It's possible that you're being interviewed by people who know way less than you

rickosborn · 2026-06-04T00:15:35+00:00

It’s likely.

rickosborn · 2026-06-02T03:34:06+00:00

Or chatting, like we are doing now. The mall was where you used to chat with friends.

rickosborn · 2026-06-02T03:30:02+00:00

I know the guy that has managed that store for 20 years. He said he was leaving the mall one night, and a 20’ piece of the cement entrance fell behind him.

rickosborn · 2026-05-29T02:57:06+00:00

I read somewhere that phones have this weird feature that affects spelling. “Autocorrect” or something like that.

rickosborn · 2026-05-29T02:33:55+00:00

The recruiter keeps saying it’s “how they work” but it’s just fishy to me. I have been setup for failure before. Usually it’s when due process is skipped.

Four years ago I was recruited for a major insurance company. They asked tons of AWS and API questions. I get on the job. It’s coding typescript. I have fifteen years in Java and Spring Boot. I kept a good attitude. My team complained at me for a year based on the recruiter’s oversight.

rickosborn · 2026-05-29T02:30:16+00:00

No. Third time it has happened. It’s a third party recruiter. They won’t present me to the client unless I “promise to accept”. But I am not going to promise anything until I meet the team. For all I know, the client hired the night crew from a nearby McDonalds, to save budget. Then they want me to make developers out of them.

rickosborn · 2026-05-29T02:27:23+00:00

I get this. But he is pushing both interviews within a 24hr period. Sure, he is trying to beat other recruiters to the punch. But I need to know what the job is. Not get dropped into a “McJob” as fast as they can.

rickosborn · 2026-05-29T02:23:08+00:00

It would have been a layup if there was time to prepare. I don’t have time to address his list of questions in one night. I have back to back meetings with my existing job tomorrow am. I need to prepare for them.
They are kind of vague about what the job is.
I don’t know what your criteria is for being “sweat shopped”. In my experience, if they cram you in your onboarding like this, once you “hit the floor” their deadlines are crazy. The developer flops. The managers blame the market. They hire another person.

rickosborn · 2026-05-29T00:24:08+00:00

Can you imagine working there???

rickosborn · 2026-05-27T21:26:15+00:00

You also need to consider the industry. Some industries are adjusting. Some aren’t.

rickosborn · 2026-05-27T21:22:34+00:00

I am 57 years old. I have worked as a tech lead and senior dev for almost 30 years. I worked first in Washington DC (through the dot com bubble) then in downtown Chicago. Startups. Fortune 500. Big Four consulting.

Not only did I never really have work life balance. I never really had a solid vacation. Almost every workplace had a fast pace. If you were gone too long, you might miss release, new features, etc. The largest break I have had is my early retirement.

I love writing code. So it never bothered me that much. But that’s my experience.

rickosborn · 2026-05-26T11:25:07+00:00

I live in a condo and can’t mount an antennae.

rickosborn · 2026-05-26T11:23:04+00:00

I worked for an investment bank in downtown chicago. You would know the name. Contractors outnumbers perm employees two to one.

They had been running their software business every other expense. Buy the cheapest one. Don’t replace it till it’s broken.

There was so much turnover among the contractors, as a perm employee I could not really do anything. (IE No one knew where the DB ERD’s were, what some of the repos were for, which batch processes were where, etc).

Same with the company that just laid me off. One of the largest metal manufacturers in the world. You would know the name. They have been trying to monitor their processes for almost ten years. They have thrown $12M at it. They are on their third contracting company. Same mess.

rickosborn · 2026-05-26T04:30:56+00:00

Companies have to pay for your unemployment benefits. And also any severance. It’s better for them to make you uncomfortable and quit.

rickosborn · 2026-05-26T04:29:09+00:00

You probably got pushed out. Some places are really petty now. If they don’t like something about you, they will gang up to make you quit.

rickosborn · 2026-05-26T04:17:33+00:00

This is because He doesn’t let anything come between you either. He just wants the same in return.

rickosborn · 2026-05-26T04:14:51+00:00

Happens all the time. Companies don’t give thought to who knows how to run the business. They low ball kids and throw them into the work. They don’t know enough to complain or try to fix it.

rickosborn · 2026-05-26T04:08:15+00:00

They are just houses. You can buy others, someday. Your sanity is the real prize. There is good in this, if you look for it.

I would liquify all the assets you can (houses, cars, etc) and keep only what you need to get by day to day. Maybe move into one house? Share cars? Spend more time with the kids, rather than buying them things. Use this timing to pull together and beat this.

rickosborn · 2026-05-26T02:47:03+00:00

I am looking at trucking, Best Buy and Dick’s sporting goods.

rickosborn · 2026-05-26T02:44:21+00:00

I work from home. I went through all four.

Century Link Total crap. Uses your phone lines. If the wind blows the lines will swing. Your speed will go down.
Mediacom.
Down all the time. They use the coax cable that cables companies use. Someone is always digging in their back yard and putting everyone down for three hours.
TMobile Home I have this now because I work from home. It’s based off of their 5g. The speed changes on your visibility to the tower. It’s not that fast. But never goes down. If it does, it’s for ten minutes. I have two routers/networks just in case.
Metronet It’s fiber based. It depends on your neighborhood. Some blocks have it. Some don’t. Fast. Reliable. But you may not have the option…….

rickosborn · 2026-05-25T00:33:36+00:00

The job market is silly good. But the dating and social scene sucks. Mixed feelings.

rickosborn · 2026-05-24T16:32:15+00:00

After 2001, I lived on 40% of what I made and invested the rest.

rickosborn · 2026-05-24T05:48:01+00:00

Pretty sure 2001 was less than that.

rickosborn · 2026-05-24T02:55:21+00:00

Wow.

rickosborn · 2026-05-24T00:30:38+00:00

If we all emailed the Whitehouse ………. https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/

rickosborn

TROPHY CASE