Job Hunting

TJT · Saturday at 9:16 AM

I very unexpectedly got an interview lined up for next week. On Thursday I received a LinkedIn message from a recruiter. Normally I never read these but the description intrigued me as it is mostly what i am doing but with additional explicit development of AI stuff. On Friday I got through the first and second round interviews in the same day. Which never happens.

Company makes a cool product I hadn't heard about but it is right up my alley. Third round is on Monday. Pay is 35% more than I am making now and I am already pretty well compensated. We will see what happens.

moonarchia · Saturday at 2:54 PM

TJT said:
I very unexpectedly got an interview lined up for next week. On Thursday I received a LinkedIn message from a recruiter. Normally I never read these but the description intrigued me as it is mostly what i am doing but with additional explicit development of AI stuff. On Friday I got through the first and second round interviews in the same day. Which never happens.

Company makes a cool product I hadn't heard about but it is right up my alley. Third round is on Monday. Pay is 35% more than I am making now and I am already pretty well compensated. We will see what happens.

Can you do the new job while keeping your current one?

TJT · Sunday at 1:11 PM

moonarchia said:
Can you do the new job while keeping your current one?

I will not be doing the 2 job hustle for awhile, if ever. It is far too draining as I have young kids on top of it. I already had no social life.

Haus · Sunday at 1:25 PM

Well, I was kinda wondering when this would pop on my bingo card....

I know folks at a BPO (Business Process Outsourcer) who operate low cost call centers across the globe where they can hire folks for a pittance, and they're now starting to openly panic at how randos with cloud workspaces are now spinning up virtual Indians and Costa Ricans at a small fraction of the cost.

Kobayashi · Sunday at 1:35 PM

Haus said:
Well, I was kinda wondering when this would pop on my bingo card....

Good riddance. As someone who has had the misfortune of dealing with multiple programs developed by TCS, I can firmly say that even with companies demanding 15-30% fee cuts, they're grossly overpaying.

Khane · Sunday at 1:36 PM

How is that a plot twist Amanda?

But yea, seems a bit premature, looks like India is becoming too expensive so they're subcontracting the shit we outsource to them to even cheaper labor markets.

Amanda is missing the forest for the trees, AI isn't replacing humans, we're still a long way away from that. The Indians are starting to get fat and happy and are fucking their people over the same way we are.

Haus · Sunday at 1:41 PM

Khane said:
How is that a plot twist Amanda?

But yea, seems a bit premature, looks like India is becoming too expensive so they're subcontracting the shit we outsource to them to even cheaper labor markets.

Amanda is missing the forest for the trees, AI isn't replacing humans, we're still a long way away from that. The Indians are starting to get fat and happy and are fucking their people over the same way we are.

Well I remember discussing this with some people I know in APAC a decade ago. They were already seeing price pressures on their labor costs because those Indians coming into the call centers were making money which was really good compared to other Indians, but then they were getting exposed to what the middle class of the western world was like... and they wanted that. And that caused them to tart demanding more. To which the BPOs responded with "fire the ones who want more", which lasted... for a while.....

Haus · Tuesday at 4:45 PM

My invasive thoughts this weekend, in a nutshell...

Deathwing · Tuesday at 5:00 PM

Would be nice if he substantiated any of those feels.

Sanrith Descartes · Tuesday at 5:49 PM

Deathwing said:
Would be nice if he substantiated any of those feels.

He's right. Lots of reasons. Too old to invest training time in. Most likely wants higher comp than the 25 year old will take. He might have more experience than the dept head or manager and we can't have that. Probably set in his ways and not malleable enough. He won't fit in with the much younger team.

Etc, etc.

Haus · Tuesday at 10:20 PM

Sanrith Descartes said:
He's right. Lots of reasons. Too old to invest training time in. Most likely wants higher comp than the 25 year old will take. He might have more experience than the dept head or manager and we can't have that. Probably set in his ways and not malleable enough. He won't fit in with the much younger team.

Etc, etc.

I already see with what I do, for me to find a good fit I'm going to need to find some up and coming company where they need a "Master Shifu" Cyber guy to teach younger SEs, or a "We need someone who looks like a damn professor making our talks at trade shows" person....

Or call in favors with people who know me for a comfy gig to ride out a decade at where I can do my thing, probably not make stupid money, but good money, and just enjoy what I do and who I do it with.

Right now I'm in a big corporate scene and I see all the technical talent like me probably being replaced by AI or interns who can just spit feed what AI tells them in 2 years.

TJT · 2025-07-30T07:32:19-0400

This is kind of a reason I work in data infrastructure. The younger engineers have absolutely no understanding of it and that is me being generous. Even the youngbloods who are very competent with the current state of app development are terrible at understanding and applying older architecture. They work fine when you serve up their requirements on a platter though but asking them to work around the edges to get around older architecture is beyond them. They usually just go "well build it better with newer tooling" without understanding the cost implications of it. Which is precisely why we run on 40 year old code of stuff and positively ancient versions of database systems in various places.

As long as there is more data tomorrow than there was yesterday I am confident I can always find a job. Plenty of data infrastructure devs are like 60 or older. Even at my company right now.

Sanrith Descartes · 2025-07-30T09:17:18-0400

Haus said:
I already see with what I do, for me to find a good fit I'm going to need to find some up and coming company where they need a "Master Shifu" Cyber guy to teach younger SEs, or a "We need someone who looks like a damn professor making our talks at trade shows" person....

Or call in favors with people who know me for a comfy gig to ride out a decade at where I can do my thing, probably not make stupid money, but good money, and just enjoy what I do and who I do it with.

Right now I'm in a big corporate scene and I see all the technical talent like me probably being replaced by AI or interns who can just spit feed what AI tells them in 2 years.

I know I preach on this, but it bears repeating. After 25 years of big corporate work, I went out on my own and began the entrepreneur route. Best decision I could have made. It has its own challenges, but this is really the route older workers not ready to retire should go. Fuck trying to get a job at 50+. Just do your own thing. Its not a huge leap to "make a paycheck" being self- employed. Scaling up and growing to something more is the serious challenge. Not working for someone else is priceless, though.

TJT · 2025-07-30T09:46:17-0400

I never minded "working for someone else." I am paid well and I am at this point not stressed out by my work. I can understand the freedom being nice though.

TJT · 2025-07-30T14:47:19-0400

Talked to the company today. They asked me about comp and they effectively want someone with "staff engineer" level skills in data infrastructure. Which is my current role. But they also want someone who can do all of the business facing AI stuff they are asking for. For this they said their pay band was like 175k-225k. I asked for 215k and the HR girl was all like "well that's really competitive we will see what we can do."

Look bitch, I don't want to have an ego here but you are looking for me to do everything I currently do in addition to all of your cool initiatives. Which is what drew me to the position. But you expect to pay bottom dollar for that?

LiquidDeath · 2025-07-31T08:36:12-0400

TJT said:
Talked to the company today. They asked me about comp and they effectively want someone with "staff engineer" level skills in data infrastructure. Which is my current role. But they also want someone who can do all of the business facing AI stuff they are asking for. For this they said their pay band was like 175k-225k. I asked for 215k and the HR girl was all like "well that's really competitive we will see what we can do."

Look bitch, I don't want to have an ego here but you are looking for me to do everything I currently do in addition to all of your cool initiatives. Which is what drew me to the position. But you expect to pay bottom dollar for that?

My favorite is when they have a pay band but then balk when you ask for anything inside the top 40% of they pay band they defined.

Gutterflesh · 2025-07-31T11:48:12-0400

TJT said:
Talked to the company today. They asked me about comp and they effectively want someone with "staff engineer" level skills in data infrastructure. Which is my current role. But they also want someone who can do all of the business facing AI stuff they are asking for. For this they said their pay band was like 175k-225k. I asked for 215k and the HR girl was all like "well that's really competitive we will see what we can do."

Look bitch, I don't want to have an ego here but you are looking for me to do everything I currently do in addition to all of your cool initiatives. Which is what drew me to the position. But you expect to pay bottom dollar for that?

I almost never hear of anyone paying on the top end of the posted salary ranges. It's a bullshit bait tactic to attract people.

I recall arguing with my wife about this when it was becoming law in California. My wife said it was to benefit the applicants and to be transparent with current employees, but I argued it was fake and gay.

My wife is in HR, so she gets a little rustled when I call her line of work fake and gay.

moonarchia · 2025-07-31T11:58:09-0400

Gutterflesh said:
I almost never hear of anyone paying on the top end of the posted salary ranges. It's a bullshit bait tactic to attract people.

I recall arguing with my wife about this when it was becoming law in California. My wife said it was to benefit the applicants and to be transparent with current employees, but I argued it was fake and gay.

My wife is in HR, so she gets a little rustled when I call her line of work fake and gay.

To be fair, HR is really really gay.

Gutterflesh · 2025-07-31T12:08:28-0400

moonarchia said:
To be fair, HR is really really gay.

Especially when she would bring her work home and get all twisted up when I would call the new season of Game of Thrones retarded.

Her: "You shouldn't use that word. It's not nice."
Me: "You got a better word to explain this stupid shit?"

moonarchia · 2025-07-31T12:10:17-0400

Gutterflesh said:
Especially when she would bring her work home and get all twisted up when I would call the new season of Game of Thrones retarded.

Her: "You shouldn't use that word. It's not nice."
Me: "You got a better word to explain this stupid shit?"

"I wasn't trying to be nice."

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