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Ask HN: Quitting a job to get time to prepare for interviews
So here is some background information for some context:
- Am 25 yrs of age
- I live in a developing country(if that matters)
- I finished my studies in 2020 but graduated with a degree in computer technology in 2021 due to Covid
- But I started developing real world applications in 2018, due to financial issues. The freelance contracts
I got around that time, helped alleviate my financial woes including paying for my fees.
- Got my first permanent software job at a remote startup in a developed country in 2019 and
been working there ever since as one of the founding developers.
But now I have been interested in getting another job for some time due to a some issues affecting me in
the current company:
- Working on some weekends, frequency increased in the past 8 months
- The boss claims he will give me a weekday replacing the weekends worked but most of them are not
replaced(giving an impression am working for free)
- Occasionally, there is always a deadline leading to working 12 hours+ to meet it
- The long working hours and weekends got so bad that I got burnt out and tried to quit a few months ago,
but boss told me he will replace them but the bad patterns have already emerged again
- Changes in some of the clauses in the contract or per what we agreed without letting me before hand.
- I suggest we follow best practices but the boss is more focused on how many features we can develop,
tasks we can do.
I have applied to a couple of jobs(on and off) in that span of time and although I was able to get
them to have a call with me or get tested for my skills, I often failed the technical
assessments due to lack of enough preparation(since most of the time am working and rest when I am free)
Also I see most jobs either requires to have experience in distributed systems(which I have no professional experience)
and use industry standards to write software(which we never followed). This makes me feel like I need to learn
even more things in order for those companies to see I am experienced and its not just fluff.
The current job limits my time but I want to grind hard on various technical questions so
that I can be considered for any role and at least reach the offer stages. I also have 4 months reserves
to sustain my current lifestyle. I also heard you are more likely to get a job while you are on a job.
Now comes my question, should I quit my current job then I practice for interviews to increase my chances of
find a better job?
Also any help on how to prepare for interviews and crafting a very attractive resume would be appreciated. Thanks!
- Geonode 4y agoDo you need a reference from this job? If not, it's better to do the minimum and keep taking their money. Let them pay you to prepare for your next job. Unless a company is showing you loyalty in a tangible way, you don't owe them anything. Fight back against the overtime. What are they gonna do, fire you? Then you get your free time.
- planethumanguy 4y agoThanks for the advice. I will try and find ways to coast on the job.