Burning out is a terrible feeling. As someone who got a job before finishing school, I spent the first few years of my career working literally 16 hour days. I felt the need to prove myself, and I worked hard to do it. After 3 or 4 years my life changed in some big ways, and the life style started to affect me extremely negatively. I continued to try to work more hours but I wasn't getting anything more done. It was like I had no more ambition to work. On one particular project I hit a big dip. I became depressed, I started neglecting things like laundry, or brushing my teeth, or eating. When the project ended, I got some time to recover a bit (but not fully) a year or so later I was on another stressful project. I think I hit my low during that. I almost became completely separated from reality for lack of a better description. I started having deep almost philosophical thoughts about what the point of life even is. Again my productivity dropped lower (and also my quality of work, and my communication) I tried to make up for it with extra hours, but it only made things worse. Eventually I quit, and found a better job that has been pretty strictly 9-5. Additionally I also stopped working on side projects for a while. I think a really important part is realizing that the situation I was in was not going to get better, and a complete change was necessary.
Am I burnt out? Or just not suited for this job?
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Re: Am I burnt out? Or just not suited for this job?
#22I think your burnout is because you enjoy working hard, but have trouble knowing when to find that balance between productivity and happiness.
In my 7 years since college, I've worked at two tech companies, and I've experienced burnout at both at one time or another.
I'm dealing with it by:
1) managing expectations - people are generally reasonable when they're aware of your work load and can sympathize with your need for leisure time
2) don't be a roadblock, but you can say "NO" more often - when I was younger, I'd chase small wins here and there, but overall it did not impact my external performance metrics much. It would have been more productive if I focused on more impactful changes and leave some smaller tasks for newer team members (and use it as an opportunity to transfer knowledge + teach)
3) there's always more work to do - one more email, one more changelist, one more code blog to read, one more framework to learn, one more person to meet. I have accepted that I cannot possibly exhaust my mental todo list. Anyone out there who says they accomplish 100% of what they want to do is either lying or have a short list.
Re: Am I burnt out? Or just not suited for this job?
#23I think in the next year or two we're going to see this more and more. Degree qualified, startup fresh out of university with no post-grad work experience, failed startup, making ends meet with freelancing with little hope of rejoining a career track. Now don't get me wrong, were all beating the Fuck Big Corp drum here, but you can't beat big corp for a relatively stable income and ratable work experience. That's why…
There have been some studies showing things like divorce are "contagious." Basically when one person in a social circle gets divorced, the likelihood is high that others will also get divorced. I haven't seen a study that separates causation vs correlation on this one. I wonder if the professional burnout has a similar "contagion" aspect. A bunch of us are getting burned out. People who are borderline burned out, see…
Might be an age or experience issue. I mean, after 3 years of marriage, maybe theres an increase likelihood of boredom setting in and since friends tend to be in the same age range, and possibly got married around the same age, maybe it's just that time...Either way, be careful what conclusions you draw from correlations.
I see a similar possibility here. Startup scene got big around early last year say, now it's winding down, people are realizing, once again, that it's the hot shot big hits that get the showtime, not the 90%+ who have a failure and ended up wasting a year or more of their prime living on ramen and "bootstrapping". Take a look at the app store for how that works out.
Re: Am I burnt out? Or just not suited for this job?
#24Reading this brings up a lot of uneasy feelings for me. I am a designer, and recent graduate with a job right out of school. I love what I do, and wouldn't want to be doing anything different, but recently I've been hearing more and more stories like this. It generally goes: the young, inspired designer/hacker works his/her ass off for 3-4 years, then (poof!) "burns out."
I can't help but feel worried for myself. On average I happily work around 60 hours/week, and would probably do more if I didn't stop myself (I do need some sleep, after all). Am I in that "3-4 years" stage? I want to do design the rest of my life, but maybe I'm just shooting myself in the foot.
Re: Am I burnt out? Or just not suited for this job?
#25Earlier quoted context omitted.
For developers, getting on a "career track" is as simple as finding a relatively high profile open source project that interests them and getting some commits in. Instant resume, code examples and you've jump-started your networking for a particular technology. Edited to add: I have no idea why this is getting downvoted. If you disagree with my assertion then by all means leave a comment. Hitting the down arrow and w…
Not a downvoter, but this can sound like a standard "man-up" type of answer. Its easy to suggest and might come easy to some, but it's way out of reach for most young developers trying to get on the career track. Making a notable contribution to an impactful project requires a lot of time and understanding. Even if a project could use the help, jumping in head first like that is quite daunting.
I appreciate your response, and I agree that upon reflection this pretty much is the standard man-up answer. That being said the only other way I know to get stuff accomplished is throw money at the problem, not typically an option for devs straight out of college.
I understand what you're saying when you say it's daunting, but this doesn't have to be a big deal. I'm not advocating someone run right out and start cutting kernel patches straight out of school. The Open Source space is enormous and it should be possible to pick a project that's in line with your abilities. Example: there are at least three CMS projects I know of that are well documented and very accessible to new developers looking to help out.
Re: Am I burnt out? Or just not suited for this job?
#26I've noticed there is a general malaise around a lot of people at the moment, and I think it has nothing to do with personal circumstances, and more to do with the "impending end of the world scenario" that's been in the media now for nigh on 4 years. I've also notced people are having real trouble making decisions that 5 years ago would have been snap ones. It's as if there are a lot of people whose thought processe…
>and more to do with the "impending end of the world scenario" that's been in the media now for nigh on 4 years.
Agreed. I don't watch the news anymore (besides industry news) and I'm no longer politically involved. Ignorance is bliss.
Re: Am I burnt out? Or just not suited for this job?
#27[deleted]
Re: Am I burnt out? Or just not suited for this job?
#28I am chasing one client for 2 months now. He didn't pay me. The problem is he is father of one of my best friends, who I know since early childhood. Everytime I call him he postpones our conversation. And this is one of the numerous examples of me chasing clients. I know how you feel, even if its 10$ job, you still feel crappy if you are not payed at the end of the day as negotiated. 2 years of freelancing experience here, I guess I'll quit soon. Good luck!
Re: Am I burnt out? Or just not suited for this job?
#29Most people who do creative/analytical, solitary "desk job" work burn out at some point. Writers get writers block, composers go mad, mathematicians solve the Poincare Conjecture then disappear off the face of the earth.
Programmers have the worst burnout potential, because in addition to the unpleasant parts of the job itself, you have to deal with some of the most obnoxious personality types on the planet, and do all your work on a machine that is conspiring to ensure you never get anything done. It's assumed other solitary creative/analytical types are oddballs who take tons of time off to recuperate between projects, but programmers are expected to produce day in and day out. There's also the looming archetypes of the superhuman guy who writes 3D engines in his spare time and the billionaire PHP programmer, making you feel bad about both your abilities and bank balance.
As a general salve, I turn off the internet for days at a time, spend time with friends as much as possible and go to the gym. However, none of that is as effective as not working with bozos, and not working on projects I don't care about.
Re: Am I burnt out? Or just not suited for this job?
#30Reading this brings up a lot of uneasy feelings for me. I am a designer, and recent graduate with a job right out of school. I love what I do, and wouldn't want to be doing anything different, but recently I've been hearing more and more stories like this. It generally goes: the young, inspired designer/hacker works his/her ass off for 3-4 years, then (poof!) "burns out." I can't help but feel worried for myself. On…
You'll be fine. You may find out that after a while you hate the type of design you do but you'll probably still love designing - it's why we got into it.
I graduated 6 years ago back when they hardly taught any web/UI work. I started out in print and at first loved it, but quickly grew to hate it. I learned enough about myself that it was clear that it was time to move on. Then I finally accidentally landed a job at a startup and found what I really loved - UX/UI. Then did that really well, and now I'm on to product design and business.
Long story short, you're pretty likely to have an evolving set of interests and that will allow you to get really good at a number of facets. You should still be doing 60 hours a week or more if you want to be making big leaps forward. Once you get burnt out on working your ass off doing that one thing, you'll find something else really interesting and inspiring. Then go chase that.
There are always new things to learn, so make sure you've got supporting network to chat about your challenges with so that you know you're not alone. A lot of times, there are little things you can do to keep your zeal for life even though what you're hammering on may not be as interesting as it used to be. But when it becomes downright depressing to go to work every day for 1-2 weeks, you better quit.