14 ms·

My first industry job: lies, deceptions, and layoffs

251 points by azhenley 5y ago

mahathu 5y ago
This reminds me of a similar story recently posted to HN: https://bennuttall.com/the-surreal-experience-of-my-first-developer-job/ https://bennuttall.com/the-surreal-experience-of-my-first-de... Discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28058816 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28058816
jlund-molfese 5y ago
Not loading for me in France, but it’s up on archive.org https://web.archive.org/web/20211004170618/https://jeremyaboyd.com/post/my-first-industry-job https://web.archive.org/web/20211004170618/https://jeremyabo...
- actually_a_dog 5y ago
  https://archive.is/HJmMW https://archive.is/HJmMW as well.
  - BuildTheRobots 5y ago
    https://archive.is/G7UEe https://archive.is/G7UEe - you just beat me to it. Looks like archive.is doesn't deal with duplicates in the queue.
- jermaustin1 5y ago
  Didn't expect this to front page, and my cloud mongo was being dumb, had to restart the instances.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
PragmaticPulp 5y ago
> the truth was I didn't want to be there anymore but I didn't know how to quit on my own. This is what it comes down to. A lot of junior employees have a feeling that something is wrong, but they don't quite know what to do about it. One of the best things young engineers can do is keep in contact with their peers from college, prior education, or other jobs. Don't be afraid to discuss your job and compare notes. If you're consistently the only one in the conversation who's miserable or even embarrassed to admit your job is bad, it's time to start interviewing.
- ssully 5y ago
  My first job out of college I was hired on to a team and the first day I was informed the lead dev on the project was moved to a different project and I was essentially the new lead. That was the first huge red flag that I failed to recognize. Luckily I managed to get moved to another team that I really liked and learned a lot from, but I basically ate shit for the first 2 years in my career because of that.
- miketery 5y ago
  Another thing is create a contract or promise with yourself that sets out conditions which when met would result in you quitting or finding something new. It’s really hard in the moment or while on the inside to make a good decision. But if you thought about it before it’s easier since you’ve reasoned about it before at a distance. You can always modify the contract of course. But I think a good reason to do this prior, is that humans are resilient and we can endure and adapt to range of conditions, even when deteriorating quickly. So remembering a certain baseline you set for yourself prior comes in handy!
  - nitrogen 5y ago
    This is a really good approach to a lot of difficult problems. I'd had this idea drilled into my head growing up of deciding carefully beforehand so you don't decide poorly in the heat of the moment, but somehow it hadn't occurred to me to apply it to the workplace. Could probably have saved myself a fair bit of stress this way.
  - jiveturkey 5y ago
    Jared Dunn did this, in the form of writing 3 letters when he starts a new job. And as we know, that guy f...
- alexjplant 5y ago
  > This is what it comes down to. A lot of junior employees have a feeling that something is wrong, but they don't quite know what to do about it. At my first "real" programming job I was the "go-to" guy for at least three people on the team yet made around 70% of the lowest-paid of them. They all told me at various times that my salary was unfair, that I had to go find a new job, and so forth. It didn't start to sink in until I took a voluntary severance and found another job for a 50% raise. When I was young I was thrilled that I was finally getting paid to do something that I'd done since I was 7 (write software). I've grown up a lot since then - whenever my friends complain about their job or financial situation I start badgering them to re-negotiate their position, interview, etc. because I've been in their shoes and don't want to see them make the same mistakes that I have.
unyttigfjelltol 5y ago
>I honestly do not know HOW I made it through that interview, not to mention then GOT THE JOB. The story suggests two possibilities: (1) it was transparently obvious to the hiring team that the position was 6 months on a DOA project at a laughable salary no qualified employee would consider, or (2) the people doing the hiring were faking it right alongside the OP.
- ClumsyPilot 5y ago
  (3) both of the above
- buescher 5y ago
  And this is how we got to leetcode
  - kwertyoowiyop 5y ago
    We need “leetcode for managers.”
    - QuarterReptile 5y ago
      How's this? https://www.pmi.org/certifications/project-management-pmp https://www.pmi.org/certifications/project-management-pmp
- asdfman123 5y ago
  Incompetent people don't want to hire good employees. Like recognizes like.
- mst 5y ago
  I think I got my first programming job because the interviewers noticed I was smart and driven and figured I'd be cheap enough they could afford to give me a go. That company was less dysfunctional than the one in the article, admittedly, although arguably not by much.
  - 5y ago
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
citizenpaul 5y ago
What I find interesting is even looking back he still has no awareness of the situation going on. I find this to be a huge issue with developers in general, they don't seem to ever pick up on social skills even when it is right in their face. He got in because no one cared about anything other than someone willing to push through boring contract design work for low AF pay. He seems to still believe his lying(skill?) is what got him the job. It sort of was in the sense they wanted someone young dumb delusional and enthusiastic to work for next to nothing on what was essentially boring boilerplate work. In a system that even at the time he could see was a disaster to work in. Then used him as a negotiating tool to lay off other decently paid workers after he "proved" that what they did to him could be done. He calls them "expert manipulators" but there is nothing expert here, this is ham-fisted pointed haired boss 101. TL;DR the company wanted a useful idiot with enthusiasm to push through a broken system to do a mind numbing job for next to no pay. The author still doesn't seem to get this.
- fezzez 5y ago
  Completely agree. That was my takeaway as well.
- ferdowsi 5y ago
  They don't teach "pointed haired boss 101" in school. It's great that you are smart, and know this stuff now. But most people have to go through the hard lessons of having their good will and faith be abused by bad-faith actors.
  - VRay 5y ago
    They should, though.. I had one profess with real world experience who tried to explain this stuff, and the other dozen or so were lifelong academics who didn’t know anything about reality. Really wish I’d listened to the one more..
  - zenithd 5y ago
    Places like HN and Reddit (or /. back in the day) are fantastic resources for learning "pointed haired boss 101".
arenaninja 5y ago
This sounds too similar to a string of jobs I held at the start of my career. Promises of raises+stock options to come that never materialize and creeping responsibilities and no mention of pay (the only time I got a raise outside of getting a new job, I went from making $34 an hour to $35 an hour after a promotion. Not kidding) In fact my current job that I took almost 6 years into my career is the first decent role I've had. But again I find myself taking more responsibilities than normal for my role with the "promise" of support for a promotion in the "next round" (almost a year from now)
giantg2 5y ago
"The recruiter telling me they only had budget for $30k (no software engineer would have accepted that low of pay in 2006 in Houston), making me team leader to get me to do more work, making me lay off around $300k worth of employees and do their work myself without giving me even a dollar of extra pay." This sounds like basically every job to me. Are there actually places that will give you raises to pay you what you're worth without having to fight or leave?
- jermaustin1 5y ago
  I'm the author of this piece - I've had multiple jobs since then (obviously), and I've always been given pretty substantial raises and bonuses throughout my career enough to nearly 10x my first jobs salary in only 15 years. Now all that isn't from one job, but because I'm a contractor and basically set my rate with each new company, I invest as much as I can either in the stock market, or more recently into side projects and my family run businesses, etc.
  - giantg2 5y ago
    It seems like nowhere will just give you a raise because it's the right thing, valuation-wise. You basically have to threaten to leave or something. My inflation adjusted increase over 10 years with one promotion (10%) and a masters degree (9%) has been 22%.
    - lotsofpulp 5y ago
      The right valuation is determined by people rejecting job offers (or leaving current jobs) and accepting job offers. Repeated cleared transactions is what allows a market to determine the price.
      - giantg2 5y ago
        But can also create inefficiencies for an organization because they lose institutional knowledge and incur training costs.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
darthvoldemort 5y ago
I have a VERY similar experience with my first job, except 10 years earlier. My first job was in IT at a bank. I was working with Windows NT and a migration to Windows NT 4.0 across the entire company. I learned a hell of a lot about Windows NT but I knew I wanted to be a programmer. So every day after work, I would just program on my own, doing various projects. After a year and a half, I interviewed for a programming job at another company. I 100% lied and said I was doing programming at the bank, but was able to pass the interview questions (this was mid-90s so they weren't anywhere as difficult as they are today). I got the job, and from then on I could label myself as an actual programmer.
- jermaustin1 5y ago
  I've actually found that there are a lot of BIG companies now that will do a take-home "task" which are usually pretty easy to accomplish. They are wanting to make sure you can program something, not memorize leetcode interview questions. A buddy of mine showed me a take home task from one of the FAANGs that was a 3 hour task, that would literally take only 30 minutes for most mid-level developers. So hopefully that means that programmer interviews with leetcode and a bunch of algorithm-centric questions are becoming less and less popular.
  - lovich 5y ago
    I and a friend have just done the interview cycle this year and, anecdotally at least, it seems like most companies are giving the take home test _and_ leet code questions. The average number of rounds I was going through was 10-11 and that was consistent through applying at companies via Hired, recruiters, and applying to jobs off of HN and StackOverflow. The only job I applied to that had less than 5 rounds was a small business that wanted to hired a senior engineer to rebuild their Java 5 app entirely for 120k/yr and no benefits beyond healthcare and be in office several times a week. It’s kinda made me dead to any complaints from software businesses about not being able to hire anyone. They are simultaneously forcing their employees to jump ship if they want a raise, trying to force people back into the office for seemingly no reason but to show they can, _and_ constantly raising the level of effort needed to even apply for their positions. Anecdotally again, it’s gotten to the point where I know three engineers who’ve just dropped out of the industry entirely and they are all <30 and not financially independent. They’ve taken the extra money they saved from working tech and are now using it to get themselves into a position where they are doing _anything_ but work for a tech company. At some point the industry is going to have to face the fact that it can’t scale anymore due to the jobs being antithetical to most people’s mental well being
_benj 5y ago
This sounds a lot like my first few jobs too! My resume was more along the lines of “things I’m aware exist and I could learn if needed” than what I actually had experience with! But my first two roles where not tech companies thus the hiring people knew even less than me about what they needed ;) But for sure, I’m not sure how anybody really “becomes” a software engineer outside of the job itself
mickjagger 5y ago
I may be a prude but it’s a real concern to me when people lie as part of their work/career. If you were lying at the start of your career, you’re probably still lying now? Maybe? I don’t know. Maybe I should loosen up. Maybe I’m boring old school… maybe lying a bit to get your first job is what everyone does (except me).
- drdeadringer 5y ago
  I have regularly seen a lot of "advice" to lie on your resume. I don't take it and I advise against it. However, there are folks who swear to high water that lying on the resume is the only way to get a job.
- denton-scratch 5y ago
  I've never seen a CV that didn't include significant mendacity. My CV was always pretty straight-up, I think; but it certainly included some "check-box" skills that I either didn't care to exercise, or on which my real knowledge wasn't exactly complete mastery. I think my CVs were successful not because of the check-box skills, but because I would take a lot of care over spelling, vocabulary and grammar. Many employers filter-out CVs with poor English. And many employers don't know how to detect a superstar, either from their CV or at interview. They use the standard of written English as a proxy. It's not fair, of course; I've worked with superstar engineers who had bad written English. But it's reality.
  - mickjagger 5y ago
    I’ve never lied or stretched the truth with my career. My mother said to me once “The only thing you have in this world is your reputation. Don’t ruin it.”
    - denton-scratch 5y ago
      I respect that! I think your mum was wrong though; ultimately you can't control your reputation, but your self-respect is under your control.
rramadass 5y ago
After reading the article and the responses here; i feel i ought to share some "Worldly Truths" for the edification of the Young'uns (in the Tech. fields) so that they can work towards securing their future :-) * In your first few jobs (i.e. before you have gained some professional work experience) you will be taken advantage of by almost all companies in terms of low pay, overwork and rather menial jobs. This is the Norm; suck it up but make sure that you get something far greater in return, eg; -- Exposure to the hottest Tech Stack(s) in demand in the Industry. -- Sponsored/Paid Education and Training to raise your Educational Profile. -- Work your ass off in learning as much as you can in as wide a variety of domains as possible i.e. be like a sponge soaking up everything. Be sincere and diligent with your work however "boring" it might seem; there is always something to learn. Youth, Energy and Enthusiasm are on your side and you need to utilize all of them to "make your mark" and "catch the eye" of Upper Management. Hard-work will get you much further than any other Trait. -- Network with Managers, Senior Engineers and Recruiters to "raise your profile" for better opportunities. -- Depending on the company, try to decide on whether you want a "Career" or just a "Job". * Don't work for Free or Lower Pay than absolutely Necessary. Always put yourself First. The Flip side to this is that you are not "special" (there are always exceptions of course) and therefore need to have a realistic view of what the "Market" says your value is. * Always bring a positive and can-do attitude to work for as long as you can. Time and Experience will eventually wear you down but you can consciously work at it to make your "Work" enjoyable as it is. * Always keep looking for "Greener Pastures" either within the Company itself or elsewhere. Try to keep your "Hunger" Alive for whatever you are looking for in Life i.e. don't "settle" early. Finally, keep the following quotes in mind; * It is better to lose the Battle but win the War. - make opportunistic sacrifices(eg. lower pay, bad company) in pursuit of something larger/greater (eg. better career, hot tech. stack, work experience). * The Old know too much to not take any risks, the Young don't know enough to not take any risks and it surprises me how they achieve it time and time again (attributed to Mark Twain) - Apply Yourself, Work Hard and Take Calculated Risks but don't go YOLO i.e. read Taleb's ideas of "Extremistan vs Mediocristan" and plan accordingly.
- mattm 5y ago
  > In your first few jobs...you will be taken advantage That assumes the inexperienced person rises above their expectations like in the story. More often than not that doesn't happen. In those cases the junior employee is getting the better part of the deal.

251 points by azhenley 5y ago

This reminds me of a similar story recently posted to HN: https://bennuttall.com/the-surreal-experience-of-my-first-developer-job/ https://bennuttall.com/the-surreal-experience-of-my-first-de... Discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28058816 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28058816

jlund-molfese 5y ago

Not loading for me in France, but it’s up on archive.org https://web.archive.org/web/20211004170618/https://jeremyaboyd.com/post/my-first-industry-job https://web.archive.org/web/20211004170618/https://jeremyabo...

actually_a_dog 5y ago
https://archive.is/HJmMW https://archive.is/HJmMW as well.
- BuildTheRobots 5y ago
  https://archive.is/G7UEe https://archive.is/G7UEe - you just beat me to it. Looks like archive.is doesn't deal with duplicates in the queue.
jermaustin1 5y ago
Didn't expect this to front page, and my cloud mongo was being dumb, had to restart the instances.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

PragmaticPulp 5y ago

> the truth was I didn't want to be there anymore but I didn't know how to quit on my own. This is what it comes down to. A lot of junior employees have a feeling that something is wrong, but they don't quite know what to do about it. One of the best things young engineers can do is keep in contact with their peers from college, prior education, or other jobs. Don't be afraid to discuss your job and compare notes. If you're consistently the only one in the conversation who's miserable or even embarrassed to admit your job is bad, it's time to start interviewing.

ssully 5y ago
My first job out of college I was hired on to a team and the first day I was informed the lead dev on the project was moved to a different project and I was essentially the new lead. That was the first huge red flag that I failed to recognize. Luckily I managed to get moved to another team that I really liked and learned a lot from, but I basically ate shit for the first 2 years in my career because of that.
miketery 5y ago
Another thing is create a contract or promise with yourself that sets out conditions which when met would result in you quitting or finding something new. It’s really hard in the moment or while on the inside to make a good decision. But if you thought about it before it’s easier since you’ve reasoned about it before at a distance. You can always modify the contract of course. But I think a good reason to do this prior, is that humans are resilient and we can endure and adapt to range of conditions, even when deteriorating quickly. So remembering a certain baseline you set for yourself prior comes in handy!
- nitrogen 5y ago
  This is a really good approach to a lot of difficult problems. I'd had this idea drilled into my head growing up of deciding carefully beforehand so you don't decide poorly in the heat of the moment, but somehow it hadn't occurred to me to apply it to the workplace. Could probably have saved myself a fair bit of stress this way.
- jiveturkey 5y ago
  Jared Dunn did this, in the form of writing 3 letters when he starts a new job. And as we know, that guy f...
alexjplant 5y ago
> This is what it comes down to. A lot of junior employees have a feeling that something is wrong, but they don't quite know what to do about it. At my first "real" programming job I was the "go-to" guy for at least three people on the team yet made around 70% of the lowest-paid of them. They all told me at various times that my salary was unfair, that I had to go find a new job, and so forth. It didn't start to sink in until I took a voluntary severance and found another job for a 50% raise. When I was young I was thrilled that I was finally getting paid to do something that I'd done since I was 7 (write software). I've grown up a lot since then - whenever my friends complain about their job or financial situation I start badgering them to re-negotiate their position, interview, etc. because I've been in their shoes and don't want to see them make the same mistakes that I have.

unyttigfjelltol 5y ago

>I honestly do not know HOW I made it through that interview, not to mention then GOT THE JOB. The story suggests two possibilities: (1) it was transparently obvious to the hiring team that the position was 6 months on a DOA project at a laughable salary no qualified employee would consider, or (2) the people doing the hiring were faking it right alongside the OP.

ClumsyPilot 5y ago
(3) both of the above
buescher 5y ago
And this is how we got to leetcode
- kwertyoowiyop 5y ago
  We need “leetcode for managers.”
  - QuarterReptile 5y ago
    How's this? https://www.pmi.org/certifications/project-management-pmp https://www.pmi.org/certifications/project-management-pmp
asdfman123 5y ago
Incompetent people don't want to hire good employees. Like recognizes like.
mst 5y ago
I think I got my first programming job because the interviewers noticed I was smart and driven and figured I'd be cheap enough they could afford to give me a go. That company was less dysfunctional than the one in the article, admittedly, although arguably not by much.
- 5y ago

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

citizenpaul 5y ago

What I find interesting is even looking back he still has no awareness of the situation going on. I find this to be a huge issue with developers in general, they don't seem to ever pick up on social skills even when it is right in their face. He got in because no one cared about anything other than someone willing to push through boring contract design work for low AF pay. He seems to still believe his lying(skill?) is what got him the job. It sort of was in the sense they wanted someone young dumb delusional and enthusiastic to work for next to nothing on what was essentially boring boilerplate work. In a system that even at the time he could see was a disaster to work in. Then used him as a negotiating tool to lay off other decently paid workers after he "proved" that what they did to him could be done. He calls them "expert manipulators" but there is nothing expert here, this is ham-fisted pointed haired boss 101. TL;DR the company wanted a useful idiot with enthusiasm to push through a broken system to do a mind numbing job for next to no pay. The author still doesn't seem to get this.

fezzez 5y ago
Completely agree. That was my takeaway as well.
ferdowsi 5y ago
They don't teach "pointed haired boss 101" in school. It's great that you are smart, and know this stuff now. But most people have to go through the hard lessons of having their good will and faith be abused by bad-faith actors.
- VRay 5y ago
  They should, though.. I had one profess with real world experience who tried to explain this stuff, and the other dozen or so were lifelong academics who didn’t know anything about reality. Really wish I’d listened to the one more..
- zenithd 5y ago
  Places like HN and Reddit (or /. back in the day) are fantastic resources for learning "pointed haired boss 101".

arenaninja 5y ago

This sounds too similar to a string of jobs I held at the start of my career. Promises of raises+stock options to come that never materialize and creeping responsibilities and no mention of pay (the only time I got a raise outside of getting a new job, I went from making $34 an hour to $35 an hour after a promotion. Not kidding) In fact my current job that I took almost 6 years into my career is the first decent role I've had. But again I find myself taking more responsibilities than normal for my role with the "promise" of support for a promotion in the "next round" (almost a year from now)

giantg2 5y ago

"The recruiter telling me they only had budget for $30k (no software engineer would have accepted that low of pay in 2006 in Houston), making me team leader to get me to do more work, making me lay off around $300k worth of employees and do their work myself without giving me even a dollar of extra pay." This sounds like basically every job to me. Are there actually places that will give you raises to pay you what you're worth without having to fight or leave?

jermaustin1 5y ago
I'm the author of this piece - I've had multiple jobs since then (obviously), and I've always been given pretty substantial raises and bonuses throughout my career enough to nearly 10x my first jobs salary in only 15 years. Now all that isn't from one job, but because I'm a contractor and basically set my rate with each new company, I invest as much as I can either in the stock market, or more recently into side projects and my family run businesses, etc.
- giantg2 5y ago
  It seems like nowhere will just give you a raise because it's the right thing, valuation-wise. You basically have to threaten to leave or something. My inflation adjusted increase over 10 years with one promotion (10%) and a masters degree (9%) has been 22%.
  - lotsofpulp 5y ago
    The right valuation is determined by people rejecting job offers (or leaving current jobs) and accepting job offers. Repeated cleared transactions is what allows a market to determine the price.
    - giantg2 5y ago
      But can also create inefficiencies for an organization because they lose institutional knowledge and incur training costs.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

darthvoldemort 5y ago

I have a VERY similar experience with my first job, except 10 years earlier. My first job was in IT at a bank. I was working with Windows NT and a migration to Windows NT 4.0 across the entire company. I learned a hell of a lot about Windows NT but I knew I wanted to be a programmer. So every day after work, I would just program on my own, doing various projects. After a year and a half, I interviewed for a programming job at another company. I 100% lied and said I was doing programming at the bank, but was able to pass the interview questions (this was mid-90s so they weren't anywhere as difficult as they are today). I got the job, and from then on I could label myself as an actual programmer.

jermaustin1 5y ago
I've actually found that there are a lot of BIG companies now that will do a take-home "task" which are usually pretty easy to accomplish. They are wanting to make sure you can program something, not memorize leetcode interview questions. A buddy of mine showed me a take home task from one of the FAANGs that was a 3 hour task, that would literally take only 30 minutes for most mid-level developers. So hopefully that means that programmer interviews with leetcode and a bunch of algorithm-centric questions are becoming less and less popular.
- lovich 5y ago
  I and a friend have just done the interview cycle this year and, anecdotally at least, it seems like most companies are giving the take home test _and_ leet code questions. The average number of rounds I was going through was 10-11 and that was consistent through applying at companies via Hired, recruiters, and applying to jobs off of HN and StackOverflow. The only job I applied to that had less than 5 rounds was a small business that wanted to hired a senior engineer to rebuild their Java 5 app entirely for 120k/yr and no benefits beyond healthcare and be in office several times a week. It’s kinda made me dead to any complaints from software businesses about not being able to hire anyone. They are simultaneously forcing their employees to jump ship if they want a raise, trying to force people back into the office for seemingly no reason but to show they can, _and_ constantly raising the level of effort needed to even apply for their positions. Anecdotally again, it’s gotten to the point where I know three engineers who’ve just dropped out of the industry entirely and they are all <30 and not financially independent. They’ve taken the extra money they saved from working tech and are now using it to get themselves into a position where they are doing _anything_ but work for a tech company. At some point the industry is going to have to face the fact that it can’t scale anymore due to the jobs being antithetical to most people’s mental well being

_benj 5y ago

This sounds a lot like my first few jobs too! My resume was more along the lines of “things I’m aware exist and I could learn if needed” than what I actually had experience with! But my first two roles where not tech companies thus the hiring people knew even less than me about what they needed ;) But for sure, I’m not sure how anybody really “becomes” a software engineer outside of the job itself

mickjagger 5y ago

I may be a prude but it’s a real concern to me when people lie as part of their work/career. If you were lying at the start of your career, you’re probably still lying now? Maybe? I don’t know. Maybe I should loosen up. Maybe I’m boring old school… maybe lying a bit to get your first job is what everyone does (except me).

drdeadringer 5y ago
I have regularly seen a lot of "advice" to lie on your resume. I don't take it and I advise against it. However, there are folks who swear to high water that lying on the resume is the only way to get a job.
denton-scratch 5y ago
I've never seen a CV that didn't include significant mendacity. My CV was always pretty straight-up, I think; but it certainly included some "check-box" skills that I either didn't care to exercise, or on which my real knowledge wasn't exactly complete mastery. I think my CVs were successful not because of the check-box skills, but because I would take a lot of care over spelling, vocabulary and grammar. Many employers filter-out CVs with poor English. And many employers don't know how to detect a superstar, either from their CV or at interview. They use the standard of written English as a proxy. It's not fair, of course; I've worked with superstar engineers who had bad written English. But it's reality.
- mickjagger 5y ago
  I’ve never lied or stretched the truth with my career. My mother said to me once “The only thing you have in this world is your reputation. Don’t ruin it.”
  - denton-scratch 5y ago
    I respect that! I think your mum was wrong though; ultimately you can't control your reputation, but your self-respect is under your control.

rramadass 5y ago

After reading the article and the responses here; i feel i ought to share some "Worldly Truths" for the edification of the Young'uns (in the Tech. fields) so that they can work towards securing their future :-) * In your first few jobs (i.e. before you have gained some professional work experience) you will be taken advantage of by almost all companies in terms of low pay, overwork and rather menial jobs. This is the Norm; suck it up but make sure that you get something far greater in return, eg; -- Exposure to the hottest Tech Stack(s) in demand in the Industry. -- Sponsored/Paid Education and Training to raise your Educational Profile. -- Work your ass off in learning as much as you can in as wide a variety of domains as possible i.e. be like a sponge soaking up everything. Be sincere and diligent with your work however "boring" it might seem; there is always something to learn. Youth, Energy and Enthusiasm are on your side and you need to utilize all of them to "make your mark" and "catch the eye" of Upper Management. Hard-work will get you much further than any other Trait. -- Network with Managers, Senior Engineers and Recruiters to "raise your profile" for better opportunities. -- Depending on the company, try to decide on whether you want a "Career" or just a "Job". * Don't work for Free or Lower Pay than absolutely Necessary. Always put yourself First. The Flip side to this is that you are not "special" (there are always exceptions of course) and therefore need to have a realistic view of what the "Market" says your value is. * Always bring a positive and can-do attitude to work for as long as you can. Time and Experience will eventually wear you down but you can consciously work at it to make your "Work" enjoyable as it is. * Always keep looking for "Greener Pastures" either within the Company itself or elsewhere. Try to keep your "Hunger" Alive for whatever you are looking for in Life i.e. don't "settle" early. Finally, keep the following quotes in mind; * It is better to lose the Battle but win the War. - make opportunistic sacrifices(eg. lower pay, bad company) in pursuit of something larger/greater (eg. better career, hot tech. stack, work experience). * The Old know too much to not take any risks, the Young don't know enough to not take any risks and it surprises me how they achieve it time and time again (attributed to Mark Twain) - Apply Yourself, Work Hard and Take Calculated Risks but don't go YOLO i.e. read Taleb's ideas of "Extremistan vs Mediocristan" and plan accordingly.

mattm 5y ago
> In your first few jobs...you will be taken advantage That assumes the inexperienced person rises above their expectations like in the story. More often than not that doesn't happen. In those cases the junior employee is getting the better part of the deal.