> "Salaries are arbitrary and 2 weeks of vacation is total bullshit"
Could you expand more on what you mean by the vacation stuff? Do you mean like it's total bullshit that you only get 2 weeks? I was not sure how literal to take that.
I suspect that's what he meant. In a small company two weeks is often all you'll ever get, if that much. In a large company you'll start there and pretty quickly get to three weeks, and if you stay long enough you'll get to 4-5 weeks.
This is in the US, of course. In a humane country you start with 3-4 weeks, and I think after a couple of years in some European countries you get around six months of vacation per year ;-)
I work for a University, and albeit having a slightly lower starting income than some private industry, my starting vacation time is incredible. I accrue just about 2 days per month paid vacation time. Besides regular holidays, I also get school holidays off too. 10 work days for Christmas paid. 5 work days for Spring Break paid. And I get 1 full day of sick leave per month that gets accrued too. It's fairly gravy.
I make iOS apps, and contribute to fairly large state-wide systems. Besides rote governmental/enterprise work, I also get to fool around and make interesting things because my role is also technically a "research" position. Did I mention I see/talk with my supervisor about 4 times a month, and he trusts me totally?
All that's awesome and everything, but there are downsides too. I am considered Junior, and will be for the next year (been there a year already). I make less than some of my coworkers despite being able to code circles around them (and architect systems better). Others are really, really damn good, so that's not always the case either Part of the problem is my degree - I have a Bachelor's in Art (of Arts too, but you see my point). This means that I'm fixed for at least the next year below my actual value, which sucks. My direct coworkers on the Mobile team are awesome, my age, share liked interests and we share a camaraderie that is probably absent at a lot of big companies and startups alike. Tradeoffs abound, but personal happiness and autonomous professional development are what I'm taking for the time being.
Don't sleep on BigCo or unusual positions just because it isn't sexy startup land in SV. There's a whole wide world out there too.
I didn't write that, but my guess is that it was literal.
I've seen and personally worked at a company where 2 weeks was not only your vacation time, but also your sick time as well. A government contractor I had worked for gave out 4 weeks (which was also sick time). Currently, I'm at 3 weeks.
Most places use vacation as an incentive - stay with us x number of years and we'll give you another week of vacation. I personally haven't stayed at a place long enough to realize that benefit.
This always seemed weird to me. Like, you can be a senior software developer with 15 years of experience, and if you get hired at a new company they'll only give you 2 weeks of vacation to start? Really?
It takes about a week to prepare for a vacation and about a week to recover. Trying to fit "okay, everybody: three, two, one, FORCED FUN TIME" into short time periods is more annoying than entire trips are worth.
Companies strip away between 1/3 and 3/4ths of your personhood (depending on the person) and autonomy in the world.
Could you expand more on what you mean by the vacation stuff? Do you mean like it's total bullshit that you only get 2 weeks? I was not sure how literal to take that.