Ask HN: Got cancer, a new job,new boss in less than a year What do I do now?
by Goleniewski | 2026-03-13 11:02:47+00:00
Hello Everyone,

As per title really. I started a new job late last year. Head hunted and went from a mega stable nothing ever really changes with a low stress environment where it would cost a lot to get rid of me with over a decade and a half of service to a extremely fast paced "lets do it" environment that is rather "make it work for now" and the technical debt is large. I joined partly because I had a real rapport with the guy who would be my boss. The money helped too :D

The day I joined the company it got bought out by another one. Ok, we carry on, integration ongoing. Stuck between two competing outlooks on infrastructure and different ways of working.

Then in the last month I have a diagnosis of the big C. Tests are completed (i think) but it looks to be the one you want to get if you had to pick one. Treatment plans inbound imminently...

A few weeks ago my boss resigned. Now I have a new boss in another country. He is pretty much an unknown quantity at this point.

To be fair my immediate team mates and colleagues (in both companies) are awesome and we get through it as best we can but for right now but I don't even know what to do. I feel so much of a spare part its horrible. The job itself, I am not even sure about. If only I had a time machine. Clear guidance and direction is a thing other companies do! I feel like i have made a huge mistake and I was unhappy before all the upheaval at new job.

At home, we did the maths and luckily, even in the worst possible scenario the bills are covered for the very long term. That's something to be very thankful for. It may not be pretty but no one is coming knocking at the door.

I am thankful we live in a country with socialised health care and that the outlook is apparently good (unless the doctors are lying to me, obvs <---- Autism at play). I'll be honest and say that doing any work is hard because not knowing if you are going to be alive in a year or two is kind of a drag on productive work. I hope I will be, the prognosis is good but being told that news is the loneliest feeling in the world at the time.

I am still very much the newb and I can see if they want to rationalise headcount I am a prime target so..... I realise they cant do it whilst I am ill but you know how these things can go.
So my fellow geeks... There is not a lot of good going on right now.

Can anybody help me with an objective plan of action that may make work a bit easier. I am not sure if I made a huge career misstep here or am just over reacting a bit with everything that is going on.

As I am mostly at a lose end right now because I can't commit to being present any particular day because treatment and appointments, I am thinking of upgrading some of my skills, maybe a few certifications but that will take all my will power to do. I just need to be as up to date and have a plan if I am let go AND get through the treatment AND it works. Everything crossed :/

The new owners are ALL GCP. My skillset lies in Linux, Ansible, Docker, Technical writing and high performance clustering. I am also proficient in Azure as well as having (somewhat dated) VMware experience but to a good depth.- I know everyone is running away from VMware as fast as possible so "meh!" on that one.

Top and bottom of it is at a professional level, I have no idea how to prepare for what's happening and what's coming. Any advice is welcome.