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by itake 553 days ago
8 years ago, the startup I worked at folded with an eng team size of 8. I spent 3 years working part time and side projects, my coworkers joined big tech (LinkedIn and Airbnb). They road the 2021 boom and ended up 1-2 levels higher than me with 3-5x more pay. 5 years after returning, I’m just now catching up to them.

TL;DR: part time basically pauses careers.

1 comments

Thats unfortunate I'm sorry to hear. But it is also a sample size of 1.

My experience, working part time for 6 months, is that my side projects have differentiated me from other candidates, and get me a foot in the door for interviews. They usually say most candidates are the exact same, and the only way to differentiate and get an edge is: Perfect GPA; Successful projects; Sought after niche skills; Leadership experience.

But I've also had 2 relatively successful side projects (and tens of failed ones), so without those I'm not sure how I'd go