4 ms·

"Talking through her tears on Monday night, Amy said she didn't know if she'd be able to recover from what she considered the worst setback of her professional

by steven2012 13y ago

"Talking through her tears on Monday night, Amy said she didn't know if she'd be able to recover from what she considered the worst setback of her professional life. After what happened at Google, she wasn't even sure she could bring herself to interview for another job." One of my friends lost his job during the dot-com bust. He was married only a few weeks earlier. He was on an H1B and about to get kicked out of the country. He couldn't find a job anywhere because of the bust. He paid money to a body shop to keep his H1B "active", and then he got whatever jobs he could for 2 years, moving around CA taking the shittiest jobs just so that he had money for his family. He went from a software engineer to pumping gas during the midnight shift in Redwood City and getting paid under the table, just so that he would have money. Finally after two years, he got a break and got a job at a big tech company, moved to Austin, and is thriving in his job, made senior manager, and has 3 kids. He suffered great indignities just to survive and to make money and his perseverance paid off, thankfully. To hear this person say they don't know if they can never interview again because they weren't good enough to join Google, and they would look bad in front of their rich friends, frankly it sickens me. No wonder the hate of Silicon Valley is increasing in these past few years, it's producing people like this that can't take the fact that their feelings were hurt.

ebiester 13y ago
What we say in the emotional raw state is not what is going to determine our future. Otherwise, I would have given up more times than I can count. :) And it's not just her feelings that were hurt -- it could have short term negative consequences on her job prospects. "If Google didn't want her, what's wrong with her?"
- nissimk 13y ago
  > And it's not just her feelings that were hurt -- it could have short term negative consequences on her job prospects. "If Google didn't want her, what's wrong with her?" If she doesn't know how to spin that, she should get someone to help her out because it's really just a matter of perception. I'm no communications expert but I'd start with "Google wanted engineers," "Google was looking for a different skillset," etc. This is the type of thing that a good recruiter can actually really help with.
silencio 13y ago
> He suffered great indignities just to survive and to make money... Not sure this is a popular opinion, but I feel like a lot of white-collar workers should go work blue-collar jobs once in a while, even if for a day. Indignities are trying to bribe companies to keep a visa valid, not so much working low paying jobs, and perseverance doesn't help others that have no better out like everyone wants you to believe. Which is a huge shame. I co-own a fast food restaurant, and I try to spend a half day every week there in person making sure things are going okay. People do a double take and then some when they discover that my day job is really as a software developer because they don't expect me to stand around at the counter or flip a burger like the $10/hour employees because I have a six figure income so I could fuck off very easily. People also treat me with way more respect afterwards - totally different from "you're the boss" is "you're the boss but you have a super swank other job". Everyone from random steady customers to like, those (insert major tech company) employees that came in the other day while I was madly typing away on my laptop during a slow hour and the 15 year old punks that just got out of school calling me a "bitch" (..."I want a burger") to "what are you doing, you type really fast" to "yes ma'am, I'm sorry, also that's really cool!!" in a matter of minutes. Me working hard at the same job is assumed to have a good payoff in the end (maybe my also-programmer husband and I can eventually afford a nice house in SF...lol) while my employees working harder than me is assumed to be terrible - "why are you still a burger flipper" with what time and money to become better even if I try to pay them decently and work with their schedules? I even put out a job posting for more summer hires recently and got a whole slew of people with degrees - including ones with MBAs and a CS degree that I emailed instead with "wanna talk to a tech recruiter?" Sigh...

ebiester 13y ago

What we say in the emotional raw state is not what is going to determine our future. Otherwise, I would have given up more times than I can count. :) And it's not just her feelings that were hurt -- it could have short term negative consequences on her job prospects. "If Google didn't want her, what's wrong with her?"

nissimk 13y ago
> And it's not just her feelings that were hurt -- it could have short term negative consequences on her job prospects. "If Google didn't want her, what's wrong with her?" If she doesn't know how to spin that, she should get someone to help her out because it's really just a matter of perception. I'm no communications expert but I'd start with "Google wanted engineers," "Google was looking for a different skillset," etc. This is the type of thing that a good recruiter can actually really help with.

silencio 13y ago

> He suffered great indignities just to survive and to make money... Not sure this is a popular opinion, but I feel like a lot of white-collar workers should go work blue-collar jobs once in a while, even if for a day. Indignities are trying to bribe companies to keep a visa valid, not so much working low paying jobs, and perseverance doesn't help others that have no better out like everyone wants you to believe. Which is a huge shame. I co-own a fast food restaurant, and I try to spend a half day every week there in person making sure things are going okay. People do a double take and then some when they discover that my day job is really as a software developer because they don't expect me to stand around at the counter or flip a burger like the $10/hour employees because I have a six figure income so I could fuck off very easily. People also treat me with way more respect afterwards - totally different from "you're the boss" is "you're the boss but you have a super swank other job". Everyone from random steady customers to like, those (insert major tech company) employees that came in the other day while I was madly typing away on my laptop during a slow hour and the 15 year old punks that just got out of school calling me a "bitch" (..."I want a burger") to "what are you doing, you type really fast" to "yes ma'am, I'm sorry, also that's really cool!!" in a matter of minutes. Me working hard at the same job is assumed to have a good payoff in the end (maybe my also-programmer husband and I can eventually afford a nice house in SF...lol) while my employees working harder than me is assumed to be terrible - "why are you still a burger flipper" with what time and money to become better even if I try to pay them decently and work with their schedules? I even put out a job posting for more summer hires recently and got a whole slew of people with degrees - including ones with MBAs and a CS degree that I emailed instead with "wanna talk to a tech recruiter?" Sigh...