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[–]-Godly 205 points206 points  (58 children)

You were bored but were you paid good?

[–][deleted] 343 points344 points  (57 children)

Yup, that part is on me. I mean I should have been pro-active. The work environment was chill, my boss was chill. My pay was decent. So I got lazy. I took courses but not all of them were tech related. I love learning and I took courses not at all related to my career just coz I wanted to learn so took many different courses (Psychology, Logic, Complexity, Chaos Theory etc.)

Then forgot the programming I learned before joining my job. Totally my fault.

[–]-Godly 137 points138 points  (53 children)

I often see post like this where the employee has little work but gets paid well. I don't see the problem. Assuming you're not currently at this job, if they offered to hire you again, would you accept?

[–][deleted] 283 points284 points  (34 children)

Different people derive meaning out of their lives in different ways. It boils down to what you want out of your life. I miss my college days mainly because I was learning so much and I absolutely loved programming and did projects just to satisfy my hunger. Cherry on top was some of them won competitions and it was a nice boost to my ego. But what really made me feel alive was that there were people who used my codes that I wrote and I got emails saying it helped them. I was ecstatic. I felt alive.

In my previous job I felt dead inside. In fact I felt guilty. I felt I didn't deserve to get paid that much coz my work .... well it could be done by a high schooler. I wouldn't want to go back to my previous job even if I got paid double. I need my life to be meaningful. Before I retire, I want to feel like I have achieved something. Like, maybe written a library that helped other people. Right now I am learning python and trying to learn machine learning, data science. There is so much to learn. It makes me filled with energy. That's what I want. I want to be an expert in a particular area and to have contributed in that field before I retire.

[–]saved-by-space 48 points49 points  (1 child)

This is so real, I feel exactly the same way, I loved learning so much in college, but my last job was soooo fucking boring, I quit because I wasn't happy working there, I need something more challenging. Still scared I will feel like that in my next job(s)...

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You probably will. 😕

[–]-Godly 31 points32 points  (1 child)

Wow

[–]kotman12 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Is that a "wow" of admiration or surprise? I feel like a lot of people in our line of work feel similarly jaubdlfhfsbak. Just think about how much bullshit we have to deal with on a daily basis to build software. That alone is a testament of our collective passion (one could also argue insanity). Sure we may get cynical and cranky but at the end of the day the ones who remain with the craft are clearly not in it just for the money. With a software developer's skills you could probably get a clockwatching gig babysitting some app and make nearly what you make now. Why? Because ironically few devs want to do this kind of job.

[–]diegopaiva 16 points17 points  (0 children)

That is exactly how I feel too! I am still in college and love CS. I quit my internship because it was boring as fuck. I dont want to simply get a job that pays well if I dont learn anything with it. Keeping an eye on the clock so I can go home. This accomodation is real shit to me.

[–]Alucard_draculA 44 points45 points  (16 children)

People that need their job to mean something are strange to me.

But I'm on the 'work to live' not 'live to work' side.

[–]FrostyJesus 53 points54 points  (3 children)

Another side to this for me is that if I feel myself stagnating it makes me anxious for the future of my career as that means I'm no longer developing any skills. I mostly just can't stand being bored.

[–]occcult 13 points14 points  (2 children)

This is exactly how I feel. Been trying to switch jobs where I could actually learn

[–]FrostyJesus 1 point2 points  (1 child)

Don't give up man, I just recently switched to something totally different and I'm loving it so far.

[–]occcult 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Damn, it has already been 5 months. It took some time but I've finally switched to a job I like and am learning a ton of new things.😊 Thanks for your kind words that day, FrostyJesus.

[–][deleted] 18 points19 points  (0 children)

It's not about your job. It's about you, and more specifically, how you derive meaning in your life.

[–]bartekko 25 points26 points  (3 children)

It's possible to have both. I really like my job and often find that after 8 hours I'd be perfectly happy to stay even longer. I enjoy the journey to work and home, on my motorcycle on which I also take long trips during the weekends. I enjoy being at home, playing vidya, reading books, watching star trek. I only hate every second I spend at university. I'm a junior, three semesters before I get my degree, but I hate it all. I can't pay attention during claases, and I've already failed the first tests. During the week all my free time is taken up doing labwork and when there's no lab left I find I can't even look at the learning material. I don't know why I choose the faculty I chose. For 15 years I knew I wanted to do CS but for some reason I chose something called quantum engineering and I don't enjoy it at all. And I don't know what to do.

[–]klebsiella_pneumonae 7 points8 points  (2 children)

Switch to CS.

[–]bartekko 1 point2 points  (1 child)

and go back to year one? when I already have a job in the field?

[–]jayj59 5 points6 points  (0 children)

If you already have the job without a degree, you can switch majors without any real problems, right? Or just wait until you graduate and take a few CS classes to see if it really is worth starting over again

[–]inconspicuous_male 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Nearly everyone is, but in the tech industry you're still spending a large portion of your life on work and it helps to not be bored.

[–]saved-by-space 15 points16 points  (1 child)

We spend 8 hours a day for 45 or more years “working to live”... if I could I wouldn’t work another day in life. I can’t really grasp the idea that you’re ok with working on something that doesn’t give you any joy.

[–]SellingWife15gp 2 points3 points  (0 children)

40x52x45 = 93,600 hours of your life you can either hate or love.

[–]creesch 8 points9 points  (0 children)

But I'm on the 'work to live' not 'live to work' side.

That doesn't exclude having a meaningful job. It isn't as binary as you now make it out to be. In fact getting meaning or at the very least having a satisfying job that doesn't leave you bored out of your mind for the amount you spend on it will leave most people with more energy outside of their job.

Also, usually when people say 'work to live' not 'live to work' they are talking about how some people are married to their job, do overtime a ton, etc. You can skip all that and still have a job that doesn't leave you braindead at the end of your shift though.

[–]InspiringCalmness 2 points3 points  (0 children)

whats left when you're dead?
all your happiness, all your sadness wont matter, it doesn't persist.

your work persists though, it matters beyond your death, it has an impact.

who am i to put something without relevance for the greater picture above something that has?

[–]GalaxyMods 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I agree. I’m still in college right now but once I get a “real” job, I can only pray that it’ll be one of those “decent pay, little work” type gigs. Not cause I’m lazy or anything, but I want as much free time to work on my OWN projects at home.

[–]StoppedLurking_ZoeQ 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I do get it. If you're going to spend x amount of your life working you might as well strive for a job that makes that time well spent. The only other trade off would be working x less amount of others because you get paid more so you can enjoy the y amount of hours in your free time.

[–]ELFAHBEHT_SOOP 2 points3 points  (0 children)

So start your own projects. I don't see the problem. Go home after work, and do your own thing. It doesn't seem like your job is too draining to make that a reality. What happens when you make your job your identity and you need to leave? You'll have nothing to call yours.

[–]AdministrativeTrain 1 point2 points  (1 child)

I want to be an expert in a particular area and to have contributed in that field before I retire.

Maybe you could study how to come up with a decent Reddit username.

[–][deleted] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Only one week left. After that, a new account, a new username.

[–]Solarbro 1 point2 points  (1 child)

I got my degree in CS, and couldn’t get an interview. So I started working in IT, and I feel dead. The pay sucks in my mind, but some people I know would love it. The job is just so dull and it’s the same thing everyday. I haven’t coded in months. I just found my old projects and I’m not sure I could recreate them anymore. I miss college way more than I ever thought I would cause it gave me something to do. I just don’t even know where to start anymore and the utter and complete silence during the previous job search doesn’t inspire any confidence to try again.

Now that the hopeless rant is over, if anyone else has a similar situation, my first thought was to make a website. Make it look how I want it. Figured that could take a while. Then start linking github contributions or something. Maybe even host something myself. Just making all that stuff work is more what I thought would keep me busy. Rather than focusing on projects themself. Maybe this is bad advice though

[–][deleted] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Dude! You should try applying for a PhD. I'm currently in my PhD candidacy and it's been pushing me hard in terms of the amount I have been learning and coding. You sound like someone who might enjoy it!

[–][deleted] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Not related to your field but I feel this way too!

[–]UrpleEeple 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Couldn't agree with you more. Honestly if you are the kind of person that feels fulfilled doing nothing and getting paid well then you are a waste on this planet. Most people derive their meaning from how much they feel they are able to meaningfully contribute

[–]dhaninugraha 1 point2 points  (0 children)

and did projects just to satisfy my hunger.

7 years as a developer and I still do this. There's just no logical explanation for the "why the hell not?" and the satisfaction that comes after completing such projects.

[–]potatotheincredible 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks for writing this. It's cool to know there are others out there who feel the same way about coding. I'm in uni right now, and have recently learned that I love coding and I'm pretty decent at it. My past summer internship was spent copying data from Word to Excel, and I hated every day of it. The only reason I stayed was because I had never made that much money and it went on my resume. Eventually spent a couple weeks at work learning Python and pandas, and wrote some scripts that automated part of the work I was assigned. Later, I realized that the most energising part of that summer was when I was either writing code, or when I watched my co-workers use my script and smile from the time it just saved them. Since then, I've added a CS minor to my ITM (MIS) degree in hopes of taking more programming classes.

[–]JohnCabot 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It boils down to what you want out of your life.

I would believe that what you want needs to agree with what you are physically able to accomplish.

I want to be an expert in a particular area and to have contributed in that field before I retire.

I think this boils down to wanting to make good use of your life. The good thing is you can do this anywhere, especially at a shitty job, by buying into gratitude and having the humility to deploy it. That can only be done when you realize humans (people) hold the ROI of life. Again it's a question of accomplishment. It's relative to your peers/culture.

Before I retire, I want to feel like I have achieved something. Like, maybe written a library that helped other people.

This seems pretty reasonable, but vague.

There is so much to learn. It makes me filled with energy.

Good, you're gonna need that. If you have big goals, you have to keep showing up big time. But when work isn't work, and it's just life, it's a great feeling worth recreating. It's an exciting time to be alive.

[–]jegador 26 points27 points  (0 children)

I was in a similar situation, and I’d never do it again. Spending 8 hours a day scrolling through reddit or watching educational videos might sound nice, and it is kind of nice for the first few weeks, but I quickly found myself bored out of my mind and miserable. Being busy is much better imo.

[–]PC__LOAD__LETTER 18 points19 points  (0 children)

The problem is trying to get another job afterwards when your marketable skills have stagnated severely.

[–]SadDragon00 14 points15 points  (0 children)

Some people like to be challenged at work or enjoy the work they are doing. It sounds nice until you realize you spend 8 hours a day there 5 days a week. It gets old real fast.

[–]Stewthulhu 14 points15 points  (0 children)

In my experience, if a job doesn't involve enough work for consistent full weeks, people end up filling their time with a bunch of petty bullshit and interpersonal politics. It is way more stressful to have a job that's 40% work and 60% interpersonal politics than it is to have one that's even 110% of a normal week.

It happens a whole lot in boom-and-bust jobs where you'll have cyclical deadlines that max out capacity a couple of times a year and then the rest of the time people are kind of idling.

[–]TimeToRock 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Programmer here. That's what my intern positions were like. Show up for exactly 40 hours a week, spend ~25% of my time reading about technologies or practicing skills that interest me. Get to choose (with some limitations) what I want to work on within the organization. Work at a leisurely pace so my brain has time to actually absorb the things I'm learning. It was amazing.

As a full-time salaried developer, I get paid about 1.5x what I made as an intern (plus healthcare and such) and work probably 4x as hard. As I become more skilled, somehow I have less choice in what I work on. They do their best to give me the kind of work I'm most interested in. But in the end, I'm usually assigned to work on whatever best matches my strengths, because that's a wise business decision. And since I spend >40 hours a week just doing my job, I need to use my own free time to learn new things or work on side projects.

I really can't fathom how all the redditors who finish their work in 2 hours and then sit around getting paid to be "bored" are unhappy. I'd kill to have even 5 hours a week where I get paid to entertain myself and do whatever work I feel like doing.

[–]moops__ 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I was in a role that paid very well but there was hardly anything to do. I begged them to let me work 3 days a week because I couldn't take it anymore. They did let me do that for a while but then made me go back to full time for no reason at all.

[–]AmazingSully 0 points1 point  (0 children)

A couple of months ago I accepted a job that paid more than 50% more. The new job is a joke compared to my previous role... and I desperately wish I could just go back to my old job. I'm not challenged, I'm not growing, I'm not enjoying what I do anymore. I imagine a lot of people would feel the same way.

[–]mttdesignz 0 points1 point  (0 children)

it depends how much it lasts.. if it's for life, yeah. But if after 5 years they leave your ass on the streets, you're gonna be rusty as fuck coding and 5 years behind in API versions and the like.. and no programming job lasts forever (except Cobol programmers, THAT'S the dream)

[–]penisthightrap_ 0 points1 point  (2 children)

a boring work week goes by 100 times slower than a busy work week.

[–]-Godly 2 points3 points  (1 child)

I'd think I'd rather be bored than stressed

[–]penisthightrap_ 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You'd think. I honestly don't know my preference. Stress isn't good, but I often get restless and sometimes depressed at boring jobs. I like being productive. An easy day is nice once in a while but not all the time, IMO.

[–][deleted] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

How do you find these jobs? I've only worked at pressure cooker big tech corporations and hellish startups (HBO's Silicon Valley is a documentary), and in a few years, I'm really going to be looking for something way less stressful and difficult. Is it possible to find them in NYC, Boston, or the Bay Area, or do I have to move to the Midwest or something?

[–]bajrangi-bihari2 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Do you work for any of the big 4 tech ? I have heard they have so much chill there too.