Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

People start hating their jobs at 35

bloomberg.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 247 posts

Re: People start hating their jobs at 35

#41

Post by grecy »

AnIdiotOnTheNet wrote: post #33
grecy wrote: post #4

I can't stress this enough - if you're not happy with life, and you feel like you aren't moving closer to your goals and dreams, make a change!!! I realized that sitting at my desk for 30 years to pay for a house was not what I wanted to do, so I quit my job and have been driving around Africa for 2 years[1]. I dreamed for years of being a travel writer and photographer, and I am making that dream come true! I now wr…

It's an easy thing to say when you've come out the other end carrying a bag full of survivor bias. The reality is that there's a reason people don't do this very often and it's because there are tangible benefits to things like owning a home and not worrying about how you're going to pay for food. Not to mention the medical care situation in the US, which is outright designed to help trap people in their jobs.

> the medical care situation in the US, which is outright designed to help trap people in their jobs.

Absolutely! so start working on something right now to free yourself from that. I left a perfectly good first-world country and permanently moved to another one because I liked the quality of life better - you can too!

Re: People start hating their jobs at 35

#43

Post by jasonkester »

This seems counter intuitive to me. All through your 20s, you're working your way up through the bottom of some crappy bigco, paying your dues and getting experience under your belt so that you can jump to better jobs later.

By your mid 30s, at least in our industry, you can get to a position where you can choose a nice gig at a good company, and pretty much steer your destiny as you choose.

So it's surprising that you'd hate your job more then than when you were younger.

Re: People start hating their jobs at 35

#44

Post by lmm »

grecy wrote: post #28
germinalphrase wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you worry about coming out of the other end of these travels - by choice or circumstance - and not having the stability/financial cushion that maintaining a steady job would have afforded you?

No. I've made a conscious decision not to live life in fear, and not make decisions based on fear. Having spent 2 years driving from AK to Argentina and now 2 years in Africa, I know more strongly than ever that I'm not interested in a "stable" or "guaranteed" future. It takes away so much spontaneity and adventure from life, and those are things I'm not willing to give up. Without them, I personally don't think life…

Sounds like this could be survivorship bias, in a very literal sense.

Re: People start hating their jobs at 35

#45

Post by claydavisss »

konart wrote: post #13
grecy wrote: post #4

I can't stress this enough - if you're not happy with life, and you feel like you aren't moving closer to your goals and dreams, make a change!!! I realized that sitting at my desk for 30 years to pay for a house was not what I wanted to do, so I quit my job and have been driving around Africa for 2 years[1]. I dreamed for years of being a travel writer and photographer, and I am making that dream come true! I now wr…

Sounds nice, but what about your family? Relatives that might need your attention? I love examples like this one, but unfortunatelly they can't be applied to a general guy. Though I have to agree that you have to go for a change one way or the other. Some people can do this almost right now, some will have to do some kind of preparations which can take quite some time too. PS: not to metion that economical\social con…

do you remember the SNL skit "Debbie Downer"?

Re: People start hating their jobs at 35

#46

Post by pasta »

vfc1 wrote: post #24

I think its because through experience people have figured out a lot of unspoken things about what its really like being an employee. They have figured out that its much more about connections and office politics than hard work. They have figured out that there is really no job security, and they could be one layoff wave away from unemployment. They have figured out that its much more about face time and spending lon…

I also think there is something different at work here.

There are known stages in life at which you will think about who you are and where you want to go to.

"Early Adulthood" is one of those stages starting around your 20th and ends around your 35th year.

After this the "Midlife" stage starts. This is the stage most people start thinking about the deeper meaning of life.

Re: People start hating their jobs at 35

#47

Post by woogiewonka »

k__ wrote: post #37

I started with 28, maybe earlier, but 28 was when I finally snapped, haha. I worked 7 for the same company, while studying and a few years after I finished my degree. It was a small chaotic company, they were a startup that found a hand full of big corps to pay for the day-to-day expenses, but it never really grew up and never got product market fit. After a big re-write of the product, with much overtime on my side,…

Are you still freelancing?

Re: People start hating their jobs at 35

#48

Post by [deleted] »

torstenvl wrote: post #6

I feel extraordinarily lucky to be in a profession where the opposite is true. Although it was demoralizing during my first four years or so to see my superiors leave hours before me and my colleagues, work quickly became both more qualitatively rewarding and more quantitatively reasonable. I feel like the article's suggestions are a little trite. Just make work friends and find a personal project at work! I suspect…

[deleted]

Re: People start hating their jobs at 35

#49

Post by close04 »

imranq wrote: post #8
torstenvl wrote: post #6

I feel extraordinarily lucky to be in a profession where the opposite is true. Although it was demoralizing during my first four years or so to see my superiors leave hours before me and my colleagues, work quickly became both more qualitatively rewarding and more quantitatively reasonable. I feel like the article's suggestions are a little trite. Just make work friends and find a personal project at work! I suspect…

Which profession are you in?

It's not the profession, it's how you feel about it and the hand you've been dealt regarding your colleagues (superiors or not). There's definitely no perfect profession.
Post reply on HN