7 ms·

Three years ago I was stuck at a huge fortune 100 with all the ceremonies, business language, and paycheck collectors. I started to shop around. I found an amaz

Three years ago I was stuck at a huge fortune 100 with all the ceremonies, business language, and paycheck collectors. I started to shop around. I found an amazing place, a company that was a software company not not a company that happened to write some software. The interviews went amazing, everything was Star Trek utopian future amazing, it was like the fantasy I had about where I wanted to work had manifested. I got a job offer, and took it immediately. The first day of work, no one on my team was there to let me in, so I hung out in the lobby for several hours waiting for anyone brave enough to get me to the badge people so I could open the door on my own. By five months in, I'd not had a manager check in yet, no one on the team would talk to me, and I realized I was a professional bench warmer. I'd been bamboozled, body-snatched from my boring, process-jammed, low-progress IT job. Fortunately the fortune 100 took me back. I hadn't burned any bridges on my way out, and my seat was still warm. My cube was still there, my gear all waiting for me to just log right back in 6 months later like I was simply on a long break. Three years later I'm still here. I'm terrified to go looking again cause I can't have my heart broken twice so soon. I have no idea how to interview well enough to detect a trap. I think my age has a lot to do with it (I'm in my mid 40s and I average about 7 years per company so I don't experiment a lot with this). I think that your strategy is the same as mine and that you should be rewarded for sticking with it, because there's success in it even if you're not constantly being entertained by solving the big interesting problems. Running a little personal infrastructure to learn the next big platform/language/thing is always a great hobby for people who can do a little more work outside of work, and just having interests that don't earn you anything at all are the most rewarding for finding brief moments of happiness.

kodah 4y ago
Ageism does occur in this industry, but I've mostly heard it around associating various levels with age or years of experience. For instance, at a financial product company I worked for I saw a man who went on to become a Googler get cut from our interview because he "had too much experience to be a senior". For context, most of his background had been in contracting and he'd only recently really invested himself in DS&A knowledge (the kind larger firms look for). The kind of companies he had worked for put his skills cumulatively around Senior but he'd been in the industry a long time. There's "innocent sounding" explanation for the managers decision to cut the interview, but they're all tainted with some form of ageism.
rco8786 4y ago
I’m really confused. What was the motivation of the hiring company here?
- nerdile 4y ago
  More context at https://news.ycombinator.com/context?id=29969359 https://news.ycombinator.com/context?id=29969359
  - gedy 4y ago
    I'm still kinda confused - did you have no work to do at all? Or you just were expecting some collaborative team work that's not there? I agree lack of communication seems extreme, but if you are working that's not exactly bench warming.
  - drdec 4y ago
    You should have asked to go remote and avoid the state taxes.
  - slt2021 4y ago
    pls name a company, I want a job at that company
    - entropicdrifter 4y ago
      Seriously, if I could do all of my work without people trying to talk my ear off all day and let me keep my work life and social life truly separate, that sounds ideal to me. "Oh the tech was textbook perfect but I didn't like that nobody wanted to stand around and bullshit all day" Like bruh.
      - throwanem 4y ago
        I dunno. Sounds to me like the kind of culture where the first way you hear about poorly communicated expectations is when you're asked to sign a PIP.
    - 4y ago
jcbrand 4y ago
> so I hung out in the lobby for several hours waiting for anyone brave enough to get me to the badge people Did you consider asking someone going in or out to help you get a badge or to put you into contact with the right person? Sounds like you passively waited for someone to come and help you, which might be fine for a short while, but eventually it's better to take action. I've never heard of a "professional bench warmer" in software development. It's not as if devs get injured regularly and need replacements. Why do you think they'd hire you just to not give you anything to do?
- v-erne 4y ago
  >> I've never heard of a "professional bench warmer" in software development. I think this is real. My friend who is serial Project Manager (he works for big corps here in Poland and changes job almost every year for last 15 years) actually uses the term "on bench" for programers that do not have projects assigned to them and he claims that he quite often hires people before project is confirmed, so from time to time some people are left hanging without free chairs when music stops.
  - wojciii 4y ago
    I have 20+ years of experience in different companies (software and just using software);and I never ever heard of this behaviour. I never changed job (Unusually work 2-4 years at one company) where I didn't have everything ready on my first day.
    - blue_daisies 4y ago
      I have heard of this at Infosys in the US
    - jokab 4y ago
      IBM and Accenture in the Philippines.
      - wojciii 4y ago
reedjosh 4y ago
I'm sorry you've been burned and it's not easier for you to take these risks. I average about 2 years, and each company has been progressively better than the last. Don't let a bad job hop stop you. To me it's the only way to really progress your career. I've done a huge variety of projects, experienced a ton of different management styles, and of course also never stagnated compensation wise. Leetcode kind of sucks, but it's possible to build up enough confidence to ace it. Particularly start by focusing on one area until you see all the basic patterns. For me, I was rather weak with trees. Job hoping seems to be the only reliable way to increase your comp. I was promoted at Intel and got 11% as a raise. Then I bounced and gained another 40%. From there I doubled entirely. Please do consider your value, plus selfishly you'll help keep the software engineering market competitive if you do.

kodah 4y ago

Ageism does occur in this industry, but I've mostly heard it around associating various levels with age or years of experience. For instance, at a financial product company I worked for I saw a man who went on to become a Googler get cut from our interview because he "had too much experience to be a senior". For context, most of his background had been in contracting and he'd only recently really invested himself in DS&A knowledge (the kind larger firms look for). The kind of companies he had worked for put his skills cumulatively around Senior but he'd been in the industry a long time. There's "innocent sounding" explanation for the managers decision to cut the interview, but they're all tainted with some form of ageism.

rco8786 4y ago

I’m really confused. What was the motivation of the hiring company here?

nerdile 4y ago
More context at https://news.ycombinator.com/context?id=29969359 https://news.ycombinator.com/context?id=29969359
- gedy 4y ago
  I'm still kinda confused - did you have no work to do at all? Or you just were expecting some collaborative team work that's not there? I agree lack of communication seems extreme, but if you are working that's not exactly bench warming.
- drdec 4y ago
  You should have asked to go remote and avoid the state taxes.
- slt2021 4y ago
  pls name a company, I want a job at that company
  - entropicdrifter 4y ago
    Seriously, if I could do all of my work without people trying to talk my ear off all day and let me keep my work life and social life truly separate, that sounds ideal to me. "Oh the tech was textbook perfect but I didn't like that nobody wanted to stand around and bullshit all day" Like bruh.
    - throwanem 4y ago
      I dunno. Sounds to me like the kind of culture where the first way you hear about poorly communicated expectations is when you're asked to sign a PIP.
  - 4y ago

jcbrand 4y ago

> so I hung out in the lobby for several hours waiting for anyone brave enough to get me to the badge people Did you consider asking someone going in or out to help you get a badge or to put you into contact with the right person? Sounds like you passively waited for someone to come and help you, which might be fine for a short while, but eventually it's better to take action. I've never heard of a "professional bench warmer" in software development. It's not as if devs get injured regularly and need replacements. Why do you think they'd hire you just to not give you anything to do?

v-erne 4y ago
>> I've never heard of a "professional bench warmer" in software development. I think this is real. My friend who is serial Project Manager (he works for big corps here in Poland and changes job almost every year for last 15 years) actually uses the term "on bench" for programers that do not have projects assigned to them and he claims that he quite often hires people before project is confirmed, so from time to time some people are left hanging without free chairs when music stops.
- wojciii 4y ago
  I have 20+ years of experience in different companies (software and just using software);and I never ever heard of this behaviour. I never changed job (Unusually work 2-4 years at one company) where I didn't have everything ready on my first day.
  - blue_daisies 4y ago
    I have heard of this at Infosys in the US
  - jokab 4y ago
    IBM and Accenture in the Philippines.
    - wojciii 4y ago

reedjosh 4y ago

I'm sorry you've been burned and it's not easier for you to take these risks. I average about 2 years, and each company has been progressively better than the last. Don't let a bad job hop stop you. To me it's the only way to really progress your career. I've done a huge variety of projects, experienced a ton of different management styles, and of course also never stagnated compensation wise. Leetcode kind of sucks, but it's possible to build up enough confidence to ace it. Particularly start by focusing on one area until you see all the basic patterns. For me, I was rather weak with trees. Job hoping seems to be the only reliable way to increase your comp. I was promoted at Intel and got 11% as a raise. Then I bounced and gained another 40%. From there I doubled entirely. Please do consider your value, plus selfishly you'll help keep the software engineering market competitive if you do.