
Do most HN readers enjoy their jobs? - rhbrb
I graduated in 2011, I currently work as a java developer for an investment bank, and I find myself spiralling into a work induced depression. Skills-wise I'm not progressing at the rate I would like; the hours are pretty long so I have minimal time for coding outside of work, no one on my team cares at all for best practices or improving their craft, technology is seen as a secondary concern, and any enjoyment I used to experience from coding is gradually diminishing.<p>I'm interested in hearing whether or not the majority of HN readers enjoy their job, and if anyone has been in a similar situation how did they go about rediscovering their passions?<p>I kind of feel like I have no right to complain and that this is a complete first world problem (I'm pretty comfortable financially, living in london which is a great city, working with fairly agreeable people etc etc) but I'm completely unfulfilled by the work I'm doing on daily basis - any advice at all would be very greatly appreciated!<p>So to sum up:
1) Is it normal to dislike your day job?
2) If not, do people have strategies for finding jobs which they are strongly passionate about?
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404error
I have been working at a newspaper for the past 8 years (I'm 27). At first I
loved my job, it was all new to me. I started off as a graphic artist building
print ads for local businesses, I then moved departments to IT/WEB where I've
been for the past 5 years. My job description has been butchered over and over
due to people being laid off.

I now build web ads (banners), maintain 5 newspaper sites, provide tech
support to 3 offices, book online ads, run Advertiser Reports, run page view
reports, move furniture, work on door locks, etc...

I have grown to hate my job. No one in my office can program other than
myself, which sucks. I have no one to bounce ideas off of, too busy for side
projects. The pay is shit, the people are nice. The publisher is clueless and
is not held accountable by our parent company, but then again the newspaper
industry as a whole is clueless.

My skills have not improved much, but I've learned a little bit of everything.
Some people take the phrase "Jack of all trades, master of none" as a
compliment, I'm starting to take it as an insult. I am OK at a lot of stuff,
but not great at anything.

I've tried getting out but my location does not help me much.

I would love to have job satisfaction and not have to worry about money so
much.

Find a job that you love.

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jlengrand
Just to add my two cents :

\- If you like switching context, consider finding a small company. You'll
have to do way more stuff and get out of your comfort zone more often.

\- I think it is normal to prefer side-projects than daily job. Simply because
spending 60 hours a week on the same thing makes it less sexy (even though it
can be really cool).

\- If your collegues don't care about good practise, then put them up by
yourself. Force things to change. You'll become more experienced and will
develop new skills (mostly human related though).

\- I never spend a day without thinking that I suck at my job. Use it as a
strength, read books and code to get better.

This is 2013 : Change job if you think the grass is greener somewhere else !
Just keep good relations with your old collegues even though you didn't enjoy
them :)

I graduated late 2010, if you want to have a chat about experience, feel free
to PM :).

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jtanderson
Surely I don't have as much industry coding experience as many people around
here, but during and for a while after my undergraduate education I worked a
couple different programming positions - mostly web development.

What I saw was stark difference between the environments not from the type of
work, but simply the people and the general attitude of the administration.
One job was a very small web dev startup and it was a fantastic experience. I
worked there for about two and half years, getting more solid in both server
and client-side programming. Of course after the first six months, I hit the
so-called intellectual wall, but I was lucky enough that I was allowed to work
on internal R&D with one of the other programmers. That was probably where I
had the most fun at that particular job.

Another job I had, though, was quite similar to what you describe. I was
consulting for a company who had a couple of their own programmers who refused
to learn anything, just coded like monkeys locked in a cage and the people in
charge didn't care because they really couldn't tell the difference.

My suggestion would be that it's not typical to find poeple that dissatisfied
in a place like this, where startup job postings are everywhere and we
obviously have enough time and energy to keep up with all the posts :D

If you aren't terribly concerned about lots of cash, check out a university
and find a startup or two. They are using fast-moving and energetic. Once they
get the tech base going, they'll definitely bring in more and you can make
sure to keep the vibe going, etc.

If changing jobs isn't possible, I'd say find some user a user group - I hear
about a lot in London - and network with them. It can help just to have some
facetime with others who share your passions.

Good Luck!

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OafTobark
Between high school and my early college days, I must have held at least three
dozen jobs. Some lasted no more than a week or two (in one instance I think it
was two days) and at most never more than six months. In hindsight I think I
made a pretty shitty employee and was never satisfied. As such, I always ended
up doing my own business and for roughly a decade now, haven't had to work for
others (including stuff like never have done consulting work). I just can't
seem to fit in but I chalk that up to my own fault for not being motivated to
do better at finding the right fit early on. However things still worked out
for the best.

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gadders
If it was fantastic fun, they wouldn't need to pay people to do it :-)

From 15+ years working in IT in Investment Banks, I would say that the culture
and ethos varies greatly from team to team, even inside the same bank.

If you don't like the team you're in, try networking internally to see what
other opportunities there are. Also, if you get the team to adopt some best
practises, then you get something good to talk about at appraisal and bonus
time.

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logn
Working in the financial industry as a developer is terrible. The stars are
the investors/bankers, not the developers. IT projects are all subject to
federal control/regulation. Do you know why you hate your project managers?
It's because they run projects in a way to make them accountable to federal
audit. Know why you hate your ancient/odd systems? Any new technology must be
proven to the feds to be safe for users.

Stay out of finance. Prefer working for software companies. They understand
how to build software which will make you happy. Many on this site will push
you toward startups. Personally, startups bring their own bag of problems. So
do big comapnies, granted. At least at the large companies you (generally) get
better pay and less working hours. Startups leave little room for personality
differences (nowhere to run) or advancement. Regardless, the source of you
pain is the finance/banking industry. Steer clear. In addition, a lot of
people will be prejudiced against you with IT finance experience.

~~~
kefeizhou
I've worked at a global investment bank in the past and have a somewhat
different view. We had control over what language/tools to use per project (as
much freedom as any startup) and it was definitely not subject to fed
regulation. During my time there I was frequently contacted by recruiters from
great tech firms such as google. Any company that knows how to recruit will
look at what you've learned and what you've accomplished and not prejudice you
simply for having worked at a financial firm.

If you feel you're not progressing as much skill-wise (which can happen at any
job/industry), you can try to move to a different team within the company as
many people do. The important thing is to keep learning so you can find things
you are interested in.

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nonamegiven
Try contracting for awhile, do a few six or twelve month contracts. Get as
much variation in type of work as you can find, to your taste.

