I worked for a small digital marketing and PR agency in NYC. We worked with clients mostly in the music industry. The environment was very collaborative and it felt like a family in many ways. The work was creative while also being relationship driven. Overall I'd say it was the environment that made me enjoy the job most.
Ask HN: At what company were you happiest and why?
11–20 of 113 posts
Re: Ask HN: At what company were you happiest and why?
#12Autonomy, relationships and mastery.
Its never about the company or the work.
You'll be happy if you have a boss who trusts you completely and colleagues that aren't a-holes. If you have this you will find the work thats interesting.
Re: Ask HN: At what company were you happiest and why?
#13Re: Ask HN: At what company were you happiest and why?
#14I was pretty happy in my first job as a system administrator for a small B2B ISP in my hometown. Full autonomy, engaged coworkers and challenges that kept increasing. Unfortunately, I like getting paid and I've been let down in that regard. I was there for 5 years and left for a job at a big 3-letter corporation and then some other corporations. I've been soul searching for a decade now.
Autonomy, relationships and mastery. Yep
Re: Ask HN: At what company were you happiest and why?
#15Honestly? This warehouse where I was repacking lumber. The lumber would come from the sawmill on a big flatbed truck. However, the lumber would be stacked in a formation that made it impossible to fill up the shipping containers optimally for shipping the lumber overseas. So my job was to (with a bunch of other guys):
1. Unpack the lumber. 2. Restack the lumber in a formation that would allow for maximum lumber loaded into the shipping containers. 3. Rewrap the lumber in plastic and staple the plastic in place.
It was mindless work where I didn't have to think about anything, had no deadlines, and I got physical exercise to boot. It paid $12 Canadian per hour. Long-term, it would have sucked because the wage was too low. But short-term, it was exactly what I needed at the time to recharge my batteries.
In terms of real career work? Just after I graduated from university, it was a team of young hotshots that made custom .NET apps for improving work processes at a telecom company. Ton of freedom, ton of competence, ton of stuff that got done. Still possibly the best team I've ever worked with.
Re: Ask HN: At what company were you happiest and why?
#16Clerk at an art supplies store. Fun colleagues. Low stress.
Re: Ask HN: At what company were you happiest and why?
#17None. Haven't found a company that would meet my standard. And we're talking about class A companies. I should try to start my own company, I think it's the only way to get what I want.
Re: Ask HN: At what company were you happiest and why?
#18With few exceptions it's always the place I'm currently working, because happiness in work is a big priority for me, so when I move from place to place I always try to make an improvement in how much I enjoy work.
When I'm unhappy, I ask myself why, and how much effort I think it will take to change what I don't like (which often is something I can change in myself, rather than expecting the environment to do it for me), and if I think it's worth the effort to change (myself or my surroundings) I do.
Otherwise I stay where I'm at until I can figure out how to improve things.
Re: Ask HN: At what company were you happiest and why?
#19I used to get paid surprisingly well to play capture the flag and hit children with dodge balls, then we'd do stuff like make electric pianos out of 555 timers and paper clips, and popsicle stick trebuchets that could throw a rock several hundred feet.
Easily the best job I've had.