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DracheZahnHNSource author
Lessons learnedExperience excerpt · English

Don't get me wrong

… Don't get me wrong. My employer is world-class, and the benefits were amazing, but the software development and engineering culture are destroying their employees. A sabbatical to rethink my career is in order. I've saved for the past 20 years and realized that unless I take time now, I might never have the real opportunity to enjoy life the way I’ve dreamed. I now have two years of savings set aside, so we will see where life takes me. I might work for myself or simply step down from technology development into a new role. Modern software engineering is killing its employees. Global teams across time zones working from 5:00am to 10:00pm., on projects that aren’t even mine—just because someone else left and needed someone competent to pick up the slack and carry the project to completion. Leaders overpromise and commit to deadlines without even asking if the solutions are feasible. Being reprimanded when you push back and say that the solution they just promised isn’t realistic or even possible.

Original discussionAsk HN: Is anyone else just done with the industry?178 source comments · at import
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MongooseStudiosHN

I'm a self taught dev that worked my butt off and endured years of "we promote internally" lies at multiple companies to finally get paid to write code. I've been job hunting since I was laid off last November, and I'm just over it. Everyone is unicorn hunting for X years in Y framework and if you don't have exactly that you need not apply. Meanwhile FAANG, Microsoft, and Intel keep handing out pink slips. I still love coding, I've spent most of my non "job applications and existential dread" time since layoff building projects. But the thought of working for another company run by braindead execs that want to shove AI into everything, or sitting through another round of Becky from HR (whose most technical skill is sometimes using excel) asking me "so why do you want to work here" fills me with revulsion. I've taken to telling people with absurdly high meeting count hiring processes and …

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MongooseStudiosHN

I think we're going to see more of this. The general result of all the RIF/outsourcing seems to still be that the onshore employees workload increases and they burn out. I'm genuinely glad that you said enough is enough. I hope you go make something rad and never need to go back to that world.

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DracheZahnHN

One more comment and a bit of advice for junior product and engineering staff. If someone else leaves, make it clear to your leadership that you cannot be expected to always pick up the slack. Don't get stuck in the cycle where leaders learn they can dump tasks on you and never backfill for the skill set. Becoming an essential team member will lessen your chances of getting promoted, and you will have very limited career change opportunities..

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insane_dreamerHN

> Leaders overpromise and commit to deadlines without even asking if the solutions are feasible. Because salespeople promised the client. Terrible.

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octo888HN

Solidarity my friend. I'm doing the same. Offshoring massively increasing, Scrum, story points, poor leadership with no vision, pointless projects, working across timezones, different language levels, having to understand 2-5 cultures, no in-person interaction with my colleagues, haughty Product Managers...totally burnt out.

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scarface_74HN

How have you been in the industry for 35 years (myself 30 years in a year) and not had the optionality to say “no” to being overworked? I’ve worked for 29 years across 10 companies from 60 person startups to two F10 companies (including one FAANG) and always knew the worse case for saying “No” is that they could fire me and I just get another job.

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