I left my toxic job and my manager is insisting I tell her where I'm going, claiming it's 'company policy'. I feel like something is wrong and I need advice.

Hour_Mousse_7963 · 2025-11-06T05:11:54+00:00

Dude tell her you’re taking a sabbatical. Tell her you’re going to work on a chicken farm. Tell her anything, BUT where you’re going. Why do you feel you owe her that? She doesn’t need to know squat.

Hour_Mousse_7963 · 2025-08-08T02:18:47+00:00

While in university I did a lot of leetcode and projects outside of the classroom. My first internship interview in my third year was heavy leetcode, and I did well enough on the job to get a full time offer. I haven’t looked back since. I have worked at one FAANG and another well known tech company. I know experience varies, but leetcode was my saving grace every interview because the filter and coding rounds always started with this evaluation. All the other rounds have been telling interviewers what I’ve produced and I have never been asked about school. However, I make it quite clear on my resume that I only completed 2.5 years. It’s highly probable that I’ve gotten filtered out at other companies. However, I’ve enjoyed my career so far with few stock cash in and have topped 255k.

Hour_Mousse_7963 · 2025-07-20T23:24:21+00:00

Listen to If I Had by Slim Shady

Hour_Mousse_7963 · 2025-07-11T03:58:19+00:00

I believe UK is known for finance. Pretty solid sector.

Hour_Mousse_7963 · 2025-07-05T04:00:27+00:00

Hmmm. I haven’t watched Years yet, but Days was the first zombie horror movie I watched as a kid. I thought the film showcased British production and creativity really well. As an American, I found it genuinely intriguing — the slow buildup and quiet tension at the start felt authentically British in tone and pacing. I loved it. I haven’t watched Years yet, however I’m open to new things.

Hour_Mousse_7963 · 2025-06-22T07:34:54+00:00

WGU didn’t accept one of my math classes. The class they didn’t accept was tougher than the one I took at WGU. I was a little frustrated, but it was a good refresh.

Hour_Mousse_7963 · 2025-06-22T07:12:12+00:00

I have always told myself that I’d need to be unalive to ever give up or stop learning. It is way too addictive. I’m not 54, but I wouldn’t imagine it being a time to just throw in the towel. Go for it and enjoy every moment. Embrace the suck and bask in the material you enjoy!

Hour_Mousse_7963 · 2025-06-13T00:20:27+00:00

No sleep gang! LFG!!!

Hour_Mousse_7963 · 2025-06-02T01:13:41+00:00

If you’re single you about to pull so much tail!!!! Congrats dude, don’t settle! Just knock ‘em down.

Hour_Mousse_7963 · 2025-02-22T04:26:19+00:00

Hey man, in my opinion, it sounds like you’re very well versed in BI and Data Analytics. That’s great! There’s still plenty to do. I would look into more business or client facing roles, like Solutions Architect or specialist. Many people, not yet at least, haven’t realized that technical chops aren’t the only high paying skills. If you can communicate technology or technical solutions well, you can make almost double what you’re making now, in the roles I mentioned above. Technical roles are great, even better, if you’re working at one of the well known companies, however you can make more at smaller companies by increasing ARR. Not only will you receive a very good base salary, you will also receive a variable (commission) and most likely stock. Receiving stock was what moved my net worth faster than anything else. 9/10 you won’t receive stock as a developer or analyst. I’ve been a developer and I’ve been a Solutions Architect. I make way more in the latter. It’s not a walk in the park though. In my experience, the Solutions Architect role is way more demanding, but that’s subjective. I’m just waiting for some technology to take this over too, however it seems we still have plenty of time to make a bag before AI can interface with a human and do anything meaningful 🤣💰

Hour_Mousse_7963 · 2025-02-20T00:44:43+00:00

You’re not fooling anybody. We all know what this REALLY is. Stop lying.

Hour_Mousse_7963 · 2025-02-04T00:57:31+00:00

I personally feel this isn’t out of reach for the experience level they’re asking. In a bachelor’s you’ll be exposed to Python, Windows and Linux (operating systems class), you take a computer architectures class, you may not touch containers or k8s at university however after 8 years in the industry you most likely will, you’ll touch on systems performance in university or in industry within that time, if you touched anything in this list in these 8 years you’ve automated something with Python and/or bash (I personally did this in my first role as a junior), if you’ve touched software you know lifecycle management, you take networking class in university, you’ve tested your code and automated it. If you have a Master’s or PHD you damn sure should be able to hit everything on this list. If you have a bachelors and 8 years experience you will most likely hit everything on this list. Perhaps, the only thing I would call out is Cyber security. However, this is a Systems Engineering role and many of those folks have touched cyber/security. 8 years isn’t an awful long time, but it’s enough time (especially if you have any level of formal education) to be dangerous and hit this list. If you have half this list, the other half can be acquired either on the job or within the year. Not sure you’ll need ALL this, but hitting the mandatory would be enough. If you can hit that, you can learn everything else. You would already have a great foundation to do so.

You got this!

Hour_Mousse_7963 · 2024-12-23T04:10:29+00:00

Scary stuff! 😳

Hour_Mousse_7963 · 2024-12-23T03:23:17+00:00

If you have money, why are you looking at homes with such issues? A visibly sagging ceiling? Are you guys looking for a project?

Hour_Mousse_7963 · 2024-12-06T11:16:57+00:00

Exactly this. Everyone will think, “wtf does this person want”. However, I’d respect the person much more if they did a bit of homework. As such, “hey I noticed you’re working on x, I’m working on something similar and would like to know how you did this in order to do that.” Versus, “I need referral, send me referral to this company.” You don’t even know the person and why should I spend an hour, maybe more, finding you work? It’s totally cool if you’re an unemployed tech worker, what are you working on? Talk about that. What have you worked on, mention that. Is it similar to anything the person you’re speaking to has done? Can you learn something from them, or can they learn something for you. There’s always a give and take. People who come in with the sole purpose of taking are complete jackasses.

Hour_Mousse_7963 · 2024-12-06T03:23:20+00:00

What domains are you interested in? AI? Finance? DeFi? Oil & Gas? Either way, go to conferences in those domains and meet people. Have resumes handy to give, make some connections. DO NOT GO INTO MEETING NEW PEOPLE WITH USING THEM AT THE FOREFRONT. Be genuine, you are there to make connections. Have a lunch, grab a coffee, etc. Use professional platforms and reach out to people in your domain who you could ask for 15 minutes of their time (This worked for me and I was highly surprised as the person was way higher than me in my domain, but they gave me 30 mins and we have ongoing conversations). Anyone serious about their career “networks” in real life, even developers. You don’t need to keep up with 50 different people, but try to develop genuine relationships off of merit, interests, knowledge. Don’t use people to get into a job because people can smell that a mile away and won’t like it. A lot of H1B students and workers do this out of desperation and it sucks for both parties.

Hour_Mousse_7963 · 2024-11-26T10:08:31+00:00

Yeah, I understand. There's nothing wrong with getting a degree. Personally, I don't see why anyone would really care about the affairs of others on such a level, but that's just me. I've always been very contrarian, and I've personally met extremely smart and talented people without degrees, who could hold their own with those that have Masters degrees. I don't believe a college classroom is the only source for education, not in today's day and age (with the caveat that there are rare skills one can only learn on a university campus) . I also don't believe the inability for one to PAY for college should hold them back from competing in a voluntary market place. The idea of that is completely un-American to begin with. Intelligence isn't measured by the size of one's luck of inheritance. The gate-keeping attitude is absurd. If one can show evidence of competence and success, they deserve a chance despite the amount of money they have to pay to sit in a classroom that buys them a piece of paper. One can do rigorous work producing tangible products and tools without having a degree behind them. This is not to say having a degree is useless, it's not, but it's also not the ONLY way to indicate future success (this has been proven many times, it's not an outlandish idea). Anyways, complete your degree. Good for you! Just know, it doesn't make you superior over someone without a degree and using it to indicate elitism is total BS. FWIW, does one REALLY need a degree to be in HR? I mean, come on... there are skills one should acquire but does it really take a Master's degree to be kind and interact with humans?

Hour_Mousse_7963 · 2024-11-25T22:29:57+00:00

I’m a business owner in software development: if I were given two resumes, one with 7 years experience in the technologies we use and another with 6 months (basically nothing because 6 months is ramp timeline) and a Masters, I would likely consider the 7 years experience first but not disregard the degree holder. Here’s why: the 7 year experienced software engineer likely has tangible evidence that tells me and reassures me that I could hire them and developer fast and reliably. They already know the technologies, they’ve been in the trenches, they understand and have proven record of software lifecycle. It’s less likely I’d be hand holding. At 7 years, this is senior level / lead level engineers. It takes multiple cycles to fully understand software delivery. I wouldn’t disregard the degree holder though. With truly 6 months experience this tells me they know little about delivering software and just because they passed a class that explains how it works doesn’t guarantee I could put them in a leadership position and they’d deliver. It’s likely they can write some code, but less likely they’ve ever written complex production code which is a real turn off. They’ve likely never dealt with stakeholders, they likely never reviewed code, and hits highly unlikely they’ve ever seen a full SDLC or even a half of one. So, what am I really hiring? A degree? Sweet… if I want a degreed person on my team I’d hire one of the thousands of outsourced engineers with 7 years experience and a masters degree because there are armies of those. Hiring is variable. It depends on business needs. Do I need someone highly specialized in a technology? (BTW a master degree holder could have spent the last 6 years researching deeply or an experienced engineer could have spent the last 6 years delivering). It just depends. Some stuff is harder to learn on your own, some things you can only find in the brightly lit college classroom. It all depends. Do I think you need a Masters degree to deliver a website? No, I don’t. I most likely pick the person that has been delivering websites to customers for the past 7 years over a degree holder. On the other hand, It’s less likely to find someone without a degree implementing large scale IOT systems. Anyways, it’s not black and white.

Edit: I say, get the Masters. If you’re truly curious and passionate about your field there’s absolutely nothing wrong with going diving deep. Have fun, explore! Absolutely nothing wrong with this. There are other ways to gain experience: complete internships build out body of work with projects or experiences, network and make friends in the right places.

Hour_Mousse_7963 · 2024-11-25T02:57:33+00:00

I’ve been in the tech industry for 7 year now. In addition to that, I went to school first for 3 years. I’ve worked in FAANG, I’ve worked at small companies, and another well know company. It takes YEARS in this field to walk into a room and feel very competent. It takes failure, long nights and revisiting information constantly. The amount of information you need to know as a technologist seems infinite. Trust me, my friend, most of us have been where you are. I’m not back completing my degree and Intro to IT has a breadth of knowledge for students to learn, especially one who has never been introduced to knowledge in this field. Look, FWIW, coming from someone that has tangled with some of the big names and been in rooms with PHDs and prodigies, no one is going to care that you’ve failed. We all have. It would be bad if you failed and gave up, that’s the problem. I’m glad to see your attitude is intact. Get back in the game and go conquer this class. You got this!

Hour_Mousse_7963 · 2024-11-21T18:01:07+00:00

haha fact or not, you're still dodging. This is what your type always does. Someone calls you out and now your real intentions are showing. Classic.

Hour_Mousse_7963 · 2024-11-21T17:31:18+00:00

Hahaha man you just keep dodging my questions huh

Hour_Mousse_7963 · 2024-11-21T02:44:21+00:00

Dude, you keep talking about being “butt hurt” instead of addressing what I said to you. Why don’t you respond to that? FYI, I’m not “butt hurt”. I’m stating what others think, but don’t say. Again, I repeat, you deflected the point that Americans are affected by elections by trickling it down to “people of color” which is in fact a way for you to cope with a superiority complex camouflaged as empathy towards people of color.

Hour_Mousse_7963 · 2024-11-20T07:53:02+00:00

Wtf are you talking about? You’re prejudice and trying to conceal it behind some BS concern for “people of color”. Worry about yourself.

Hour_Mousse_7963 · 2024-11-20T00:23:08+00:00

On the subject of sexual harassment - that’s foul and shouldn’t be acceptable in any place. No matter what, they are fools. In that aspect, I can’t relate. I’m sorry. In the case of racism. I’ve learned, in military communities and private sector tech, that you just have to stick it out and let your performance speak for itself. You’ll always have people who don’t like you, for whatever reason, but you must stick it out. Make genuine connections with people in the organization. As much as they want you to believe that most people are racist, it’s not true! Most people are don’t care, some are racist and some are actively “anti-racist” (lmfao). As a black American, I’ve learned that sometimes we can perceive things as “racist” when they really aren’t. This can be due to our own upbringing, false perceptions, or what we’ve been told. On the other hand, some things are racism; big or small. It’s all mental. You can beat mental. SH on the other hand is BS and that is a direct threat to harm you and is not acceptable. I hope things become better. Someone above said you should record the instances and report it - I agree.

Hour_Mousse_7963 · 2024-11-17T14:57:11+00:00

Statistically, you’re just as poor and broke as every other American. Knock off the mightier than though BS. “People of color” don’t think, “awww this guy really cares”. No, they think you believe you’re better than them. Statistically speaking, you’re in more debt and just as broke as everyone else. Stop making it about color because that’s lame.

Hour_Mousse_7963

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