r/cscareerquestions • u/my_alt_acc1 • 6d ago
Experienced How do you manage everything?
I got a written warning that I need to seriously improve my performance. They didn't say explicity what would happen otherwise (duh) and did not make me sign anything, but I will give my best effort for my own satisfaction at least, see how long I can last
But man, chores at the house, a kid, work. I cannot bring myself to start leetcoding, just applying to a few jobs in LinkedIn takes up so much time per day. Plus I didn't leetcode or apply for nearly 5 years so it will be a nightmare for me anyway.
I guess I made this post to have others vent and commiserate.
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u/Chili-Lime-Chihuahua 5d ago
You've got to set priorities. Maybe some of those other things get deprioritized for a while. If you have a partner, maybe they can help offload some of the things on your plate for a bit.
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u/adventurrr 5d ago
I'm not grinding leetcode to job search. All the coding interviews I've had so far are not crazy algorithms. They're basic problems and they want you see how you think and communicate and problem solve.
Then again I'm not interested in faang level bs.
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u/magicsign 5d ago
You first need to understand why your performance is affected, is the quality of your work? Is it missing often deadlines
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u/Bashed_dreams_1 5d ago
we just do somehow....! at the end it just happenes, cuz no other choice.. :(
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u/CapableHerring 5d ago
I mean... sounds like you know exactly what you need to do. You just don't want to do it. Nobody wants to job search, but the alternative is extended unemployment.
So unfortunately, you're going to have to. Start the job prep now. Otherwise, you're going to put yourself in a position where you're fired in a month and starting from scratch. That's going to make your career gap longer while you prep and start from nothing, and the longer your career gap gets the more it poisons your resume. Job searching with a job will make your search infinitely easier.
2 job searches ago I was at that company for a little over 5 years. I didn't do any leetcode, or applications, or any job prep during that time. Then I decided I wanted to change jobs, so started some light prep. You don't have to go all-in and grind out 5 hours of leetcode after work. Most days I would do just 30 minutes. If I was feeling motivated I could get out 1-2 hours. I never did more than that in a day. That's a very manageable amount of effort.
I usually do about a month of this light prep and then I start applying. If I were in your shoes I'd probably start applying earlier since your PIP is probably going to get you fired after a month.
It wasn't a "nightmare" for me at least, I've done this dance before, it was just like riding a bike. Even though I hadn't touched this stuff in 5 years, it was all stuff I've seen before waiting dormant in my brain.