Valley job-clingers: Why you need to get fired

July 21, 2009 | Paul Boutin | Comments | |

fire“Valley culture has an unwritten rule that if you don’t like a job, or if you think your company isn’t going anywhere, you leave. Instead of hanging around the office whining, you walk out the door and find something better and cooler to do. Because skilled tech workers are hard to find and interesting companies abound, employees, not employers, call the shots. This was true at Apple in 1984, and it’s still true at Facebook today.” My latest opening essay for Wired magazine drags the knowledge of several local economists and researchers into the glaring summer sun of Silicon Valley. These experts agree: Valley techies are currently clinging to their jobs, throwing away their most unique and valuable trait, which is their total lack of loyalty to employers. Are you hanging onto a job you no longer like? You need to be fired, my friend. It’s good for you, and good for America’s technology sector.

[Illustration for Wired by Stephen Doyle]

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About the Author, Paul Boutin

Paul (paul@venturebeat.com) covers Apple & the iPhone, social networks & social media, digital music & video, and any crazy Internet story. Paul wrote and edited for Valleywag from 2006-2008, after several years with Wired magazine and Slate. He writes regularly for The New York Times' technology section and sometimes for Wired and The Wall Street Journal. He studied computer science at MIT in the early 1980s, and worked as a software developer and network administrator for 15 years before becoming a professional writer. Follow him on Twitter at @paulboutin, and follow VentureBeat on Twitter at @venturebeat.

  • again, i already gave you props on that article, but why doesn't matt let y'all reprint articles from other freelance work? e.g., The WSJ article you did today,
  • Merv
    LOLz, send that article to the guy with 3 kids who bought a house in 2007. I'm sure he'd love to heed your advice bubble boy.
  • I totally agree with what Paul said. If your manager sucks, fire him by moving your job to another manager at your company, I did that when I worked at Apple way back in the last century.

    If your company sucks, leave it and find something better for you, I did and ended up starting a company that went public a few years later.

    Every time I've done this, better things were in store for me around the corner, it can work the same way for you but you have to trust the universe and just do it.
  • kramerica
    the grass may not be greener on the other side, but the sky may be bluer
  • Pete
    Great advice, except that I've been trying to quit for months and no ones interested. I'm a great engineer with leadership/management experience, but I'm over 40. I can get the interviews but as soon as I walk in the door the interest evaporates.

    As much as I'd just love to walk out there are car payments and mortgage that needs to be taken care of.

    Face it, the Valley has a culture of youth and if you're over 35 you're screwed. I wonder if Paul has ever followed his own advice.
  • ammosov
    To the best of everyone's memory, Valley has never yet been to a combination of crushing real estate prices, zero credit access, zero venture capital access and unemployment rate of 11%. So, great advice, but sounds sooo 2007-ish...
  • adff
    offshore outsourcing
  • jobopenings
    I'd rather resign than be fired. (lol)