
Ask HN: Why are you still at your current job? - dsk139
I&#x27;ve seen posts lately about large disparities in salary comp even within organizations and unhappiness with current roles&#x2F;responsibilities (engineering specifically). I was wondering for people who do not feel valued or are not in great environments at their current company:
1. What in your job do you enjoy? (comp, responsibilities, learning, people)<p>2. What in your job are you missing?<p>3. Why are you still there even when the job market seems to be extremely healthy right now?<p>4. What would give you the push to leave?<p>Feel free to e-mail me answers too if you don&#x27;t want to post. I&#x27;m just curious.
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throwawaytrain
1\. It pays the bills. I make more than 97% of people in the US. I'm going to
get paid a guaranteed 15% bonus at the end of this year. There ain't no way
I'm getting fired from here: I know that this employer really can't afford to
fire even mediocre people due to the sky-high cost of replacing them.

2\. The people here are .. mediocre. I'm not learning anything. I'm not 100%
sure whether anyone gives half a turd about the project I'm working on. And I
have to dress like a damn fool. (Business casual sucks.)

3\. I'm still here because I haven't found anything better just yet. The roof
isn't on fire & this job kind of does what it's supposed to do for my family,
so I can afford to take the time to find something better. I am actively doing
that.

4\. I'll leave once I've found an opportunity that I love. I'll know it when I
see it.

~~~
dionidium
_And I have to dress like a damn fool. (Business casual sucks.)_

I realize that this wasn't the main point of your post, but I do have some
thoughts on this. My first job after college was at a Fortune 500 company that
required business casual. I dressed like an idiot. My shirts were too big (and
all of the same single-color button-up variety). My pants didn't fit right
(and weren't altered to match my actual height). There was no diversity in my
outfits.

You don't have to make those same mistakes.

1\. Get the stuff you buy altered to fit you.

2\. Look to the web for basic fashion patterns and advice. This is easier than
ever.

3\. Give up and order from Trunk Club or an equivalent service. It's basic
fashion for the fashion illiterate.

~~~
tedmiston
Even well fitting doesn't matter when you feel like you were born to wear
hoodies, shorts, and sneakers. I currently work for a startup and that's
something I place a lot of value in. I would turn down a job at my current
salary + $10k if it required business casual attire every day (of course that
implies further cultural differences too).

------
rubynav
Great questions and sometimes life just works out quirky, but here's my
thoughts... 1\. I do not enjoy anything! 2\. I will not miss anything! 3\. Pay
is descent and benefits are great! 4\. I would need to just go after my dreams
and stop second guessing myself and my abilities!

Great topic!

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dudul
1\. Some of the people. Half of my team is awesome, the other half mediocre

2\. More money. More responsibilities. More opportunities to learn new things
(both technical and "soft skills")

3\. I'm currently looking for something else

4\. Already decided to leave, just waiting to find the right opportunity.

------
eip
Hard to find another remote position that pays more but doesn't suck more.

------
a-saleh
1\. People, I have some really good colleagues. Then the flexible work hours,
nobody really cares if I come in at 6, have a 4 hour lunch break and the
finish my work from home, as long as I am able to attend our meetings, and all
of those I can do online. I finished my drivers licence this way. Third is the
breadth of technologies I get to use.

2\. Better compensation. I know the company I work for is below average in my
location/profession. Second, I'd like to see more drive towards quality and
less on showing barely running mvp's out of the door.

3\. I have a small child, so I am willing to forgo better pay if I know that
nobody will even blink if I suddenly get from my desk at noon that I need to
run an errand and don't return. Second reason is, that in a year we will
release new mayor version of our produce and I would really like to see it in
better state than barely working MVP :)

4\. If my current situation changes, i.e: if my daughter is in kindergarden
and wife at work I would exchange the flexible hours for higher pay.

~~~
dsk139
It's hard to give up flexibility. I'm single so I don't even need flexibility
per say but I'm in a 100% remote situation and it's hard to leave for higher
compensation.

would you be interested at all in a service that curates all job boards and
e-mails you jobs only if a job matches your criteria (in your case it might be
comp, flexibility, and a wide use of different technologies)... if so shoot me
an e-mail david at moja dot io. would love to hear your thoughts.

------
JSeymourATL
> 2\. What in your job are you missing?

There's thought provoking lecture by Richard Hamming on considering your job
and career. He asks -

1) What are the most important problems in your field?

2) Are you working on ONE of them?

3) Why NOT?

Timeless advice, applicable to a variety of professions >
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1zDuOPkMSw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1zDuOPkMSw)

------
blabla_blublu
1\. The environment is generally positive, love my co-workers and I do a
reasonable job as a platform engineer.

2\. Would love to have more input in the direction of certain aspects of the
product.

3\. My #1 priority is work-life balance. It is taken care of here.

4\. If work starts becoming tedious (monotony?) and starts eating into my free
time / weekends, I would leave right away.

~~~
dsk139
Does your company have more product engineer roles that you can shift to?

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bryan11
1\. Being remote lets me work varied hours as needed with clients but still
have a good work/life balance. My manager and co-workers are all generally
good and we get along well. I currently get to lead projects involving Devops,
scalability testing, performance, and various other things so work is
interesting and challenging.

2\. The size and culture of the company can make us slower to adopt new
things. Both human and physical resources are tight.

3\. When I look at new positions, the opportunity there with the risks
involved generally don't seem to be better.

4\. If my current manager left, work becomes tedious and micro-controlled, I'd
likely be looking actively.

~~~
dsk139
As a fellow remote employee with good managers it definitely is tougher for me
to risk it and make the jump.

------
twunde
1) Some management responsibilities, a good team, pretty good comp 2) Best
practices. I want to be able to write automated tests, have architecture
documents, good tooling and work with great people. And preferably use a
different language other than PHP 3)I've been allowed to work from Europe for
months at a time and been given the opportunity to manage a small team. This
has been a great opportunity to improve my soft skills, but I feel like my
tech skills are rusting away 4) Finding a remote job that pays the equivalent
salary or higher. Alternatively, I may leave for a brand name tech company
like Google or Facebook where I would work with best practices and great
people.

------
bjw181
1) I'm stuck. Can't make it at a programming job since my major was not CS.

2) Freelance doesn't really work without a portfolio to gain traction

Horrible situation because money was never an issue to me. I just wanted to
pursue my passion. If I was able to remotely work for $20/hr. I would gladly
move to a low cost of living country.

~~~
jliechti1
Are you in the US? If so, not having a CS major shouldn't hold you back too
much.

My major was not CS and I am working for a well-known technology company as a
software engineer. Feel free to reach out to me privately (email in profile).

~~~
bjw181
I have a finance degree and am in the US. I've been self taught for the past
few years. I know the basics of programming and its easy for me to learn a new
language but proving to tech firms here has proved difficult except for small
short term gigs ironing out wordpress issues and writing data mining scripts.
Any advice how to break out into the industry would be greatly appreciated.

~~~
iSloth
Interviewers normally care about education when they've not got much else to
go on. Build something impressive to show them, your proving what your
actually capable of, so they don't have to guess capabilities based on your
education.

~~~
dsk139
As a former teacher with no CS degree and now on my 3rd developer job that I
really enjoy I +1 this sentiment. I have some other tips if you need some,
e-mail me I'd be happy to help. david at moja dot io

