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CPColin
Sep 9, 2003

Big ol' smile.
That reminded me of the time the CEO at Experts Exchange heard about the concept of "dogfooding" and demanded to know why none of us ever asked questions on our own site when we ran into problems. We all rolled our eyes and gave it a try so we could show them what we already knew would happen:

  • (no responses for a day)
  • "Why are you doing that"
  • (non-applicable link to first hit on Google)
  • "Have you tried (thing mentioned in question as already having been tried)?"
  • (several more days with no response)
  • (we eventually try to mark the question as Deleted due to inactivity) "I gave you a solution so I should get the points!!!"

"So you want us to do that when we run into a problem, instead of Googling and using what we find on StackOverflow, huh?"

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Volmarias
Dec 31, 2002

EMAIL... THE INTERNET... SEARCH ENGINES...

CPColin posted:

That reminded me of the time the CEO at Experts Exchange heard about the concept of "dogfooding" and demanded to know why none of us ever asked questions on our own site when we ran into problems. We all rolled our eyes and gave it a try so we could show them what we already knew would happen:

  • (no responses for a day)
  • "Why are you doing that"
  • (non-applicable link to first hit on Google)
  • "Have you tried (thing mentioned in question as already having been tried)?"
  • (several more days with no response)
  • (we eventually try to mark the question as Deleted due to inactivity) "I gave you a solution so I should get the points!!!"

"So you want us to do that when we run into a problem, instead of Googling and using what we find on StackOverflow, huh?"

Giving the CEO an existential crisis seems like a reasonable response.

Vulture Culture
Jul 14, 2003

I was never enjoying it. I only eat it for the nutrients.

CPColin posted:

That reminded me of the time the CEO at Experts Exchange heard about the concept of "dogfooding" and demanded to know why none of us ever asked questions on our own site when we ran into problems. We all rolled our eyes and gave it a try so we could show them what we already knew would happen:

  • (no responses for a day)
  • "Why are you doing that"
  • (non-applicable link to first hit on Google)
  • "Have you tried (thing mentioned in question as already having been tried)?"
  • (several more days with no response)
  • (we eventually try to mark the question as Deleted due to inactivity) "I gave you a solution so I should get the points!!!"

"So you want us to do that when we run into a problem, instead of Googling and using what we find on StackOverflow, huh?"
Honestly, he was really close to the right idea, and if the sinking ship had fewer rats and more bailers, maybe it would have turned out better. It sounds like the main problem he had is that the employees hated the site and they hated its users, and nobody inside the company thought "our community is toxic" was a problem worth solving.

CPColin
Sep 9, 2003

Big ol' smile.
The employees hated the site and the management didn't know how it worked. A winning combination!

prom candy
Dec 16, 2005

Only I may dance
At least it had a funny domain name

Vulture Culture
Jul 14, 2003

I was never enjoying it. I only eat it for the nutrients.

CPColin posted:

The employees hated the site and the management didn't know how it worked. A winning combination!
No senior management ever knows how anything works, that's why Undercover Boss has run 11 seasons. The difference between talented and untalented leadership is taking the people who maintain that connection to the product and the users, and getting them aligned on surfacing useful information in roughly the same way as each other.

Judge Schnoopy
Nov 2, 2005

dont even TRY it, pal
Welp, "Get laid off" achievement unlocked after 9 years in the career field

Volmarias
Dec 31, 2002

EMAIL... THE INTERNET... SEARCH ENGINES...

Judge Schnoopy posted:

Welp, "Get laid off" achievement unlocked after 9 years in the career field

Welcome, friend. I was also at 9 years.

wilderthanmild
Jun 21, 2010

Posting shit




Grimey Drawer
:smuggo: Pfft getting to your laid off career milestone late. I got laid off at 5 years because despite making money hand over fist and being in the literal perfect conditions for growth that company would hammer the layoff button any time they did something dumb with money, which was a lot. I survived 4 layoffs in 2 years there only to get hit by number 5.

So far I've survived 1 round of layoffs at the current job so fingers crossed.

Pollyanna
Mar 5, 2005

Milk's on them.


I wasn’t even 2 months in before I got laid off for the first time.

captkirk
Feb 5, 2010
I dodged Twitter layoffs by leaving before the acquisition, was passed over in the first round of Meta layoffs and now I wake up each more praying for another round and that I'm included in it.

ultrafilter
Aug 23, 2007

It's okay if you have any questions.


I got laid off five years into my first job, but my manager knew I was planning on going back to school anyway, so it was mutually beneficial.

captkirk
Feb 5, 2010
Lol I might have prayed too hard
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-03-07/meta-is-said-to-plan-thousands-more-layoffs-as-soon-as-this-week#xj4y7vzkg

mitztronic
Jun 17, 2005

mixcloud.com/mitztronic
I survived 9 layoffs in my first company. One layoff in my second, and another layoff in my third. I’m at 12 years. Here’s to hoping I can keep it up.

Edit: my bad this wasn’t fair. I thought I was in another thread. My first company was an aerospace company and those have layoffs every year. Not a fair comparison to tech

StumblyWumbly
Sep 12, 2007

Batmanticore!
I was out of work for a year during the dot com crash. I'll never forget the horrors, and all the broken bodies I saw in that year (because I was playing a lot of Diablo).

ChickenWing
Jul 22, 2010

:v:

Psh, all of you are late - I got laid off before I even started working in tech!

(I got laid off 4 months before I started my first dev internship, and the severance covered what would have been my wages until I quit :v: )

lifg
Dec 4, 2000
<this tag left blank>
Muldoon
Twenty years: Laid off twice, fired once, quit a few times, including once without a job lined up, and they were all amazing.

Hughlander
May 11, 2005

I’m probably cheating in the game industry.

Survived 3 yearly layoffs.
Relocated to a different EA owned studio 400mi away
They closed that studio but kept my team so moved back to the same building I was at
Laid off 6 months later
Moved to WA and worked there for 2 1/2 years till they laid off a third and sold my third to SOE
Worked there for a year till I did my part of 100% turnover and went back to the studio that sold me like chattel.
Survived 7 layoffs in 6 years there till I jumped to a startup.
The pitch to stay instead was I could be part of the next layoff and I’d be there for 10 years so it’d be more severance. (I negotiated my original start date when I returned, always try to do this.)
Startup grew too big too fast and had 3 layoffs in 4 years before a successful exit.
Stayed with the acquisition for 3 years as it became apparent they had no idea what to do with us and laid off half the studio before closing it completely.
Hoped to a new place just before Covid where I’ve been for 3 years only seeing one major layoff.

So grand told 23 years in games next month, 1 layoff, 3 studio closing with 2 of those being relocated. Survived 16 rounds of layoffs offs. Not a bad ratio.

FlapYoJacks
Feb 12, 2009
Lol imagine working at a place long enough to be laid off.

prom candy
Dec 16, 2005

Only I may dance
I've had two jobs in the past 15 years. I quit the first one and I'm still at the other.

Harriet Carker
Jun 2, 2009

I’ve never stayed at a company for more than 2.5 years. I’ve also never been laid off or fired.

FlapYoJacks
Feb 12, 2009
OTOH if you move jobs every 2 years you make 20 - 50% more every move.

Pollyanna
Mar 5, 2005

Milk's on them.


My longest tenure was 3.5 years, at a place that was great for the first half and then started plummeting a few months before COVID.

The Fool
Oct 16, 2003


I stayed at a place doing IT small business consulting for 15 years, it was a huge mistake

since pivoting my career my longest tenure has been 3 years

wilderthanmild
Jun 21, 2010

Posting shit




Grimey Drawer
My longest tenure was around 4.5 years two times for two companies. Both times I was burnt out and missing out on lots of salary despite promotions.

I'd love to be able to stay with one company indefinitely, but in my experience you lose money and your situation gets shittier as the continue to expect more and more from you. Especially if you work for a company where the only path up is the management track.

biceps crimes
Apr 12, 2008


wilderthanmild posted:

My longest tenure was around 4.5 years two times for two companies. Both times I was burnt out and missing out on lots of salary despite promotions.

I'd love to be able to stay with one company indefinitely, but in my experience you lose money and your situation gets shittier as the continue to expect more and more from you. Especially if you work for a company where the only path up is the management track.

This is what I'm dealing with now. I've been at my current employer for four years, which is my longest tenure. Despite being promoted to principal, I'm underpaid. I've had a couple of 3% raises and an 8% raise that came with my promotion, so I'm a bit behind the curve now. The type of work I get to do is becoming shittier and shittier, as new teams form around me and are staffed with new hires and they get to do the more interesting work, I'm stuck with mundane crap and teams struggling to work with old crappy legacy code that I know best (despite not having written any of it). I've seriously considered looking around and have shot my application off to a couple of places, but haven't gone into full time job hunting mode yet, because my job is 100% remote and I'm able to work 40 hours or less a week. The team I'm on is also rotting a bit, I'm surrounded by people who have learned helplessness and the other useful folks that knew things have all either been promoted to management or have left.

Volmarias
Dec 31, 2002

EMAIL... THE INTERNET... SEARCH ENGINES...

biceps crimes posted:

This is what I'm dealing with now. I've been at my current employer for four years, which is my longest tenure. Despite being promoted to principal, I'm underpaid. I've had a couple of 3% raises and an 8% raise that came with my promotion, so I'm a bit behind the curve now. The type of work I get to do is becoming shittier and shittier, as new teams form around me and are staffed with new hires and they get to do the more interesting work, I'm stuck with mundane crap and teams struggling to work with old crappy legacy code that I know best (despite not having written any of it). I've seriously considered looking around and have shot my application off to a couple of places, but haven't gone into full time job hunting mode yet, because my job is 100% remote and I'm able to work 40 hours or less a week. The team I'm on is also rotting a bit, I'm surrounded by people who have learned helplessness and the other useful folks that knew things have all either been promoted to management or have left.

Look around, but I hope you've also emphasized your bus lottery factor to management.

FlapYoJacks
Feb 12, 2009

biceps crimes posted:

This is what I'm dealing with now. I've been at my current employer for four years, which is my longest tenure. Despite being promoted to principal, I'm underpaid. I've had a couple of 3% raises and an 8% raise that came with my promotion, so I'm a bit behind the curve now. The type of work I get to do is becoming shittier and shittier, as new teams form around me and are staffed with new hires and they get to do the more interesting work, I'm stuck with mundane crap and teams struggling to work with old crappy legacy code that I know best (despite not having written any of it). I've seriously considered looking around and have shot my application off to a couple of places, but haven't gone into full time job hunting mode yet, because my job is 100% remote and I'm able to work 40 hours or less a week. The team I'm on is also rotting a bit, I'm surrounded by people who have learned helplessness and the other useful folks that knew things have all either been promoted to management or have left.

Ask the new hires what their salary is. I bet they make more than you lol

Nybble
Jun 28, 2008

praise chuck, raise heck
^^ Levels.FYI is mandatory viewing every couple of months, even after being at a company for a few years.

Moved to SF, joined a startup. Startup failed at 11 months in so everyone got laid off, got at least a job that paid 30% more in base pay and finally got a senior in the job title. Moved away from SF while going remote, saw through an IPO, by the time the lockup came the stock options were barely profitable (and at times dipped below strike). Got laid off when they acquired another company. Got a new job with slight bump in pay and a big signing bonus and Staff Engineer in the job title, about a month before a hiring freeze. Hoping that doesn't portend a 3rd layoff, but who knows! That's the fun of this industry!!

Volmarias
Dec 31, 2002

EMAIL... THE INTERNET... SEARCH ENGINES...

Nybble posted:

That's the fun of this industry!!

The Dwarf Fortress definition of "fun"

Armauk
Jun 23, 2021


Volmarias posted:

The Dwarf Fortress definition of "fun"

Losing is fun!

Harriet Carker
Jun 2, 2009

FlapYoJacks posted:

Ask the new hires what their salary is. I bet they make more than you lol

I’m always pretty amazed when I see people that have been at Amazon for years and years, getting promoted to the level I was hired at, who make significantly less than I do.

Gotta remember that it will happen to me too, eventually.

Pollyanna
Mar 5, 2005

Milk's on them.


Numbers are bullshit. Grab and hoard what you can, as that is the game we have to play here.

mitztronic
Jun 17, 2005

mixcloud.com/mitztronic
2 years is the point where it starts to make sense to look elsewhere. It’s very sad because this is the point where you’re reaching peak effectivity in your role, and actually are really valuable, but for whatever reason our modern society has decided the opposite. Take your 3% raise or leave for 20%.

This is what capitalism has become, like the above stated. If you don’t play the game right, you lose.

Edit: leaving sounds like a great decision :madmax:

Judge Schnoopy
Nov 2, 2005

dont even TRY it, pal
Final paycheck was supposed to be delivered today... From SVB.

Jesus Christ.

DELETE CASCADE
Oct 25, 2017

i haven't washed my penis since i jerked it to a phtotograph of george w. bush in 2003
your check will still arrive and it will clear, don't worry

thotsky
Jun 7, 2005

hot to trot
Oof, I was laid off/made redundant/put on forced leave or whatever. I get a month of salary and then I have to go on the dole.

Mega Comrade
Apr 22, 2004

Listen buddy, we all got problems!
Sorry to all those losing their jobs.

With people thinking the economy is actually going to perform better than previously thought, what's the reason for thesr? Is it just rectifying over hiring during COVID? Copying the big companies or something else?

thotsky
Jun 7, 2005

hot to trot
The company I started at had no real experience doing IT consulting. They were a business consulting company who saw everyone else making money hand over fist, brought on some partners from the tech world of varying competency, and then made a bunch of bad hiring decisions.

Their big venture projects fell through, and they didn't have the connections or motivation neccesary to sell their tech consultants the old fashioned way. The few good devs were poached early. I only stayed as long as I did because I absolutely hosed them during salary negotiations and didn't really suffer much for not having anything to do.

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Bruegels Fuckbooks
Sep 14, 2004

Now, listen - I know the two of you are very different from each other in a lot of ways, but you have to understand that as far as Grandpa's concerned, you're both pieces of shit! Yeah. I can prove it mathematically.

Mega Comrade posted:

Sorry to all those losing their jobs.

With people thinking the economy is actually going to perform better than previously thought, what's the reason for thesr? Is it just rectifying over hiring during COVID? Copying the big companies or something else?

A surprising number of decisions in software companies are made cargo cult style, especially once you get a critical mass of middle managers. I believe there is no other reason than "twitter and the other companies are doing it."

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