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People start hating their jobs at 35

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Re: People start hating their jobs at 35

#101

Post by pc86 »

sbarre wrote: post #84
jasonkester wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These sound more like a list of things you figure out in your 20s so that you can successfully work them to your advantage in your 30s. Also, if you embrace the "no job security" part above and don't sweat your "career" at any given shop, the rest of them stop being things you need to worry about. Let the other guys stress office politics and fear for their job if they take vacation. You're the guy who knows what thi…

Spoken like an HNer who is incredibly lucky to be working in a field that has never-ending demand, and is probably good at their job. Just a heads up that the majority of people are not in your/our situation with regards to their employment.

Yes, being in an in-demand field makes work life easier. Being good at your job makes work life easier. Typing and drawing on a whiteboard is easier than mopping floors and cleaning toilets.

I don't know why every time a discussion about work or employment comes up we feel the need to have these tautological discussions about how some people have it easier than others. It's only a matter of time until we get a sub-thread of Europeans discussing how insane it is that Americans don't get 65 days of vacation every year, and a few off-topic healthcare rants then I think the cycle will be complete for this thread.

Re: People start hating their jobs at 35

#102

Post by k__ »

cm2012 wrote: post #99
woogiewonka wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What kind of consulting? How did you find success in it?

Marketing consulting, reaching out to my whole network and doing really good work after 9 years experience. It also tripled my annual income.

Cool, where did you learn?

I found many good technical education sites, but only HubSpot for marketing stuff.

Re: People start hating their jobs at 35

#103

Post by tenaciousDaniel »

I'm 34 and love working more than I ever have. Though I work at a really cool startup and feel really connected to my team. It's not perfect, we have a few issues, but overall I feel good about the work I do.

I do feel drastically different as an employee though. I am starting to feel a real sense of ownership over my own actions. Not sure how to word that properly, but I no longer see my bosses as "owning" me in the way I used to. I never thought that explicitly, but I behaved as if they had complete control over me.

If I were in a job I hated, I'd have far less tolerance for it at this age. Life is too short.

Re: People start hating their jobs at 35

#104

Post by Radim »

nikofeyn wrote: post #91
jasonkester wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These sound more like a list of things you figure out in your 20s so that you can successfully work them to your advantage in your 30s. Also, if you embrace the "no job security" part above and don't sweat your "career" at any given shop, the rest of them stop being things you need to worry about. Let the other guys stress office politics and fear for their job if they take vacation. You're the guy who knows what thi…

> Let the other guys stress office politics and fear for their job if they take vacation. You're the guy who knows what this job market is like, and that you have options. as someone currently job hunting, i feel this is overly optimistic. the job market is extremely conservative, so if you have a strange background, be prepared for the long haul. this is extremely stressful as no one seems to care where you have wor…

Try walking in the employer's shoes: "can this person learn what we need them to learn?" is notoriously difficult to assess. While the risk of making a bad hire is tremendous (deadly for smaller companies), the upside's lukewarm (hypothetical loyalty).

The only safe way to see if a person can do the job, is for them to do the job, pretty much.

I'm speaking from painful experience: we also used to hire based on potential. Bad idea (or we just couldn't make it work). Our hiring process is now very close to the actual job, whether the position is junior or senior, and although it can take weeks (a test project), "I could learn this later" doesn't cut it. Too many scars, not enough resources.

Re: People start hating their jobs at 35

#105

Post by ataturk »

claydavisss wrote: post #53
mrhappyunhappy wrote: post #7

35 is probably the age where you have accepted the fact that you are just a cog in the machine, and the output will benefit someone other than yourself. For years leading up to it you already know youre just trading your life's precious hours away for money - which seems to have less and less purchasing power by the year. Once you realize the job is just a means of keeping yourself going, the perpetual cycle dawns on…

Sounds like you have never had a job outside the office. Go dig ditches for a construction company for six months and you'll run back to your 9-5 "slavery".

That's such an awful fallacy--"Somewhere, someone else is worse off than you." Yeah, everyone in China, India, Indonesia, North Korea, most of Africa, most of South America, Mexico.

Digging ditches, that is hilarious--as if people manually dig ditches in developed countries anymore! Most road crews are like 10 dudes standing around doing nothing. Road improvement projects are a form of welfare.

Re: People start hating their jobs at 35

#106

Post by waldfee »

EZ-E wrote: post #52

About work and happiness : the more I think about the reality of being a full time employee, the more I start to believe part-time is actually the right way to work and be happy. I see little reason to spend something like 70% of waking hours commuting and working for someone else's profits if you can afford to do less. I've become pragmatic and realized the company I'm I work in is just a tool I use to make money wh…

I recently reduced my weekly hours and am now working only 4 days a week. its so much better.

People are dumbfounded when i tell them, they do not understand that free time is more important to me than money. as long as i can live comfortably and use my new free time i will trade money for time. end goal is 2 days a week - no idea if thats possible, but 3 days is a must.

if you can do it financially and with your job situation i can only recommend it. i still giggle like a little girl every friday because i dont have to go to work

Re: People start hating their jobs at 35

#107

Post by xevb3k »

jasonkester wrote: post #92
sbarre wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Spoken like an HNer who is incredibly lucky to be working in a field that has never-ending demand, and is probably good at their job. Just a heads up that the majority of people are not in your/our situation with regards to their employment.

Indeed. But we're discussing this here, with the audience you describe making up nearly all of us, so I didn't feel the need to add that caveat. So yeah, go us. Our gig gets better over time, while it appears that others don't.

The employment bubble you describe really only exists in the Bay Area. The majority of users on HN are not in the Bay Area:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3298905

People 35 and over, are somewhat likely to have families and find it difficult to relocate.

Re: People start hating their jobs at 35

#108

Post by gringoDan »

ggambetta wrote: post #69
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…

> 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 generally agree with this feeling, but with some caveats. Change for the sake of change is at best a temporary solution. You get some excitement because of the new situation (new job, new country, new partner), but if you don't first identify what isn't working before c…

This is profound. Mark Manson [0] writes about how long-term happiness/tranquility can only be found in saying "No" in our world of infinite choice - in intentionally limiting ourselves and actively choosing to focus on depth rather than breadth in our relationships, careers, travels, etc.

[0] https://markmanson.net/

Re: People start hating their jobs at 35

#109

Post by cm2012 »

k__ wrote: post #102
cm2012 wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Marketing consulting, reaching out to my whole network and doing really good work after 9 years experience. It also tripled my annual income.

Cool, where did you learn? I found many good technical education sites, but only HubSpot for marketing stuff.

This article is pretty great, not written by me: https://brianbalfour.com/essays/customer-acquisition

Re: People start hating their jobs at 35

#110

Post by wernsey »

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…

Funny, round about the time I turned 35 I stumbled upon Erik Dietrich's Defining The Corporate Hierarchy [1] blog.

It cynically divides corporate workers into sociopaths at the top who step on other people to get where they are, idealists in the middle who don't realize they're being stepped on and think they'll eventually get to the top through hard work, and then pragmatists at the bottom who come in in the morning, do their work, and find meaning in their lives elsewhere, like family or hobbies.

I found myself much more relaxed at work when I realized that I would be better off as a pragmatist (though YMMV). I have since left the corporate world for a smaller company, and I'm much happier at work now.

[1] http://www.daedtech.com/defining-the-corporate-hierarchy

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