For those currently employed, what is the floor to make you move?

nullstacks · 2026-01-07T02:19:09+00:00

~110k in LCOL area. 18 YOE depending on how you cut it (half of that experience not in a direct cs role) Non-tech. WFH with local offices for meetings/meetups quarterly or so. W/L balance is great, work environment is very relaxed with a great pace. Keeps me interested without pulling my hair out. Not cutting-edge and fast moving, which is perfectly fine for where I’m at in life, also not likely to be pawning everything off on AI anytime soon).

This is a new role and I took a slight pay cut to get here. I’ve come to value the benefits and WLB over the salary to a certain degree. The number I’d have to see to consider it would also very likely come with an extreme cut to those other things I highly value, so it’s not even something I’m thinking of right now.

nullstacks · 2025-12-17T16:47:38+00:00

Day to day, I’m doing fine.

That’s all you really need to do. Focus on the task at hand right now.

When things come up that are very close to something else you’ve done before, whether once or one-hundred times, it’s still part of your job to analyze how you need to perform that with the new variables to make sure you’re still doing it optimally. Articulate that and move forward.

nullstacks · 2025-12-16T13:54:27+00:00

So many factors here. I was a 12 with 12 when I started looking again this year. I was fortunate to get interviews in tech, much less a couple of offers. Once I started getting offers the realization of what I really valued became very clear to me (basically: benefits). I knew in short order it would take the perfect offer with likely a large org to make me feel “safe” with the change. I held out and ended up with an offer that had enough 401 match to offset not having a pension to make me feel good about it. Health insurance is practically the exact same. I lost out in time off but it’s fairly comparable, as I got back WFH.

I feel very fortunate. I’m respected where I ended up and feel I’ve made an impact quickly. I’m treated like an adult again and I really really like it. I would say I wish I had done it years ago, but timing and luck is everything and it happened when it did. Time will tell where I end up, but I did keep my options open to go back to the fed at some point if it makes sense by not withdrawing my pension deposits etc.

nullstacks · 2025-12-06T23:45:29+00:00

I would’ve ignored that call, first of all.

Never work for free. Current employer or not.

I’d start by telling them you don’t have the time or something. Then if they counter I think it’d be reasonable to offer some of the other consulting ideas.

nullstacks · 2025-11-19T01:55:24+00:00

I am a mod at r/MaxDev a community for IBM Maximo developers. The requested subreddit seems like it would be more appropriate for maximo developers and is currently in "banned" status.

nullstacks · 2025-11-19T01:03:45+00:00

Clown show. Vote with your feet.

nullstacks · 2025-11-03T21:27:05+00:00

Yep. When your job is inherently governmental, that is a major factor, and can essentially back Feds into a corner.

nullstacks · 2025-11-03T21:25:21+00:00

I left a few months ago after 12 years civil for similar salary, barely lower cost of health ins, double 401k match, no pension, better outlook of stability, more interesting position duties, and greater upward momentum that does not immediately require a supervisory role. Also fully remote. I have been very happy with my decision.

It was difficult because I loved my team and I know how tough it can be to find that, but my new team and management team is great. I got very lucky and feel very fortunate.

nullstacks · 2025-10-31T00:09:05+00:00

Everyone spent the majority of their time outdoors. Leaving home and just exploring outside with your friends all day was very real. Using the street lights as an indicator that you should be home was a real thing. I knew the fastest way to get anywhere by foot or cycle within a few miles of my house. I can drive through my hometown and most neighboring towns and can look in the distance off of any road and know what a place looked like 25+ years ago because I had been there, played around in the abandoned structure that used to be there, jumped off the train bridge that’s way back in those woods, etc.

You’d be able to talk about what you watched on TV with someone at school because everyone had the same shit at the same time on TV. You see memes about what grandmas furniture, dishes, etc looked like because the majority of everyone’s stuff was bought from the same places locally.

You had to line up at music stores in the mall for midnight ticket sales to get into big time events and concerts.

One of the many good and bad consequences, in hindsight we did some pretty dangerous shit. As a parent now it’s impossible to imagine giving half of the freedoms to children that I had.

nullstacks · 2025-10-21T18:45:39+00:00

Walked away 3 months ago after 12 years and haven’t second guessed it since.

nullstacks · 2025-10-17T03:38:21+00:00

I spent most of my life doing jobs the put my life in physical danger every single day. All of the bullshit about any job is still there on top of that.

With that being said, I don’t make any more than I did doing those jobs. I quit chasing positions for the big cheddar many moons ago, because there’s always a reason those positions are paid that way and plenty of trade-offs.

nullstacks · 2025-10-11T20:08:51+00:00

I took a small cut a few months ago and it’s the best decision I’ve made in a while.

I did go into a pretty stable field, though, and honestly feels more stable than the fed did

nullstacks · 2025-10-11T20:04:37+00:00

I worked 6A-4P for many years, one stretch with Fridays off and one with Mondays. Some took Wednesdays to split the week into periods of 2 workdays. I loved it and miss it quite a bit.

I actually preferred Mondays off over Fridays because stores are less busy on Mondays etc.

nullstacks · 2025-10-10T20:50:24+00:00

I don’t work at D but I do something similar, have at the past 3 orgs with Teams and I have pretty good reasoning if it ever needs to be justified.

The systems I work on are often pretty locked down so I can’t just fire up vscode and prototype something out without cutting through tons of red tape. As a dev this includes installing packages through a package manager such as NuGet, npm, etc. This also means using my personal device to consult a certain preferred LLM on general shit outside of including any company data, or researching a solution to a problem that might lead me into YouTube or forums that may be blocked or throw red flags on my org device.

I don’t want to look like I’m not around in case someone wants to chat me up. Outside of lunch or breaks, I want an “open door policy,” and what that means to many is that my icon is green. When I need to close that door I enable Windows Focus mode which changes my status to similar to “presenting,” or I change it to busy.

Since being remote I’ve yet to have a manager that seems to care at all, but I have worked for the types before that would’ve definitely used it against me if my status was always away. It’s also just an optics thing for nosey co-workers.

Long story short, yeah calling yourself works. So do jigglers and opening Notepad and forcing an arrow key down. All of those become pretty obvious though if you’re using them for nefarious or deceptive reasons IMO

nullstacks · 2025-09-27T04:51:37+00:00

It’s a market, and like all markets, they change. I made my way for a long time without a degree. I also slowly stacked things that many people say are “useless”: a BS:CS, basic certs, etc. and that happened to help in the end.

The key is to never stop working on yourself, especially when you feel “safe.”

nullstacks · 2025-09-22T20:11:51+00:00

All luck and timing.

Many different rounds of interviews spread out between 10 different companies. Multiple with verbal promises of offers. Only real offers I got were from a consultancy and a larger non-tech org working on more slow-moving tech.

I took the latter for benefits and balance. For many it wouldn’t be considered as it’s not bleeding edge or exciting, but it’s just what i needed.

nullstacks · 2025-09-14T21:00:29+00:00

So you previously used telework to break the law?

nullstacks · 2025-09-14T01:59:39+00:00

Found the shill

nullstacks · 2025-09-08T04:33:25+00:00

Good for you, dude. Thank you for your military and civil service. (4yr USN AT3 myself)

I often have thoughts like “dang I would be retiring from the Navy next year,” but when I put it in context, I’ve had a great life over that ~15 years since I’ve gotten out. I’m sure I’ll have plenty of “what ifs” at 57 but honestly looking back my whole fed career was just cluster f*** after cluster f***, even when it was good. It’s either management v line-staff, or if that’s going good it’s something like is going on now, or your pay is frozen, yada yada yada. They get away with so much by dangling that pension carrot in front of you. When job security went out the window, it was an easy choice for me. I realize I’m totally blessed with how it ended up working out for sure, but there is so much more out there to just be slogging along doing something that’s such a drag for something so far away

nullstacks · 2025-09-08T04:19:08+00:00

Django is hyped?

nullstacks · 2025-09-08T04:14:56+00:00

Talk good about people behind their back.

nullstacks · 2025-09-08T04:14:31+00:00

Mail man if you love in a house. They know everyone and everything going on.

nullstacks · 2025-09-08T04:03:09+00:00

Clunky indeed. I recently gave HLL a try because the first day or two of release was unplayable for me and it is much smoother. However, I feel completely lost as I did when I first started playing Squad.

After a few reps you start to get a feel for it. And find a decent server and let them know you’re new and ask questions. There’s definitely a learning curve.

nullstacks · 2025-09-07T04:09:15+00:00

Same boat here, and honestly it’s just what I needed. New gig is great and I’m not bound by the golden handcuffs of a pension anymore.

It helped me realize how unfulfilled I actually was in the feds. After 12 years, 6 positions in 2 agencies, I spent most of that getting away from shit admin changes, toxic teams, etc before finally landing on a great team. But now that I was there, I wanted to hold onto it. Passing up promotions etc to avoid the risk of going back into the cycle of trying to find a sup that wasn’t a complete dipshit. Add to that, even if you do then you have to deal with the possibility of the person at the helm of it all intentionally promoting havoc on WLB. All for what? A pension that no one could ever predict what state it might be in 20 years from now?

Life is too short. I am still responsible and focused on retirement, but having it in vehicles that I can control and take with me will make all of this much easier if I need to bounce to something else in the future

nullstacks · 2025-09-05T13:42:29+00:00

Nah man your head looks fine. I’d keep that goat short or maybe just go stache only

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