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Comment by cosmodisk | Hacker News Reader

The company I used to work for got acquired by a listed company. At the same time, I was doing finance module at the university. One assignment was to analyse a company's financial reports and come up with a conclusion. So I analysed the company I worked for and the outcome was that I need to get out. At the same time the company was sending communication as it's about to discover time travel and unicorn milk.

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> At the same time, I was doing finance module at the university. One assignment was to analyse a company's financial reports and come up with a conclusion. So I analysed the company I worked for and the outcome was that I need to get out.

That's interesting. My OH is almost half way through her MBA and for one recent module, she chose to analyse her current employer's financial reports and come up with a conclusion. Her conclusion is also that she needs to get out.

I wonder how many tech employees can actually read a financial report, though?

Any good resources for a tech employee to learn about these things without having studied it?

The Economist Guide To Analysing Companies is a good start. Others would be corporate finance books or intro books to accounting.

> Her conclusion is also that she needs to get out.

It depends. I haven't been RIF'd before but would take a package if they were layoffs if I had the opportunity. I'd also use as much of unemployment as I could for as long as I could. Basically I'd be looking to maximize the amount of time I can go before I'd need another job.

Just because a company appears to be running out of cash doesn't necessarily mean you need to leave immediately if they do downsizing.

To my surprise hardly anybody outside, and even some inside, of finance can. Not that I'm an expert, but I understand a balance sheet, can interpret the expebse lines, understand a cash flow sheet and can read (after having been to a couole of audits) the SOX relevant audit statements of public US companies. And yes, those tell you an aweful lot about your employer. And yes, part of me came to the same conclusion as your OH and the OP.

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