Career

Scraping by on Six Figures? Tech Workers Feel Poor in Silicon Valley’s Wealth Bubble

March 2, 2017 Leave a Comment

Even with six-figure income, tech workers in Silicon Valley still feel poor. I didn’t become a software engineer to be trying to make ends meet,” said a Twitter employee in his early 40s who earns a base salary of $160,000. It is, he added, a “pretty bad” income for raising a family in the Bay Area. The Guardian reported: “Silicon Valley’s latest tech boom, combined with a housing shortage, has caused rents to soar over the last five years. The city’s rents, by one measure, are now the highest in the world. The prohibitive costs have displaced teachers, city workers, firefighters and other members of the middle class, not to mention low-income residents. Now techies, many of whom are among the highest 1% of earners, are complaining that they, too, are being priced out.”

‘The American dream is not working out here’

“We make over $1m between us, but we can’t afford a house,” said a woman in her 50s who works in digital marketing for a major telecoms corporation, while her partner works as an engineer at a digital media company. “This is part of where the American dream is not working out here.” (theguardian.com)

Want to Make More on Uber and Lyft? It Pays to be Young

February 23, 2017 Leave a Comment

Matt McFarland writes on cnn.com: “Want to make more money? Generally, getting older does the trick. But something curious is playing out in the ridesharing world. A new survey finds that the younger an Uber or Lyft driver is, the more they report making. Drivers over the age of 61 reported making the least amount per hour, $14.57. The highest earners were people between 18 and 30, who pulled in $17.98 an hour. The survey was conducted by Harry Campbell, who runs a popular ridesharing blog, The Rideshare Guy. He surveyed 1,150 drivers who subscribe to his email list. Uber and Lyft don’t pay different rates depending on a driver’s age. The gap in earnings emerges based on how many rides a driver can pack in an hour, and if they are benefiting from surge pricing and bonuses. For example, ridesharing companies sometimes offer incentives if a driver picks up passengers in a popular neighborhood during a certain timeframe. Driving on Friday and Saturday evenings is especially lucrative, according to Campbell, but some older drivers may not want to work such a late shift. Younger drivers generally have an easier time mastering the technology aspect of the job, as well as the physical demands.” (cnn.com)

8 Books That Help Billionaire Elon Musk to Succeed in Life

February 23, 2017 Leave a Comment

Billionaire Elon Musk is well-known as a book lover. It’s said that he read the entire Encyclopedia Britannica at age nine and would pore through science fiction novels for more than 10 hours a day. No wonder his voracious reading habit plays a crucial role in his amazing success in life. Here are eight books that help Elon Musk to succeed in life:

“Structures: Or Why Things Don’t Fall Down” by J.E. Gordon
“Benjamin Franklin: An American Life” by Walter Isaacson
“Einstein: His Life and Universe” by Walter Isaacson
“Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies” by Nick Bostrom
“Merchants of Doubt” by Erik M. Conway and Naomi Oreskes
“Lord of the Flies” by William Golding
“Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future” by Peter Thiel
The “Foundation” trilogy by Isaac Asimov

No Big Boss: Swedish Company Eliminated CEO so Nobody is in Charge!

February 17, 2017 Leave a Comment

Katie Hope reported on BBC about the Swedish company where nobody is in charge:

Three years ago, Swedish software consultancy Crisp decided that the answer was no. The firm, which has about 40 staff, had already trialled various organisational structures, including the more common practice of having a single leader running the company. Crisp then tried changing its chief executive annually, based on a staff vote, but eventually decided collectively that no boss was needed. Yassal Sundman, a developer at the firm, explains: “We said, ‘what if we had nobody as our next CEO – what would that look like?’ And then we went through an exercise and listed down the things that the CEO does.” The staff decided that many of the chief executive’s responsibilities overlapped with those of the board, while other roles could be shared among other employees. “When we looked at it we had nothing left in the CEO column, and we said, ‘all right, why don’t we try it out?'” says Ms Sundman.

Five Signs Your Company is Hoping You Will Quit Your Job

February 16, 2017 Leave a Comment

Job board site Monster describes some cues regarding your company that might try to spur you into quitting. Monster reported: “If your company no longer has a need for you, why wouldn’t your boss just let you go? Well, from an employer’s perspective, it’s much easier for them if you can be encouraged to leave on your own. Whether via a firing or a layoff, if a company takes the initiative to cut an employee loose, there’s more paperwork involved and it creates a stressful atmosphere for those left in the office.” Here are five signs your company is hoping you will quit your job:

Your boss is turning into a micromanager: “You’re used to being left alone to do your work and have enjoyed the supportive feedback of your boss for as long as you can remember. Suddenly, your boss begins nitpicking all your work and doling out frustratingly vague criticisms. Bad sign.”
Your company now wants to document everything: “Most employers have some sort of progressive discipline process that, when used properly, gives an underperforming employee the opportunity to improve,” says Lowman Smith. However, if the company wants you gone and implements this with little advance notice, it may be an attempt to psych you out—or “a form of intimidation to make you feel insecure or stressed enough to start looking for a new job,” she says.
You’re not being groomed for the future: “When you’re not getting new projects assigned to you, it’s a sign the boss isn’t interested in your future with the company,” says Jim Thibodeau, president and owner of StaffScapes, an HR consulting firm in Denver. “Similarly, if you see others in your office receiving more professional development, it may be time to reassess your career path.”
You’re getting the silent treatment: “Communication is vital to every department in every company. Your presence at meetings, on calls and at events, as well as on email correspondence, gives you access to this constant flow of information. When you’re abruptly cut off or pushed out of the circle, take note—especially if other co-workers remain in the loop.”
Your boss is taking your work away: “A company is like one big team, so if you’re used to being a starting player and then all of a sudden you get benched in favor of other players, you’re right to feel suspicious.”

(monster.com)

Study Links Working Remotely to More Stress and Insomnia

February 15, 2017 Leave a Comment

Medical Xpress reported: “Working outside an office may spare you from commutes and interruptions by colleagues but it also makes you more vulnerable to unpaid overtime, stress and insomnia, the UN said Wednesday. A new report from the United Nations International Labour Organization studied the impacts of working remotely, with technological advances continuing to revolutionise conceptions of the workplace. Based on data taken from 15 countries, the ILO found that employees were more productive while outside of a conventional office but noted it also brought risks of ‘longer working hours, higher work intensity and work-home interference.’ The report drew distinctions between employees who regularly work at home, highly mobile people constantly working in different locations and those who split time between an office and another site. All three of those groups reported higher stress levels and more incidents of insomnia than those who always work at their employer’s premises. For example, 41 percent of highly mobile employees said they felt some degree of stress, a figure that was 25 percent for office workers. A full 42 percent of people who always work from home or from multiple locations reported suffering from insomnia, compared to 29 percent for people who work at their employer’s site.” (medicalxpress.com)

Free College Tuition for All San Francisco’s Residents

February 14, 2017 Leave a Comment

Public colleges in Germany, Norway and Finland are free for residents. Soon San Francisco will join that league as the first city in the US to offer free college. CNBC reported: San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee and Supervisor Jane Kim announced plans to offer free City College tuition to all of San Francisco’s residents regardless of need. It would be the first metropolitan area to do so. San Francisco Supervisor Jane Kim told local station KGO-TV, “Making City College free is going to provide greater opportunities for more San Franciscans to enter into the middle class and more San Franciscans to stay in the middle class if they currently are.” Under the proposed deal, which is expected to take effect in the fall, the city of San Francisco would provide the City College of San Francisco with nearly $5.4 million annually. (cnbc.com)

Google Engineers on Self-Driving Car Project Quit Working After Reaching Financial Independence

February 13, 2017 Leave a Comment

Engineers on Google’s self-driving car project were paid so much that they quit. With so much money and bonus throwing at these engineers to help retain dedicated workers in the short run, it has resulted in many employees leaving the company in the long run after they reach financial independence. The Verge reports: “Google has spent a lot of money on its self-driving car project, now spun off into a new entity called Waymo. Much of that money has gone to engineers and other staff, according a new report from Bloomberg. In order to keep self-driving staffers happy — and, presumably, from leaving the company for other firms doing similar work — Google backed the proverbial Brinks truck up to the self-driving department and unloaded. Bloomberg says that early staffers “had an unusual compensation system” that multiplied staffers salaries and bonuses based on the performance of the self-driving project. The payments accumulated as milestones were reached, even though Waymo remains years away from generating revenue. One staffer eventually ‘had a multiplier of 16 applied to bonuses and equity amassed over four years.’ The huge amounts of compensation worked — for a while. But eventually, it gave many staffers such financial security that they were willing to leave the cuddly confines of Google.”

How This 27-Year-Old Made $1 Million Last Year

February 1, 2017 Leave a Comment

Last year Michelle Schroeder-Gardner made almost $1 million — $979,000, to be exact. Guess how this 27 year-old made $1 million in a year. That’s right, blogging. From an article in Forbes, her ticket out of debt and into financial freedom has been her blog, Making Sense of Cents, where she offers tips on saving and making money — and publishes income reports. Schroeder-Gardner said: “I had actually started my blog in August 2011, before I graduated with my finance MBA. I got the idea one day when I was reading Cosmo and they had an article featuring the personal finance site Daily Worth. I started reading that website and I became super-interested in personal finance blogs. I started my blog as a hobby. I didn’t start it thinking I’d make an income from it. Six months later, I made my first $100 from my blog when a blogger friend who was already profiting from her blog connected me with an advertiser. I didn’t even know blogs could make money.” She keeps developing her blogging hobby into a career and her earning keeps going up: In 2013, she earned $117,000. In 2014, that increased to $164,000. In 2015, her earnings jumped to $321,000. And finally he made close to $1 million last year. (forbes.com)

Universal Basic Income for All is Coming?

February 1, 2017 Leave a Comment

If robots and machine intelligence threaten to render many white-collar jobs obsolete, then what will people do for money? Enter the concept of a ‘universal basic income’, a flat sum paid to all regardless of your existing wealth or ability to work. It is one of the rare ideas that has support from both the libertarian right — which favours tearing up the welfare state — and the left wing. In France, Benoit Hamon has emerged as the surprise Socialist candidate for April’s presidential election first round, on a radical programme that includes such an income — to be funded in part by a new tax on industrial robots. National or local governments in other countries such as Finland, the Netherlands, Canada, Scotland and Brazil are already evaluating how such a revenue might work in practice. Finland is furthest down the road. On January 1 it started a two-year trial to give 2,000 unemployed Finns a monthly unconditional payment of $590. At the least, advocates argue, a basic income could replace the thicket of unemployment benefits currently on offer in many advanced economies. (yahoo.com)

Why is Work Making Us Miserable?

January 26, 2017 Leave a Comment

Office life is better than ever before, but why dissatisfaction is rising? Lucy Kellaway writes: “Now, not only are offices bright and beautiful, we do not even have to go to them if we do not feel like it — we can work at home instead. Bosses have been taught not to shout. There are gyms and free fruit. And if you happen to be a woman, things have improved beyond recognition.” So why is work making us miserable? “The biggest reason for unhappiness is that we expect too much. Office jobs may have improved, but our expectations have far outstripped them.” (ft.com)

If You Get Rich, You Won’t Quit Working

December 12, 2016 Leave a Comment

You’d think striking it suddenly rich would be the ultimate ticket to freedom. Without money worries, the world would be your oyster. Perhaps you’d champion a worthy cause, or indulge a sporting passion, but work? Surely not. However, remaining gainfully employed after sudden wealth is more common than you’d think. After all, there are numerous high-profile billionaires who haven’t called it quits despite possessing the luxury to retire, including some of the world’s top chief executives, such as Amazon’s Jeff Bezos and Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg. But it turns out, the suddenly rich who aren’t running companies are also loathe to quit, even though they have plenty of money. That could be, in part, because the link between salary and job satisfaction is very weak. According to a meta-analysis by University of Florida business school professor Timothy Judge and other researchers, there’s less than a 2% overlap between the two factors. In the long run, we derive job satisfaction from non-monetary sources, which include positive peer relationships, the ability to work on meaningful projects and even leadership opportunities. (bbc.com)

After an Interview Never Ask If You Got the Job

October 7, 2016 Leave a Comment

So after a job interview, you are excited to see how well you did. Life Hacker suggests that you should never ask if you got the job right after an interview. “You should also avoid asking questions like ‘How did I do?’ or ‘Do you have any hesitations about me?’ or ‘Could you imagine me working here?’ These types of questions put the interviewer on the spot and can easily be seen as rude. You can ask ‘What’s your timeline for making a decision, and when can I expect to hear back from you?’ This shows your interest without being needy or off putting.”

How to Ask If You Got the Job

You should send a follow up email or letter to your potential employer to inquire about the status update of the job that you are very still interested. It would quickly force the employer to give you the answer without hurting your chance of getting the job.

10 Highest-Paying Jobs in 2016 If All You Care About Is Money

August 8, 2016 1 Comment

TheStreet compiled a list of the top 10 highest-paying jobs in America. You should follow a career in medicine, law and STEM if all you care about is money. Here’s the list for these high-paying jobs:

Physician: $180,000 median base salary
Lawyer: $144,500 median base salary
Research & Development Manager: $142,120 median base salary
Software Development Manager: $132,000 median base salary
Pharmacist: $130,000 median base salary
Strategy Manager: $130,000 median base salary
Software Architect: $128,250 median base salary
Integrated Circuit Design Engineer: $127,500 median base salary
IT Manager: $120,000 median base salary
Solutions Architect: $120,000 median base salary

(thestreet.com)

Why Constant Learners All Embrace the Five-Hour Rule

July 19, 2016 Leave a Comment

Michael Simmons explained why you should follow the five-hour rule. By consistently investing an hour a day in deliberate learning on every weekday, Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Mark Zuckerberg, and Benjamin Franklin achieve many great things. Simmons wrote: “At the age of 10, Benjamin Franklin left formal schooling to become an apprentice to his father. As a teenager, he showed no particular talent or aptitude aside from his love of books. When he died a little over half a century later, he was America’s most respected statesman, its most famous inventor, a prolific author, and a successful entrepreneur. What happened between these two points to cause such a meteoric rise? Underlying the answer to this question is a success strategy for life that we can all use, and increasingly must use. Throughout Ben Franklin’s adult life, he consistently invested roughly an hour a day in deliberate learning. I call this Franklin’s five-hour rule: one hour a day on every weekday.” (observer.com)