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When to Leave That First Tech Job
An anonymous reader writes "Chris Wilson has an interesting piece about a scenario all CompSci/Engineering students dread, getting a job out of college and having it quickly turn sour. He writes: 'The first layoff is tough. After bending over backward, after being a loyal employee, this is the reward? To summarize how I felt: Disillusioned.' He discusses warning signs you should look for in your own work environment that point toward "Getting out". An interesting read, especially for aspiring engineers or engineers out on their first job."
...when your web server dies even before a Slashdot 'First Post'
When you're leaving your job, stay late on the last day.
Then, when everyone else has gone, start a fire.
"Why did they cancel my favorite Sci-Fi show? I downloaded ALL the episodes!"
When you're sitting in meetings thinking "I would cheerfully shoot any one of you fuckers in the face to get my last job back", it's probably time to move on.
I've worked in 4 companies which have bitten the dust in the last 10 years, some good indicators of problems are:
* Paying you in pizza and food stamps
* Managers being overly nice to everyone in meetings while looking very nervous
* 'Minor unexplained troubles' when pay fails to make it to the bank on time
* Large men standing at the doors of the company in pinstripe suits telling everyone to go home for the day
* Leaving the office late in the evening, seeing the company accountant loading what seems to be company property into the back of his SUV
* The CIO borrowing lunch money from you
* Sudden and unexplained 'asset stocktake' undertaken by little men you've never seen in the company before, calling themselves 'administrators'.
* You get an e-mail alert from the stock exchange warning you that your company has announced that it has been placed into liquidation.
Task Mangler
5. Management wants to use .Net in the nuclear power industry.
Run for the hills (literally), and try to get 100 miles from their nearest customer.
No, no. That's the article.
When you're the IT guy for a company and you visit the page and see...
Service Unavailable
...and about 50,000 references to 'slashdot.org' in your log files.
That's when you quit. Let some other schmuck take care of that mess of melted aluminum and plastic on the floor.
"What do you despise? By this are you truly known." --Princess Irulan, Manual of Muad'Dib
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> > After bending over backward, after being a loyal employee, this is the reward?
>Hint: don't bend over backward.
An excellent point. Bending over forward works much better, as it allows you to at least rest on the desk (table, etc) with minimal stress.
As a bonus (?) this position gives management easier access to your rear entry, thus expediting the procedure.
Unfortunately I don't have time to write the kind of reply this sort of nonsense deserves, so I'll keep it short. > Guess what? A company does not, repeat, not revolve around an inexperienced, prima donna, overinflated programmer. No, it apparently revolves around inexperienced, overinflated, grossly overpaid managers, who think of the people doing the actual work as 'resources'. Guess what? Management is just overhead. All companies need some of it, just like they need some chairs and desks and things. > If I ever hear your name as a potential hire, I'll veto it. I'd suggest to the guy that if he ever hears your name at a potential employer, to look for a better employer instead.
.NET Ninjas
I don't think that I've bumped into any of those, are they like Tae Kwon Do-Dos?
OMG, a 24-year old almost straight out of college who knows EVERYTHING! I've never encountered one of those before!
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PGP Key ID 0xCB8FF658
When I was fired from my first tech job, these were the signs...
1) 6 months before leaving: Snack room no longer contains free snacks. Just a water cooler.
2) 3 months before leaving: Water cooler no longer contains water, janitor stops coming frequently, VP takes a "sabbatical."
3) 1 month before leaving: Secretary is now cleaning the toilet and answering the phone; more employees go on "sabbatical," storage boxes begin to appear in my office.
4) 2 weeks before leaving: Secretary is now on "sabbatical;" bathroom is getting funky; I am now replacing the urinal cakes out of good will; my office is now doubling as a storage facility, "why is the DEA at our office?"
5) 1 week before leaving: "where is the CEO?"
6) Day I leave: I have been asked to go on "unpaid sabbatical"
7) 2 years after starting my unpaid sabbatical: I have yet to be called back to work.
true story... urinal mints and all
"Things are more moderner than before- bigger, and yet smaller- it's computers-- San Dimas High School football RULES!"
Man that was the funniest onion article i've read in awhile!
Hey, look. A manager from EA has posted.
Was wondering when they would come by.
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wow! someone took there angry pills this morning!
Did we get invaded? I hadn't noticed. ... I sure hope you are not posting form Iraq!
Only to idiots, are orders laws.
-- Henning von Tresckow
3) The coffee delivery man stops refilling your coffee machines
- Amenities getting cut in a budget crisis are one of the signs that further budget cuts are on the way.
Amen. When a previous employer announced that there would be no more coffee bread on fridays (to save a tiny bit of money and to underline the seriousness of the condition the company was in) my first reaction was to walk over to the payrolls office to cash in the overtime debt. Turns out that most people reacted the same and as a result the company lost half a million dollars in liquidity in twenty minutes. Should've thought about that!
Be thankful for your cubical. One of the top level executives at our company decided that cubicals cut down on inter-departmental communication. So... down came the cubical walls. I now work in a totally open office. EVERYONE can see what is on my monitor ALL THE TIME. Since I spend a large part of my time doing solid modeling and FEA work, I have an audience far more often than I would like. I do not work well in a fishtank. Ironically, the home office (where top-lvl-exec spends most of his time) has cubicals. Just us unwashed red-headed step children that can't. The only silver lining is I have a test lab I can hide in when I want to browse me a little /.
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On the contrary. I have a house, a wife and two kids to feed and take care of, and I applaud you for being determined giving them top priority. That means standing firm when management keeps asking for more.
I'm pretty sure he's not actually planning to spend that time with your wife. If he is, YOU should be concerned!
I keep forgetting my place. Jesus is for losers. Why do I still play to the crowd?
.... The CEO of your company tosses chairs in anger and rants about "killing" people.
This is my opinion. To make sure you don't steal it, it's covered by the DMCA.
I WISH we had cubicles, right now I'm working for a tiny startup company and we basically have one medium sized room (with big windows, at least) but no dividers of any kind, and our boss likes sucking on sunflower seeds and spitting the shells into a large cup.
Try working on something with
*sshhhtltpt.. dsh.. shshshsskhtpt.. dshh..*
All day long.
I've just noticed that the typical poster here seems to lean more left than right.
Constitutionally Correct
This topic is so appropriate for today.
I was cleaning out some old boxes and found a payslip from 1993. That was my 1st tech job and I quit it when the government announced that the Minimum wage would be raised to above what I was making then.
It brought into focus just how horribly underpaid I really was.
--= Isn't it surprising how badly I spell ?
Yea, well I came real close once.
Had a boss once who liked flicking me on the ear when I was coding, and when I'm coding, I put on the headphones, get into tunnel vision mode, and tune out the whole world. Having someone sneak up on me and flick me on the ear when I'm like that is the psychic equvalent of getting smacked with a 2x4. I was pretty rational about it at first, but we were pretty good friends, and he thought it was funny...
He did it about 3 times, and on the fourth time I snapped. I can't remember ever being so mad...I was so mad it wasn't even like being mad. I had a real moment where I really thought I might attack him, not a little scuffle or anything, but seriously out for blood...really wavered on it for a moment...then I turned and put my fist through two layers of a prefab wall.
Not my finest hour. Though it does mark the only point in my programming career where I found a use for the ability to repair drywall.
That kind of crap is hardwired with me. Normally it's not much of an issue, because how often do you end up with people literally sneaking up on you in a business environment? Used to be really useful in college...I could crash on a couch after a party and no one would even think about pulling post-party pranks on me.
But the first thing I do when I get a new job, is find a place to put my desk where no one can walk up without me seeing them. Better safe than sorry.
ad logicam Claiming a proposition is false because it was presented as the conclusion of a fallacious argument.