The Dream Job That Wasn’t • Hacker News Board

Re: The Dream Job That Wasn’t

#21

Post by ta988 » Tue, Jan 19, 2021, 2:27 PM UTC

bsenftner wrote: post #19

skadamat wrote: post #13

Cal Newport became famous for his books "Deep Work" and "Digital Minimalism", but my favorite / most underrated book by him is actually "So Good They Can't Ignore You": https://www.calnewport.com/books/so-good/ In SGTCIU, he really goes deep on the idea that pre-existing passion is unlikely to lead you to a happy career and presents an alternate, more-compelling framework for job satisfaction. 1. Acquire rare & valua…

I remember reading his "How to win at College" when finishing graduate school; his first book made me feel smug because I was already doing all his recommendations. I feel extremely blessed, as I have held a series of "dream jobs": 1) video game studio owner at age 17; 2) graphics researcher working for Mandelbrot on his research in '83; 3) Beta Tester for the original Macintosh; 4) 3D graphics researcher back when h…

I would not call these last ones dream jobs. More like dream-crushing jobs...

Re: The Dream Job That Wasn’t

#22

Post by voicedYoda » Tue, Jan 19, 2021, 2:29 PM UTC

bsenftner wrote: post #19

skadamat wrote: post #13

Cal Newport became famous for his books "Deep Work" and "Digital Minimalism", but my favorite / most underrated book by him is actually "So Good They Can't Ignore You": https://www.calnewport.com/books/so-good/ In SGTCIU, he really goes deep on the idea that pre-existing passion is unlikely to lead you to a happy career and presents an alternate, more-compelling framework for job satisfaction. 1. Acquire rare & valua…

I remember reading his "How to win at College" when finishing graduate school; his first book made me feel smug because I was already doing all his recommendations. I feel extremely blessed, as I have held a series of "dream jobs": 1) video game studio owner at age 17; 2) graphics researcher working for Mandelbrot on his research in '83; 3) Beta Tester for the original Macintosh; 4) 3D graphics researcher back when h…

This is a fantastic representation of how developers should present themselves and work to get their dream jobs. It's hard work up front, but the dividends yield. Kudos

Re: The Dream Job That Wasn’t

#23

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Jan 19, 2021, 2:38 PM UTC

ta988 wrote: post #21

bsenftner wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I remember reading his "How to win at College" when finishing graduate school; his first book made me feel smug because I was already doing all his recommendations. I feel extremely blessed, as I have held a series of "dream jobs": 1) video game studio owner at age 17; 2) graphics researcher working for Mandelbrot on his research in '83; 3) Beta Tester for the original Macintosh; 4) 3D graphics researcher back when h…

I would not call these last ones dream jobs. More like dream-crushing jobs...

[deleted]

Re: The Dream Job That Wasn’t

#24

Post by mStreamTeam » Tue, Jan 19, 2021, 2:39 PM UTC

ta988 wrote: post #21

bsenftner wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I remember reading his "How to win at College" when finishing graduate school; his first book made me feel smug because I was already doing all his recommendations. I feel extremely blessed, as I have held a series of "dream jobs": 1) video game studio owner at age 17; 2) graphics researcher working for Mandelbrot on his research in '83; 3) Beta Tester for the original Macintosh; 4) 3D graphics researcher back when h…

I would not call these last ones dream jobs. More like dream-crushing jobs...

That post sound sounds like it was written by someone who dreams of getting power and status. If power us your dream, working for a 3 letter is one way of getting it.

Re: The Dream Job That Wasn’t

#25

Post by ghaff » Tue, Jan 19, 2021, 2:41 PM UTC

Phenix88be wrote: post #16

I believed the "If you love what you do, you never work a day in your life.". I loved to build website and make it my job. I regret that decision every day for the past 6 years. The software industry in my country is a big pile of legacy trash that is making money. It's painful to never find a place where you enjoy what you are doing. Now I tell people to NOT make passion or hobbies a job, it's a trap.

I think that's more common than not. You're doing things other people want you to do and pay you for, not what you find interesting. And you're not just doing them when you're inspired to do so but all the time whether you feel like it or not.

Re: The Dream Job That Wasn’t

#26

Post by leetrout » Tue, Jan 19, 2021, 2:42 PM UTC

austincheney wrote: post #11

leetrout wrote: post #4

I’ve had a fantastic career which I am thankful for. My dream job is to be a pilot which I accept I will never do and can imagine the aspects that make it “just a job”. More relatable, in my experience, is the dream company. Accepting that you are committed to software development as a career different companies then take the place of a dream job. Google with all their perks of working on site. 37Signals / Basecamp a…

I recently had a coworker whose dream job is to be a pilot, specifically for fire rescue services. This coworker is a military officer who is intentionally taking a large demotion to become a military pilot in furtherance of that dream. They also had to fulfill a huge amount of nonsense, more than administrative actions, to ensure they had access to that opportunity.

Those pilots do some of the most dangerous and impressive flying. I hope it works out for them!

Re: The Dream Job That Wasn’t

#27

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Jan 19, 2021, 2:44 PM UTC

ta988 wrote: post #21

bsenftner wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I remember reading his "How to win at College" when finishing graduate school; his first book made me feel smug because I was already doing all his recommendations. I feel extremely blessed, as I have held a series of "dream jobs": 1) video game studio owner at age 17; 2) graphics researcher working for Mandelbrot on his research in '83; 3) Beta Tester for the original Macintosh; 4) 3D graphics researcher back when h…

I would not call these last ones dream jobs. More like dream-crushing jobs...

[deleted]

Re: The Dream Job That Wasn’t

#28

Post by WhompingWindows » Tue, Jan 19, 2021, 2:49 PM UTC

My dream job was to be an MD. I went to a grade deflationary undergrad, UChicago, and was too interested in music, social life, and sleeping to achieve a high GPA. I scored 90th percentile on the MCAT and had choruses, piano, humanities, and research in my background, but merely having a 3.35 GPA meant I got 0 interviews after 11 applications to medical school.

How devastating is that: you dream to be an MD for a decade, you work on it for 5 years, spend thousands of dollars prepping and applying, and you receive ZERO responses from a human voice, just automated email replies? Okay, dream A was quashed, so then what?

I fell into programming for healthcare. I'm not good at it. I struggle to understand basic SQL joins, intermediate R, and intermediate statistics. I can barely solve beginner-level coding interview questions and I never pluck up the motivation to build side-projects, given all the "real life" chores and hobbies distracting me. I lost my last 2 healthcare coding jobs for being too outspoken with my criticisms and opinions. I didn't have the political savvy or grit to swallow my objections and play nice.

I'm still looking for my next position. I want to use SQL, R, and statistics to solve real-world problems in healthcare or climate. This isn't a dream, but it's interesting, it'll pay better than anything else I could do, and I can tell myself I'm lessening suffering and improving human lives. For this next post, I'm going to have to find a place that accepts my openly disagreeable nature, or just swallow it down and say "Yes, Sir" to whatever my bosses demand.

Re: The Dream Job That Wasn’t

#29

Post by spaetzleesser » Tue, Jan 19, 2021, 2:49 PM UTC

I think an important ingredient in having a dream job is to be in tune with society to some degree. You don’t have to do what everybody else does but you need to know how to work the system and get along with people.

From my observation there are people who do their own thing but don’t get along with people. And there are people who get along with others but don’t have their own goals. The lucky ones are the people who can do both.

Re: The Dream Job That Wasn’t

#30

Post by colmvp » Tue, Jan 19, 2021, 2:54 PM UTC

hi41 wrote: post #20

string wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was raised in a similar way, and I have mixed feelings because I essentially ended up taking the path of least resistance. There was no pressure to do anything in particular, so I cruised through school doing as little work as necessary. I took exams in maths, physics and chemistry (because I found those subjects easy) and got very good grades but ended up going to design/art school because I thought it would be "f…

Thank you for sharing your experience. Could you please elaborate more on this. Is it the long hours in front of a computer? >> Then I slowly discovered how awful the graphic design industry is

Not the OP but as ex-designer, the pay is mediocre and the best clients most designers would like to work on (i.e. creative, interesting) don't pay very much. I know a lot of small studios that produced beautiful work and won awards, but didn't make amazing revenue, which resulted in having to keep the staff small and the pay for themselves relatively low. They always have to take giant, boring and sometimes difficult clients to keep the lights on.

All in all, the vast majority of my friends switched to FAANG so they could earn good money after years slaving away at agencies. They don't love the work but the pay makes up for it.