Trapped by your current circumstances? Have you ever wondered if this is as far as you are going to get in life? Professionally?
Ask HN: Have you ever felt trapped?
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Re: Ask HN: Have you ever felt trapped?
#2Yes, just now
Re: Ask HN: Have you ever felt trapped?
#3Yes, 3 or 4 times. Each time I escaped by making sure I had 12 months of (frugal) expenses saved up, and then taking the boldest calculated risk that presented itself. Each time, it’s catapulted my career to a level I’d previously thought unreachable, and opened up a world of new opportunities.
Re: Ask HN: Have you ever felt trapped?
#4Yes, 3 or 4 times. Each time I escaped by making sure I had 12 months of (frugal) expenses saved up, and then taking the boldest calculated risk that presented itself. Each time, it’s catapulted my career to a level I’d previously thought unreachable, and opened up a world of new opportunities.
Could you elaborate on this?
Re: Ask HN: Have you ever felt trapped?
#5I think you’re thinking of it wrong. It’s the journey not the destination. As long as you’re excited to learn things, try things, make things you’re okay.
It would be better to be a new writer excited to write a crap book than to be a Stephen King without the energy or will to write a word.
(As far as I know, King still has more energy and enthusiasm than most writers. The example was a counterfactual.)
Re: Ask HN: Have you ever felt trapped?
#6Yes, 3 or 4 times. Each time I escaped by making sure I had 12 months of (frugal) expenses saved up, and then taking the boldest calculated risk that presented itself. Each time, it’s catapulted my career to a level I’d previously thought unreachable, and opened up a world of new opportunities.
Could you elaborate on this?
Not a ton without compromising anonymity. What specifically do you want to know more about?
Re: Ask HN: Have you ever felt trapped?
#7My last job - I ended up resigning after a good job interview. I didn't get the job but the experience made me realize that work life doesn't have to suck, that one's coworkers don't have to be backstabbing morons.
Edit: I still haven't found my next thing, but it's still better than that feeling of being trapped.
Re: Ask HN: Have you ever felt trapped?
#8Only a small handful of times, most times the best way was to change my lifestyle and move on rather than accept the status quo
Re: Ask HN: Have you ever felt trapped?
#9Earlier quoted context omitted.
Could you elaborate on this?
Not a ton without compromising anonymity. What specifically do you want to know more about?
Not the guy asking the question, but: was 12 months a good period of time? Would 6 or 9 months have been too short? 18 months too long?
Re: Ask HN: Have you ever felt trapped?
#10Yes, 3 or 4 times. Each time I escaped by making sure I had 12 months of (frugal) expenses saved up, and then taking the boldest calculated risk that presented itself. Each time, it’s catapulted my career to a level I’d previously thought unreachable, and opened up a world of new opportunities.
Absolutely agreed.
When evaluating a major lifestyle change for financial benefit with a job shift, I asked a coworker who'd been doing the job awhile. He gave me the best advice I've ever received when moving into a high-stress / high-paying job.
"It's good money. But make sure you set up your finances so that when you decide to stop, you can. Even when they say 'What if we paid you twice as much to keep doing the job?' Otherwise, you'll still be doing the job when you're 60."
The corollary is probably: don't take a job you don't want to do, unless the pay's good enough that you can reach the above point in a reasonable amount of time.
I listened, and it gave me the opportunity to quit a well paying consulting job to be with my mother while she was going through cancer surgery. (Thankfully, it and her recovery went well)
And ultimately, led me to finding a job that was a much happier fit.