<story><title>My startup failed, then I found out I was unemployable</title><url>https://davesullivan.is/my_startup_failed_then_i_found_out_i_was_unemployable.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>iandanforth</author><text>Let&amp;#x27;s say a company would pay you $250k base with an additional $100k in stock and bonuses. This comp puts you in the top 5% of earners in the world. The catch is that you need to learn to do a stupid dance where you wear huge feathers and do this dance in front of a panel of reviewers. Not only that they will insist the dance correlates with productivity and you have to nod and agree with them. The question is, do you spend the time to learn the dance?&lt;p&gt;That&amp;#x27;s pretty much it, it&amp;#x27;s just a stupid dance. You can get angry and say &amp;quot;No no no, this dance is stupid!&amp;quot; Or you can learn the dance, do the dance, then be richer than 95% of people in the world.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>Kranar</author><text>This is an excellent way of putting it.&lt;p&gt;Also please understand that as employers we make people do this silly dance because it&amp;#x27;s the best way we, and frankly anyone, knows to reduce the risk of hiring high quality candidates.&lt;p&gt;I can understand the frustration of doing the silly dance for companies that don&amp;#x27;t pay competitively and think they are at the same level as Google minus the pay... but for companies paying among the top 5%, we get flooded and flooded with resumes and while you may be a good person, present yourself nicely (and those are all good things to do), and even impress with a resume, it&amp;#x27;s simply too risky to hire you on that basis without seeing a demonstration of your technical abilities.&lt;p&gt;When I started out I really was dead-set against hiring people based on the silly dance... after making a lot of bad hires and seeing people who looked impressive on paper but couldn&amp;#x27;t apply some basic algorithmic knowledge to solve some problems I succumbed to using the silly dance and honestly the quality of candidates I hired improved substantially.</text></comment>
<story><title>My startup failed, then I found out I was unemployable</title><url>https://davesullivan.is/my_startup_failed_then_i_found_out_i_was_unemployable.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>iandanforth</author><text>Let&amp;#x27;s say a company would pay you $250k base with an additional $100k in stock and bonuses. This comp puts you in the top 5% of earners in the world. The catch is that you need to learn to do a stupid dance where you wear huge feathers and do this dance in front of a panel of reviewers. Not only that they will insist the dance correlates with productivity and you have to nod and agree with them. The question is, do you spend the time to learn the dance?&lt;p&gt;That&amp;#x27;s pretty much it, it&amp;#x27;s just a stupid dance. You can get angry and say &amp;quot;No no no, this dance is stupid!&amp;quot; Or you can learn the dance, do the dance, then be richer than 95% of people in the world.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>that_guy_iain</author><text>I think this hits the nail on the head. For some people the safety and income that these companies provide make it worth doing the dance. For many others, we just think &amp;quot;Meh, there is more to life than money, I am not doing that dance I am going to do this other dance that I think is more fun.&amp;quot; Like honestly, what I am going to do with that extra money? For me just now, the answer is waste it. 100% even if I invest it and make more money with it. Eventually I have to spend it and buy pointless stuff. An super duper exercise bike that has a built in screen and looks cool. A cool car. A big house that is too big for my needs. All while being annoyed about a stupid dance. While I can get by working on other things and be less annoyed. And get to do more of what I actually want to do.</text></comment>