Comment by nyarlathotep_

Comment by nyarlathotep_ 15 hours ago

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> Work will always be there!

I really wish this were true; I'd take a year off to work on "life", but any sort of career pause, especially in this environment, seems to be a huge risk.

Ageism is a concern--hell, even finding a new mediocre job in today's market is very difficult.

I think it's "make hay while the sun shines". Seems the future has less opportunity, and there's plenty of time for underemployment later.

CharlieDigital 13 hours ago

    > but any sort of career pause, especially in this environment, seems to be a huge risk.
My experience is on the contrary. My largest gains in income have always come after a break. I'm making 2x what I made in 2020 after taking almost a year off to work on some side projects and startups (a YC submission)[0]. Then in 2023, decided to take another 8 months off to work on other side projects[1]

But I also used those times to make the things I wanted to make; what I learned along the way is that oftentimes the biggest barrier to getting a better offer is actually the lack of free time and patience. If you can create time for yourself and put that time to good use, you will come out of it better for it as long as you apply that time productively.

I've always guided junior engineers I've worked with to save as much as they can because that is what will give them opportunity and freedom. You need to be able to have free time to cram leetcode, for example, or build up a portfolio, or wait out bad offers.

[0] https://www.thinktastic.com/#/

[1] https://turas.app (I had to get this one out of my system and a partner and I tried to see if we could make this one sustainable)

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