

On Funemployment (and My Next Job) - emiller829
http://erniemiller.org/2013/09/07/on-funemployment-and-my-next-job/

======
jonnathanson
Forgive me, but I'm a little confused by the structure of your blog post. You
take us from an understandable point A (being laid off b/c your employer
closed shop) to a strange point B (a list of fairly restrictive requirements
for your next job).

I don't get how B follows from A. That structure is basically "I just got laid
off, and now I'm not looking to relocate to find a new job, but I _am_ looking
for an even better one with more money." I know you don't intend to come off
that way, but to the casual reader, you sort of do.

The more interesting post, IMO, would have attempted to mine some insights
from the experience. I mean, shit, man, you were hired into what sounds like
an awesome job, and then had to leave 6 weeks later. Six weeks! That's a story
in and of itself. What has that experience taught you? What has it taught you
about the nature of jobs, about the job market, about startups, about the
developer's life, about yourself? And how does all of that lead into what
you're looking for in a new job?

You're in a very unfortunate situation, and that sucks, and I hope you land an
awesome new gig soon. You're a smart and hardworking guy. But we need insights
from these sorts of experiences, because they're probably not as uncommon as
we might imagine. Your experience could, theoretically, happen to anyone here.
So what would you take from it that you feel we need to know?

~~~
gnufied
I do not understand why B has to follow A. You are also assuming he is in a
unfortunate situation somehow, But knowing him (as a fellow Rubyist) I think
he will have at least 10-15 offers sitting in his Inbox right now.

I don't know why you find points he has laid out as "strange" as well,But I
think it is a disservice to yourself as a programmer if you are going to
settle for anything else. For example:

1\. Can't relocate -> fair enough, it is hard to relocate if you have
families. I have one of our smartest programmer working with us remotely.

2.My next job will not be a contract -> It should be self-evident. Contract
workers are second class citizens.

3.My next job will stretch me -> Can you argue with this one? Daniel Pink in
his book "Drive" argue the very same points.

I can go on, but will stop. And oh good luck Ernie (Your contributions to
Rails are much appreciated).

~~~
jonnathanson
I'm not disagreeing with any of that, and I use "unfortunate" in the
sympathetic sense of the word, i.e., that it's certainly unfortunate to get
started -- and, from the sound of it, love -- a new job, only to have that job
disappear 6 weeks later. That's unfortunate, regardless of whom it happens to,
and regardless of how quickly the person (Ernie or otherwise) can recover from
it.

I apologize if my post came off as harsh on Ernie. That wasn't the intent. But
the reason I feel B doesn't follow from A is that there's kind of a missing
intermediate step. The story I was hoping for was "A: the company went under,"
"B: Here's what I've learned from the situation," "C: Here's why I need these
things from my next job." Instead, we sort of skip that middle section, and
we're left without a lot of the wisdom and perspective I'm sure a guy as
capable and introspective as Ernie could have given us.

 _" I don't know why you find points he has laid out as "strange" as well"_

I don't find his requirements strange in the least. If anything, they feel
perfectly rational. My issue is with the general structure of his post, not
the particulars of it. By skipping the "middle step," he risks coming across a
in way he probably didn't intend to.

------
joblessinnyc
You're very lucky. I'm starting to think that we imagine the market is better
than what it actually is.

This is my story: I moved to the US on March after working on a fast growing
an successful European start-up for 4 years. The one where everyone wants to
work at: lots of "I want to get out of the shower and code" problems, smart
colleagues and excellent compensation.

I took 5 months off to get used to this country, travel and finish some
personal projects I had in my mind since long ago. Four weeks ago I started to
actively look for a job and dude... I'm shitting in my pants about the idea
that I may have to go back to Europe.

I'm allowed to work in the US, I have a decent Github profile and couple of
LinkedIn recommendation (if they're useful or not, I don't know). I've lead
teams before, I've funded a company right out of college and sold it for a
profit two years later. I've applied to ~20 job offers and so far I only got
two replies: for one I already dealt with HR and it's been a week since they
told me they'll set up an Skype interview with one engineer (Yes, I'll follow
up Today on that one). For the other one, they were looking for Java-
enterprisey guy and I told them that Java is not something that I can say I'm
an expert with, but that I could get up to speed in one or two months at the
most. They said they'll call again... in six months.

HNers: I'm looking for your advice here. Do you see something wrong with my
approach? What else should I try? Am I just too anxious? Because it seems to
me that everyone take forever to answer! I'm really scared, because I left a
lot of things behind on the idea that finding a job in New York City would be
easy as cake and now I'm facing reality.

I don't have a network that I could leverage here in New York. I'm trying to
build one, but that could take more time than the one I could resist before
exploding in desperation and handling my resume to companies outside my field
of expertise.

Thanks!

~~~
300bps
_I took 5 months off to get used to this country, travel and finish some
personal projects I had in my mind since long ago._

In hindsight, I hope you see how this was a terrible idea. For years, there
have been article after article about how the only people able to find work
are the people that are currently working.

You appear to have chosen to create a 5 month gap in your work history. Can
you imagine how this looks to an employer? I instantly think of someone who is
lazy and is only willing to put the work in to find a job when they absolutely
have to. It makes me think you'll wait until the last minute for everything.

My advice is to find a way to explain what you were doing during those 5
months that doesn't come across so negatively. If you were working on side
projects, tell them you were working for "[YourName] Consulting" and thought
you'd try your hand at freelance consulting. Then you decided that it wasn't
for you.

Best of luck.

~~~
jarek
> You appear to have chosen to create a 5 month gap in your work history. Can
> you imagine how this looks to an employer?

Are you by any chance trolling? I am a middling .NET developer with a self-
chosen 4 month gap in my work history ("personal projects to grow Python
experience") and it took me something around four weeks of not particularly
intensive search to get a signed contract in not particularly software-heavy
Vancouver.

You'd rather have someone lie about what they do with their time than tell you
they do something other than pump out code?

This sort of "you must have a job" selectivity isn't a factor for halfway
decent software developers.

~~~
UK-AL
I hate the attitude too. However HR treats most people with suspicion. They
think you've been prison, or fired from a job after a month or two.

~~~
jarek
Of my applications that proceeded beyond email, five had HR or non-technical
recruiters handling the initial screening. It just doesn't seem to have been
that big of a factor. Maybe Vancouver is particularly progressive on this, or
I've always happened to encounter good HR, but I somewhat doubt it.

------
ChuckMcM
Great post Ernie, I'm sure you will do fine. I think you miss the bravado
though that is in some of those 'funemployment' tweets, its a scary thing to
be out of work and not actually interviewing anywhere. One way we fight back
our fears is to loudly profess their non-existence. It helps for a while.

That said, the difference between a 'hot mature' market and a 'hot new' market
are starting to become clear to a lot of people. In the 'hot new' version
there is demand for anyone who can fill the role, in the 'hot mature' version
there is demand for a role at a certain compensation rate. It's the latter
that has caught out a lot of people I know, who "grew up" in a company,
signing on out of college, working 10, 15, 20 years, and then finding
themselves out of work. What has happened is that their salary ratcheted up
with annual reviews but the supply of candidates increased dramatically. Their
faced with the question of taking a job with a 30% pay cut, or not working. It
brings on a whole host of emotions about self worth and future prospects.
Engineers, especially software engineers, are becoming somewhat commoditized
and that changes a lot of employment dynamics.

------
henrik_w
I don't know about "funemployment". Not knowing what your next job is going to
be takes a lot of the fun out of all the time you have (at least that's my
experience). A much better situation is knowing that you'll start in say 3
months - _then_ you can really enjoy the free time. Usually though, companies
want you to start as soon as possible, so that rarely works out.

~~~
300bps
I fear unemployment like I fear the plague. Honestly I don't get anyone that
would even jokingly refer to something like "funemployment". In fact, the very
word brings up every negative stereotype about unemployed people such that I
would hesitate to hire anyone that ever used it.

I've been employed constantly - literally without a day's break - since I was
14. That's 27 years of continuous employment but I still fear unemployment
tremendously.

~~~
jmduke
I think this is a generational thing. I'm 21 and I've been employed constantly
since I was 14 as well (if you stretch your definition of 'employed' to
include 'Wordpress monkey and high school helpdesk attendant), and the
advantage of that is if I were suddenly fired or laid off, I don't have to
live in paralyzing fear since I already have around half a year's worth of
living expenses saved up. That doesn't mean I'd spend six months goofing
around -- I'm a workaholic and I derive an unhealthy amount of value from my
day-to-day work -- but I wouldn't be crushed or anything.

~~~
adambard
I think it's a symptom of being a member of an in-demand profession. I don't
know of many other professions that employ as many recruiters as this one.
It's easy not to fear unemployment with this many unsolicited offers in your
inbox.

It can't possibly last though, so if you're a developer right now (as is the
OP), you'd be doing yourself a disservice not to enjoy it.

------
tom_b
Nothing is quite the gut punch like a job that simply evaporates. Good luck in
your search.

Commenting from the enterprise programmer perspective, I have seen talented,
well-credentialed, strong portfolio-wielding, but lesser-networked hackers
spend significant amounts of time (up to a year) on the sideline while seeking
work in my region. Hackers should remember that this actually happens.

Build a bit of a cash cushion. Be prepared to invest in yourself
([http://www.paulgraham.com/badeconomy.html](http://www.paulgraham.com/badeconomy.html)).
If you stay or return to the enterprise world, don't join a "cost center"
group.

------
tptacek
How does a company with 6 weeks runway manage to hire someone like this?

~~~
vinceguidry
I think you're underestimating the seductive lure of the startup and what it
can do to the judgment of otherwise whip-smart people. Also just how well
management can hide deep structural problems from the staff. Nobody understood
how badly Ecomom was doing until after Jody committed suicide.

~~~
loganfrederick
Don't join a company without understanding its cash flow. If a startups
founders can't give you their runway, then you don't have to risk your career
on something that might shut down in a week.

------
agentultra
There's very little in the way of commercial software development that makes
me, "want to program wet and naked." The kinds of things in programming that
get me going are mostly academic at this point and the application of
technology that I am interested in I am not qualified for at the engineering
level... so I just have to make my bills and study Hilbert's absolute proofs
and meta-mathematics in my own time (which is very little these days).

Maybe it's different for you and I hope you do find something like that
because there's nothing like it.

But for practical reasons you may consider just doing a job and not expecting
to derive happiness and fulfillment from every waking moment of your day.

 _Update_ : Not that you can't find happiness and fulfillment from doing a
good job and making people happy. ;)

------
danielrmay
Unfortunately the majority of us don't get to be so picky when choosing a job
- especially when we've just been laid off so suddenly.

~~~
tommoor
Ernie has built up a solid reputation through hard work, you can too! Then you
get to be picky ;)

------
henrik_w
I think you have to compromise on some points in pretty much all jobs. It's
very hard to get every single point right. The key is to compromise on the
right things. I wrote my own list of what I look for in a new job not so long
ago: [http://henrikwarne.com/2013/03/26/what-do-programmers-
want/](http://henrikwarne.com/2013/03/26/what-do-programmers-want/)

------
_pmf_
A blog post quoting your own tweets? Seriously?

~~~
JanneVee
For giving context for those who don't follow him on twitter?

------
opendomain
I know that you are not looking for Contract work, but I looking for someone
to create a rails tutorial for the
[http://www.RubyRails.Com](http://www.RubyRails.Com) . The content would be
Free and the project would support open source. contact me at Ric AT
HNusername DOT org

------
ido
And what if you don't find a job that meets these criteria?

------
wambotron
Good luck finding something like that. I don't think it will be easy

------
linuxlizard
I wonder if he has a mortgage and/or kids.

~~~
emiller829
Both.

~~~
linuxlizard
Good on you! No sarcasm. Good on you for wanting a great job while still
supporting a family. It's a tough balancing act.

~~~
emiller829
Thanks. I find the need to support my family the reason I must push for a
great job. I want to both provide the best I can for them, and also to love
what I do, so I still have energy left to invest in them at the end of my day.

------
Jayschwa
I hope it works out for you. I deliberately took a year off for funemployment.
I did some new things, learned some new things, and eventually wound up as a
student at hackerschool.com. I found a nice gig through them, which I start in
two weeks.

------
chrisbennet
When I'm between jobs I tell my friends "I'm not unemployed. I'm a man of
_leisure_ ". :-)

