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>I have the skills and experience to make others a lot of money, but my grey hair is so terrifying, that no one pays attention to my qualifications. You need t

>I have the skills and experience to make others a lot of money, but my grey hair is so terrifying, that no one pays attention to my qualifications. You need to position yourself as a consultant with a clearly defined area of expertise, your own site, blog, etc. A salaried employee these days is first and foremost a team monkey hired to please the boss, and only then a skilled professional. When you need someone with actual expertise, you hire them transactionally to solve the problem and keep them on a separate frequency from the usual chicken coup business.

luckman212 5y ago
> chicken coup I always knew those chickens would revolt one day! (think you meant chicken coop...)
- jrockway 5y ago
  After a chicken coup, they'll form a chicken co-op.
  - mlyle 5y ago
    If the chicken coup is unsuccessful, they'll end up as chicken soup.
    - Nevermark 5y ago
      There is a great limerick in all this somewhere. Coo-coo-ka-choo
anticristi 5y ago
> When you need someone with actual expertise, you hire them transactionally to solve the problem and keep them on a separate frequency from the usual chicken coup business. I'm starting to see the pattern too. You hire for "team spirit", i.e., people that are happy to sacrifice their weekends and evenings for the mission of your company. Old dogs, as I'm starting to become, will rather tell you that you need to work harder on your strategy, work harder on your product, avoid feature creep and sales outflanking. They might also tell you that you need management more than engineering. But enough of inconvenient truth, back to hiring juniors. Just to make sure I don't offered anyone. A successful org needs both: fresh minds and experience.
- ricardobayes 5y ago
  Looks like I'm getting old then huh.
avereveard 5y ago
because 50+ something CxOs with million dollar wages have a blog, a skill based resume and a github page, right? you're proposing the same monkey dance that signal "skilled, but will ccept to be treated as a cog" which hr loves but is ultimately demeaning and dehumanizing - while the valuable jobs market moves on completely different gears
- ricardobayes 5y ago
  This will be controversial, but this is why the rest of the population sees us as lazy or childish. I try to put myself into the shoes of reading this comment as an amazon fulfillment worker. Comes off as spoon-fed that 'you're too good to even set up a CV'.
  - avereveard 5y ago
    nothing wrong with being blu collar, but the amazon fulfillment worker didn't have to invest $$$ for five years of university and doesn't have, to land or keep his job, to keep training thorough his career and doesn't have his job landscape shift every six months as clients requirements and techincal fads change. we're specialized knowledge worker, which just happen to have had our profession born after feudal ages, otherwise we'd be in the lawyer/architect/doctor brackets. we're slowly raising up there but just because of the labor market growth is getting stripped by the labor demand growth in our sector, but take not of this, unless something changes fast about how we see and market our profession, we're going to get pushed back into blu collars bracket as soon as the situation stabilizes.

luckman212 5y ago

> chicken coup I always knew those chickens would revolt one day! (think you meant chicken coop...)

jrockway 5y ago
After a chicken coup, they'll form a chicken co-op.
- mlyle 5y ago
  If the chicken coup is unsuccessful, they'll end up as chicken soup.
  - Nevermark 5y ago
    There is a great limerick in all this somewhere. Coo-coo-ka-choo

anticristi 5y ago

> When you need someone with actual expertise, you hire them transactionally to solve the problem and keep them on a separate frequency from the usual chicken coup business. I'm starting to see the pattern too. You hire for "team spirit", i.e., people that are happy to sacrifice their weekends and evenings for the mission of your company. Old dogs, as I'm starting to become, will rather tell you that you need to work harder on your strategy, work harder on your product, avoid feature creep and sales outflanking. They might also tell you that you need management more than engineering. But enough of inconvenient truth, back to hiring juniors. Just to make sure I don't offered anyone. A successful org needs both: fresh minds and experience.

ricardobayes 5y ago
Looks like I'm getting old then huh.

avereveard 5y ago

because 50+ something CxOs with million dollar wages have a blog, a skill based resume and a github page, right? you're proposing the same monkey dance that signal "skilled, but will ccept to be treated as a cog" which hr loves but is ultimately demeaning and dehumanizing - while the valuable jobs market moves on completely different gears

ricardobayes 5y ago
This will be controversial, but this is why the rest of the population sees us as lazy or childish. I try to put myself into the shoes of reading this comment as an amazon fulfillment worker. Comes off as spoon-fed that 'you're too good to even set up a CV'.
- avereveard 5y ago
  nothing wrong with being blu collar, but the amazon fulfillment worker didn't have to invest $$$ for five years of university and doesn't have, to land or keep his job, to keep training thorough his career and doesn't have his job landscape shift every six months as clients requirements and techincal fads change. we're specialized knowledge worker, which just happen to have had our profession born after feudal ages, otherwise we'd be in the lawyer/architect/doctor brackets. we're slowly raising up there but just because of the labor market growth is getting stripped by the labor demand growth in our sector, but take not of this, unless something changes fast about how we see and market our profession, we're going to get pushed back into blu collars bracket as soon as the situation stabilizes.