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Comment by headmelted | Hacker News Reader

I don't even entertain that nonsense anymore. Being a contractor helps ("You want me to stay late? Great, where do I send the invoice?"). Oddly, I almost never get asked to work overtime anymore because when money is involved critical deadlines suddenly become more flexible.

It amazes me how many people in our industry will eagerly work seven days a week without pay for an employer that:

A) Won't do it themselves. B) Can easily afford to pay for it, but won't.

It won't help you get ahead, either. It shows gullibility, not dedication. That's not the kind of quality you want in a leader of anything. It's for this reason I would disagree with your premise that by not allowing yourself to be exploited you're forgoing future career success. You've learned the first lesson in success which is, crassly, don't be a punk.

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>Being a contractor helps ("You want me to stay late? Great, where do I send the invoice?")

Oh man, I've recently gone back into contracting and absolutely love this aspect. Sure, contracting has its downsides, but if you don't want to deal with being bossed around contracting is brilliant.

A sharp friend of mine takes advantage of this. He looks for a full-time job, and then says, "Look, I'd rather work 4 days for 80% of the pay, so just make me an hourly employee at 32 hours a week." He's really good and will stay at the same place for many years, so somebody will say yes.

Then, no matter what crazy things are going on, he's insulated. As he says, "full time is full time, but 32 hours is 32 hours."

That is the most genius fucken' way to play it.

Hah, that is really clever of him. I should try that next time.

I do this. I work on whatever I feel like on the other day.

>It's for this reason I would disagree with your premise that by not allowing yourself to be exploited you're forgoing future career success.

I did this early in my career for a few years, and it was absolutely worth it for my career in the long run. It wasn’t a one sided deal either. My boss allowed me to have all sorts of responsibilities that at the time, I absolutely didn’t have the experience to back up. I got through it entirely based on perseverance and hard work, and when I left that company I landed a much nicer job that was years ahead of what I would have otherwise been able to get. Now I’ve learned and done enough that I largely get to set the terms for my own employment. I haven’t even had to properly apply to a job since then.

It worked for me at the time, because I was young and didn’t really have any responsibilities outside of work. Situations like this are only really a problem if you’re not getting something bigger out of it, or if you have too many personal responsibilities to manage it.

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