Think Your Corporate Job Is Secure? Think Again

[@HealthyDev]

Are you tired of working for corporations, but have convinced yourself it's safer? What are you doing to escape the corporate grind?

[@l0gic23]

Thumbs up to answer "yes".

[@l0gic23]

Thumbs up to answer "no".

[@slimjimjimslim5923]

Maybe it’s a myth but big tech generous severance and health care retirement benefit beats most other careers. Hell there’s no job security anywhere. Even the stable sector like defense will lay people off. But as long as tech can provide that severance package, I’ll continue to work here

[@skavihekkora5039]

There is no security anywhere as everything passes away in this life, what counts is your goal, the quality of your goals. If you work out of love for humanity to ease peoples lives growth and money will come somewhere along, but it won't count as much anyway, because your goal is then beyond money. If you persue money you're intoxicated up front and will do more harm than good. I like Bezos' rule of limited regret in business ideas - do something at least to not regret not doing it.

[@l0gic23]

@@slimjimjimslim5923 health care retirement? You mean Cobra?

[@klashe1977]

So....I'm risk averse. I have a 9-5 in a corporation. But recently I've embarked on a personal project with a close friend that could end up being lucrative and it has energized me in ways that I never felt possible: instead of playing video games all night, I work on this project and find myself digging into work in a way that I haven't done in decades. And it's empowering that instead of just being subject to the ups and downs of my employers, I actively forging my own plan for my future. Great vid.

[@rrb79]

All the best!

[@HealthyDev]

Great to hear you've found something to put a spark back into your work! Hope it goes really well. 👍

[@artemodintsov8675]

I feel like I’m wearing this comfy, warm parasite on my head like a hat that I don’t want to take off. Even though I’m frustrated with my current situation, instead of thinking outside the box and exploring other options like self-employment or freelancing, or whatever. It keeps pulling me back into the same swamp.

[@monterreymxisfun3627]

I have done mostly contracting in my career. Even if the company doesn't like you on a six month contract, they usually just let the contract run out with no real friction. Just climb the skill set ladder, not the job title ladder.

[@theaccountant666]

Titles come and go. Want a title... You are a CEO already!, 😂

[@ayrb4410]

Is doing taxes easy for you?

[@meyerpeterson7856]

What do you do for medical insurance?

[@monterreymxisfun3627]

@@meyerpeterson7856 Either the agency offers health insurance or sometimes the Federal exchange.

[@Erik_The_Viking]

Great video - complacency is a real issue and it's very easy to fall into it. You get too comfortable, your skills start to deteriorate and it makes it harder to keep up. You have to ALWAYS upskill. This is why I've been teaching as a side gig and it's been great for me to develop and exercise a different side of my brain.

[@matthiasroshardt1297]

Being an early career software engineer today is not without its pitfalls, but one of the greatest things about this era is having access to this immense wealth of experience and perspective through youtube. My heartfelt thanks for all the work you put into these videos. They are super valuable to me, especially on topics where there's nobody in my peer group or my company that I could ask for advice!

[@HealthyDev]

You're very welcome. As I always tell people I'm just one person, wisdom is in a multitude of counselors. But I'm glad to hear for my part there's some stuff coming through!

[@wadexyz]

I agree with what this guy is saying on a high level....and I'm glad it worked out for him. But not everyone is a hustler.....they're not going to create a successful KZbin channel, they aren't going to create a profitable course, and they're certainly not going to make money doing coaching. So there's really no broad based template to recommend for the majority of techies. Plus, the job market really stinks right now. I would say if you're desperate to change things up, you'll have get at least one alternative (and livable) income source going on BEFORE you quit.

[@HealthyDev]

I would never suggest anyone quit and then start a business. I did it while I was still working in corporate jobs, and I suggest people do the same. Yes you are absolutely correct, a KZbin channel is not necessary for everyone. It's helpful for me because of the nature of my business. But it's not a requirement to be self-employed!

[@ward_jl]

You can really feel you speak from experience. Thank you so much for sharing with us earlier in our developer career.

[@theaccountant666]

This episode is just packed with gold nuggets 👍 I worked in corpo jobs and just recently I tried a project consultancy. At the end it us just another corpo and turned out being rather a dead end. One gets easily pidgeon holed. Luckily, I staying there only 8months and move on. However, it was worth a shot. Understanding concepts and not just tools, staying a bit more generalist in project management reduces the risk ending in sth that may fall out of favour. Project Risk management is the hot thing right now (or was), but the rates are already cooling down. A very niche skill that not many need as a sole job.

[@FixingSoftware]

I’m both a coaching client and member of the community, highly recommend! Jayme was a key driver for me finding the courage and commitment to start my own channel.

[@nii-san5485]

the fear is real. even with no dependents, debt, large bills, savings, I find myself making excuses to pass up opportunities to escape my current job where i am held in high regard as an IC but do not see very much potential for further growth even now I am finding that I do not take much risk in my own current work to try to improve things, after saying for years how outdated and amateurish some stuff was done, because no one else cares. at least when you have your own thing going on, there is only yourself to hold accountable and it is impossible to play the blame game or make up excuses for other people

[@l3lackoutsMedia]

The only space for real development is in my personal projects for me.

[@carltonupp]

This video may have just changed the course of my career. Thank you.

[@Frostbain]

For hidden risks of staying, the one I'm running into is something like coworker complacency. I've been the resident wizard for long enough that some have begun thinking my workload is "simple" or "easy", making it difficult to get support and ultimately leading to burnout. The flip side of that, is now I have to second guess myself - "am I looking elsewhere because I genuinely want to leave; or is this just a snap reaction, taking the 'easy route' of leaving because I just don't have the energy to weigh the decision?" On the risks of leaving, there's also social aspects. How many bridges will be burned if I leave, and stuff starts breaking but I can't support it anymore?

[@HealthyDev]

When you leave a company they are responsible for maintenance of anything you built while you were there. It's a tough decision, to be sure. But if you let yourself stay trapped out of fear that others will find your work of lower quality than you like, consider how realistic it is that's truly going to come back to bite you. Every piece of code I write is not perfect. Hope you're able to make the best decision, I'm sure there are other tradeoffs than the ones you mentioned too. Transitions are always complicated!

[@Frostbain]

@@HealthyDev Oh yeah, consciously I know it would be a clean cut - "*poof* he's gone, maybe he really was a wizard" :D And quality for everyone needs to be viewed through the lens of "best they could within limitations (capacity, education, technology, etc.)". It's similar to what you mentioned about the impacts of stress on your personal relationships - "how will it impact good professional relationships when my load gets added to them?" Realistically I think everyone would be understanding; it's probably just care for them leading to worry. Thanks for what you do. Rubber duck debugging for meatspace :)

[@HealthyDev]

@@Frostbain I think it's actually a good quality that you care for other people. I guess there's a fine line between caring, and being a doormat. Only you know where that line is.

[@bythealphabet]

Thank you, I'm right at the crossroad. This video was helpful.

[@vinhcomputer]

Pure gold here! Thank you, Jayme.

[@ryuhaneda]

Self-employment REDUCES risk? This is the first time I’ve ever heard that. You’ve got my attention now.

[@adnandzindosoda]

My father is whole life self employed. He is not in tech. But that guy, he knows how to make money. He knows how to work with people. He learned skills which can not be learned in corporations. Damn whole his life he worked max 6 hours per day.

[@franky1116]

Soooo trueeee. Good topic!! Thanks for share.

[@prokopistsesmetzis7974]

Most of the things mentioned here apply to me career-wise. I guess what's really holding me back is there is no straight path to self-employment. If you want to work for a company, you learn some marketable skills, apply and get a job. If you want to be self-employed there are so many paths to chose from that you can easily get decision paralysis and no guarantee that whatever you try will work. Plus I have a control problem and I like knowing I get X money every month instead of the insecurity that self-employment can have at times, especially in the beginning.

[@HealthyDev]

Yep, that's how they keep us locked in. I had to have some conversations with my wife to get her support, I did have a little money saved to bootstrap me at first - but it was also very bumpy. That's the adventure part in it. I learned that when I'm the one who has to motivate myself to work each day, it required me to really "grow up" in terms of taking responsibility for what I do and being strategic about it. When I worked for companies, they handled all that for me.

[@Boris247]

Thank you for this video!

[@troymann5115]

I needed this and it hit me like a truck. Expecting some kind of recession apocalypse, I thought that a w2 would be safe. Neither of those things turned out to be true. I was just frightened by leetcode interviews at my age. However its easier to adapt to the new stuff than to keep babysitting old tech under abusive management.

[@auliktechnologies9051]

Thank You for this. 🙏

[@jorderon]

Thanks for your videos. You have a lot of good insights. Though one way to look at your path is that you're still in a corporate grind, but a different kind. Yours is gig to gig as as a peer rather than an employee. You're pointing out all the challenges of being an employee, but without that experience you'd have no idea how to sell your services to those organizations. Being an employee isn't all bad. Like anything it's a trade and as you become more valuable you have more to offer.

[@HealthyDev]

If the path you choose is to offer your services to organizations as a consultant, that is true. If you decide to create a product, that's actually not required. In that case, it's more about learning to talk to groups of people with problems and then explore solutions. Not disagreeing with your premise here, just adding some context that there are other paths.

[@kocokan]

Staying technically relevant in an industry that seem completely changed every 6 months, is hard That's why many programmers transitioned to managerial roles

[@whydoubt]

I've had an itch to get into this for years. First, I don't know how to find contracts that fit my experience. Second, I'm afraid of legal risk from not know what does and doesn't belong in an equitable contract.

[@maivangSWE]

Appreciate the insights! ❤

[@saleem-hadad]

What is too long means here? How many years?

[@CenturionDobrius]

Really, really valuable advices, thanks !!!

[@istovall2624]

Love your content. Would it be possible to make some videos on how to do consulting? Contracts, negotiation, norms, etc? Edit, my bad didn't know you do coaching. Can you lead me to that ?

[@HealthyDev]

thrivingtechnologist.com/tech-career-coaching-for-software-professionals/

[@masterchief5437]

I really want to be self-employed I failed once earlier on in my life and need confidence to start again after corp jobs.

[@ragamuf]

@@masterchief5437 Been there. Just allow yourself to begin again. The hardest thing sometimes is to escape our current identity. This is why you have to give yourself the freedom to begin anew.

[@kazeryuu3603]

There's a band called "The Mermen" that I think you will like.They use clean guitar sounds like similar to the one you used on this video

[@codeman99-dev]

5:49 This is a misnomer of sort. Rewarding "loyalty" and "high value" are different sides of the same coin.

[@HealthyDev]

You can be loyal an employer and not have skills that are valuable to them. That was the point I was trying to make. Hope that helps!

[@telebiopic]

Inspiring 🎉

[@bargainbincatgirl6698]

One of the big problems I have is, as a data scientist, my specialty is building predictive models. But that work is too specialized, somewhat "at the top" of data science pyramid needs, so I don't know if I need to widen my skills in other areas of data science or more at the base of the pyramid: business intelligence, data engineering, etc. Or keep specializing at the top, because right now the AI hype cycle is at the top of the pyramid, but also I find more jobs in business intelligence / data engineering. And because in data science usually valuable data to model is private, I don't think someone will risk revealing that data to a freelancer. That can be solved with non-disclosure in the contract with the freelance, but no idea how is going to work.

[@HealthyDev]

What about finding a group of people who can benefit from a data model, building it, and starting a product yourself? I talked about finding profitable business ideas in my last episode.

[@bargainbincatgirl6698]

@@HealthyDev I just watched your other video and I can guess a few business ideas that could appear in my field and I can figure out a few extra skills I need to acquire or perfect for bringing those ideas to fruition, enough to guide me in my future learning process. I must confess that when I read "starting a product yourself" I got scared, because I imagine doing a web app right away. But in data science we have a lot of tools that allows to automate a data product with a whole range of sizes. For example, I think I know enough right now to create a service of business dashboards and I can properly balance costs & features. Thanks for the advice.

[@HealthyDev]

@@bargainbincatgirl6698 understandable. I think we can often get overwhelmed because we think we need to build a product with the same complexity and amount of features as our day job. If the business model (cost x number of customers) can support you, the idea only has to be that valuable.

[@masterchief5437]

True I've just been laid off in 2 weeks, cause of change of management

[@HealthyDev]

I usually suggest people start their own thing while they have a stable job and ease into it. Especially since customer/problem discovery is a less urgent process and can be done alongside a job. But there are some people who won't start unless they can focus on it 100%. Hope you find a better path, sorry to hear you're facing this.

[@masterchief5437]

@JimAllen-Persona Thanks mate :) Hope that I will find a job in the next few weeks!

[@masterchief5437]

@@HealthyDev Thanks mate, will appreciate the prayers if you can, that I find a job soon to just support the family as a young father. I'm also continuing on building a tourism app, hoping I can monetize that one day.

[@bitshopstever]

After doing the solopreneur life you are more valuable to the right company, that's a point worth adding once you've experienced it. The compensation structure may change and be more bonus and stock oriented but they see the value.

[@plaidchuck]

Sounds good but ive seen too many embarrassed millionaires crying when their businesses didnt work out

[@sp4rt4h96]

Are you willing to do coaching consultations with a pay-as-you-win success-based payment scheme?

[@HealthyDev]

Sorry I only do coaching packages. I used to do individual sessions, but people would sometimes quit when things got challenging and not get the outcome they were paying for. Packages have been a godsend for both me and my clients.

[@sp4rt4h96]

@@HealthyDev Mind giving me a consultation to discuss? We can discuss and negotiate the terms of an agreement to force accountability from my side. Otherwise I can't get a package due to lack of capital to spend. I am recently unemployed.

[@HealthyDev]

@@sp4rt4h96 I'm sorry I'm pretty swamped with client interest. If you can't afford packages at this time, I have to leave space for people who can. It's just a matter of supply and demand, I truly wish the best for your situation.

[@LesliePajuelo]

Why didn't you work for yourself in tech? why pivot to career coaching instead?

[@HealthyDev]

I saw a problem that wasn’t being addressed and solving that was more important to me.

[@allaboutcoding8506]

First comment ❤

[@Wineblood]

Salaried people are paid twice a month, since when?

[@HealthyDev]

It's common practice in the US for bi-monthly paychecks. (Every 2 weeks). Twice a month is a verbal approximation.

[@Wineblood]

@@HealthyDev Well, I learned something new today. I've always seen it monthly here in Europe.

[@HealthyDev]

@@Wineblood I learned something too! :)

[@_vofy]

Job security? Easy. Just be the only one to know where that one special line of code is buried.

[@Rick104547]

That only lasts till either someone figures out you sabotaged the code or it gets removed in a change. Skill is the true way to have 'stability'. Just be better by continuously honing your skills.

[@rahul_bali]

FUCK I hate AI... and the proponents of this agenda.