestly, that's the kind of teammate I deeply love to work with - one who doesn't _need_ the job, but one who _wants_ it and believes in what we're doing.
Look at the web. There's a ton of jobs (many would say a nigh-overfull bubble's worth) in the web right now, yet most webshit doesn't meaningfully improve anyone's life and is instead just a way to trick people into looking at ads or providing their personal data so it can be collected and sold.
People say that Google does questionable things but I haven't seen any of it. Of course as a bottom-up organization it is very likely that other parts of Google are less ethical but that doesn't really affect my work or conscience.
https://www.theverge.com/2019/3/11/18260712/google-amit-sing... (Google confirms it agreed to pay $135 million to two execs accused of sexual harassment)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-Tech_Employee_Antitrust_L... (High-Tech Employee Antitrust Litigation)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragonfly_(search_engine)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Privacy_concerns_regarding_Goo...
Telling the CEO he is full of shit is not actionable. Telling the CEO that his plan will not work and that to save the situation he needs to do XYZ is. If you've judged the situation correctly and that level of drama is actually necessary, then either they will respect you and do it or they wont and you'll quit/be fired. Either should be fine for you from your perspective as an employee even if financially it's a leap.
I say it's good advice because it's turned out to be very good for my career. I've had it blow up in my face once and turn out better than silence every other time. That's a muh better ratio than I would have guessed, I suspect because it's easier to fear the consequences of action than inaction.
Another possible/likely option - they'll pay lip service to your plan, convince you to stay, and then gradually slip back to the full of shit approach they originally intended.
But ultimately there is no substitute for good judgement here. You have to decide, sometimes quickly, whether a particular situation demands immediate action of whether it can be forestalled or defeated by other (less risky) means. And you're absolutely right that it requires good judgement and preparation to ensure that they cannot contain or deceive you.
If you're in an environment where serious ethical failure happens on the regular I would encourage you to get out. There are plenty of jobs, including in IT, where the worst you'll see is self-serving lies and corporate doublespeak.
As for my standards being laxer than yours, well, I don't know you.
I'm definitely looking to transition to a more healthy environment, but so far every place I have visited has a similar terrible attitude to the practicalities of security and handling breaches. I have asked for clarification by legal sources many times, but this appears to be legal, with the obvious exception of the illegal things. Those are not legal but they don't have a governing body that actively punishes transgressions. It also appears to be widespread. Perhaps I just live in the wrong country :)
You could call someone out, and make a fool of yourself, if you're wrong. It would make me very hesitant to ever actually do something like this, because you never know.
I sat in on an 'all hands' briefing once where a CEO level guy spent 2hrs demanding we code a 3D VR shopping mall for him to sell to local stores. When I started talking about how immature the market was (this was 1994 and most people were on dialup) I got roasted. Afterwards, the CTO said he did that randomly, to get dominance, it was just how he chose to behave in a room, in order to "win". I didn't stay in that company long.
I hate this. I can't convince colleagues that they are wrong. And I can't push too hard as long as I'm not 100% sure. So I have to make their work for them just to proof them wrong. I think it is not a good investment to aim for 100%, at least where I work.
This is very bad advice purely career wise. In fact being in the good books of the cartel managers is something you should proactively do.
Also stop believing in this myth of finding a boss who is powerful, just, fair and does the right things all the time. Humans are irrational species because we have to often arrive at a one pick decision between competing priorities, sometimes even paradoxical priorities. Reality is a big mess and no straight work-reward equations are possible. This extends to so many things in the real world. Business, relationships, contracts, job space etc etc. One must always aspire to be slightly evil as much as things allow one to be. That means developing tact to manage everyday politics, negotiating, coercing, influence and various other people management things.
Plus given this specific point, if your boss or immediate leader is too powerful fighting him is pointless and self destructive. And even more important point, stop fighting other peoples battles. Whistle blowing, activism and standing for principle all gives you a huge sense of self worth and makes you feel important about yourself. But it's a very bad strategy, because you will fall out of favor and get marked up as a trouble maker in the eyes of any powerful watching. And you will never meet a boss or a leader who is likely to appreciate this. Stop trying to be a martyr or other people's cause.
The second problem with people is that they try to evangelize their own little personal moral-principles based religion, some cause they believe in and try forcing it down other people's throats. There is literally no reason why any one should care about what or why you believe in anything at all. Especially if they don't stand to benefit from it in any real way. There is also no reason why you should mark any one as your enemy for not believing in what you do. This is even more troublesome because people attach things like moral prestige/superiority/pride to their cause and humiliate other people's intelligence for not aligning with theirs. Why should you want to do this?
Stop trying to be a rebel, take a step back and what see you are doing. Your boss wants X, in an ideal situation the best you can do is convince them to agree on settling with X-dx. But if your boss wants X and you want to change their directions and want them to do A instead. They are going quietly relieve you of your work, and find some one else to get the job done.
- Always go for prestige over purpose. Have a choice between a shiny project with very little actual impact to the company and a behind the scenes project that will actually make lives better for employees and customers? Go for the shiny project. It will look better on your resume and to executive teams, and will get you promoted faster.
- Learn the art of looking busy and practice it often. If you look busy all the time, people will assume you're productive and also not give you a bunch of extra work for no extra compensation.
- Play politics. A lot. Especially throwing other people under the bus. The key is to align your politics with the right power players in your org. You'll get promoted faster, get more bonuses, and be able to get away with more things in general.
- Get the scoop on what's actually going on at executive levels by making friends with the office managers/personal assistants. You'll get an early notification of problems coming up, people to avoid, opportunities to take advantage of, etc.
- Loyalty is for chumps. Play the game for yourself. If you get a better offer somewhere else, take it. If your boss is an asshole or putting a glass ceiling over you, leave. If you need time off, take it. If your team isn't being effective, throw them under the bus and move on.
I'd expand this to always make friends with gatekeepers. Office managers, PAs, front desk, kitchen staff, building security, etc. They're hardworking people who tend to be ignored and mistreated. Respect them, be friendly, and it will open many gates along with making their lives better.
Be good to others and they'll be good to you.
Of course there are also the not directly career benefits such as having better/nicer food and a more pleasurable time at work.
Hard disagree with this one.
I've seen better success with 'compliment everyone behind their backs, giving a good reason'.
Throwing everyone under the bus can be very very effective, but it's got to be for a very short run at the goal, typically. If you end up working with those people again, you're cooked.
I'd say, if you don't see yourself working with that person ever again in the next 6mo. to 1 year, you can throw others under the bus, provided you can get ahead of them on the org charts and the cocktail talk. If you are going to be working with those people again and they are in your radius of org chart or cocktail talk, compliment them all behind their backs relentlessly.
Don't be a doormat, of course, but sing other's praises. You'll get a reputation for being a great person to work with, and everyone wants to work with a great person to work with.
Everything else on this list is spot on, great write up!
Regular smoozing I think is not too hard and you're just being sociable.
If you feel you need to play politics, get with good team and play politics in concert. My department has made a lot of good progress just by providing a united front and influencing together. It doesn't even have to be a bad thing.
That seems like it would be a very good reputation to have with non-snakes because it would signal to them that you'll defend them the need arises.
That said, he's out of runway and can't get ahead anymore, being the US President and all. The throwing everyone under the bus tactic can't work if you can't distance yourself away from those you burned, and he's out of room now.
Sometimes you gotta burn bridges. The IT/tech world is surprisingly small, and it's possible you'll see these people again, but the trade-offs can sometimes be worth it.
Guys like Elon Musk, Steve Jobs, and Bill Gates have reputations of acting like A-holes. You're going to have to step on someone's toes to make it to the top.
That's a gun with one bullet. If you use it, you better use it wisely, cause there are no takebacks if you miss.
That's simply not true, but ...
- Be loyal to people not things.
- Loyalty is earned, not given out freely.
Of course, it doesn't mean it isn't true. But narratives that soothe the ego should always receive an extra dose of scrutiny.
* Throw people under the bus, but pull them out at the last moment. "I could say that it's the other team's fault, but we're practicing blameless postmortems. Can we focus on fixing our process?"
* Throw people under multiple busses. "We're behind on the upgrade effort because there are three different upgrade efforts going on and we can't focus on any of them."
* Throw busses at people. "I am not trying to take over your team. I am only asking that we follow the law. Waiting for Legal is a smokescreen; we need to act now or get sued next quarter."
* Be bureaucratic. "I wasn't able to finish the project because we have issues in deployment and code review. We'll be finished soon, and I'm improving our deployment process so that this won't happen again."
1) The executives-wrangling-for-a-role level. If three people want that sweet VP title, they're not just trying to show they're the best, they're also trying to show the other two people are not good for the role. Taking a promotion competitor and throwing them under the biggest bus possible is a great way to knock them out of the running. Chances are they're trying to do the same to you. (Note: at Big Cos, high-level promotions are at least as much about politics as about actual merit of work / competency).
2) The other person is a different part of the org entirely. For example if there's a project that's a joint effort between IT and Marketing and something goes wrong you better believe the ladder climbers are going to look for the biggest bus available to throw the other team lead under. It's an effective strategy because it's a responsibility avoidance tactic and, hey, screw those other guys because they never give you what you want anyway.
Please note I don't actually recommend people do these things unless they care more about career advancement at all costs than about actually building strong relationships, well-functioning teams, and general life happiness. The thing is, a lot of people prioritize the former, which I think is the whole impetus behind the article's title.
- Dress just a little bit nicer/more formal than everyone else in your workplace. People who don't know you will assume you are more important than you are and people who do know you will unconsciously associate you with upper management and you'll be more likely to get promoted. Management promotes people they "see" as management material. If you look the part, they're more likely to see you that way.
- Take audio recordings of your meetings with your coworkers and boss. Use the recordings to take notes that you may have missed at the meetings. Particularly in a new position, going back and listening helps to pick up what people emphasize.
- If people can see your computer screen, do all your non-work bullshit on your phone, where people can't see. Keep only work stuff on your computer screen and you will look productive.
- Don't ever tell anyone at work anything personal that could be even slightly controversial, including political beliefs. People like to talk shit and if they have something on you, it will get spread around most workplaces. Gossip is cache for people and they'll use whatever they have to make themselves more likable.
How transparent have you been day to day, for example is it visible during meetings or in your pocket? And do you keep a specific audio recorder/use only work phone or have you recorded on personal devices like your non-work phone?
As for why that's the case... well most people/sites don't want to become a social pariah, most underrated creators are by definition unpopular enough most haven't heard of them and truly unpopular opinions are unpopular enough that they're unlikely to get posted.
Still, when I heard 'career advice you wouldn't want your name associated with', I was thinking it'd be something like the stuff in that James Damore memo or what not. Or something inspired by Machiavelli's The Prince.
But one thing we learned in the process was that seriously successful people doing their thing feel pretty gagged.
It's not worth it for them to write even things that seem uncontroversial to you or me, because someone out there might hate it, or misinterpret it, and start creating problems for them.
Why not do something actually anonymous, though? Put up a form box on your website where people can write anything in response to the prompt, and let folks access it through Tor? Then post the results with the appropriate disclaimer. You might need to moderate it a bit to cut out crap like "PENIS1!!11!1!", but you might also get some genuinely interesting commentary.
Then again, this is basically what Blind does.
Note, most jobs don't start this way but many end up this way, mainly because your employer doesn't value you. They don't give you proper raises or other compensation to show appreciation. When you can't increase your total compensation, increase your hourly compensation with the above tactic till your per hour rate skyrockets. Best achieved while working remotely. It's also important to not be loyal and always remember that the extra effort will never be rewarded. That said, there are rare, occasional exceptions. Very rare.
Finally, remember, it's hard to get fired at most places. You really have to push your bosses to do it, especially once you've been there for awhile. Take advantage of that. This is all a game, so play it. And speaking of games, have fun whenever you can doing non-work stuff. Or start a business on the side if that's your thing with all the extra time.
https://www.ribbonfarm.com/2009/10/07/the-gervais-principle-...
Mostly a joke... but still painfully accurate at times.
This really jumped out at me.
As a college student, I've never had so many opportunities available to me at once -- nor so little maturity with which to take advantage of them.
That said, I certainly agree with taking care of low-level health problems, the sooner the better.
Most people find later in life that they actually had more means then they realized.
Always ask "Is there anything else I can do to help" after completing a task. Always be the first to start volunteering (show up early) and the last person to stop volunteering (stay late).
If you're a person of good character and genuine spirit, people will notice and talk about you. People will ask your help with bigger things. Repeat.
- Pay at least a little attention to nutrition.
- Be more willing to do things by myself; there were certain activities, for which I had a vague impression you were supposed to wait until other people invited you to go with them.
- Be less afraid of upsetting professors and other authority figures. (And I say this as someone who is a professor now!)
- Try less hard to weasel my way into the "in" crowd. (And by "less hard" I don't mean "not at all"; these efforts were worthwhile to some extent.) Conversely, there were all sorts of interesting people who weren't "popular"; try to make friends with them, or even ask them out on dates.
- Somehow found a way to relax more, although that is always much easier said than done.
* Spend as little time in your dorm as possible. Be out with people, read a book in the library or student union, join an intermural team, go to a party, whatever. Don't fall into the Weed-And-Vidya-Game pattern that college types tend to have. I suspect one of the reasons many dorms make students share a room is to force this.
* Be willing to say no to a course of study, or even to college. It's not for everyone, and I hate that we force people into it even if they don't have the money/interest/aptitude for it. The best-off people I know are CS grads, but several grads are not making great cash. Meanwhile I know (hired) electricians making north of six-figures, and I know a couple plumbers who are doing quite well.
* Most of the couples who got married after college are now divorced; most of the couples I knew in college split before graduation. Some are still a thing and happy, but the takeaway is don't limit yourself because of relationships. Date around if you can.
I'm a bit over a decade past college (36) & aside from short bouts between jobs (which never lasted very long) I've never had as much free time as I had as a student.
Chaos is a ladder.
Best advice in that article. Find the people who are clearly the thought leaders and ask them to mentor you.
I've read multiple accounts of successful people having essentially this story and it's really stuck with me:
I went into a meeting with my mentor.
During the meeting, a lot was said by different folks.
After the meeting, my mentor asked me: "What happened in the re?"
I proceeded to give him a rough outline of what was said.
They responded: "That's what was SAID. Here is what actually happened: Person A said they were ready but they are clearly not b/c $X. Person B said they had $Y but that's not true because we already know $Z".
END OF STORY
This kind of guidance is priceless because it saves you potentially years of trial and error trying to learn how to read between the lines.
Do something you love that doesn't require you to compromise your morals.
I wish I had been a musician. I wish I had focused on finding the right mate instead of so many nights programming, even though it brought me some fame and some money. I'm a little fucked up because I chose tech over loving the right person, and they are gone now.
This is the reason I keep telling myself life is long. Try as many things as possible. Don't fear to start again as there ain't such thing as security. But alas my stupid mind... still seeks security over bewilderment.
SWE is now already there, but it used to be much more relaxed when there weren't so many billions floating around. Start-ups and the out of control VC money are one of the worst things that happened to this industry.
1. When people discuss politics at work, it is far, far better to say nothing than to say anything that goes against the prevailing politics of your company.
2. There is never a circumstance where you should question any program designed to help groups that your company has deemed are underrepresented, no matter how unfair you feel it is that those same opportunities aren't available more broadly. Not only are these efforts frequently highlighted publicly, they are often lead by VPs with buy-in all the way up the executive chain. There is zero upside here.
The correct approach is to talk to your leader about how you could incorporate similar training/learning into your career plan.
For example: It pay$ to change jobs early in ones career. If you stay longer than 2 years out of some missplaced loyalty youll miss out of some quick dollars. Tons of caveats but in general it works. Now caveat it seems to peak around your 5 or 6th switch.
Source: All my mates and I have switched at the cadence and weve averaged a 15% increase in salary
However, in terms of leveling/promotions, I think this stops pretty early. And it’s also possible to end up somewhere like Netflix where there may not be a place paying better for your experience/level. In particular it seems you need to grind out more than 2 years to get promoted to a managerial position or for any n>4, go from Ln to Ln+1 (except for maybe at a fast growing startup). So once you have 5 years experience you might be able to keep getting pay increases, unless you’re already near the top of market, but probably won’t get title promotions
-- Anonymous
Frankly, if you are to the point where HR is even in the conversation, then you really need to have a large financial incentive to stay around. The reward better be worth the risk.
Ever had a complaint made against you? Possibly - maybe it was quietly filed away. Ever wonder if people are paying attention to when you come into the office? They are.
I went through an outsourcing at my last job and for nine+ months the only people that knew it was coming was executive leadership, the CIO, and his HR staff.
HR is risky because they have hidden information in spades. The interests you think align might not after all.
Scenario A: your job sucks, and you don't see a future there. Your boss constantly undermines you, doesn't give you credit, gives you a workload harder than any reasonable employee could work.
Scenario B: your company is doing something illegal, and you pointed that out to your manager. Your manager started undermining you, not giving you credit, uninviting you to meetings about your work. Now your job sucks and you don't see a future there.
In Scenario A, you should just leave. HR isn't going to fix the problem, they're just going to throw their hands up, tell you to work through it with your manager, and then quietly label you as a difficult employee. You're probably on a track to be laid off or PIP'd in the next cycle, so might as well either learn to shut up and take it, or get out.
Scenario B, you should absolutely tell HR. HR won't do anything, or they'll make your life worse. But that's exactly what you need to have happen to build a case. Depending on the severity of the situation (i.e., how pervasive and illegal the activities are), HR's inactions could be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars to you.
I worked as a programmer for several years and now I run a tech recruitment consultancy (coderfit.com). Programmers come to me daily with various problems. I am writing up all the individual solutions that lead to more money in a book. It covers career growth, interviewing, job search, and salary negotiation; please have a look here: “Coderfit: Make more money as a programmer”: https://gumroad.com/l/cdrft
Axis 1: How much political influence does this person have?
Axis 2: How easy are they to influence?
Some key points: - Axis 2 is from your perspective
- It's good to keep in mind that the chart might look different for other people
As an example: you might find it easy to influence person B who only has mid-level influence.
However, Person B might be able to influence someone you have no chance of influencing.
You can also add other dimensions such as "What does each person value e.g. money/influence/respect" etc
The ONLY PATH for wealth is to work for yourself by starting and building your own business.
Make no mistake... You are always building a business, and if you're not building YOURS, you are building THEIRS.
Building someone's else's business, as a launchpad for your own, isn't a bad idea.
(this is basically the ugly side of consulting)
Best option when you have a frustrating manager, although not always feasible: Quit and work somewhere else with better management.
My reports to three levels above me were an agreed, small but positive influence in removing the problematic leadership. I ended up leaving later on for different reasons.
2. Always show your in hurry to manager. You can do this by running with laptop when meeting colleague for chit-chat.
Good advice if you don't actually like your profession and don't mind spending your career at the middle to bottom rungs of your profession. That's not necessarily a slam, the average is where most people are.
If you want a career doing fun and interesting things, even going to college isn't by itself enough; you have to master the things you learn there so that they're second nature. But, trust me, it's worth it both professionally and financially.
And they are useless even as trade schools, no mater how complex the trade might be. That is why all the science and engineering * conferences are teeming with people whose education ended at high school.
* as in "making actual things" engineering
Most companies are stuck in the dark ages, despite what you think after browsing HN. A lot of money to be made in consulting if you can market yourself well.
Always remember that the place you work at has no (and owes no) loyalty to you. Calculate accordingly.
[1] https://twitter.com/ed_solomon/status/1139031900931198976
Is there a clause for when an upstream team decides to stonewall the work you've involved with?
What happens when your boss transfers and the new person you report to doesn't have any history to go on?
This stuff happens all the time, although mostly at the business level. Zeroing it out is a great way to make sure you aren't in financial position where you're taking a risk on things you don't 100% control.
They’ve delayed the compensation by 5 months because “I joined late.” They didn’t tell me about this until I asked about 10 months in.
Hell I joined this company earlier out of college than most students. 2 weeks of vacation post-college when most students were taking 2-3 months. And now they turn around and tell me my compensation is going to be 30% less than what was promised my first year?
Now, 17 months later around the review cycle they are saying that our org has less money or whatever, and compensation will be lower this cycle. I’m expecting maybe a fourth of what I was promised.
How do they keep finding engineers?
[1] Well, except Intel. You don't hear about them much online, but around here the local office (not sure about others) bait-and-switches employee openings for contractor openings. They don't even pay that well, and no extra compensation either.
But they could be a stifling place to work. Intel is effectively a monopoly, with a clear development roadmap and a clear Process-Architecture-Optimization model with deliverables every 12-18 months. Pretty much everything about the company is setup to prevent anyone from rocking the boat. So their software activities are all about making sure the Intel architecture stays on top, their hardware activities are all about making sure that a new architecture comes out every 4 years and the die shrink happens on schedule, and they're basically averse to anything that might add variability or risk into their market position.
Certain people do really well in that environment, but for a lot of folks in software (itself a creative profession), that kind of work environment is basically hell.
I wonder if having Amazon on your resume is a bad signal now. Risk of the candidate being a participant in a toxic environment. Also a signal that the candidate was at Amazon because they couldn't get into other FAANGs (is it common for people to select Amazon over others when holding multiple offers?)
The contrast of their own attitude and actions in the face of being in a bad situation ends of very much working to their advantage. I enthusiastically recommend many of them as a "hire." On the flip side, every so often I churn up one of the perpetrators of toxicity, and I make sure what they tell me about themselves gets meticulously captured and reported to the decision makers.
So just having worked at Amazon doesn't automatically disqualify you in my book.
Also Amazon is easier to get hired at than other big tech companies, so I guess it is some strategic decision to hire/fire easily rather than have a stricter hiring process that would also introduced a lot of false negatives (like FLAG do).
https://abc.xyz/investor/static/pdf/2017_Q1_Earnings_Transcr... (first paragraph, page 3)
Those 2,5 years are now worth 1,7m$, which after tax is about half. I do wish I had stayed the 4 years, instead of valuing them at 0.
That said, I still agree with OP - it's good advice not to put too much stock in stock (unless it's liquid).
You don’t get to play as many hands in your career as you do in a session of poker, so if you’re optimizing for income, generally speaking you should go for a job that gives you the highest guaranteed income rather than work for startups with, say, 1% odds of netting you significantly more than you would get at FAANG, for example.
Late stage growth companies that offer RSUs can be sold on secondary markets, so even though it’s not as easy to sell it is probably not worth 0 unless something is very wrong, which again is something you should assess before accepting any offer.
- RSU's that I can only dump on a secondary market are worth a fraction of their face value. - Grants in a company that'll never have a liquidity event are worth a fraction of their face value. - Options in a public company are definitely worthwhile, but I shouldn't be negotiating their face value one-to-one with cash.
It's possible you've had a great outcome liquidating some equity from a private company, in which case I'm super stoked for you and that's a great outcome - but it's not the norm.
My point is that if you join a startup thinking your equity is and will forever be worthless, then why do you care if you get 10 or 10000 shares? To not care is bad advice for anyone joining a company that has a path toward IPO or acquisition. And if you don’t think a startup has any path then why are you joining a company that is offering you equity comp in the first place?
On one hand, the basic intent behind this advice very true. Liquidity is worth something; the reason people are willing to forego 3% returns on T-bills, 7% returns in the stock market, 9% returns on rental income, or 1000+% returns on startups is because they either need the money now or there's a non-negligible chance of the money not actually being there later when you need it. (Note also that those asset classes - and their returns - are in inverse order by liquidity.) Anyone who tells you that your stock-options are surely going to triple when the company IPOs or that this ICO is going to make you a millionaire or that owning real estate is a guaranteed way to build wealth is selling you bullshit. And it's very useful to be able to see through that bullshit and appropriately discount it.
But OTOH, people who say that you should value illiquid assets at zero are also spouting bullshit. That's clearly wrong: there are people who get rich off of stock options, or RSUs, or real estate, or cryptocurrency. And you're also strictly better off at a company that gives you $100K + 500 RSUs than one that gives you $100K. I know folks who didn't bother to negotiate for RSUs when they joined Google because they either didn't know what it was or valued it at zero; those folks now have a net worth several times smaller than the folks who negotiated for more stock. This is a poor-person mistake: believing that only those things that you can ascribe a cash value to right now have value.
Like most things, it's worth breaking out of excluded-middle fallacies and understanding that your optimal strategy lies in making a best-effort estimate of some very fuzzy and uncertain quantities. You'll be wrong, but you'll do better than either those who value those quantities at zero or those who believe the estimates of the folks who sell these assets.
For example let’s say you can take $240k TC at a big tech company where your comp is fully liquid, but instead have the option to take $170k base+bonus at a startup worth $400mm with RSUs valued at $50k/year. It’s easy to say that those RSUs are worthless and just go with FANG, but there’s nothing wrong with taking a calculated risk for slightly lower short term liquid comp in exchange for equity in a company you believe has a strong chance at 10xing. The net result is that you are choosing slightly lower pay in exchange for access to a high-risk high-reward investment
Circumstances change. Your salary stays with you long after that great manager has moved on.
Before voting or commenting please remember this HN guideline:
>Please respond to the strongest plausible interpretation of what someone says, not a weaker one that's easier to criticize. Assume good faith
...and for what it's worth, I absolutely wouldn't want to work with the person I'm describing below.
1. Lie strategically.
When looking for a job/project, lie about what you know, what you've done, who you know, what you can do for the company, etc.
Many times you are never actually called on to prove these things.
If you are sure you'll be called on to prove them, still lie, but study them as much as possible beforehand.
2. Do what matters for the people the matters.
Figure out what metrics count. Ignore or give away everything else.
Who controls your next promotion? Who could potentially refer you to your next job?
These are the people you need to please before anyone else. If you have time to please people who won't advance your career, don't. Look for ways to improve your relations with those who matter -- or ask them to introduce you to others like them.
3. Extract value from everything you do.
Look at every opportunity you would normally pass on and figure out how you can use it to your advance. Maybe you can refer someone, maybe you can take it on and subcontract it out.
Never pass up any opportunity without first asking how you can extract value from it.
4. Everything is negotiable.
Your severance package? Negotiable. Your working space? Negotiable.
Figure out what matters to the people who you interact with and use those levers to push for your desires.
The threat of a lawsuit, or an actual lawsuit, can be used in negotiation, even if the lawsuit would be unfounded.
5. Take as much data with you as you can.
When employed, you have access to an incredible amount of valuable data, resources, and tools. Take full advance of these while employed, but also remember that you will move on from your position at some point.
Back up whatever you can without being noticed. Who knows what can come in handy in the future.
---
Caveats:
Most of this is unethical. Some of it is illegal.
Understand your risk tolerance. Understand your environment.
Doing any of these can, and likely will, burn bridges. Many industries are tightly knit. People talk. Be smart.
>Back up whatever you can without being noticed. Who knows what can come in handy in the future.
Definitely not worth the risk. What value does the data even have to me?
Code? I can get the smaller bits on stack overflow. Similar enough large projects can be found on GitHub or similar.
User data? Worthless. The bits that could be used for money are illegal enough that they would never pay off using in such a manner.
What little value you can extract from the data does not outweigh the career ending risks.
- Get a reputation as a guy who wears everything on his sleeve. You fucked up? You're going to say "I fucked up. Give me a chance to fix it. Thanks for your help so far. If you can find the time, I'd appreciate if you could also help me with Y". Likewise "this is fucking retarded" if you see something fucking retarded. Use the word 'fuck'. People love "straight talkers" and people especially love the kind who swear because they see them as honest people. Don't use it in an angry manner, more in an obvious bemusement at the state of the world. It's fucking retarded that some machine has a locale different from the rest and we forgot to specify the character encoding for bytes to string so that machine misinterprets UTF-8. No individual is fucking retarded. You're not pointing fingers at anyone but the universe for this having happened. Then you fix it. Rarely, but at crucial moments, exploit this with lies.
- Always try to punch above your weight. Your organization is in shambles. The new product isn't taking off, your boss is leaving, your boss's boss is leaving. You're asked to take over your boss's responsibilities. No one else wants this. They can't guarantee success. Take it. Take your boss's boss's job if he's gone. If they're hesitant, use words like 'interim' and 'acting'. People suck at firing and you can always Marissa Mayer your way through ("the patient was dying; it's a wonder I kept them alive this long"). This is all opportunity.
- When you do the extra thing, make it visible. Someone fucked up and your site is dropping a fifth of traffic. You were planning on taking it easy that weekend: drop some acid, go with your friends to listen to Lane 8, maybe go home with a girl you met there. Don't do it. Instead fix the site but make it visible. Tell your boss, "I'm going to take a couple of days off. Last weekend really finished me off.". Make sure you make everyone look good, updates all the time on company Slack. "Oh shit, turns out our health check didn't detect this condition for one of our five servers. That's what it was!" See, no blame, "we" made the mistake. Then put in a protective layer around that. Improve the health check and take the server out. Now go have some fun. Do this early and you'll get a reputation as a hero. Live off of it.
- Always be bold. Make strong assertions. Then back them up. If you're convinced of the opposite of your original assertions, correct it as soon as possible. Go back to the guys you told the wrong thing to, uncorrect them clearly. "Guys, I fucked up. There's an edge case where JSON isn't valid YAML and we hit it". No one is making a decision on a particular engineering problem and the meeting is drawing to a close? Use the words "All right, looks like we don't have much time here but I think it'll be useful to leave with a default option just so we can scope future discussions. How about we consider X our default". No one's even going to fight you on that. If they do, they're forcing indecision.
- Make others look good. They made a mistake? No, we did. Sometimes maybe it was even you who failed to spot the mistake. Together, you all made something nice? No, they made something nice. They'll be obligated to say "Yeah, I only did X, you did all the Y". Accept that with grace.
- Be likable. Dress nicely. Be friendly. Be unassailable, for instance: Curmudgeonly coworker makes a disparaging remark about your code? If it's right, don't silently eat it with a "Addressed comments". Hit them with the "Thanks for the detailed review. Made the changes requested. By the way, also found article X that describes a general principle for this". Positively framed. You retain your dignity and portray security (irrespective of how insecure you are). In software, people adore "plucky guy who learns" because they imagine that he'll be good at the asymptote. Exploit it.
- Stick your neck out in low-risk situations. Some dude in Sales wants a quick feature and the cost is going to be felt by an engineer far in the future? Do it, even if you have to do extra hours. Then coast on your reputation as a doer. Someone else will pay the price. You can double down by "I don't think we should generally do it, but if it will really help I can do it but it'll take me some work. I need you to not go tell all the other sales guys that I did this, though". They'll tell the other sales guys that you do things but not what. Perfect. Now in their heads those guys think you made magic.
What jobs do you need on your CV to get that job that you really want?
...Also great for weight loss, appearances matter.
I'd not advise lying to your MDs in order to try to get Adderall. If you feel that your job requires you to fake ADHD or narcolepsy in order to do good work, it's time to find another job. Money will not buy your health back, it will not buy years of your life back, and is not worth a chance (small as it is) at an amphetamine addiction.
Honestly, good sleep, exercise, and eating right are the ways to help you get an edge on the competition. Mostly because no one ever does it. Granted, I take a few cups of coffee in the morning to get going too, so I suppose I am a bit of a hypocrite here. :P
It's not rocket science, faking a disease to score amphetamines is a poor decision.
"Women - make a point of branding yourselves in linkedin, communication, personal branding to leverage the advantages that are being offered, use the overcompensating in treatment of women to your advantage" - still stupid, less overtly misogynistic, at least posted in the format of an advice
So here is my (very?) controversial advice.
Depending on your situation, it may be bad advice. There are too many downsides to list, so please use your best judgement.
Before voting or commenting please remember this HN guideline:
>Please respond to the strongest plausible interpretation of what someone says, not a weaker one that's easier to criticize. Assume good faith
...and for what it's worth, I absolutely wouldn't want to work with the person I'm describing below.
---
1. Lie strategically.
When looking for a job/project, lie about what you know, what you've done, who you know, what you can do for the company, etc.
Many times you are never actually called on to prove these things.
If you are sure you'll be called on to prove them, still lie, but study them as much as possible beforehand.
---
2. Do what matters for the people the matters.
Figure out what metrics count. Ignore or give away everything else.
Who controls your next promotion? Who could potentially refer you to your next job?
These are the people you need to please before anyone else. If you have time to please people who won't advance your career, don't. Look for ways to improve your relations with those who matter -- or ask them to introduce you to others like them.
---
3. Extract value from everything you do.
Look at every opportunity you would normally pass on and figure out how you can use it to your advance. Maybe you can refer someone, maybe you can take it on and subcontract it out.
Never pass up any opportunity without first asking how you can extract value from it.
---
4. Everything is negotiable.
Your severance package? Negotiable. Your working space? Negotiable.
Figure out what matters to the people who you interact with and use those levers to push for your desires.
The threat of a lawsuit, or an actual lawsuit, can be used in negotiation, even if the lawsuit would be unfounded.
---
5. Take as much data with you as you can.
When employed, you have access to an incredible amount of valuable data, resources, and tools. Take full advance of these while employed, but also remember that you will move on from your position at some point.
Back up whatever you can without being noticed. Who knows what can come in handy in the future.
---
Caveats:
Most of this is unethical. Some of it is illegal.
Understand your risk tolerance. Understand your environment.
Doing any of these can, and likely will, burn bridges. Many industries are tightly knit. People talk. Be smart.
Punch back, especially upwards.
Know an analyst at the investment bank with the largest holding in your company.
This thread leaves me in despair.