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Why do you like your job?
I know if I posted that on Reddit, all the top answers would be something like "Money"or "It lets me survive" but I'm looking for something deeper than that.
I'm a teacher and school just started where I lived and I realize how much freedom the job gives me. I can considerably modify how my day will go as long as the students learn the curriculum. I love that freedom.
I also love the human nature of it. I get to know and see 100 kids develop every year, plus, I teach juniors and I've had a lot of my last year students stop by me to say hello and talk about their summer or their current teachers. It's fun having all these random positive conversations every day.
I get to learn a lot about people and about me. I love that growth.
What about you?
I haven't worn pants while working in nearly a decade.
Sounds like a small thing, but working from home for this long, no commute, no pants, just a shirt and a smile each day is gold. I'd probably require something like doubling my salary to get me back into an office on a regular, not daily, basis.
It's interesting that remote work is overwhelmingly preferred when you read opinions on the internet, but in real life most people I talk to prefer the office at least some of the time.
Personally I believe in hybrid schedules, you just aren't as effective collaborating with others if you never see them. Plus I work more effectively if I physically separate home and work, so if I had a remote job I would work in a co-working space for sure.
But maybe I haven't worked in an office long enough to be sick of it, considering I wasn't working in one before switching careers.
I meannn you're kinda self-identifying your research groups, like "the only time I've seen any sick people was when I was in hosptal" lol—if you talk to someone online, & they work online, then yeah they are probably choosing that & are happy with it, or at least the pros outweigh the cons, & if you see a meatspace real-life person who loves their real life job, that's cool too, glad it's working out for them as well.
But then you say you "believe" in hybrid schedules, which is also fine i guess, I mean it's not a religion but I think WFH preferences are very closely tied to people's actual personalities, we just never got the chance to find out about them before 2020 because there was almost zero choice, & that recency leads a lot of people who just prefer some in-person work-related facetime such as yourself to sometimes veer towards "Well that way was just better," because it was better for them—you said it yourself, you work more effectively in-person. But it's like, you live in the mountains, you love it: "Why would anyone want to live at the beach?" = reasonable; "People living at the beach would be happier if they were required to live in the mountains with me in order to be able to earn a living" = ehhhh lol. I'm sure you didn't mean it like that but that's where we're at discourse-wise.
I worked in a very corporate office for 14 years until I left for a remote-only smaller company and I can say that there are few reasons that I'd ever consider going back unless I had no choice. Some people thrive in a social, people heavy environment. I am not one of them. I need to concentrate and limit distractions and that only happened when I finally got an office at the big corporate job (which of course became a shared office for three people after six months).
There's probably a bit of confirmation bias in those findings. The times I spoke about not wanting to be in the office is when I was in the office. There's less social chatter between colleagues that both work from home so these topics tend not to come up as much.
On a slight tangent, although I really like working from home sometimes, I think less social chatter is probably the biggest problem with remote work. We're reducing our forced social interactions on all fronts, with online everything. This results in lower social skills, fewer friendships, and just less social interaction overall. In the end, we get worse mental and physical health outcomes and other issues like polarization of opinions (you might not think of people who disagree with you as real people unless you have a conversation with them in person).
I'm not saying it's great to spend all your life at work, but the incidental interactions of being there in person definitely has a significant function in society that isn't being replaced.
Admittedly, a large part of the reason I wanted to work from home is because there is nothing more pointless in life than sitting in traffic when realistically there is no reason to, nor for the driver in front of you. Or the one behind you for that matter.
I'm of the opinion that hybrid work to the capacity the employee sees fit is the best of both worlds. Those mandatory return to office policies at best feel like a ham-fisted attempt to deprive employees of flexibility in their personal life for a vague sense of control over their productivity, and a veiled attempt at stealth layoffs at worst.
The amenities at my previous employer's office were very high quality secondary benefits that made going to the office worthwhile.. on the specific days that I wouldn't be stuck in traffic.
:)
High salary (the reason I moved here), close enough to home to commute by bike (not even forced to go to office), not too hard in terms of responsibilities, relaxed enough to not measure my time. Nice coworkers.
Although I have to say, the new management is ruining many of the things I like.
Nothing good lasts forever
The best part of my job is probably the lack of take-home stress. In general, I show up in the morning, find out my list of tasks for the day, perform them (while sprinkling in slack-off time as appropriate to better fill my dance card), and then go home.
Very rarely does a task span multiple days for me, and only occasionally do I even get a heads-up about what's coming in the future, so there's no real need to worry about it. Honestly, the worst part of my day is when I'm getting right near the end of my tasks and someone comes to squeeze one (or two, or three, etc.) more in before the end of the day.
I work outside for a non profit land trust, it doesn’t pay much but I’ve worked my way into this company to finally get full-time benefits so I can actually survive while doing what I love.
I feel blessed to be able to be outside all day, I use a lot of power tools and noisy stuff, but they bought me Bluetooth ear protection so I’ve been enjoying a lot of audiobooks. I am getting experience using all kinds of equipment (or toys some might say), and I get to stare at bugs and plants and birds….
The cons are a 50 minute commute and I have to get up at 5 am (and again, I make less than $50k), but it’s worth it to me to be able to pull into the preserve and be able to call it my office.
You seem to have found the perfect job for yourself congratulations! And I hope you get paid a lot more going forward so you can keep doing what you enjoy.
One of my favourite things about my jobs is that it's inside all day every day, so I'm taking my love of that and then inverting it to imagine how happy and wonderful you must feel getting to your "office" every day, driving past those poor souls going into their fluorescent lit cubicles :) and hey I would imagine you don't have a lot of annoying human workers at your office! Get your steps in, fresh air, cute (animal) visitors etc.
What actually is a land trust?
Land trusts are preserves run by non-profits, usually open to public but sometimes they close off preserves to… preserve them. There’s plenty here in my area run by numerous organizations. My organization is relatively large and has a few preserves spread around the region. There’s some really cool land trusts too! And the people working for them are generally really passionate for ecology and wildlife, so if you ever encounter them they might give you the contagious obsession of looking at plants more than generalizing it as “green”.
But yes, I’m still in the rat race paying for rent and all, but im at least doing something fulfilling. I have two grumpy old men as my coworkers that are slowly warming up to me.
Hehe, let me guess, the two grumps are Big Bear and Little Bear? 🐻 Lol three Bears in the woods protecting the forest.
Hah! I actually would be the little bear in this context. My boss is actually a wildfirefighter too, and has aloooot of posters for smokey the bear lol.
I work in higher ed in a non-clinical social work role
That is awesome! I can also vouch that recognition and coworker support are so important. Would you have kept the job without those two?
Without the recognition absolutely. Without the support, idk if I'd have made it? I literally had to move twice within a year, one of those from one on-campus (provided as part of my job) apartment to another. We'd lived in the first for 7 years and this happened while my partner was in the hospital, suddenly paraplegic, and coming out of multiple surgeries, in a city about an hour away. I'd never have done it without them. I was already spending too much on gas and food, and renting a wheelchair van for him to come home in, and renting the moving truck, etc.
The recognition is nice - the smaller things mean way more than the big awards. But that support was priceless. I'd have stayed if I could have regardless but I doubt I could.
Joke: saving them, like, evangelically? /s
😄
Mostly from yeeting themselves off this plane of existence into whatever they would seek next because the world is cruel and being a teenager is hard.
I know you're joking, not religious though and grew up Roman Catholic, we didn't "get saved" in the same way, so the language doesn't register that way with me. (But yes "them" refers back to "lives" not "young people" so yeah)
Oh I knew exactly what you meant. But the way you just dropped it in so flat made the whole evangelical thing pop into my head and I had to screech out the joke!
Look I often can't deal with the fact that I save lives, I almost wish I was more comfortable with the idea of saving souls instead. But I'll have to settle for the corporeal form
I work as an emergency RN.
I like it because I’m interested in pathology and emergency medicine in general. I also love adrenaline, and I feel badass doing cowboy shit all night without getting flustered.
I also really, really enjoy being a demographic that is largely underrepresented in medicine. I’m mixed race, modified (piercings, full of tattoos, crazy hair + some heavy mods), queer presenting individual who has a lot of empathy for folks who are going through it (drugs, houselessness, etc). I’ve done it long enough that I know how to push providers to do more for those who need an advocate because they can’t do it themselves.
I’m well equipped to deal with unsavory personalities, and if patients start out disrespectful you bet their ass they won’t be by the time I’m done with them. I’ll still provide A+ care but with firm boundaries, I don’t put up with bullshit.
Finally, I don’t have a strong sense of smell lol
It’s a fun job, and it is damn good pay for only a two year degree.
Caracterising yourself as "modified" is such a fun way to put it.
I'm so happy you like your job! It seems like it's very fulfilling and you thrive in it. :)
Thank you for being you and being there for patients who don't see themselves in medical fields or don't feel particularly safe or supported by the medical system.
Oh my lord, just being treated like a human being is a blessing. I've worked in 8 or 9 different jobs, and this is the first one where, top-to-bottom, everyone's working to keep it human and non-toxic. There's a lot of other stuff I could go on about, but the main thing is flexibility and humanity. Helps that the founder and original CEO is an incredibly wholesome guy to start things off.
That's amazing! "Human" is such a beautiful way to put it. I'm glad you're able to be a part of that.
Me too!
I like that the organization is doing good work. They're a nonprofit, they have a clear vision, and they're fulfilling on that vision. I don't like much else about my job right now, but I still like that.
It's so cool to be able to say that you're making a positive difference in the world, you can definitely cherish that!
Better to rule in hell than serve in heaven.
Or to be less glib, while far from perfect, I can make significant impact in how things work. Things have changed drastically in my time here, and I know for a fact my efforts are a part of that. That combined with being able to do things quickly (sometimes) because we abhor any overhead (too much...) can be nice. No "set a meeting with 5 people who don't need to be there so we can discuss the kickoff that's just the thing we already said we'd do". Just a "hey i'm going to try this, we good?" with a couple of yes/no's and we're off.
It also comes with the freedom to find the proper solutions rather than just the currently approved ones because vetting and implementing something isn't behind months or years of meetings, and means it's actually worth my time to play with new tech and try things out because if something is good I can bring it to my work environment.
I'm the technical lead at a small company, and it means that I wear a lot of hats. Some days I'm building websites, debugging applications, or managing servers. Other days I'm dissecting email deliverability issues, or working with clients to solve problems from the simple to complex.
Today I get to build an old school form for a legacy website, and I'm finding all my old PHP knowledge is coming back to me. Yesterday I helped set up Cloudflare security rules to help fight off some persistent credit card spammers. We've had a cat and mouse game going for weeks. I keep blocking them, and they keep finding workarounds.
The variety of experience helps keep my skills fresh in an ever-changing tech landscape, and I have to imagine the reduced monotony helps me stave off burnout.
In terms of downsides, it can be stressful at times, and this position has no room for advancement. I also have no one above me to learn from, so it requires self-motivation to adapt to changing tides.
But for upsides, I get to work from home, set my own hours, and I like my boss a lot. All in all, it's hard to imagine myself leaving.
How do you manage doing many various acitivities? I'm a software dev and I struggle so much with things popping up around, messages, errors, changing contexts etc. It's been really, and I mean it, really difficult for me to concentrate and manage to do stuff, and still is, when I have different activities to do at work.
I'm not sure I have a good answer, as I am also very susceptible to distraction. One thing that probably helps is that I am unreachable by chat or phone. Everything comes in via email. It allows me to organize my tasks at the start of the day, prioritize those that are most important/time-sensitive, and work through them as time permits. Though I recognize that's likely specific to my role, and not a practical solution for most people.
I practice Inbox Zero - not always successfully - but it makes it easier to keep a list of actionable items. I use features like email snoozing to put tasks out of mind when not needed, and for managing follow-ups. I archive emails when they're done, not unlike a ticketing system.
My biggest struggle with context switching is when I'm working on one task, and an email comes in for something else. In these cases, I try to assess quickly if it's worth switching contexts. Is a server on fire? Are clients rapidly losing money? If not, I'll weigh it against what I'm doing now. Because you're absolutely right that there's a cost to switching contexts.
If it's something that's easy to knock out quickly, like answering a question or making a small website change, I'll often take care of it right away. I dislike having too many tasks piling up, since I find that stressful, and being responsive can always look good to a client.
However, if I'm into something deep, like I'm debugging software and am 10 function calls down trying to figure something out, I'll generally ignore any distractions until I get what I need. I'm simply unable to hold all that information in my head while also balancing other tasks.
If you find you're distracted when actually writing code, due to noticing bugs, getting new ideas, etc, you might want to have a notepad to write those things down quickly and move on (either physical or digital). I often keep an ephemeral document or two just so I can record these passing observations without losing them. Before I close off the project, I'll skim through it to make sure I haven't missed anything.
I would just caution about making sure any such documents do in fact stay ephemeral. It's easy to accidentally create a new, private to-do list this way. If something is a bigger task, file it in a more proper way (an issue in a tracker, a
//TODOline, or whatever else is appropriate at your org). Ideally your document should only last until the end of the day.Some environments allow you to set a "Do not disturb" status and turn down notifications, but it doesn't guarantee you quiet (and some bosses may not like it). So that might be something that you need to discuss with others.
This is more speculative, but I know that a lot of devs who struggle with focus later discover that ADHD was part of the picture. If that resonates, it could be worth exploring. Medication can make a big difference in their lives, and even just learning the diagnosis can help them find new coping mechanisms.
I'm sorry I can't offer any more practical advice, but those are the techniques I've developed to deal with information overload. Narrow the channels, develop heuristics to assess new information quickly, and put things aside so they're out-of-mind when not being acted on.
Best of luck in finding your zen.
I aught to change my title on my resume to that, because that was what I was doing in my absolutely horrible previous job.
I assume you're working with some good people, because the way I was being treated in that job was the reason why I ended up leaving. There's no burnout like social burnout.
I work as a part-time private teacher. I'm actually going through classes right now so I'll qualify as a substitute teacher in public schools some time in the future. I honestly don't know how I'd manage doing it full-time though because that would require me to remember way more names and faces than I'm confident I'd be able to.
The thing that keeps me going overall is knowing that my work matches my ethics. I'm not involved in selling widgets that are making the world a worse place or in separating fools for their money (though it's arguable that the management probably is doing that), but I'm actually getting paid to help kids accomplish things. The nice thing about my particular situation is that the kids actually want to be there and are usually pretty highly motivated; I'm honestly very impressed at what some of them accomplish! And when I get someone saying "thank you" for doing my job, it's not just some social obligation; they actually mean it. I've gotten hugged! It's the best part.
For the most part I am teaching kids how to program, and it's the first time that I've ever done shared or pair programming that wasn't a pain in the ass. Removing the expectation that the person I'm paired up actually knows what they are doing or will carry their own weight will have that effect, I guess. 😅
As a fellow educator, I agree. Especially about ethics - I genuinely feel I'm making the world a marginally better place with what I'm doing.
I was made redundant somewhat recently (though I'll start at a new place in October, so everything is well), but I mostly liked the relatively low pressure put on me. While there were things expected of me, I could make my own schedule and we made a decision as a team that we're goal oriented rather than "butts in seats for 8 hours" oriented. It made my life flexible with a young daughter and allowed me to spend more time doing what I wanted to do and figure out what I thought would bring value.
Additionally, the secondary employment benefits are something I'll miss at my next employer. The company owned a gym next door (or rather had a subsidiary manage that, but still) which allowed me to work out with my colleagues when I wanted. Hour long lunch breaks aren't that common here but I got used to them rather quickly and really utilized them as much as I could by either going for a run when working at home, or just having a good in house lunch at the company restaurant.
My job itself though.. I think it's rather meaningless. I enjoyed being able to see deficiencies and improve on those, but ultimately I wasn't necessary for the day to day.
I've never been passionate about work and it has always been a means to an end. The next job will be the same. For me it's about what the job provides me, not the other way around.
I teach people how to be locksmiths, but spend most of my time writing curricula and developing new or improved tools for the trade. I love the broad latitude I've been given to define my own goals, and on the occasions where I'm actively engaged in teaching I get to essentially do several hours of stand-up comedy about locks interspersed with enough facts to be technically educational. (This is a jokey mischaracterization, we actually get through a lot of very technical information, but it's how it feels to me in the moment.) It is exhausting sometimes, but I'm told (and honestly feel) that I'm good at it and I truly love seeing the "aha moment" of each student picking their first lock or understanding masterkey systems for the first time in their career.
All of this is made much better by bosses that appreciate what I'm bringing to the company and who are on board with my process, which I've described as "looking like I'm goofing off when I'm actually collaborating across departments to get feedback and product suggestions." And even though I get a lot done I still feel deep down that I'm actually just playing around most of the time, which is exactly the environment I need in which to be productive.
It's awesome.
My job is essential.
It’s potentially personally identifiable info so I won’t elaborate too much, but my job feels like a small but critical piece of human society. If I don’t do my job, someone else will have to. If everyone involved refused enough times, society will legitimately collapse.
It’s not glorious work, and oftentimes it isn’t interesting. Yet it’s hugely motivating to know that every day I get up, I’ll be helping to prevent some cog in our societal machine from rusting up and breaking.
To the often unsung heroes who keep it all together - thank you!
I'm in a senior communications role that works with educators in a higher ed institution. Pay is fine, flexibility is amazing and I'm free to design the role as I see fit. Great pension if I stay on for another 15 years and room to grow at the institution.
...and I'm trying to leave for some reason.
The prospect of working at the same place in the same set of jobs for my whole career feels stifling, despite it being dependable and full of great people, I finished a grad degree in urban planning a number of years ago and time is running out to make something of it.
I feel crazy for starting over but I'm drawn to it for reasons beyond my understanding.
I like my job given the context that I need one to participate in society, and cybersecurity is the least-bad option I've found so far :D
It satisfies my techy interests and is broad/deep enough that there's always something new to learn. Contrary to popular belief there's still a lot of careful design and human communication required - I'm essentially putting restrictions in place for security but if it gets in the way too much people will resent/circumvent them, and I like the challenge of finding that balance.
On a more human level, it makes me happy that I'm protecting people from hackers. I have family working in health care and cyber feels like the digital equivalent of that.
It's not without difficulties though, people are putting a huge amount of trust in me to do the right thing - not surveil them for nefarious purposes like monitoring productivity, for example, and I take that very seriously.
Overall, it's a good mix of being mentally stimulating, has a positive impact to people, and keeps me ethically vigilant. It also pays well and I'm fortunate that my colleagues are great too! I'm not looking to change career anytime soon.
I like my job because of the people. The vast majority of colleagues are good people and I genuinely like being here. My role itself, while not being that interesting, is necessary and it does line up well with some of my strengths. It is a little dry at times, but that's where the people, the environment, and the pay make up for it. I like having jobs where, when I leave the office, I don't have to think about work anymore, and this job fits the bill. Work-life balance is good, rarely have to do overtime, supportive leaders. My job is not aligned with one of my hobbies or "dreams", but I have always been like that. Work is work, I get to feel productive in an environment that is pretty good, contribute to society and to an organization that serves the public. It's not quite public service, but it's not a private corporation either. It's somewhere in between. Small enough to know most people over time, large enough that it doesn't feel like a family business. Those are all contributing factors to why I like my job.
It accommodates to my needs and provides a useful product. I can't imagine finding another job that is both fully remote and isn't carefully watching every mouse click to ensure "optimal/maximum" productivity. And even though I work from a computer, I can meaningfully impact the safety and reliability of our electric grid.
Even though, yes, it lets me survive, money is the problem. I make enough to be comfortable, but not enough to secure a house, even though that'd be cheaper than rent and I've saved up for a solid down payment.
Amazing pay and benefits help me put up with a lot of garbage at my job.
That said, I'm in fitness and tech sales, so the best part of the job itself is all the members who come back and tell us how our company has changed their lives. That never gets old.
I'm in management, so seeing people I hire and train come into their own, find success and then either keep finding success or moving on to be successful somewhere else is endlessly rewarding.
I work for my alma mater in a relatively newly created department within the administration.
I have a job that allows me to see the direct results of what I do in society at large. We're involved in cutting-edge research, and I love to give out tours of the facility, because kids and adults alike are fascinated at how we're able to do the things we do.
My job is also detached from the pressures of private companies, so we're "insulated" from the bad parts of the AI hype, we only apply things which make technical sense. I don't have to worry about putting effort towards something which will make the world a worse place, or further enrich some reality-detached billionaire.
It is frustrating at times, especially when bureaucracy doesn't let me do my job to the best of my abilities, but most times, I'm happy to see how the work I do enables the discovery of new vaccines, cancer treatments, battery technologies and metal alloys.
I work in IT for the government. Even though I work for a large agency, the group I work with is small. And so is our network, which is not part of the main network. We're completely separate. This setup is very much akin to a small business network, which is almost entirely my background in my so-far ~20yrs career.
As such, I like that there's not a lot of red tape when it comes to what we want or need to do on the network and associated infrastructure. If a problem arises, we have pretty wide latitude to use whatever solutions -- as long as it's researched and well-reasoned -- to fix it. If we have ideas on how to improve things, same thing applies.
We also have lots of flexibility and we can be agile. We can get a lot of broad experience fairly quickly with various technologies, systems, and programs. Even our roles are fairly fluid.
That's not to say there aren't downsides; there are absolutely some. Sometimes people change things without telling others. Sometimes people move fast and break things too quickly and too often. We tend to be jacks of all trades, masters of none. Managing it all can be difficult since we don't have the fancy tools that a bigger network and userbase would/should have. And more.
But I think the tradeoffs are worth it.
What is needed in your country to get such job? I mean, are skills and experience sufficient or I would need a particular degree too?
I ask because I would love to do my IT job, but for the government, not for a private company. Of course it may be different in my country, but I'm curious.
[edit]
corrections
So I work for the US federal government (💀). Generally speaking, the government likes their employees to have college degrees (unless one is trying to get a job with ICE, apparently...). It certainly depends on the job and role, but for IT, a degree is commonly required.
But it doesn't necessarily have to be the typical 4yr/bachelor's degree. Nor even an IT degree. I only have a 2yr/associate's degree (which I don't think is super common outside the US), as does another coworker of mine. And mine isn't even an IT degree, just a broad, general ed degree.
As a "rank," I'm a GS-13. That's pretty high up on the totem pole (it tops out at GS-15, though there are executive roles above that). So to be a GS-13 with only a 2yr degree is pretty decent. Of course, when I applied, I had nearly two decades of work experience. Which makes sense. Which is better: some kid straight out college with a 4yr degree, or the dude with only a 2yr degree, but who has ~20yrs of experience?
Admittedly, I've been applying for government jobs for like 18yrs. I hadn't put in tons of applications, but I've probably put in like 30 over the years. Only ever got two interviews. Didn't make the cut ~9yrs ago. But finally did about 2yrs ago, which allowed me to finally start a govt career about a year ago.
If you don't want to work for for-profits, look at non-profits. I didn't want to either. So the vast majority of my career before going to government was at a non-profit. Super chill. Pay was meh, could've been better, but that's the "price" for not having to deal with shareholders and the almighty dollar (money is still important in a non-profit, it's just not necessarily the most important thing).
It's generally fairly low stress and I can slack off quite a bit. I only really work past 5 maybe once every two or three months when something important happens that's specifically my fault/responsibility. I'd still prefer if it were fully remote, though, (and I actually 100% used to work harder until they made us switch to 3 days in office instead of fully remote in 2023).
One of the biggest benefits of my current role has been working remotely and the flexibility my role offers. I started (mostly) remote work during COVID in my previous company and came to really enjoy it. After moving abroad, almost all the roles I applied for locally were onsite full-time or have one day a week work from home as a perk. Traffic can be terrible here, especially after work during rush hour, so being able to avoid that is a huge win. I also get to spend time with my kids more, and my role is flexible enough that I can step away to get things done as I need or help my kids with something. I'm expected to be available, but if I need to take a few minutes to load the laundry machine, pick up my kids from school, or something else, that's fine. I'm treated like an adult who can get his work done without micromanaging.
The company I work for provides a product I had used for years and was something I recommended to my friends and family to use since I started using it. It's great being able to work here and everyone I've met at the company has been great.
I also work daytime hours, which is amazing for my health and family relations. I worked nights after moving and even after switching my shift to half night, half daytime I wasn't getting enough sleep, though I'd do it again for that pay as if I could have kept that job for the long term it would mean my wife wouldn't need to work if she didn't want to.
Downsides:
Not working locally has meant I haven't made friends from work who I can hang out with here, and I've also not had that immersion to push me to learn the local languages. I especially need to work on the national local language, as it is a huge plus towards getting my permanent residence.
My current role is very focused on the company's products and I don't think it is as transferable to other positions in the career trajectory I had wanted, so I'm needing to put in extra time to improving myself so I can hopefully move to another role in the company in the future that would have broader skills I can take elsewhere if needed.
Like? I was told a month ago I am getting replaced with someone in India in October. So no, I don't like it anymore. I LIKED it because the project management was never onerous.
Well, it took me a while to get to where I am, but the last two years have made it pay off. I primarily work in film and media and have worn all sorts of different hats when it comes to that. I spent the first couple of years after graduating working for a national daily newspaper, but working in the news gets pretty depressing real quick and when COVID hit I decided to quit and go into film full time. Ever since then I've been freelance. At first, work was few and far between and I'm not the most extroverted person (neurodivergent af), so I just don't have that hustle or patience in me to network with people I just genuinely don't like. But after some slow years, things really picked up. I went from doing more gigs for little pay to fewer gigs for more pay. This year so far I've already made more money than the last two years combined, and I've only spent 5 months working this year, with 4 months total in between gigs of down time, focusing on my own projects. But when I do have work, it's greulling. 16 hour days on the regular, 3 hours of sleep, that kind of deal. But the time down time in between makes it much better. I'd rather grind for 30 days straight with no weekends and then have a while month to myself to recharge. At least for me, this is pretty good balance. I also get to travel to interesting places for work so that's a nice bonus too!
I get paid entirely too much. Silicon Valley company salaries are wild.
But also, the company I work at is fully remote and heavily asynchronous, which means I can do things like sleeping until after noon, or wandering off to appointments without having to schedule them around meetings, or if I get frustrated with work I can just go do something else for a while instead.
You're assuming I do. I've worked at my company for 35 years in the software space and I'm just a hollow shell, shambling from day to day attempting as best as I can to cope with the bullshit du jour.
I like my job. But my job never really liked me, and they very much don't like me nowadays.
Laid off game developer/programmer. I'm still making games, but freelance. All this made me realize I really gotta go indie one day if everyone just wants to kick me out every other year. If nothing else, I appreciate it's one of the few remaining arts where you can potentially make ends meet without any employer overhead (granted, few do. It's hard to really launch yourself in these days).
Otherwise, yeah. I like the challenge programming brings. They payoff in games in seeing your character move or the graphics/performance improve is very satisfying. Ideally I'd love to do it as long as I'm breathing, but who knows what life has for me.
Software engineer - I like how I'm tackling problems and not just writing code, but also thinking about maintenance of the code in the long run. That said, I do think that eventually I'd prefer to do something like this in a more scientific setting (research software engineer, or even R&D with some coding), but for now I'm more than content.
A bit late to the thread, but I like my job for a series of reasons. People trust me, because they know I get shit done and they don't have to hold my hand I get a lot of control. My manager basically leaves me be because they don't have to second-guess my judgement.
With the amount of control I have I'm able to problem solve a lot more than if I didn't. I've streamlined many processes at my job and have set up tools that many other branches in my company use without having ever spoken with them (though they'll occasionally reach out for various troubleshooting reasons).
Right now I'm working on my most ambitious project yet, and I know I wouldn't get the chance to if I were in another position.
Now why don't I like my job?
Well, I've become a bit distasteful of my company lately and it's made me consider going elsewhere, though I don't anticipate actually making the move. I recently got pushed for promotion by my facility and was essentially given the opportunity to move up at a different facility so long as I passed the interview.
I did everything right, got my stories prepared, did mock interviews, etc. But then came interview day, I had to do three interviews back-to-back, virtually. I joined the call a few minutes prior to the scheduled time and waited for the first interviewer to show up. Once it was the time a shadow interviewer joined and we both waited. He introduced himself and told me he won't be doing the interview, just to hang tight while we wait for the actual interviewer to join.
About ten minutes pass and he tells me to wait while he tries to get a hold of the interviewer to see what's going on. Another ten minutes go by and he comes back saying "I don't think he's going to make it, go ahead and hop off and get ready for your next interview." So I do what he says, leave the call and wait for the next scheduled interview. But first things first, I wanted to cover myself, so I email the recruiter right away to let him know of the situation.
Now 30 minutes after the interview was scheduled to take place, the interviewer calls me on my cell phone and asks "Why are you not on the call?" Tells me that he was having technical difficulties and to rejoin the call. Come to find out the recruiter also tried reaching out to me, but through a chat service that we had deprecated a few months prior, so I no longer had it set up on my phone.
I rejoin the video call and do the interview, the next two interviews go great, and a few days later I get the email telling me I didn't get the position. Well my manager has access to the feedback and individualized decisions from the interview, come to find out everyone had decided to promote except for the first interviewer's shadow because (the feedback he provided) "Interviewer didn't show up, not enough data."
So now I've lost the opportunity and I'm stuck where I'm at. To say I'm pissed is an understatement, but after trying to reach out to the recruiter and my manager also pushing up the chain, all I've gotten is "you can still apply to other positions," but every position I've applied for since has gone from "Application submitted" to "No longer under consideration."