4 ms·

This doesn't make any sense to me. Why would you quit without another job lined up? You must have a ton of money already saved to cover the rent and feed the

This doesn't make any sense to me. Why would you quit without another job lined up? You must have a ton of money already saved to cover the rent and feed the children. Or live with your parents. I couldn't just quit my job without having other work lined up.

mcv 13y ago
> Why would you quit without another job lined up? You must have a ton of money already saved to cover the rent and feed the children. If you've got children, you hopefully also have a spouse with his/her own income. I'm fortunate that my wife makes enough to pay the entire mortgage on just her income, so my money goes mostly to child care and various extras and luxuries. With a bit of savings we can make it for quite a while. If you're maintaining a family on a single income, then yeah, that kind of step is rather irresponsible. But if you live on your own, you'll have your hands free for anything.
cstejerean 13y ago
That's not a great position to be in. The company you work for can let you go at any moment whether or not you have something lined up, and if that's not something you can tolerate then you might want to start working on it (either by increasing your saving or by reducing the out of time it would take you to find another job).
- coherentpony 13y ago
  That's the case with any job, though. There's no such thing as a 'job for life' now. No matter how much one 'works on it', job security is a myth in industry in the 21st century. When someone says 'job security', the profession I immediately jump to is a tenured professorship. And those don't exactly come by frequently.
  - mgkimsal 13y ago
    "Supreme Court Justice" is up there too.
  - cgag 13y ago
    Yes, that's why everyone should have at least a few months of saftey net.
guynamedloren 13y ago
My parents live across the country, and I have no children. I don't have a ton of money, but I have some. I have enough to survive for several months (or longer, if needed). LA is expensive, but I'm relatively frugal.
- coherentpony 13y ago
  And you also presumably have the right to abode in The United States without employment.
larrys 13y ago
"Why would you quit without another job lined up? " If you make the decision in your head that you are going to quit then it's quite possible your work and your attitude will decline and either co workers or management will have a negative view of you by the time you do quit. In a sense this is similar to why many performers go out while on top (thinking of Seinfeld as one example) instead of waiting for ratings decline. You don't want to just be going through the motions.
- coherentpony 13y ago
  That's a fair point, but with this approach one is left with a gap of unemployment in their CV. Unfortunately, even in today's economic climate, a gap in your CV is still seen as a negative to many employers.
  - mcv 13y ago
    I've never had anyone ask about the gaps in my CV. Never. I've been unemployed after the dotcom crash. Nobody cares. Last year I messed about on some of my own stuff. Everybody thinks it's fine. They just want to hire me. Admittedly it's possible that my CV looks a lot more attractive than the average CV, but personally I wouldn't know why. It's possible the job market in Netherland is better than in the US, though.
  - tlrobinson 13y ago
    For software developers the "CV gap" problem (if it really is a problem) seems easily solvable to me: do a little freelancing, and put that in the gap.
    - larrys 13y ago
      Along the lines of what PG said yesterday (which I commented on) regarding telling smallish lies (had to do with getting funded and how investors jump to conclusions) this is probably a case of "turnabout is fair play, eh". In other words if the person reading the resume is going to read (incorrectly) into the situation and penalize you for leaving it's ok to fib a bit in order to prevent them from having that wrong impression (which you can't correct if you don't get the interview).. A case of who draws first blood.

mcv 13y ago

> Why would you quit without another job lined up? You must have a ton of money already saved to cover the rent and feed the children. If you've got children, you hopefully also have a spouse with his/her own income. I'm fortunate that my wife makes enough to pay the entire mortgage on just her income, so my money goes mostly to child care and various extras and luxuries. With a bit of savings we can make it for quite a while. If you're maintaining a family on a single income, then yeah, that kind of step is rather irresponsible. But if you live on your own, you'll have your hands free for anything.

cstejerean 13y ago

That's not a great position to be in. The company you work for can let you go at any moment whether or not you have something lined up, and if that's not something you can tolerate then you might want to start working on it (either by increasing your saving or by reducing the out of time it would take you to find another job).

coherentpony 13y ago
That's the case with any job, though. There's no such thing as a 'job for life' now. No matter how much one 'works on it', job security is a myth in industry in the 21st century. When someone says 'job security', the profession I immediately jump to is a tenured professorship. And those don't exactly come by frequently.
- mgkimsal 13y ago
  "Supreme Court Justice" is up there too.
- cgag 13y ago
  Yes, that's why everyone should have at least a few months of saftey net.

guynamedloren 13y ago

My parents live across the country, and I have no children. I don't have a ton of money, but I have some. I have enough to survive for several months (or longer, if needed). LA is expensive, but I'm relatively frugal.

coherentpony 13y ago
And you also presumably have the right to abode in The United States without employment.

larrys 13y ago

"Why would you quit without another job lined up? " If you make the decision in your head that you are going to quit then it's quite possible your work and your attitude will decline and either co workers or management will have a negative view of you by the time you do quit. In a sense this is similar to why many performers go out while on top (thinking of Seinfeld as one example) instead of waiting for ratings decline. You don't want to just be going through the motions.

coherentpony 13y ago
That's a fair point, but with this approach one is left with a gap of unemployment in their CV. Unfortunately, even in today's economic climate, a gap in your CV is still seen as a negative to many employers.
- mcv 13y ago
  I've never had anyone ask about the gaps in my CV. Never. I've been unemployed after the dotcom crash. Nobody cares. Last year I messed about on some of my own stuff. Everybody thinks it's fine. They just want to hire me. Admittedly it's possible that my CV looks a lot more attractive than the average CV, but personally I wouldn't know why. It's possible the job market in Netherland is better than in the US, though.
- tlrobinson 13y ago
  For software developers the "CV gap" problem (if it really is a problem) seems easily solvable to me: do a little freelancing, and put that in the gap.
  - larrys 13y ago
    Along the lines of what PG said yesterday (which I commented on) regarding telling smallish lies (had to do with getting funded and how investors jump to conclusions) this is probably a case of "turnabout is fair play, eh". In other words if the person reading the resume is going to read (incorrectly) into the situation and penalize you for leaving it's ok to fib a bit in order to prevent them from having that wrong impression (which you can't correct if you don't get the interview).. A case of who draws first blood.