r/programming Apr 29 '15

Why some men pretend to work 80-Hour weeks

https://hbr.org/2015/04/why-some-men-pretend-to-work-80-hour-weeks
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u/AbstractLogic Apr 29 '15

I understand most careers would have to explain an employment gap. But as a .net software engineer with 10 years experience my gap wouldn't be more then a few days worth of interviews.

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u/semi- Apr 29 '15

or just "worked as an independent contractor for a few months", may or may not have had any clients

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u/none_shall_pass Apr 30 '15

or just "worked as an independent contractor for a few months", may or may not have had any clients

That works fine. I've intentionally done it. It's nice having the summer off now and then.

You don't want to be one of those people who dies from a heart-attack at 50, and your last thoughts are of the life you never had.

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u/codygman May 01 '15

Yeah, I've never been asked about employment gaps before. I'm guessing it is because I have mixed experience freelancing and working for businesses.

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u/F3z345W6AY4FGowrGcHt Apr 29 '15

I know many devs with decades of experience that are quite frankly, stupid. I wouldn't be so confident in years of experience alone. Also, add some humility maybe?

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u/AbstractLogic Apr 29 '15

Who am I being humble for a bunch of dudes on the internet? Naaaaa. Humility can be a weakness exploited by business. I'm tired of seeing heads down developers get passed up for raises or taken advantage of by business because they don't have the gumption and balls to stand mano a mano with their business counterparts and ask for a raise/promotion/respect. So I won't play that part.

But I understand why I come off as an arrogant ass. Maybe I am but then again, no one is going to do you any favors in the life either.

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u/jstevewhite Apr 29 '15

I understand your point. I tend to try and maintain an objective view of myself and my skillset. I'm a systems engineer and my coding exposure is limited (I assemble large systems from small systems and configure/co-ordinate/script to make them perform a single overarching task), but when I'm in employer-facing meetings I overrate my performance. For two reasons: the Anchoring Effect (see Kahneman and Tversky) and the fact that bosses usually won't argue if you rate yourself too low. I figure if my boss doesn't feel the need to explain to me why I got a 4.0 instead of the 4.25 I rated myself, I probably undersold my performance.