[quote=AN]flu, wrt my example, what luck does guy B have that guy A doesn’t have. Guy A can easily move to as many companies as guy B does and get probably paid the same amount. Secondly, guy A can easily listen to guy B and not buy his house in 2005. Just those two things alone would have brought the two guys to parity.
WRT to your story, yes, that’s luck (bad/good). But at the same time, why didn’t guy A jump to different companies or departments well before the $hit hit the fan. Guy A in your story could have jump to company N or M or the many companies other startup in the bay. Then guy A can jump back to company Q a few years later. In my eye, guy A was being complacent and got hit with a string of bad luck. But guy A can be a little more proactive at the same time.
BTW, those new employees in company Q are fresh grads or with just a couple of years of experience, so, it’s not surprising that they’re renting in city M until they acquire enough down payment.[/quote]
AN.. For some people, moving around companies works out for them. For other people it doesn’t.
There are a lot of people I know that left a company thinking it would be better…And starting with the first company, they’ve been through layoff after layoff after layoff…I’ve seen folks (not necessarily that I’m friends with) that left QC during turmoil (because they weren’t on H1B and didn’t have do stay)…but went to a company like Lucent thinking it would be better..got laidoff…but then went to ericcson… got laidoff, went to TI… got laidoff, went to nokia… got laidoff, went to nextwave…got laidoff, when to Kyocera…got laidoff, went back to nextwave (nextwave II), got laidoff, went to packet video got laidoff so forth
…I recall there was another acquiantancehat bought himself a house in LJ,way above what he could afford at the time…I thought he was crazy. It was hard for him for 4-5 years. When Q went through turmoil, while folks like me and this other guy who didn’t have a house and could move around as we liked, this guy was stuck because he couldn’t sell his house in LJ and had to stick it out working for QC when people like me and the other guy was bailing. He was freaking out…But he had “no choice”…Well, that was 1998-9ish….His “no choice” ended up being a huge windfall for him, because staying at QC was the best “forced decision” that could have happened. The dude’s house is worth a fortune now, and by staying stable at QC, with it’s 8x+ multiple. He hasn’t had to worry about looking for another job, layoffs, or an economic downturn…Meanwhile the other guy that’s been through layoff after layoff still can’t afford to buy a home.
Your friend B could have easily wound himself in the same predicament if he happened to pick the companies that sucked and was marred by a few layoffs and setbacks during his job switching days..
I’ve been at interviews because a recruiter wanted me to talk to the company…And there were times that I was asked if I am currently employed. I said yet, why? The HR person said she needs to know if we need to do extra to bring you in above your current compensation package…
It’s a fine line between looking for another opportunity because you can and having to look for another opportunity because you have too….And the ironic twist of “luck” in life is that being in one state often leads to into the other state… and vice versus. We’d like to think that being proactive is a sure formula for success. But reality is, there are a lot of people who are proactive that move around, that try to be in control, but due to (bad luck) just didn’t do “as-well” so to speak as someone that just remained “complacent/lazy” or were forced to stay…
It’s like someone trying to weave in and out of lanes to beat the traffic, but then gets sandwiched between two semi-s driving too slow in both lanes…You stay in fast lane hoping it would clear up…Meanwhile some slow ass dude keeps in the right lane and catches up because the two semi’s are going so damn slow, and then the slow guy is right next to you in the slow lane… and Then suddenly the semi directly in front of you in your lane has a blowout and your lane (supposedly the fast lane) comes to a screetching halt, and the slow dude passes you with a big smirk on his/her face….
