Ask HN: What tech job would let me get away with the least real work possible?

Re:Ask HN: What tech job would let me get away with the leas... by gorpomon on Wednesday April 07, 2021 @07:46AM (#26723436)

I love this question for its honesty. Frankly if I had a job I just needed technical competence on without much thought, I'd probably hire you. Our 1-on-1's would be brief and probably just be you demoing whatever hobby it is you alluded to. As long as you can crank out some decent code, I don't see a reason why a person who needs some quality work done shouldn't at least give your desired arrangement a chance.

Unfortunately right now I do need product focused engineers, but in this case you wouldn't want to work for me anyways :-)

This is also a great thought exercise, what jobs would be good for you? Thinking on it a bit, I think the following could work:

1. Scrum team member at an all remote company on one of their lesser products. If you work fast then you can probably do it in a few hours each day.

2. Maybe a small consultancy where you work on a contractual basis just completing tickets?

3. Government. A small city council style place where you specify you need remote work and then probably the workload is minimal? I don't like the idea of being a burden on a government when there are perfectly dysfunctional companies you can find this with, it feels somewhat undemocratic, but in a pinch this might do?

4. A niche field? Maybe take up COBOL? Then you can specify the hours you work and if the patches are minimal you can fly through them?

Ultimately the thing that might get you to this arrangement fastest is being really good at your job, so you can fly though the work. So perhaps doubling down on one field and becoming a domain expert is the path to this arrangement?

These are all speculations, and hopefully they help you on your path to your desired role. Good luck!

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Re:Ask HN: What tech job would let me get away with the leas... by ddelt on Wednesday April 07, 2021 @07:54AM (#26723514)

I came here to respond to your #1 and tell you I worked in that position, and you are 100% spot-on. I chose to do more and grow/learn, and obviously there were times when you had full weeks and overtime, but by and large, I’d say 50% of people on my team were phoning it in and only putting in 2-3 hours per day. The rest was team meetings, corporate meetings, lunch hour, miscellaneous slack chatter, etc

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Re:Ask HN: What tech job would let me get away with the leas... by sokoloff on Wednesday April 07, 2021 @08:43AM (#26723984)

It sounds like OP doesn’t want their day wasted with the extra 5 hours of non-coding work though (what you call “the rest”, they want to be free from, at least as I read the original).

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Re:Ask HN: What tech job would let me get away with the leas... by gryn on Wednesday April 07, 2021 @12:33PM (#26727262)

yes, finding a job where not much real work is done is easy. find one where there's also not much busy work too is much much harder.

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Re:Ask HN: What tech job would let me get away with the leas... by lmueongoqx on Wednesday April 07, 2021 @12:47PM (#26727478)

Thanks for the ideas ! 4. is probably what I'll end up doing, the niche field being some sort of devops / sysadmin job.

While reading the impressive amount of responses this thread got I realized I do enjoy helping other developers and generally keeping stuff working. I still end up spending nights tinkering with my .vimrc, it's not like I can't watch a computer anymore without puking.

Good luck to you too !

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Re:Ask HN: What tech job would let me get away with the leas... by neonological on Wednesday April 07, 2021 @10:07AM (#26725165)

5. Take your job. Essentially you’re not doing any work are you? You’re looking for competent people to do work for you.

Would going into management be what this guy is looking for? I’m looking for honesty as candid as the op.

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Re:Ask HN: What tech job would let me get away with the leas... by codegeek on Wednesday April 07, 2021 @09:56AM (#26725018)

I may be naive but why would you hire someone who repeatedly says "I don't care". I have no problem hiring someone who just wants to get their shit done and get the f out and if that means, they only work 2 hours, so be it as long as expectations are clear BUT they still have to care when they are working those 2 hours. May be I am too simplistic but when someone tells me "I don't care", I generally won't hire them regardless of whether they are product focussed or not.

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Re:Ask HN: What tech job would let me get away with the leas... by anaerobicover on Wednesday April 07, 2021 @01:20PM (#26727858)

There's different things to "not care" about. It sounds like you're thinking "I don't care" means they don't care about the quality of their work output, which I agree is not good.

But the original question I think is saying "I don't care about the big picture, the product's 'strategic goals'". Which in my opinion is totally reasonable. If you hire a stonemason to build a wall in your garden, you don't expect (or even want) them to give a toss about your designs for the herb beds.

Of course there's a difference between full time employment and a one-off craft job. But why does a programmer need to care about the product as a whole? The product people certainly don't care about the quality of the source code itself (just the results it gives).

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Re:Ask HN: What tech job would let me get away with the leas... by axguscbklp on Wednesday April 07, 2021 @01:35PM (#26728105)

Because if the company sucks, which most companies do, then probably almost no-one there actually cares except people who have a larger-than-salary financial investment in the company, people who have been there long enough that the company is part of their identity and social group, and people who drank the kool-aid of company propaganda. People who do not fall into a group such as one of the above but who nonetheless tell you that they care are quite likely just lying to you. The person who says that he doesn't care is at least being honest.

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Re:Ask HN: What tech job would let me get away with the leas... by throwawayboise on Wednesday April 07, 2021 @01:11PM (#26727760)

Watch Office Space. It's funny, but it's really based on a lot of truth.

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Re:Ask HN: What tech job would let me get away with the leas... by kjjjjjjjjjjjjjj on Wednesday April 07, 2021 @10:42AM (#26725634)

If they do good work why do they need to give a shit about your product?

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Re:Ask HN: What tech job would let me get away with the leas... by matthewh806 on Wednesday April 07, 2021 @11:04AM (#26725969)

Yes, exactly this. Plus at least they're being up front an honest about where they place value in their life.

At the end of the day a lot of us are working as "brains for hire" I don't know why I'm supposed to invent some lie about how i'm so passionate for the product in order to have gainful employment.

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Re:Ask HN: What tech job would let me get away with the leas... by j10c on Wednesday April 07, 2021 @08:01AM (#26723589)

Can you share product you're referring?

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