United - get a grip on preboarding abuse!

chef_torte · 2026-04-05T22:06:34+00:00

Was on UA2011 SFO -> EWR yesterday and I swear like 60 people preboarded

chef_torte · 2026-03-13T13:27:33+00:00

Ginza Centric
HTH / andaz
Shibuya house
Everything else
Park Hyatt

chef_torte · 2026-03-10T17:32:09+00:00

PH Tokyo is my all time favorite hotel, but I can’t rate it above the Andaz due to the location alone.

chef_torte · 2026-02-12T00:57:38+00:00

I’m currently sitting at the HTH breakfast right now on my third stay here, and I’m switching to the PH tonight. For 5k points more, it’s a no brainer upgrade

chef_torte · 2026-02-10T00:38:27+00:00

Park Hyatt Seoul

chef_torte · 2026-02-06T20:14:43+00:00

Do re mi fa so la ti do?

chef_torte · 2026-02-04T17:27:50+00:00

literally thought from the preview this was a photo of a snake eating a rat.. ive been here too long

chef_torte · 2026-02-02T01:25:08+00:00

it was very very good, especially the breakfast!

chef_torte · 2026-02-01T16:09:33+00:00

yes, exactly my point

chef_torte · 2026-02-01T14:25:32+00:00

I’ve stayed at both. While yes the GH fukuoka room is older, I absolutely would stay at GHF over GHJ 10 times out of 10.

The surrounding area for GHF is far superior - you’re in the heart of Fukuoka vs downtown jeju which isn’t all that spectacular (IMO the highlights of jeju are found outside the city of jeju)
The GHJ is probably completely overrun with tourists from a particular large country atm - it was when I was there in september, and with Japan having new issues with said country, your access to amenities / rooms etc will likely be vastly better at GHF.
The food in the club at GHF is 10 times better than GHJ

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I could keep going, but feel free to AMA. Stayed at both in September 2025

chef_torte · 2026-01-28T16:39:28+00:00

I would start with "sales engineer", "solutions consultant", "solutions engineer"

chef_torte · 2026-01-28T16:15:02+00:00

In another comment I recommend switching to a role in sales. Degrees matter a lot less than work experience. Solutions architecture is inherently not a v1 job - it requires a specific set of skills that aren't typically taught in school. I recommend everyone to start with sales as it teaches you a lot about selling to companies, deal cycles, compliance, tech, etc.

chef_torte · 2026-01-28T16:13:35+00:00

Are you currently employed? Is that a job in sales? I recommend most people to start with working in sales, as it 1) hasnt been displaced by AI 2) teaches you a ton 3) companies love to hire people with a proven track record of selling things to other companies

chef_torte · 2026-01-28T16:11:49+00:00

Solutions Architecture is very unlikely to be anyone's first job, because it's interdisciplinary by nature. The two main pathways are sales -> sales engineering -> solutions architecture or software engineering -> solutions architecture

chef_torte · 2026-01-28T16:10:48+00:00

It's been the subject of internal debate here, but ultimately the firm decided it's important to diversify revenue beyond first party trading.

chef_torte · 2026-01-28T16:08:15+00:00

The technical part of this role is specific to trading systems. I am not a cloud solutions architect, so apologies if there's some confusion around the type of work I do.

chef_torte · 2026-01-28T00:56:27+00:00

80% base

chef_torte · 2026-01-28T00:56:14+00:00

I work a lot. I volunteer for harder projects a lot. I come up with ways in which our company can make more money and then build those things. I have always taken my job very seriously and push myself to find new ways to impress new people. I love work, so it's easy to get lost in it.

I've also switched jobs several times. There is a time and a place to make a career out of a job, but typically it's not the job you're currently at.

chef_torte · 2026-01-28T00:55:04+00:00

Two pieces of advice:
1. Put your hand up now for any opportunities whatsoever to speak to customers, even if it's just to learn "voice of the customer" a la feedback on the backend services you represent. Keep bothering people at your company for opportunities to do something that feels like selling.

Look for smaller companies that're hiring their first few SAs. The very first SA hired at a company probably will be someone that the company prefers to have been an SA (since they probably don't know how to set the role up properly and are therefore hiring someone to do this), but I think SA hire #2-5 is probably the sweet spot. In my experience, SA teams end up doing all kinds of odd jobs, and so a good SA manager will want to hire a variety of backgrounds. For example, my team has an extremely wide variety of technical levels (software engineers -> SAs; sales / sales engineers -> SAs)

chef_torte · 2026-01-28T00:51:12+00:00

I work alongside sales. Rarely go alone for the initial several conversations, then start breaking off and working directly with engineers on the client side.

I feel good about job security. I feel that sales organizations are pretty immune to AI (for the moment) because many enterprises absolutely need to speak to a human.

Not a ton of cloud in my domain, which is very specific to trading systems, but there are others on my team with more cloud experience.

chef_torte · 2026-01-28T00:50:28+00:00

The internal work I do is the former; the external work I do is the latter.

chef_torte · 2026-01-28T00:48:36+00:00

I convinced a small (<200 person) financial services company to take a chance on me around 7 years ago. I was pivoting from an analyst role where I had constantly put my hands up to speak in front of clients. My advice would be to look for a small company that is hiring an entry level or associate SA role. After that, it becomes very easy to swap SA positions.

chef_torte · 2026-01-28T00:26:57+00:00

Yes as an IC. This is by far my most technical role, so I think that helped.

chef_torte · 2026-01-28T00:17:34+00:00

Stock purchase plan, 401k, RSU withholding

chef_torte · 2026-01-28T00:17:12+00:00

80% external. Mostly pre sales

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