He's passionate about engineering and has a lot of energy which is why he's still working and wants to continue. I think his focus is on identity, worked for a few years before this as a support engineer for an enterprise software company which ended up moving to a different state (he liked that job a lot more). But he's had a spotty work history, taking up engineering late in life and starting his own IT company which shut down ~15 years ago.
I seriously think that he is at the company because he likes his job. He probably identifies strongly at the company and feels that it is his responsibility to stay with the company.
I admit some envy of people who find their passion early and make the most of every year of their life leading up to a career, but if he's so smart and driven, why is he working at some "boring tech" company as a cog under some layer management? Why doesn't he consult solo and reap the fruit of his precociousness?
We can't know the guy's motives. One plausible (at least to me) story is that he doesn't want to work there any more, but wants to convince people he's an incredible AI engineer.
Also he might have enough money to retire. Make $700K for three years and you can reasonably plan to live on at least $100K yearly interest forever.
Startups though..he is vowing he'll build something smarter than Mobileye..seems pretty likely he's going to stay for at least another year in this and more if it's not failing.
he's a genious. I live in Viet Nam and the unemployment benefit is not good so I'm cautious to switch career. That's why i founded a company and be a founder and CEO as a part time job.
I think he explains it pretty clearly. Seems like pretty low stress for him, he seems to be enjoying it and it gives him the opportunity to work on high scale projects, which is more tricky to get when being independent.
I guess the perfect work for him would be to find a way to start contracting for his current position, but I can see how he's happy at work.
On another note, I became independent myself recently and I totally agree with you. I don't see myself going back to another company ever, but I'm still opened to the idea, because it might allow me to get to work on super interesting problems somehow.
I think it shows how important it is to maintain a healthy work-life balance. Hopefully he'll find a way to combine his technical aptitude with his new lifestyle in a symbiotic way.
The real question you should ask is "why is he still in this role after X years?" It is possible that he loves that role and doesn't want to transition out of it, in which case he could be a great hire. Or maybe he just doesn't want increased responsibility. Of course, it is also possible he just isn't competent enough to move up the ladder, and has been stuck as a result.
See if there are other areas in his life (hobbies, activities, etc) where he really excels. If he isn't fantastic at anything, you can probably assume limited competence.
I honestly don't know if I can depend on him or not, if it's any indicator of dependability, he had around a 2.8 GPA in College and he wasn't really doing any side-projects. His main ordeal would probably be his job, as he has a full-time job as a System Admin. If I judge his dependability based on that then it's shit. I think I'll ask him why he wants to do this and if he's honest about that his response will tell me whether he's dependable.
Him watching the Social Network and being motivated from that is slightly worrisome to me as well, but it was a movie that even with it being mostly fictitious, it still showed the possibility of success in Silicon Valley.
That is highly unlikely, such a mundane job as a sysadmin compared to having your own online business.
If he liked it that much, then probably he wouldn't have started a whole side project that must have consumed evenings and weekends for years.
If he would have found professional fulfillment in his job, he would not likely have started a side project in the first place.
As he mentions in his own reply, he stays because he feels that his job defines him as a person, and he would lose his social identity if he left.
This is a surprisingly lucid reply, he can do whatever he wants and I wish him the best, but it's clear to me that he has other much better options available.
i am not an expert but he is having day job, family, not one but two startups and side projects. that does not sound good to me. he should totally focus on one thing on professional front.
This is a great point. He has a Masters in Engineering from a US university and several years of experience in implementing "BI Reporting/Analytics", finding a decent job really shouldn't be that difficult. He is going to have to come up with a good explanation for the "what have you been doing for the last 10-15 years?" question since "caring for his ill father" seems to only cover the first year of his absence from the workforce.
I think because he entered the field by doing a crash course, he must have some fears about losing his efficiency. This is why, perhaps the # of years in a tech role has some relevance, which he does not understand.
I'm confused because the article is written by Max Ehnert who from looking at his linkedin has only been working as a software dev for roughly two years. He's painting the picture of a life he hasnt lived?
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