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What did you do this week?
As part of a weekly series, these topics are a place for users to casually discuss the things they did — or didn't do — during their week. Did you accomplish any goals? Suffer a failure? Do nothing at all? Tell us about it!
I put in my two weeks notice at my job! I am anxious and sad about it, and I can only hope it's the right decision. I hope to be able to take some time to decompress, rediscover myself, and maybe do some independent education... my plan is to look for another job in December or January.
Good luck! I don't know your situation but from some of your previous posts it sounds like this was something you needed to do, and you did your due diligence figuring out this was the right choice for you.
Thank you! This helps to hear. I am generally a very responsible "type A", and I tie a lot of my self-worth to my ability to solve problems effectively for myself and for others. While it's a boon in most facets of my life, it also makes it very emotionally difficult to admit when I might need a break or some assistance. If it weren't for the input of my friends and family, and having spaces like this in which to hash things out, I don't think I would have had the courage to do it.
Congrats, that sounds very nice. Needing a break from your job specifically or work in general?
Thank you! I was/am very burnt out. I tried to take time off but it simply wasn't sufficient and I know I had to take a break before I soured on the entire software engineering industry. In addition, my company has been dealing with an absolutely insane amount of turnover of senior employees, which left me in a the position of owning a product that I knew very little about from a technical perspective. If we had retained just ONE expert for another month or two to mentor me, I think I would have been OK, but it all just happened so fast. There were other issues too, honestly too numerous to mention, but that's the main one. I normally love a challenge, but just... not while I'm feeling like this too.
I plan on learning R and refreshing my stats knowledge in my downtime and trying to break into data science a little bit... I have some credentials in math, but it's been a while since I've really used 'em.
I'll echo @rogue_cricket with some job related stuff: I've started actively looking for another job due to a long period of building frustration with my current employer.
Does anyone have any tips for job searching while currently employed? What do you do when companies ask you for references? Obviously I have not informed my current employer I'm looking at the door.
Are former colleagues that you still keep in contact with at all? Where I am, the culture is that people will give out their personal contact information when they resign for exactly this kind of thing. In my experience even if it's been a while people are pretty open to a message asking for opportunities or references (at least, I know I am - I have been contacted a few times for this). I'm not sure if it's the same everywhere.
Honestly since I graduated, I've always written in the stock "references available on request", brought a print-out to interviews, and then... ended up bringing it back home with me after. I think it's been asked for maybe once. I almost wonder if they're getting to be a bit old-fashioned.
Yea I've never been asked for references either but I do include a "references available upon request." Beyond references I have no idea how common it is for companies to call and verify your employment status if you list them in your employment history though. We certainly don't do it here but we're also a smaller company.