New ask Hacker News story: Ask HN: I have many gaps between jobs: should I quit being a software engineer?
Ask HN: I have many gaps between jobs: should I quit being a software engineer?
4 by throwaway_gaps | 1 comments on Hacker News.
I graduated after 2008 from a good undergrad program. My work history since then has a lot of gaps in employment. The longest I have been at a job has been just under 2 years. Most of the time, I waited over a year in between jobs except for one time where I was recruited to the next job via a referral from a colleague. I’ve really tried to look inside myself to see what went wrong in the jobs that didn’t work out. One thing that I should say is that I have depression: I take medication and see a doctor, and I was first diagnosed after my first full-time job. Apart from one company that genuinely laid off many people in quick succession including myself, the other companies where I worked all fired me many months after I had been working there. On three of the occasions, the manager who originally hired me had moved onto a different team/got promoted/was reorganized into having less input (matrix management). In each of these cases, my new manager was promoted from within my team and it was always their first time managing a team: they always had very good technical knowledge and skills, and I would always feel like I am getting on well with them and making progress on my goals. However, I feel as though they effectively under-communicated what they really wanted from me, and I simply took them at literally at their word. In any case, I am only giving my side of the story (I don’t know their side). I read posts about résumés and how having too many short stints in too short of a timeframe is problematic. I am such a person. What do I do? I do genuinely enjoy writing code when I know what is being asked of me and when I know that it will help the end-user(s). However, it has been over a year since my last job once again, and I feel as if this time is possibly a death knell of sorts. I really thought about posting this message on my normal HN account and linking my personal résumé, but I was too afraid of appearing to disparage any of my previous employers. What should I do?
4 by throwaway_gaps | 1 comments on Hacker News.
I graduated after 2008 from a good undergrad program. My work history since then has a lot of gaps in employment. The longest I have been at a job has been just under 2 years. Most of the time, I waited over a year in between jobs except for one time where I was recruited to the next job via a referral from a colleague. I’ve really tried to look inside myself to see what went wrong in the jobs that didn’t work out. One thing that I should say is that I have depression: I take medication and see a doctor, and I was first diagnosed after my first full-time job. Apart from one company that genuinely laid off many people in quick succession including myself, the other companies where I worked all fired me many months after I had been working there. On three of the occasions, the manager who originally hired me had moved onto a different team/got promoted/was reorganized into having less input (matrix management). In each of these cases, my new manager was promoted from within my team and it was always their first time managing a team: they always had very good technical knowledge and skills, and I would always feel like I am getting on well with them and making progress on my goals. However, I feel as though they effectively under-communicated what they really wanted from me, and I simply took them at literally at their word. In any case, I am only giving my side of the story (I don’t know their side). I read posts about résumés and how having too many short stints in too short of a timeframe is problematic. I am such a person. What do I do? I do genuinely enjoy writing code when I know what is being asked of me and when I know that it will help the end-user(s). However, it has been over a year since my last job once again, and I feel as if this time is possibly a death knell of sorts. I really thought about posting this message on my normal HN account and linking my personal résumé, but I was too afraid of appearing to disparage any of my previous employers. What should I do?
Comments
Post a Comment