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Most were just garbage that didn't reveal themselves until the end, or I knew what they were going to do beforehand...

But there was one early on in my career that was this tiny little company that wanted their first outside hire. They weren't a startup, they had all started this business after working at a larger enterprise that was getting flaky. They had retained a recruiter because recruiter had called them, but the recruiter was a piece of shit. One of the worst pieces of shit I've ever met in the recruiter world.

The recruiter lied to me seven ways from Sunday, and I backed out and turned it down after I'd been made an offer. The company found out why and was sincerely apologetic about it (I still know the owner of the place,) and offered me the job later on - but the recruiter's agreements were in the way and it just didn't feel right anymore. I really believed that the recruiter would cut off their own noses to spite their faces over this - that's how big of pieces of shit they were. They wrote me some very angry love letters about the job.

We've both since moved on, and the company hired someone else. It was a great position with great pay but eh benefits. I wonder what would have happened if I'd taken it.

Most were just garbage that didn't reveal themselves until the end, or I knew what they were going to do beforehand... But there was one early on in my career that was this tiny little company that wanted their first outside hire. They weren't a startup, they had all started this business after working at a larger enterprise that was getting flaky. They had retained a recruiter because recruiter had called them, but the recruiter was a piece of shit. One of the worst pieces of shit I've ever met in the recruiter world. The recruiter lied to me seven ways from Sunday, and I backed out and turned it down after I'd been made an offer. The company found out why and was sincerely apologetic about it (I still know the owner of the place,) and offered me the job later on - but the recruiter's agreements were in the way and it just didn't feel right anymore. I really believed that the recruiter would cut off their own noses to spite their faces over this - that's how big of pieces of shit they were. They wrote me some very angry love letters about the job. We've both since moved on, and the company hired someone else. It was a great position with great pay but eh benefits. I wonder what would have happened if I'd taken it.

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[–] • 0 pt

100hr weeks ... exempt position or salaried non-exempt? ie were you compensated? I was exempt, compensated 40hrs for my +60hrs weeks. I did about a 6 month stint of 72hr weeks (6 days x 12hrs) and that wore me down. We used to joke around that we were only working half days, and laugh about it. That's about how worn out and delerious we felt. Not being compensated for the over and above sucked, complaints were met with "well, you still have a job". Later that changed to " You know, we could hire 4 Chinese Engineers for your salary".

Thank God I escaped that salt mine. It sure doesn't feel like it's been 20 years ago already.

[–] • 1 pt (edited )

Exempt. Fucking EXEMPT. That job should not be exempt but it is by federal standards and its fucking criminal. It was literally on the very border of what you could call exempt and non-exempt based on JD alone and not salary (Pay was shit, they had to pay 2.5x to replace me, More of my fault and not getting out sooner, that guy lasted 2 months and rage quit). I am smarter than that shit now. No, I was not even given flex or comp time. Sometimes, if the boss thought I was about to quit they would say "take a day off, paid, don't record it as PTO".

The only reason the boss probably never went after me is with how well I recorded my time and how much I backed up on my own with com's otherwise they probably would have thought they could go after me. I probably have a labor case that would end them but its been too long and I am over it. Never again though and I make a big point to try to help people understand when they are getting fucked and help them get out of those positions now.

[–] • 1 pt

I hear ya. One feels used and abused when treated like that, and rightly so. Up here in the sticks (in my situation) there were very very few alternatives for CS/EE employment of interest to me in the area, and that was before the days of telecommuting options. I felt as stuck as a slave in a salt mine. No way to push back against the outrageous workload and shitty compensation unless I moved to another state, but I really didn't want to do that so I put up with it.

I could have used a career mentor back in my 20s, it could have made a big difference in my salary over my career. I essentially took what they were giving.