https://tomhickerson.com/en/tags/employment/Recent content in employment on Tom Hickerson's SiteHugo -- gohugo.ioen-usCopyright 2023-2026Sat, 28 Feb 2015 00:00:00 +0000https://tomhickerson.com/en/archives/en/2015/2015-02-28-consulting/Sat, 28 Feb 2015 00:00:00 +0000https://tomhickerson.com/en/archives/en/2015/2015-02-28-consulting/“I get asked a lot about what software consulting (aka freelancing) is like. Full-time salaried software developers tend to be the most curious. This post is a collection of observations I’ve made from my brief time as a consultant.” tags: career Consultinghttps://tomhickerson.com/en/archives/en/2010/2010-10-15-a-tale-of-two-programmers-the-rock-star-and-the-ditchdigger-2/Fri, 15 Oct 2010 00:00:00 +0000https://tomhickerson.com/en/archives/en/2010/2010-10-15-a-tale-of-two-programmers-the-rock-star-and-the-ditchdigger-2/Recently, I’ve seen some true words about the term “Rock Star” developer. That is, the company tarts up a job description by calling their programmers ‘rock star’ and think they’ll get a higher quality of candidate for open positions. The truth is: bullshit. Let’s say you’re hiring for a startup. Resources are limited. Your office space, if you can call it that, is five square meters of closet space that you rented from your aunt because it was the Decent Thing To Do.https://tomhickerson.com/en/archives/en/2010/2010-09-17-a-true-gem-about-engineering-management-and-always-be-hiring/Fri, 17 Sep 2010 00:00:00 +0000https://tomhickerson.com/en/archives/en/2010/2010-09-17-a-true-gem-about-engineering-management-and-always-be-hiring/Found a true gem while surfing Hacker News today: http://algeri-wong.com/yishan/engineering-management.html, Engineering Management at Facebook from 2006-2009. I especially liked the Hiring part. Here are a few quotes about why hiring should be foremost in everyone’s mind, from the CEO down to the janitor: “The quality of coworkers is the single greatest determinant of workplace happiness” “Hiring is a zero-sum game. Candidates that don’t join your company will join a competitor’s, and your loss will be their gain.https://tomhickerson.com/en/archives/en/2010/2010-02-24-all-interviews-suck/Wed, 24 Feb 2010 00:00:00 +0000https://tomhickerson.com/en/archives/en/2010/2010-02-24-all-interviews-suck/Like most of you, I have a job. Like most of you, I had to pass an interview to get that job. Like most of you, I failed many interviews before passing the one that got me here today. If it were up to me, I’d never go to another interview ever again. I’m sure many of you feel that same way – otherwise we’d never do things like YCombinator.https://tomhickerson.com/en/archives/en/2009/2009-08-18-letters-from-the-jobless-im-not-exactly-sure-where-i-went-wrong/Tue, 18 Aug 2009 00:00:00 +0000https://tomhickerson.com/en/archives/en/2009/2009-08-18-letters-from-the-jobless-im-not-exactly-sure-where-i-went-wrong/90% of our debt is educational. That really pisses me off; you’re told as a naive 18 year old that college is the only way to guarantee a career. So you do whatever it takes to secure that education, which may mean unwittingly borrowing from less-than-scrupulous lenders, and upon graduation you discover that hey, that degree isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on and you’re going to wind up working in a crappy job outside of your field anyway, and why didn’t anyone tell you that diesel mechanics make three times what you owe the government after just 18 months of training as opposed to four years of classes you’re never going to need, like ‘Comparative Religions’ and ‘Carmen: Novel, Opera, Film’?https://tomhickerson.com/en/archives/en/2009/2009-05-16-expat-thug-life-were-all-leaving-moscow/Sat, 16 May 2009 00:00:00 +0000https://tomhickerson.com/en/archives/en/2009/2009-05-16-expat-thug-life-were-all-leaving-moscow/I had lunch today with Mr. X, a fellow expat who lived in Moscow for the last four years. He had taken a temporary assignment in the US with the company he worked for in Moscow - an international, well-respected company - with the intention to return back to Moscow with his wife and child in August. This month he came back to Russia to resign his position, and ship all of his things back home.https://tomhickerson.com/en/archives/en/2005/2005-12-29-skillz-what-pay-the-billz/Thu, 29 Dec 2005 00:00:00 +0000https://tomhickerson.com/en/archives/en/2005/2005-12-29-skillz-what-pay-the-billz/Just had a read through of Computerworld's what tech skills are hot for 2006, and was glad to see that developers, as well as project managers, are in demand. Having both developed and managed, it's good to see that my skill set isn't quite being put out to pasture just yet. More interesting than the actual story was the claim that we aren't exporting as many jobs as we think: "https://tomhickerson.com/en/archives/en/2004/2004-05-21-job-history/Fri, 21 May 2004 00:00:00 +0000https://tomhickerson.com/en/archives/en/2004/2004-05-21-job-history/When I started working ten years ago, I had a BA in Russian and that was it. No technical skills. Some language skills, some office experience, but that was about all that there was. I got a job in the Ukraine after kicking around Austin Texas for a time, after graduation. I was earning 26k. Since I lived outside of the US for 300+ days a year, I got almost all of my taxes back to me.