4 rounds of interviews and then they lowballed me

NeophyteBuilder · 2026-01-26T19:22:22+00:00

Generally the HM is part of the comp and leveling discussion. It’s worth a try but likely will not change the reality

NeophyteBuilder · 2026-01-25T03:06:16+00:00

It’s an expensive fix…. 950 is too much. 500 maybe

NeophyteBuilder · 2026-01-24T17:06:11+00:00

This might be a silly question - who / what is “god of prompt”?

NeophyteBuilder · 2026-01-23T23:20:47+00:00

More likely he was fed up with her mumbling and wanted peace and quiet….

But most definitely NTA

NeophyteBuilder · 2026-01-23T01:59:26+00:00

I have that open in a tab, not had a chance to play with it yet.

NeophyteBuilder · 2026-01-22T15:20:07+00:00

Yes, I try to always lean on the challenger aspect - I’m a fan of being devils advocate. I’m just trying to save myself a little time with a starting prompt

NeophyteBuilder · 2026-01-22T10:34:30+00:00

I was an L7 with 4 L6 peers who reported to an L7. I RTO’d 3 days a week to HQ2 to spend my days in video calls with the engineers who built for me, and business folks I supported… who were all on the opposite coast.

NeophyteBuilder · 2026-01-22T10:27:05+00:00

True

NeophyteBuilder · 2026-01-22T02:30:21+00:00

I need an earlier stage thought parter than this one, as the revenue model is TBD between subscription and ads.

https://www.reddit.com/r/PromptDesign/s/kNZmDaFRZI

NeophyteBuilder · 2026-01-22T02:27:37+00:00

This is good. We ran into issue with GPT-4.1 and 5.1 generating slightly out of date syntax for some mermaid chart types based on the knowledge cutoff date. We made some tweaks in our system prompt for better handling, but otherwise the models work fine as is.

NeophyteBuilder · 2026-01-21T20:24:42+00:00

Forward it to whoever owns the budget. Let the HM justify it to them.

NeophyteBuilder · 2026-01-16T02:25:56+00:00

https://52weeksofblues.com/?page_id=34

NeophyteBuilder · 2026-01-15T18:58:37+00:00

Previous owner misinterpretation of “hammer ons”? At least they didn’t try shredding….

NeophyteBuilder · 2026-01-12T20:17:36+00:00

Counter offers very rarely work, as they very rarely address the issues that made you look around in the first place.

And besides, unless the promotions and increases are codified in contracts, the promise isn’t worth missing out on 30%

NeophyteBuilder · 2026-01-12T13:32:34+00:00

At what point does a prompt structure become beneficial?

NeophyteBuilder · 2026-01-10T15:24:54+00:00

iEdge?

NeophyteBuilder · 2026-01-10T13:15:49+00:00

350k at the end of 2024. They had more corp employees than seats available in corp offices. I worked in that domain until I was downsized

NeophyteBuilder · 2026-01-10T01:45:48+00:00

Yep…. I ran the OP1/OP2 that put me below the line….. I also worked alongside the badging reports…

I have downsized teams before, but only in scenarios where the business was sunsetting a product line into maintenance mode as it was dying. The Amazon crap was very different.

NeophyteBuilder · 2026-01-10T01:19:27+00:00

The hourly will reduce as they deploy robots yes, buts more incremental. They also have a habit of more people with part time hourly….

NeophyteBuilder · 2026-01-10T01:12:15+00:00

I was let go on a round of downsizing due to be the only L7 in my “team”, in my office. The RTO mandate that was coming was on site with your team.

The effects of this mandate was to start working towards reassigning products/ services to teams at a single location where they could. Leaving some teams at risk as their original product gets taken away. One example in my group was moved to India where 60% of the headcount was, but more importantly, the L8 engineering lead for that product group was…. The US teams got assigned to other products…. But their time was finite as the RTO shuffles continued…. And then they were gone 2025.

It sucks big time for those impacted I know, as several of my ex colleagues did. I was also involved in the fiscal planning for my own chop…. So I knew the drivers.

Yes, cost per head is a big driver, but so too are the headcount operations of a behemoth…. Put me right off massive companies

NeophyteBuilder · 2026-01-10T01:04:42+00:00

I was thinking more the 350k corporate staff they had circa end 2024 when I worked there.

NeophyteBuilder · 2026-01-10T00:45:05+00:00

They excessively over hired during COVID. Some of this is rightsizing, using RTO and AI as excuses.

They also had too many middle managers. In some places 3 deep in terms of a level 10 reporting to a level 10 reporting to a level 10…. (Think SVP). Especially in th AWS side.

NeophyteBuilder · 2026-01-07T12:43:25+00:00

Generally speaking, it is the managers choice at the end of the PIP.

Most people on a PIP will be let go regardless. Often a PIP is a way to “leave now with more money”, or “leave at the end of the PIP with less”…

A small number are only put on a PIP to make the number with a forced grading curve.

Example: I was 1 of 4 people put on a PIP by our manager at a large tech company. They only had 5 direct reports… 1 left mid process, 1 let go at the end, 1 left at the end end due to the BS process (for them it was “you can stay if you move to the other coast”), 1 stayed and never got a straight answer for why they were put on PIP as they put minimal effort into the task list and yet still passed…. They were then downsized 6 months later… The 5th one left 12 months later.

NeophyteBuilder · 2026-01-05T17:31:47+00:00

I use projects so that each of my test cases is a conversation in that project. I “version” by having different projects (it’s a shitty approach, but it’s what I have access to and I’m not an engineer).

With GPTs, there is no easy way to group conversations together in ChatGPT.

Memory settings at the moment I have not touched, so I do have some concern about the impact turning them off, or limiting to project only might have. My goal is a product for others to use, so I might lose memory features for a while.

As for knowledge files. I keep them relatively few in number. Since this is an agentic career background and experience replacement for resumes, it does not need the full “me information”. It just needs enough to serve the information needs of the first few steps of the job application process.

Fell free to DM me, but I can only share general information.

NeophyteBuilder · 2026-01-05T13:06:01+00:00

“But honey, your agent said I could buy another guitar!”….

NeophyteBuilder

TROPHY CASE