| I've found it's quite possible to work 40ish hours a week at high paying tech jobs if: - I'm ok if others work longer hours. Some people's competitive advantage is working long hours, and when I was younger, same. At 5:30 just get up, say goodbye to your mates and leave, don't seek approval or apologize for leaving - I focus on being productive, and am willing to spend a little time each Sunday evening planning out my week so I can hit the ground running. I'm focused and working immediately when I arrive, starting with a 25 minute pomodoro. Avoid burning your best brain reading interesting news. - I'm very organized and comply with all project management practices. My tickets are pristine and up to date. - I break up larger tickets into smaller ones. It's clear I'm continually getting shit done by closed tickets and commits (note:this does not mean bullshit commits intended to pad stats, just avoiding packing too much work into a single ticket or commit). Commit at least every 3 days. - I'm hungry to continually improve my skills and spend 30 to 60 minutes in morning at work learning stuff 3-4 days a week. I don't ask, I just do it. Don't be shy about summarizing ways you have become more skilled relevant to job in performance reviews - I take accountability for my code and am willing to help outside 9-5 if I'm blocking others, but take care to avoid this by writing well tested software and avoiding committing near EOD especially late on Fridays - avoid people managing and meetings. A trap to avoid is only being left with 2 hours of coding time per day leaving the evenings as only time to focus - care about your teammates and show curiosity in their expertise. Proactively take some time to help others in balance with individual work. Don't be shy about mentioning these activities in standups or performance reviews Ultimately I'm very productive and this is recognized. Sure I could be a "superstar" by working weekends but I just don't make a big deal about the fact that I pretty much work 9-5:30 and get my work done. A note on finding a match: feel out work life balance during interviews. Just sounding curious about the values and how people tend to work can help you filter out mismatches. There are definitely companies that are explicitly incompatible with 9-5:30. |