It's probably sorted, but for a while there was an escaping issue. Then our company forced us to use Claude via CoPilot in PyCharm and that may have been the other issue. I just stick to a command prompt in a shell now unless there's a pressing advantage to doing it in any IDE.
This is maddening. I've been pulling 40/50/60 hour weeks for 21 years in the tech industry at various different companies. I haven't broken 200k base salary, though benefits are pretty great where I'm at. To think I could've memorized some leet code problems, got a job at FAANG and been making 300k base for the past 5+ years while working 10-hour weeks is - yep, maddening.
The best time to be aware of the socioeconomic class differences in tech was 20 years ago, the second best time is now. Also some folks just find it difficult to study leetcode problems purely to "prove" themselves, for various psychological reasons. If you can, it helps a lot, as does graduating from top universities with a direct pipeline into these companies. Social signalling is much more valuable nowadays than capabilities.
Sometimes the grass really is greener - company culture can be actually incredibly toxic and compensation very below market, but when surrounded by people who normalize it most folks will project that experience out to the rest.
Did you go to Stanford or a similar pedigreed college? Unless you did that or broke that 200k barrier already by getting high up in a lower tier company, just memorizing some leet code problems wasn’t going to get you into a FAANG.
They care a lot about prestige. Or at least did before AI. Don’t know what their current hiring practices look like.
Don't feel bad. It is not about skill in those job, it is about "cultural fit". You must project a personality that will fit in with FAANG culture or you won't get the job unless you're famous globally due to having starting some huge open source project.
Comfort yourself with the fact that you did not have to sell your soul, sit through endless woke sexual harassment videos where you are taught that the white man is the source of all evil, and in endless management meetings.
Why are you upset its this way elsewhere? Those kind of working conditions are much more favorable don't you think? Why would you want to work 60 hour weeks?
I think we passed the inflection point of the normal 150-500 Lear code problems, understand DSA and systems design really well. Personally, I think companies are much more selective now and have all reduced the size of their engineering orgs.
There’s always been a percentage of luck getting offers from big tech companies, but it’s way more luck than than merit it has ever been.
The majority of those who get in are able to socially signal, through affiliations with other high paying companies or paper from prestigious (read: socially exclusive) institutions.
I'm really enjoying dusting off old projects that I lost interest in and handing them over to Claude to modernize their code and resurrect the ideas. But I'm also starting to miss the grind and feeling of accomplishment when you build stuff yourself, or finally sort out that nagging bug. I think there is a balance to be found, for me anyway, and I'm not sure I've found it yet.
I've always struggled with this thinking. Yes, you have finite hours in a day and if you spend an hour going to get food then you can't necessarily also be doing freelance work. But if you planned on working 8 hours to earn X dollars, you can still work 8 hours after spending an hour going to get food and still make X dollars. Sure, that hour has to come from somewhere so maybe it's lost leisure time or an hour of sleep. I guess it makes sense if you're trying to work every waking moment; and I can appreciate that some choose to and some have to.
> Sure, that hour has to come from somewhere so maybe it's lost leisure time or an hour of sleep.
Well, if you value an hour of your sleep or entertainment less than $15 dollars (if, for instance, you like to cook), then sure, spend it on cooking instead. Many of people would rather not, and their revealed preferences show it pretty clearly.
I've been WFH since Covid and, when it first happened, my office was in a finished attic that was not well conditioned. I like it warmer so I didn't mind, and the lack of comfort for others meant I enjoyed more solo time.
These days, I may as well not even have a door. I put auto-shutting hinges on it, but that failed as reminder/deterrent long ago.
We've got a 10x20 out back that was supposed to be my workshop, but it's filled with all the things most Americans put in their garages - because we don't have one. I'm seriously considering a deep purge and converting at least 1/2 of to an office; the distractions and context switching are disastrous.
reply