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I always break jobs down into four factors: Knowledge – Am I building skills or knowledge that have value outside this specific company (algorithms, math, syst

by vunderba 10mo ago

I always break jobs down into four factors: Knowledge – Am I building skills or knowledge that have value outside this specific company (algorithms, math, systems design, etc.), or am I just learning a bunch of internal trivia that won’t matter anywhere else? Benefits – Financial compensation and benefits can make up for a surprising amount of dissatisfaction. People – Do I like the people I work and interact with? Do we get along and have anything in common? Laudability – Is the work noble, meaningful, or interesting? Highly dependent on the individual. For me, it’s education; for others, it might be science, healthcare, yadda yadda yada. I'm usually reasonably satisfied if a job meets two out of the four.

agcat 10mo ago
and company culture does that matter at all?
- vunderba 10mo ago
  I’m honestly not sure I could answer this one, I’ve never really worked at a company that pushed a unified culture. At most of the places I’ve worked, the teams were pretty siloed and insulated, so each team ended up having its own “culture.”
- burnerToBetOut 10mo ago
  > …a long stint as a founder… I perceive the typical "startup culture" to be one where heroics are the norm… 1. You're expected to work 10 hour days 2. You're expected to do the jobs of 3 people 3. You might not get paid on schedule … That would be an absolute cultural mismatch for me.
raw_anon_1111 10mo ago
I have found that comp alone is not enough to make up for a miserable job. I hated every minute I worked at AWS to the point I couldn’t fake it and it was remote. When I got Amazoned, one of my former coworkers was a director at a well known public non tech company and was going to create a position for me to be over their cloud migration and strategy. It was going to pay around $50K more in cash than I was making in cash + RSUs my last year at AWS. I really hate leading migrations and infrastructure projects. I specialize in cloud + app dev consulting even though it pays less outside of working at Amazon and Google. Speaking of Google, I also have/had a better than even chance of working there (GCP consulting division) making close to six figures more than I make now. But I’m not even tempted between my hated for working at large companies and working in an office
- agcat 10mo ago
  I agree
Desafinado 10mo ago
This is a good way of putting it. And whether someone is happy is indeed personal. For me, company culture has always been a primary concern. Is the company a non-stressful place to work and am I working with grownups. That's a massive factor, and the reason I've left two previous jobs. Laudability is also big. Or in other words purpose. Once all the sheen of working in the software industry wears off do you actually care about the work you're doing? That can go a long way in providing motivation. But then there are some who are happy to grind out code for exorbitant amounts of money and no purpose. So YMMV.

agcat 10mo ago

and company culture does that matter at all?

vunderba 10mo ago
I’m honestly not sure I could answer this one, I’ve never really worked at a company that pushed a unified culture. At most of the places I’ve worked, the teams were pretty siloed and insulated, so each team ended up having its own “culture.”
burnerToBetOut 10mo ago
> …a long stint as a founder… I perceive the typical "startup culture" to be one where heroics are the norm… 1. You're expected to work 10 hour days 2. You're expected to do the jobs of 3 people 3. You might not get paid on schedule … That would be an absolute cultural mismatch for me.

raw_anon_1111 10mo ago

I have found that comp alone is not enough to make up for a miserable job. I hated every minute I worked at AWS to the point I couldn’t fake it and it was remote. When I got Amazoned, one of my former coworkers was a director at a well known public non tech company and was going to create a position for me to be over their cloud migration and strategy. It was going to pay around $50K more in cash than I was making in cash + RSUs my last year at AWS. I really hate leading migrations and infrastructure projects. I specialize in cloud + app dev consulting even though it pays less outside of working at Amazon and Google. Speaking of Google, I also have/had a better than even chance of working there (GCP consulting division) making close to six figures more than I make now. But I’m not even tempted between my hated for working at large companies and working in an office

agcat 10mo ago
I agree

Desafinado 10mo ago

This is a good way of putting it. And whether someone is happy is indeed personal. For me, company culture has always been a primary concern. Is the company a non-stressful place to work and am I working with grownups. That's a massive factor, and the reason I've left two previous jobs. Laudability is also big. Or in other words purpose. Once all the sheen of working in the software industry wears off do you actually care about the work you're doing? That can go a long way in providing motivation. But then there are some who are happy to grind out code for exorbitant amounts of money and no purpose. So YMMV.