Ask HN: What should I do when I'm bored with my career? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: What should I do when I'm bored with my career?

#71

Post by InGodsName » Thu, Dec 27, 2018, 4:05 PM UTC

fecak wrote: post #14

I do career consulting (and resume writing) mostly for clients from tech. I think some arrangement where you had multiple forms of income (or potential income) might be a good solution for you. What might that look like? - Freelance software development - This would give you some control over what types of projects you work on, and you could focus on areas that really interest you. Maybe it would be projects that ena…

My core advise is top stop chasing whatever big dream.

Backpack and move to Chiangmai. Look at life from different angle, you'll see people who are barely getting by and still happy.

Start freelancing and getting contract work. It's not really difficult if you

a) can skype interview b) work with git/GitHub

Then find like minded people and make a team. US in not the only place on Earth.

I've moved to Mumbai from NYC and i couldn't be much happier. Our whole team is remote.

Re: Ask HN: What should I do when I'm bored with my career?

#72

Post by throwaway12JpuG » Thu, Dec 27, 2018, 4:07 PM UTC

fecak wrote: post #14

I do career consulting (and resume writing) mostly for clients from tech. I think some arrangement where you had multiple forms of income (or potential income) might be a good solution for you. What might that look like? - Freelance software development - This would give you some control over what types of projects you work on, and you could focus on areas that really interest you. Maybe it would be projects that ena…

Thanks for such a thoughtful response. What you're saying rings a bell. Do you think consulting with someone like yourself would be beneficial? I didn't know there was such a thing as career consultant.

Re: Ask HN: What should I do when I'm bored with my career?

#73

Post by werber » Thu, Dec 27, 2018, 4:10 PM UTC

Maybe try to pivot into a less technical role, like a developer advocate where you need to be technologically current, but also have a social teaching-esque component to your role.

Re: Ask HN: What should I do when I'm bored with my career?

#74

Post by alangpierce » Thu, Dec 27, 2018, 4:12 PM UTC

GuiA wrote: post #31

phkahler wrote: post #24

You may want to change your attitude toward work. There's a reason it's called "work" and not playtime. There's a reason they pay you to do it. I like to think about the guy stuck in a shit town, working in a coal mine. Maybe they all drink themselves to oblivion and I'm delusional, but I envision at least some of them this way: Guy goes down there and busts his ass all day in the dark, getting dirty as fuck, probabl…

While it might feel good to admonish people and tell them that they have to get tough and suck it up and pull themselves by their bootstraps, it typically does not do anything to help them; particularly if they are taking the initiative to ask for help in the first place. OP more likely than not realizes that they are in a situation of privilege compared to someone working in the mines to sustain their family; if the…

I think the tone could have used improvement, but the underlying perspective has been useful for me when getting through hard times of all sorts. It's easy to lose perspective and focus on the negative parts of life, and often times, I've been able to find comfort in difficult situations by reminding myself that everyone has struggles and acknowledging the positive aspects of life. At least to me, a simple shift in perspective can have a huge effect on my mood and happiness.

Re: Ask HN: What should I do when I'm bored with my career?

#75

Post by hackermailman » Thu, Dec 27, 2018, 4:16 PM UTC

Look around your local university's external job listings to get attached to a team as a research programmer. Often they are just looking for somebody to build and maintain a UI the scientists can use more easily, but you'll have lot's of opportunities to start rewriting algorithms to make them more efficient, and you're working with post-doc researchers and grad students so everyday is interesting not to mention some come with benefits, such as free tuition credits so you can P/T take courses at the school. Some resources here for teaching yourself these topics https://functionalcs.github.io/curriculum/

You will also collect letters of recommendations from the PhDs you work with, guaranteeing future employment on more research grant teams or for use to apply to a grad school program. Most students and developers pass up these opportunities because they don't pay near the same salary as industry does but if you can live with a hit in income you'll never be bored again. Sometimes you'll be the 'CTO', your job is to design whatever you think is the best way to sort/access/display research data which leads into Knuth territory generating all permutations, creating graphs, building a DSL, creating the user interfaces for it, best way to host an interface online for remote access, ect.

Re: Ask HN: What should I do when I'm bored with my career?

#76

Post by jamil7 » Thu, Dec 27, 2018, 4:20 PM UTC

phkahler wrote: post #24

You may want to change your attitude toward work. There's a reason it's called "work" and not playtime. There's a reason they pay you to do it. I like to think about the guy stuck in a shit town, working in a coal mine. Maybe they all drink themselves to oblivion and I'm delusional, but I envision at least some of them this way: Guy goes down there and busts his ass all day in the dark, getting dirty as fuck, probabl…

I guess maybe you were trying to give OP some tough love here but it came off a bit misguided to me. I think it all depends what your philosophy towards work is and what you want to do with life. Your analogy kind of illustrated this, at least to me. The idilic coal miner gets meaning from building a family and doesn't give a shit about his job, others might choose a different path to that. Telling someone who's dissatisfied to basically "harden up" might work in a different context but is not constructive here. Why does OP not have the right to question the meaning in their work and surroundings?.

Re: Ask HN: What should I do when I'm bored with my career?

#77

Post by schizoidboy » Thu, Dec 27, 2018, 4:21 PM UTC

dwaltrip wrote: post #48

Discover what is meaningful to you. It may take some years. Once you have ideas about what is meaningful, try to make your work more connected to these things. If not directly, then indirectly. For example, your work could support your free-time hobbies that you love. Or, of course, the classic of supporting your family and community through a job that you may not love but can tolerate. Try to cultivate a sense of pr…

I think this gets to the heart of it. Some places to start:

Meaning in Work TED talk by a researcher in the field: https://youtu.be/RLFVoEF2RI0?t=177

Happiness vs Meaning: https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17439760.2013.830764

My favorite survey of the field: https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17439760.2015.1137623

Re: Ask HN: What should I do when I'm bored with my career?

#78

Post by fecak » Thu, Dec 27, 2018, 4:23 PM UTC

throwaway12JpuG wrote: post #72

fecak wrote: post #14

I do career consulting (and resume writing) mostly for clients from tech. I think some arrangement where you had multiple forms of income (or potential income) might be a good solution for you. What might that look like? - Freelance software development - This would give you some control over what types of projects you work on, and you could focus on areas that really interest you. Maybe it would be projects that ena…

Thanks for such a thoughtful response. What you're saying rings a bell. Do you think consulting with someone like yourself would be beneficial? I didn't know there was such a thing as career consultant.

I'm not sure if I'd be able to provide value or not, but feel free to message me with additional details and I can give you a more informed opinion. My career consulting work is often paired with resume and other services (LinkedIn, cover letters) where it serves to tie everything together, but I also provide 'consult only' packages to people who are trying to navigate unusual circumstances in careers.

Re: Ask HN: What should I do when I'm bored with my career?

#79

Post by gdubs » Thu, Dec 27, 2018, 4:23 PM UTC

There’s an old zen expression: “Before enlightenment chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment, chop wood, carry water.”

One benefit I’ve found from meditating is that it makes me less judgemental of tasks and more willing to approach everything in life with a desire to do the task well.

I’d recommend reading one of Phil Jackson’s books (the NBA coach). He’s got some great thoughts on Zen, and it’s interesting to see how he used meditation to help superstar athletes with big egos to focus on tasks that others might find “boring”.

My naive impression of why this is effective is that meditation helps your brain realize that labels like “fun”, or “boring”, tend to fall apart upon scrutiny.

Re: Ask HN: What should I do when I'm bored with my career?

#80

Post by expertentipp » Thu, Dec 27, 2018, 4:25 PM UTC

phkahler wrote: post #24

You may want to change your attitude toward work. There's a reason it's called "work" and not playtime. There's a reason they pay you to do it. I like to think about the guy stuck in a shit town, working in a coal mine. Maybe they all drink themselves to oblivion and I'm delusional, but I envision at least some of them this way: Guy goes down there and busts his ass all day in the dark, getting dirty as fuck, probabl…

> I like to think about the guy stuck in a shit town, working in a coal mine. Maybe they all drink themselves to oblivion and I'm delusional

> Guy goes down there and busts his ass all day in the dark, getting dirty as fuck, probably doing long term damage to his lungs and such. But it's his job and at the end of the day he goes home to his wife, kids, and dog, and realizes that work is just something he has to do to support the parts of his life he cares about.

Where this romanticizing of hard work comes from? Protestant work ethics? A coal mine person working "down there" better find a partner before starting the career (i.e before the age of 18). Otherwise with the low status of the job and its hardness one has zero change finding partner afterwards. Many don't do and wreck themselves from misery by reaching, lowered already usually, retirement age. Yes it's devastating for their health and lungs.

These "be a man" life advices are almost always obsolete.