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> I’ve developed a “it’s time to prepare for another job” checklist that I can activate at a moments notice. Did you ever have to activate said checklist? If s

> I’ve developed a “it’s time to prepare for another job” checklist that I can activate at a moments notice. Did you ever have to activate said checklist? If so, at what time or what times?

scarface_74 3y ago
6 times since 2012 and I’m preparing for the 7th just in case. I work for the BigTech company known for its “PIP culture”. It hasn’t happened yet to me. But it always could. 1. Warm up my network. Reach out to people on LinkedIn, meet coworkers and former coworkers for lunch whenever I’m in their city (my wife and I “nomad” six months a year) and recruiters. There are a few recruiters I’ve met in person who know the industry and the players. 2. Prepare my “career document” - ie a longer form of a resume where I list my accomplishments in STAR format so I have talking points for my soft skill interviews. 3. Update my resume 4. Clean up my open source portfolio. This is new. I work in a department where it is easy to put the reusable parts of client facing work through our open source approval process. It usual takes two weeks. It’s MIT license so I can fork it from our official repos and continue working on it. Notice I didn’t say “grind leetCode” (tm) r/cscareerquestions. I’m 50 years old. I haven’t done a coding interview since 2012 and that was my first time and I’m still an active coder as part of my job. If we can’t talk like adults and I can’t convince a company the value I bring, it’s not a place I’m going to work. As far as when: - 2008: at a company for nine years through four acquisitions. I had become an “expert beginner”. - 2012: a startup was on its last legs. We all knew it and I was one of the tech leads who they trotted out to to talk to potential investors and acquirers. - 2014: Working for the company that Jack Welch expanded on a house of cards. - 2016: working on a “tiger team” at a satellite office until the old guard pushed out my skip manager and my manager who was brought in to modernize them. 2018: company acquired by a private equity company. I was the tech lead and the company said they “didn’t want to be a software company” 2020: the first time I didn’t purposefully activate it. The opportunity to work at BigTech fell into my lap (cloud consulting department). I was happy where I was. Present: I stay prepared. But figure between savings and severance if things start going crazy, I have a window to either get a full time job or someone is going to pay me for consulting especially with my current credentials.
- znpy 3y ago
  Love this comment… I’m commenting the be able to find it more easily later :)

> I’ve developed a “it’s time to prepare for another job” checklist that I can activate at a moments notice. Did you ever have to activate said checklist? If so, at what time or what times?

scarface_74 3y ago

6 times since 2012 and I’m preparing for the 7th just in case. I work for the BigTech company known for its “PIP culture”. It hasn’t happened yet to me. But it always could. 1. Warm up my network. Reach out to people on LinkedIn, meet coworkers and former coworkers for lunch whenever I’m in their city (my wife and I “nomad” six months a year) and recruiters. There are a few recruiters I’ve met in person who know the industry and the players. 2. Prepare my “career document” - ie a longer form of a resume where I list my accomplishments in STAR format so I have talking points for my soft skill interviews. 3. Update my resume 4. Clean up my open source portfolio. This is new. I work in a department where it is easy to put the reusable parts of client facing work through our open source approval process. It usual takes two weeks. It’s MIT license so I can fork it from our official repos and continue working on it. Notice I didn’t say “grind leetCode” (tm) r/cscareerquestions. I’m 50 years old. I haven’t done a coding interview since 2012 and that was my first time and I’m still an active coder as part of my job. If we can’t talk like adults and I can’t convince a company the value I bring, it’s not a place I’m going to work. As far as when: - 2008: at a company for nine years through four acquisitions. I had become an “expert beginner”. - 2012: a startup was on its last legs. We all knew it and I was one of the tech leads who they trotted out to to talk to potential investors and acquirers. - 2014: Working for the company that Jack Welch expanded on a house of cards. - 2016: working on a “tiger team” at a satellite office until the old guard pushed out my skip manager and my manager who was brought in to modernize them. 2018: company acquired by a private equity company. I was the tech lead and the company said they “didn’t want to be a software company” 2020: the first time I didn’t purposefully activate it. The opportunity to work at BigTech fell into my lap (cloud consulting department). I was happy where I was. Present: I stay prepared. But figure between savings and severance if things start going crazy, I have a window to either get a full time job or someone is going to pay me for consulting especially with my current credentials.

znpy 3y ago
Love this comment… I’m commenting the be able to find it more easily later :)