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A career ending mistake

bitfieldconsulting.com

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Re: A career ending mistake

#11

Post by giantg2 »

_abox wrote: post #6
giantg2 wrote: post #5

"It's not surprising, then, that many of us find ourselves in less than fully satisfying jobs, with doubtful or non-existent prospects for advancement." Very true. I can't wait for my career to be over. I don't think I'll ever find the position where I feel I belong, so I'll just be miserable anywhere now that I know how broken the system really is.

I'm sorry to hear that. I've had many positions where I felt like I belonged including my current. The ones where I didn't were very depressing and stressful. I hope you will find more fulfillment in the future! By the way I never planned anything. I don't think more than a week ahead. Somehow I have fallen into the right places anyhow. I tend to get really bored once I've totally mastered a job so I change a lot. I…

It felt great at first. Once you realize that the company - respected/known as a place that does the right thing - doesn't follow its own policies and screws people over, you realize that every company/job sucks. It won't be better anywhere else. And you wasted your youth on obscure and obsolete tech because the company needed it and you wrongly believed their promises that they would take care of you (retraining, career growth, not laying off, not outsourcing, etc).

Re: A career ending mistake

#13

Post by giantg2 »

dahart wrote: post #10
giantg2 wrote: post #5

"It's not surprising, then, that many of us find ourselves in less than fully satisfying jobs, with doubtful or non-existent prospects for advancement." Very true. I can't wait for my career to be over. I don't think I'll ever find the position where I feel I belong, so I'll just be miserable anywhere now that I know how broken the system really is.

How about making your own company or career? Would that help? (It definitely helped me in a lot of ways.) I’m curious what you mean by ‘how broke the system really is’. Which system are you referring to, how is it broken, how could it be fixed, and what kind of expectations did you have going in that?

Companies lie and don't even follow their own policies, screwing over the workers (you could also apply this to the "justice" system, and many others). A good start would be a union to enforce the policies consistently and right the imbalance of power.

I have an LLC for largely non-tech work. Tech work is terrible in my market, so I don't think I'd do well enough to support myself. Not to mention, the tech I spent time building expertise in for the company was obscure, so I do think even have any real expertise now.

Re: A career ending mistake

#14

Post by znq »

giantg2 wrote: post #5

"It's not surprising, then, that many of us find ourselves in less than fully satisfying jobs, with doubtful or non-existent prospects for advancement." Very true. I can't wait for my career to be over. I don't think I'll ever find the position where I feel I belong, so I'll just be miserable anywhere now that I know how broken the system really is.

I hope people don't see this as spam (especially since in the past I've talked a lot about this), but I've started Mobile Jazz (my first company) specifically because I wanted to created a place where I and others feel happy. A place where increasing revenue and profit to the extreme is not the focus, but employee happiness is. We call it "Optimizing for Happiness".

We've written a lot about it in our company handbook https://mobilejazz.com/company-handbook-pdf/ (free to download, no email required) and you can find more stories and details on our blog if interested.

COVID has made things more difficult, especially since pre-COVID we did a lot of events together (skiing, surfing, hiking, co-living, workations, etc.) and not meeting up has definitely harmed our sense of belonging and purpose. So we're very much looking forward to having events again this year.

Basically what I wanted to say: People are currently jumping around a lot in their jobs, looking for the highest salaries and finding a purpose and a place they belong. We somehow have managed, despite not being able to match Silicon Valley salaries, to have a really good team of loyal, friendly and kind humans that gives me joy to get up every single day and to work with them. And with most of them it's similar, since many of those people have been staying with us since they've joined us. Despite getting better offers (financially speaking) every day.

Re: A career ending mistake

#15

Post by vmception »

The summary here is that people don't know what they want.

They have overly simplistic ideas of what they want.

There are ways to take greater control, or to more quickly concede that there is no control if the sacrifices are not tolerable, to you.

Re: A career ending mistake

#16

Post by noneeeed »

giantg2 wrote: post #11
_abox wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sorry to hear that. I've had many positions where I felt like I belonged including my current. The ones where I didn't were very depressing and stressful. I hope you will find more fulfillment in the future! By the way I never planned anything. I don't think more than a week ahead. Somehow I have fallen into the right places anyhow. I tend to get really bored once I've totally mastered a job so I change a lot. I…

It felt great at first. Once you realize that the company - respected/known as a place that does the right thing - doesn't follow its own policies and screws people over, you realize that every company/job sucks. It won't be better anywhere else. And you wasted your youth on obscure and obsolete tech because the company needed it and you wrongly believed their promises that they would take care of you (retraining, ca…

For what it's worth, there are companies who walk the walk, I've been lucky enough to work for a couple. However, I think they are almost always smaller companies.

Re: A career ending mistake

#17

Post by GekkePrutser »

giantg2 wrote: post #11
_abox wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sorry to hear that. I've had many positions where I felt like I belonged including my current. The ones where I didn't were very depressing and stressful. I hope you will find more fulfillment in the future! By the way I never planned anything. I don't think more than a week ahead. Somehow I have fallen into the right places anyhow. I tend to get really bored once I've totally mastered a job so I change a lot. I…

It felt great at first. Once you realize that the company - respected/known as a place that does the right thing - doesn't follow its own policies and screws people over, you realize that every company/job sucks. It won't be better anywhere else. And you wasted your youth on obscure and obsolete tech because the company needed it and you wrongly believed their promises that they would take care of you (retraining, ca…

My experience is totally different. The company I've worked for for the last 20 years has always done the right thing by me. They allowed me to work from my home country for half a year when I needed to be with my family, they paid to move me to yet another country when my team was made redundant so I could do the job I really wanted.

And I really love learning obscure tech :) always have.

Some companies really are better than others. But tbh it's more the people you work for directly that matter. They're the ones with the capability to shield you from the worst crap. That fight for you with HR when your job is on the line. When I look for other teams to move to I always take the management into account too. They may not stick around forever but if you have a good relationship they might bring you with them anyway.

When I do an interview I always ask to see the workplace. Just to get a feel for the place I'll be spending my days. It's usually viewed as a very peculiar request when applying externally but usually granted. I've rejected a job once because the team really looked burned out and literally stuffed in a corner.

Another place I was shown looked amazing and fun. I still work for that company today.

Re: A career ending mistake

#18

Post by ido »

znq wrote: post #14
giantg2 wrote: post #5

"It's not surprising, then, that many of us find ourselves in less than fully satisfying jobs, with doubtful or non-existent prospects for advancement." Very true. I can't wait for my career to be over. I don't think I'll ever find the position where I feel I belong, so I'll just be miserable anywhere now that I know how broken the system really is.

I hope people don't see this as spam (especially since in the past I've talked a lot about this), but I've started Mobile Jazz (my first company) specifically because I wanted to created a place where I and others feel happy. A place where increasing revenue and profit to the extreme is not the focus, but employee happiness is. We call it "Optimizing for Happiness". We've written a lot about it in our company handboo…

    pre-COVID we did a lot of events together (skiing, surfing, hiking, 
    co-living, workations, etc.)
A bit off-topic, but how well does this work for employees that have a family? Do they take their kids/spouse to the events?

Re: A career ending mistake

#19

Post by dahart »

giantg2 wrote: post #13
dahart wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How about making your own company or career? Would that help? (It definitely helped me in a lot of ways.) I’m curious what you mean by ‘how broke the system really is’. Which system are you referring to, how is it broken, how could it be fixed, and what kind of expectations did you have going in that?

Companies lie and don't even follow their own policies, screwing over the workers (you could also apply this to the "justice" system, and many others). A good start would be a union to enforce the policies consistently and right the imbalance of power. I have an LLC for largely non-tech work. Tech work is terrible in my market, so I don't think I'd do well enough to support myself. Not to mention, the tech I spent ti…

How about a tech LLC?

I didn’t get a picture of what the policies and imbalance of power is, or what it should be. I’ve seen some companies lie in varying amounts that don’t always add up to broken. What’s actually broken from your perspective? Does broken mean they’re not paying you? Or does it mean you aren’t getting promoted? Does it mean the software they produce doesn’t work, or the company doesn’t make any money?

Re: A career ending mistake

#20

Post by znq »

ido wrote: post #18
znq wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hope people don't see this as spam (especially since in the past I've talked a lot about this), but I've started Mobile Jazz (my first company) specifically because I wanted to created a place where I and others feel happy. A place where increasing revenue and profit to the extreme is not the focus, but employee happiness is. We call it "Optimizing for Happiness". We've written a lot about it in our company handboo…

pre-COVID we did a lot of events together (skiing, surfing, hiking, co-living, workations, etc.) A bit off-topic, but how well does this work for employees that have a family? Do they take their kids/spouse to the events?

Yes, we're completely open to having partners and kids around at our events. We actually encourage it. I myself have a child now and am looking forward to taking her to our next event. We're also looking into options of having a nanny. Depending on where we go and what we do.
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