

ASK HN: What is HN's current overall job satisfaction? - ZanderEarth32

Are you satisfied with your current employment status or position? Or are you unhappy and looking for a move?
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mindcrime
That's a hard question to answer. I am working a $DAYJOB while working on a
startup, and - to be quite honest - I really chafe at having a "boss" and
having to answer to somebody in the $DAYJOB. My ambition is absolutely to get
this startup off the ground and be in a position where I'm calling the shots
and not answering to somebody who's "above" me. (And yes, I get that you have
a "boss" in an abstract sense when you run a company... investors, customers,
etc. But that's OK, I'm talking about there being one discrete person that you
have to answer to and do exactly what he/she says). So in that regard, I hate
the dayjob.

But, as dayjobs go, the one I have isn't too bad, and it pays the bills while
we work on bootstrapping the startup. So it's kind of a mixed bag. Probably
the more troubling part is the sense of the "opportunity cost" of every hour I
spend playing code monkey for somebody else, and thinking about the value we
could be creating in that hour, and what it could mean to the startup. When I
think about that, I find myself getting pretty frustrated. But, I like the
people I work with and what-not. And the travel is an opportunity to meet some
new people, explore new cities, etc. But, again with the opportunity cost...
and travel wears on you in a way as well.

I guess that's a lot of words to say "I have mixed feelings about my dayjob,
but it suffices while I work on the startup." :-)

~~~
timjahn
Amen. (I'm in this position.)

~~~
Banzai10
The same here. I have savings for two years also, but is hard to give up the
money you earn in the dayjob and also to burn everything I accumulated during
my whole life. While I'm not confortable to do that, I'll keep my dayjob while
building my Startup.

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midlifequestion
I am unsatisfied and would like to make a change.

I work in an odd environment. It is an academic/research institution, but my
role is a standard IT position. I am primarily expected to do system
administration tasks and small data management assignments. In general,
development is frowned upon. There seems to be a ceiling in opportunity here
due to both my "lower" credential (MS rather than PhD) and perception of what
my role is by outsiders.

From a more general perspective, I made a critical error when entering the job
market at the end of the first Internet boom (early 2000s). I did not take a
development job, but rather a test role at a large IT company. It took me
several years at that big IT company to realize that this colored perception
of my skills and limited internal opportunities despite a MS in CS and
significant programming work on the side.

I left for another company where my job role was related to db skills I had
picked up but was a greenfield project. That was enjoyable and a learning
experience, but the project was cancelled and the entire team laid off in the
early days of the financial crisis.

I landed on my feet in my current role. The role has turned out to be quite
different that originally pitched to me, but I have a senior title and pay
level. The job just doesn't provide much in the way of personal growth.

For family and lifestyle reasons, I will not leave for at least a year. I have
been developing some interest in statistics, modeling, and machine learning.
While I would prefer not to simply seek another credential, my employer would
probably allow me to obtain a MS in statistics at their expense. Perhaps this
would lead to more interesting and challenging work, but to be completely
honest with myself, my current role is where many people with that background
windup anyway.

To somewhat worsen matters, I am often much more attracted to niche
technologies (APL,KDB+,J,Common Lisp, Clojure, Ruby) than the market in my
area seems to offer employment opportunties for. I probably need to consider
re-entering the Java enterprise programming world and not be a prima-donna
about programming language.

------
spking
I'd call myself "chronically unfulfilled" with my day job. I simply don't like
the rat race lifestyle (trains, traffic, playing dress-up), and the industry
I'm in (financial services) is so crippled by regulation and a culture of risk
aversion that it's basically impossible to try new ideas and move the needle.

I've given myself 9 more months to replace my salary with consulting and
product revenue (hopefully more of the latter). I have dependents, so I have
to plot my escape from the cubicle with care.

------
bartonfink
I'm quite happy with my current position at Mapquest, to the point that I'd
say it's the best job I've ever had. I've got my frustrating moments with
management, but the work is exciting and, most of all, I feel very much like I
am heard when I bring up engineering concerns. We're hiring, but I've not
posted on the Who's Hiring thread as I'm currently arguing with HR about
interviewing the resumes I got last month (hence the frustrations with
management).

The only thing that would entice me to move would be a job abroad: my family
and I are planning a move to New Zealand or Australia in the mid-term future
and it would be a fantastic stroke of luck to get a job offer now that would
let me work from one of those countries.

~~~
ayers
I am a Kiwi currently living in London(UK). I am more than happy to answer any
questions about living/working in New Zealand.

~~~
bartonfink
Ayers -

Will do. Thanks for the offer! You'll hear from me this week.

------
benjaminwootton
Bear in mind that this is a self-selecting group.

A lot of us will be interested and happy in our jobs, but we will also have
the yearnings to have a crack at entrepreneurship ourselves.

This definetly gives me a bit of an unsettled feeling, and I need to get it
out of my system before I can _really_ accept full time employment with 100%
satisfaction.

------
joshmlewis
I'm a designer cofounder at a startup in a accelerator program. I feel like
everyday I'm contributing to something and choosing which path to take. I work
close with my other two cofounders and we all respect each others final
decision in their departments. We get to meet with top industry folks and
investors that give is tremendous insight into our product and help us shape
it to be more and more useful.

We work in a cool office with the other teams and the community is amazing. I
absolutely love it. That feeling where you just love coming in and working and
spending time with everyone. This helps our product but also improves the
quality of life. I do remote work for two other companies to help with living
expenses, and the I still like that but it's nothing compared to being a
cofounder and getting to do the things that come along with that.

Note: I'm 18, and just one year out of high school so I have some flexibility
and can handle a decent bit.

~~~
colkassad
I envy that you are doing all of this at 18. Right around that age I took my
eye off the ball. When I snapped out of it I realized I was 34.

------
Jd
I am a relatively unhappy consultant. I have reached premium billing status
within my industry, but seem to be offered to work on relatively repetitive
problems that are anything but challenging. Also, although I've made a fair
number of contributions to the ecosystem, the community that contributes back
is quite thin and despite some positive press, I don't feel that there is
hardly any impetus behind the open source ecosystem (full disclosure: i work
in the enterprise).

That said, consulting fits my lifestyle well. I get on a project, complete it,
and then am done and can pursue some of my other interests (music, poetry,
human languages, travel) with a minimum of interference. As a long term
solution I think I would kill myself if I had to keep doing this forever, but
as a solution to make money for the last couple years it hasn't been terrible.

The problem is that the transition isn't particularly easy. Most of the skills
I've acquired do transfer into other industry sectors, but I haven't stayed on
top of the newest stuff in any of them (e.g. Rails magic, Javascript
frameworks, etc.). I've thought about jumping ship once there is the crest of
a new wave that becomes financially viable (e.g. Meteor) or even transitioning
into a completely new line of work (e.g. management consulting/book writing)
that kills less brain cells.

As of now, however, I am simply unhappy and seeking the next best thing.
Creating my own company or joining a fledging startup has always been of
interest, but my lifestyle doesn't allow a 60hr/week commitment as of right
now.

~~~
yashchandra
" I have reached premium billing status within my industry, but seem to be
offered to work on relatively repetitive problems that are anything but
challenging"

I sometimes get that feeling and I have _almost_ reached premium billing in my
specific niche as well. But then I realize that some of thte things that don't
seem challenging anymore is because we have become really good at doing it
over the years. Thats why you get the big bucks even though it might seem like
an easy task. The real issue for me is repetitive work as a consultant.

~~~
Jd
I would say this is true in my case. I suppose you could say that I've become
"really good" at what I do, but I feel that I am mostly great compared to what
Mark Suster would call the "B Team" so this doesn't serve as a great
motivating factor.

------
bane
Used to be pretty happy couple years ago, the work is exciting and
interesting.

But early lack of good management and now a chronic lack of resources has
turned it into a stressful drag. I'm pretty much angry at everybody all the
time now and it's not good on my health or well being.

Looking to move soon, but waiting for company to sell first (imminent).
Probably wanting to move to the West Coast -- Seattle or Bay Area next.
Probably end of the year is my goal.

~~~
benjaminwootton
+1 on the dwindling resources in the big companies since the financial crisis
hit. We used to have the headroom to do things properly and invest for the
future, but that is a thing of the past.

------
damon_c
Just quit a full-time job of 8 years working for an industry leading company
to become a remote freelance web developer with startups on the side.

Couldn't be happier!

~~~
ZanderEarth32
Congrats! If you don't mind me asking, how do you come about your projects?
Are you doing any self-marketing, or are you getting by with word-of-mouth?

~~~
damon_c
It started with a really non-serious posting of a profile to djangogigs.com
which I posted well before I was really ready to go "pro"... which was almost
forgotten about. But out of nowhere, an email came, an interview went well,
and I got a 6 month gig that payed enough for me to quit my job. Since then,
I've learned a ton, and kept the ball rolling, mostly through contacts from my
previous career who heard I was doing web stuff now. Also, the original 6
month contract refuses to end...(not my fault!) I have yet to make a resume or
a website... I really should. I feel very lucky.

~~~
timjahn
What type of clients are you looking for? Are you looking for more 6-month
contracts with agencies, or one-time projects helping entrepreneurs build beta
versions of their ideas?

I ask because we're working on matchist.com (launching at the end of the
summer) to help freelancers like yourself find quality work.

------
praptak
Maybe this should be a poll?

Happy at a 9-17 job which involves Linux, network, concurrency and C++ and is
close to the metal yet still involves a huge set of features. This combination
makes it challenging.

~~~
ZanderEarth32
I didn't see an option for making a poll, but I can tabulate the responses
once this has run it's course and write up a quick blog post about it with the
data laid out so we can get an better idea. I'll have to use some liberty in
analyzing answers that are vague though.

~~~
praptak
To be honest I don't know myself how to mske HN polls. Perhaps it's one of the
_"if you need to ask, then it's not for you"_ things :-)

------
lzm
My work is currently uninteresting, which makes me bored/unmotivated. The
salary isn't good either.

Looking into moving to a developed nation.

------
vtry
I just changed job, so yes, still very happy right now.

------
yashchandra
Currently self-employed/consultant: Happy

Industry that I work with: Semi-happy

Billing rate: Happy

Working for large corporate clients doing challenging but repetitive tasks:
Not happy

Bottomline is that I have the "bootstrap a company" itch that I am looking to
scratch asap.

~~~
AznHisoka
Do you make more than you did in your last day job?

~~~
yashchandra
Yes but with added responsibility of running my own payroll etc using my
corporation. However, no more red tape stuff like performance management,
raises, bonus etc. Client and I agree on a rate, I get paid and when done, I
move on.

