Thoughts from the Jobhunt

I recently transitioned careers, from management consulting into tech.

One of the things that struck me most about the job-hunting process was:

Why aren't salaries more transparent?

While some companies might post their salary ranges on job postings or ask for your salary requirements earlier on, many won't even quote you a ballpark figure until you've jumped through all the hoops and are almost ready to sign. By this point, both sides will already have invested countless hours, and a fundamental salary mismatch will only result in wasted time for both parties.

It's ridiculous that asking about details such as salary and hours is considered rude during the interview process. After all, employers may like to believe that passion for their company/product is the primary factor in a candidate's desire to work for them, and that said candidate loves their company so much, they would be willing to overlook any salary shortcomings. Realistically, though, compensation is a fundamental part of the decision-making process, and pretending otherwise is just ignoring the elephant in the room.

The issue of transparent salaries extends beyond the interview process to the job itself. Very rarely do companies make promotion decisions, the processes behind them, and the salaries attached to them, transparent. Why not? Wouldn't it be most beneficial for both employees and the company overall if everyone was aware of the standards for success? Cloaking salaries and promotion decisions only encourages corruption, favoring politics and negotiation skills rather than performance on the job. Studies have shown that women, for instance, don't negotiate for raises as aggressively as men (a few articles: here, here, and here). If a higher salary can reflect pushing for a raise rather than heightened performance, what kind of message does that send about your company values?

Making salaries transparent could instead reward exemplary behavior while simultaneously educating and motivating a workforce to take actions that ultimately benefit companies more in the long run.

Why Blog

I used to write a lot.

An avid journal-keeper since the 7th grade, an earnest Xanga confessor, I not only wanted to record my thought processes for the amusement of my future self, I also wanted a way to dramatize the events of my life into a coherent narrative, one where I was the star of a kick-ass story. One part narcissism, one part—like the ancient Greeks and other myth-makers—storytelling as a means of making sense of the world and fulfilling the central human need of finding purpose in life.

I read an article in the Atlantic recently that made me think about this, about experiencing life with the expectation of later artistic interpretation. I mean, if you're planning on writing, tweeting, or otherwise packaging your experience for later distribution, you experience an event through the filter of that intention. You think about which aspects you could later dramatize, which parts you might omit, your audience in mind.

I've debated this with friends about photographing, journaling, and otherwise recording events—does it make the experience less authentic, with such a filter? Does it simply make you more attuned to detail? Which is better, living in the moment, or capturing the moment for posterity?

I remember my childhood frustration with my shutter-happy dad, who always carried around a minimum of two cameras and a bag full of lenses on every family vacation. I hated posing in front of each and every monument for the umpteenth photo. Why can't you just put down the camera and enjoy the moment? I'd think. It's a shame to view this city through the viewfinder of the camera, and not your own eyes.

Afterwards though, my sister and I would always delight in the photos that filled the stacks of albums around our house, and look back on them in later years as a way to relive the experience again and again. So who was right?

I still don't know what's right, and these are things I ponder in the decision to take up blogging again. The primary reason I'm interested in blogging, though, actually rests in just how long it's been since I've written anything. This former notepad-scribbler, aspiring author, essay-writer, English major hasn't penned a piece of writing for over a year (!) Too busy working at picking up employable skills, building a social life in a new city, and learning to be an adult. There's a part of me that feels like a writing muscle somewhere has grown weak from disuse, in danger of atrophy.

So here I am, blogging, writing, recording events for posterity, trying to make meaning of life. I'm imagining this blog as mostly a personal collection of thoughts and projects (artistic and otherwise), and maybe I might even pick up some readers along the way.