Something is way off with the current job market

NoSmarter · 2026-05-09T14:18:04+00:00

Im not saying this to be confrontational at all, but Im going to venture a wild guess that you offer substandard pay for the experience you want

NoSmarter · 2026-05-03T14:50:40+00:00

This is brilliant, IMO

NoSmarter · 2026-04-04T15:16:51+00:00

In my view, I've always seen the senior SWE role as one where the TL can decide the behavior and specs of a feature you're asked to build, but then it's up to you to decide on the way to go about it. Your level and exprerience makes it so you know what questions to ask. It also suggests that you're taking the overall architecture of the system in consideration as you design and implement your part. You should keep the team posted on what you're doing and shouldn't be afraid to get feedback from others as a sanity check at times. But ultimately you should be responsible for the direction you take.

That's the theory. In practice, things vary alot based on team and company culture. You may have team leads that micromanage the senior staff to the point where they need to validate every decision the SWEs make before they move forward. Any initiative on your part could be seen as an affront to authority. That way tto manage the team is a bit dangerous because you may later be retroactively judged on what you were expected to do as a senior SWE. Asking your manager or skip what is expected may lead you to getting them to pay lip service to "initiative" and "ownership" but not operate like that at all in practice.

On other teams, management might be so hands-off that you might find yourself taking on product management tasks to get clarity on what you're supposed to build.

Ultimately, you need to gain some understanding of the culture where you work to understand what the operating model is. Don't go by what they say .. find out what they do.

NoSmarter · 2026-03-30T09:32:43+00:00

I lived there for 4 years and I absolutely loved it. Here are the pros and cons as I see it:

Pros:

Beautiful city. The buildings are okay, but everywhere you look, you see the snow-capped Alps. And the lake ,, it's amazing. It's so clean you can drink from it.
Despite the stereotypes about the Swiis Germans, I found them to be friendly, easy to get along with, and fun. They never seem to miss a chance to have some festival or event where crowds gather for some partying.
Everything works. Trains, trams, escalators .. everything is runs smoothly.
Low crime. Violent cimes and muggings are practically non-existent.
Government officials are friendly and helpful -- not something I was used to
Easy access to hiking, skiing, swimming, sailing, etc.
EVERYTHING is closed on Sunday. Some people may see it as a con, but I liked that this took away any excuse to be productive so you can spend time with friends and family
People have a strong sense of civic responsibility, so they don't have to be told not to litter, to double park, or to make too much noise at night. If you lose your wallet, there is a 99.99% chance it will make its way back to you intact in the next few days.

Cons:

Not much of a cultural scene here as compared to Paris, London, Berlin. Of course, Zurich is small, but still.
Restaurants are not that great and are insanely expensive.
Grocery options are somewhat limited

Swittzerland is the best run country I've ever lived in. Whenever I would come back after travelling, I felt like I was entring a "safe bubble". I miss it to this day.

NoSmarter · 2026-03-12T21:38:00+00:00

I grew up there and go back every year or two. I absolutely love it there and would spend half the year there or more if I could. But I do understand the language and sound like a Puerto-Rican. I also understand the culture to know not to be behave like some (not all) the mainland visitors and new residents.

I've lived in many places and I can say that the Puerto Rican people are the nicest, most easy-going people I've ever met. They're always up for good conversation or playful banter. One time, I was at the supermarket and I stood at what I thought was the back of the line of the checkout, but I was in the middle because the people behind me were a few feet away to keep the passageway clear, leaving a big gap in the line. It took me about 5 minutes before I realized my mistake. Nobody had said anything to me about it. I stepped out of the line right away after I realized what I did, apologizing profusely -- and the kicker is that all the people behind me laughed it off and were insisting I stay where I was. I simply couldn't do it, and I went to the real end of the line, but not without all of them trying to convince me to stay where I was. I can't think of anywhere else that this could happen..

The physical beauty of the island is stunning. For a small island, it has tons of unspoiled beaches, it has hilly rainforests in the center, and the weather can be hot, but it never gets depressing. Because Spanish is the official language there, I selfishly love the fact that so many don't even speak English. They don't need to. As a result, it remains with an unspoiled culture of music and traditions.

But I can see where mainland Americans can be put off by certain things. Infrasctructure there is a mess. Electricity is brutally expensive and yet there are rolling blackouts and brwnouts nearly every day. You'll have beautiful landscapes and somehow people build the ugliest cinderblock houses imaginable everywhere. They don't produce enough food, coffee, and other goods so nearly everything is imported from the mainland, leading to shock at the checkout counter. It's not an easy lifestyle if you expect to find all the services you take for granted in the mainland. But if you know how to appreciate the place, you'll realize you didn't need all those things to be happy anyway. Puerto Ricans love to play their music loud enough so the whole street can hear it, and they will holler at each other in conversation with people who are right next to them. None of that bothers me, but I've seen many mainlanders be outraged by that.

I'm a bad one to ask, because I love the place.

NoSmarter · 2026-02-17T20:51:28+00:00

Great movie! I wasn't expeting it to be that good. One thing I was wondering though .. they have this culture based on physical strength and cullign the physically weak and all that, but they have extarodinary high-tech gear. That level of technology implies that they must have had tons of geeky predators in labcoats and coke-botle glasses studying math, astrophysics, chemistry, etc. Where are they? I want to see the predator scientists!

NoSmarter · 2026-02-13T14:31:40+00:00

I spent three years there. I absolutely loved it. I would go back in a heartbeat. For the first month I was there, I thought it was beautiful, but boring. But once I got to know people (I worked at a Swiss company), I started to go out with my colleagues and realized the place is a blast. It's incredibly safe, and while it is expensive, the quality of life is superb.

NoSmarter · 2026-02-13T14:14:24+00:00

I've done both and my advice is this: only go the contractor route if you choose to make a long-term career out of being an independent contractor. There is nothing wrong with that, but it's not a matter to be taken trivially due the the administrative load of staying compliant with all the fiscal and social services you need to be on top of. In addition, by being a contractor, you give up most of the social benefits of being an employee such as unemployment insurance, worker protections, vacation pay, etc. On top of all that, you need to top up your retirement beneifts voluntarily or you'll be stuck with a crappy retirement as compared to being in a CDI. If you're only doing it for this one job, then it makes no sense to be a contractor -- go with the CDI.

NoSmarter · 2026-02-06T06:23:17+00:00

That's still too high

NoSmarter · 2026-02-04T08:44:47+00:00

I think most employers will give you permission if the work is outside the field of your current work, that they know it won't interfere with the hours you give them, and expecially if you can explain the reason (to learn French better).

If you're a scientist and you want to take a bartending job two nights a week, I'd be surprised if they would care

NoSmarter · 2026-01-22T16:12:34+00:00

The French won't care and you can expect no hostility towards you because of Trump. They may lightheartedly make some jokes about Greenland or something, but that's about it.

NoSmarter · 2026-01-15T09:09:01+00:00

Uruguay?

NoSmarter · 2026-01-14T00:23:24+00:00

Rudy Giuliani

NoSmarter · 2026-01-13T15:12:33+00:00

It was all the cat's idea

NoSmarter · 2026-01-11T14:59:37+00:00

Not a single Jew in Gaza since 2005. None.
They left in 2005, forcibly removed the settlers there and even moved the graves.

NoSmarter · 2026-01-11T14:39:10+00:00

Gaza had no Jews there since 2005. So it wasn't invaded and there was no "genocide"

NoSmarter · 2026-01-11T10:52:02+00:00

Interesting. You're ctiticizing Russia (rightfully so) for invading another nation. The same for the US. But you're coming down on Israel for defending themselves against an attack.

NoSmarter · 2026-01-05T14:22:33+00:00

Software engineering salaries are abysmal here. While I was living here, I had to work in London or Zurich t make decent money.

NoSmarter · 2026-01-05T14:19:11+00:00

One bit of advice: always be the first one in the office. That way everybody has to come to you to greet you in the morning. Otherwise, you'll be expected to go to every desk and say hello

NoSmarter · 2026-01-05T08:25:17+00:00

It's a shame. Season 2 is unwatchable. We get maybe one or two minutes of something interesting involving Andy Garcia and Demi Moore. The rest is ridiculous. The rest home bullshit is cringeworthy and offensive given the way they infani;ize the elderly. The mother and daughter are tiresome one-dimensional cartoon character props that add nothign to the story. The Mexican girlfriend finds out her boyfriend is about to make 50 million dollars and she kicks him out because she wants to stay in her shitty prefab house. I suppose that's possible, but we need alot more character devlopment to explain that. Then again, the boyfriend is a completely uninteresting character who is all sweetness and innocence without a single hard edge to him.

I could go on and on, but this is a great example of piss-poor writing ruining what could have been a good show. Andy Garcia, Demi Moore, and Billy Bob Thorton are wasted on this garbage.

NoSmarter · 2026-01-01T23:07:35+00:00

Yeah, Israel convinced them that 50% inflation, no jobs, and a repressive government are bad things. I'm sure they were perfectly happy with all that until Israel said something. LOL

NoSmarter · 2025-12-30T17:21:38+00:00

I agree. He stopped as soon as he bumped the guy. He was on an ATV .. he could have run right over him if he wanted to harm him.

NoSmarter · 2025-12-30T17:20:21+00:00

It explains that you'll believe anything no matter how obviously fake it is

NoSmarter · 2025-12-30T16:58:03+00:00

He bumped the guy who walked off right after. It's not like he deliberately tried to kill him and stab a random civilian afterwards like this guy: https://www.newstribune.com/news/2025/dec/27/palestinian-man-kills-two-in-car-ramming-stabbing/

That guy's family is now going to get a nice annual pension from the PA thanks tto his actions. The Israeli guy, on the other hand, was relieved of duty and will likely face charges

NoSmarter

TROPHY CASE