HACKER Q&A
📣 flakiness

What do you miss most about your previous job?


When you left a company to move another one, what is the largest loss from the last job?

We've often heard about ex-Google folks miss its internal infrastructure. Fine, but I can look for somewhere else on that [1]. How about other companies? Ex-of other FAANG companies? Startups? Good old enterprises? Whre do yo come from and what do you miss?

For example: I missed the internal blogging culture when I moved from small Tokyo-based tech firm to a US-based big co (although I never missed the long working hours).

There must be a virtue each company has. I'd love to hear your stories. (But let's not talk about money for now. It's probably not very interesting.)

Thanks!

[1] https://github.com/jhuangtw/xg2xg

  👤 version_five Accepted Answer ✓
I left a big company for a startup and missed people that new what they were doing (I mean this positively, like I went from a place where everything had been done before and there was someone with 35 years experience who knew exactly how to do it, to somewhere that everything was new, but you still miss the experience)

Mostly I just miss the friends I had at previous jobs.

👤 shams93
As a jazz musician I made a lot more per hour than engineering but the gigs were very sparse even though they could be well paying when they happened.
👤 alrs
Number one would be the unsanctioned daily lunch barbecue with my friends in the parking lot using a folding propane grill. Number two would be the bicycle commute.
👤 mikewarot
TLDR: People... that's what I miss

Once I was a programmer: I miss talking to the users, figuring out what they really wanted (instead of what they thought they wanted) and delivering it to them.

Once I was a bench technician: I miss having practice taking anything, no matter how old or undocumented, apart, and getting it working again.

Once I ran an ISP: I don't miss being on call 24/7, but being helpful was nice.

Once I was an IT Administrator, I miss helping everyone, and being able to intimidate computers into working. (Once had one of my users claim that the thought of calling me made his computer start working right again)

Once I built oddball electronics one-offs, I made lightbulb filaments float using lorenz force so they could be heat treated in the bulb... I miss pulling out all sorts of odd tricks to get things done.

Once I made gears - I miss making chips while turning a blank into part of a precision mechanism that will outlive me.

Mostly, I miss helping people get their jobs done. Friends I had at work. I also miss insurance and a steady paycheck.

I don't miss commuting, except when I rode the train and met all sorts of nice people.