#FirstJobHorror #EmployeeAbuse #TechIndustry #CareerAdvice
Hey everyone, let’s talk about our first boss in the tech industry. 🤖 My experience was less than ideal – my boss was a total a-hole. From yelling in front of the whole team to threatening employees not to quit, it was a nightmare. But you know what? I learned some valuable lessons from that terrible experience. Here’s what I took away from it as an engineer:
🔹 Nothing is ever certain in a job, so I prioritized building an F-U fund for financial security and freedom.
🔹 Good people can give bad advice, so I started making decisions based on what was best for me, not just what others thought.
🔹 Good financial discipline is crucial for achieving the level of freedom you want in life. Money equals freedom, and avoiding lifestyle creep is key.
Remember, it’s YOUR life and YOUR decisions. Saving like your life depends on it is essential, because in a way, it does. Let’s share our experiences and learn from each other so we can all benefit and grow in our careers. 👩💻👨💻 #CareerGrowth #FinancialFreedom #SelfCareInTech
You have to respect your own dignity. Having trust in your abilities, knowing what you are worth is key to avoiding situations like this. Learn to notice these red flags and threaten to leave if things don’t improve. You don’t do it because you actually expect them to suddenly change, you do it because you actually come up for yourself. You’re going to see that many places have these issues & that job hopping this early in your career will have a positive impact on your salary because you bring in experience from multiple companies
wonderful post, thanks for sharing!
Good post. I know a lot of fellow students and coworkers I had are overeager to appear to be one of the best and get work abused in the meantime. Especially when it comes to companies with prestige, the big 4 is notorious for overworking. You need work-life balance, don’t work more than 40 hours a week for another company. If you are you’re being taken advantage of by the company.
I had one experience before undergrad when I was working in undergrad as an assembly line worker at some shitty factory, the shipment was late and we stood around for literally hours waiting for parts. Not only that, there was more product than was expected so we had to stay even longer. My 6-2 shift turned into 6-10. You read that right, 6 am to 10 pm. I worked 16 hours that day and was still expected to come in at 6 am the next day. After that I decided I would never let a company take advantage of me again. I’m lucky I learned that lesson early on.
Honda civics aren’t shitty!!!!!
Your list of takeaways is fantastic. We all have to hit a job like that or you simply don’t digest those points you’ve now listed. How could you, for the most part, unless you’ve lived it?
You absolutely need to save, but saving includes investing. Take your gross pay, and then take a percentage of that number and automate the investing of that. Do not take your net pay, pay all your bills and expenses, and then try to save and then invest the remainder. Save, and then invest once you hit your savings target, militantly, routinely, 2x a month. Adjust your expenses to fit, because as you said lifestyle creep. No matter how low you’re being paid, there’s someone that’s living on less. Figure out how they’re doing that. Everyone has something they can save. If you don’t save in your 20’s, it doesn’t matter if you triple down in your thirties, you’ll never catch up to what you would’ve had with the compounding early on.
Saving up a 6 month emergency fund (then see if you can **slowly** built it to a year) makes all the difference.
I had double edged sword as a first mentor. in short I think he didn’t like people and had to fake charm, but any kindness he showed seemed tainted. He said some harsh things here and there and made me doubt myself. He also made me lift my game alot due to that which is the double edged sword I guess?
The real problem I couldn’t articulate at the time was that during my probationary period at the company, he was the person who was going to determine whether I stay or am booted out, as I reported to him. So there was that power dynamic at play.
It could have been a nicer experience, but now that it’s done I just think it was part of the hoops I had to jump through, like leetcode currently is.
I’ve been there. My last job almost made me kill myself. Quit without notice and it’s the best decision I’ve ever made.
>Screamed at me on the floor because I didn’t introduce myself properly on a call, because it made his team look weak.
Was this dude prior military? Reminds me of some of the shit leaders I had while in.
I’ll take it a step further. Keep a 3-5 YEAR cash reserve. At that point you are insulated from macro economic fuckery.
The danger at that point is having precisely zero tolerance for managerial horseshit and calling them on it because worst case, they’re giving you time to go enjoy yourself. I learned that being in a place to say what has to be said makes an impression and builds a reputation.
You need to pull a Petyr Baelish in these situations and sabotage your manager so he’s fired.
I went through a similar experience for my first job out of college. The trauma is still there.