What is Digg?87 Comments
- Ninjab3ar, on 10/12/2007, -0/+33That is so true. Before working as a CAD Drafter for my current company, I was working as a counselor at a summer camp. Although I enjoy my current job, I sometimes feel the urge to go back to my summer camp days and play dodgeball with all the kids......
- dynacrylic, on 10/12/2007, -1/+22Oh believe me I thought about this already.
One of my first "tech" jobs was writing web applications. I loved it! All I did all day was drink the orange Mountain Dew and play with VIM and Apache; I maybe spent about 1/4 of the job occasionally helping people with computer problems. The people I worked with were great and they taught me a lot.
Now I "coordinate" a department and have tons of responsibilities. I am no longer able to just enjoy what I do because I need to make sure I'm getting everything done and doing it well. I'm not able to focus on finishing one task; instead I juggle 90 million things at once slowly finishing one job at a time. It's nowhere near as rewarding as previous jobs.
When, not if, but when I win the lottery I will go back to college to be a "professional student" and work in a campus or library automation/IT department as a student assistant with minimal responsibilities working on one project at a time. I would be back into a "learning" mode and creating applications again :) - phatvolvo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+20whoa, first job application through Digg comments?
- drgori, on 10/12/2007, -0/+18"Sometimes you have to go with the dull to get a good paycheck."
True. And sometimes the job that sounds less interesting on the whole is better, day-to-day.
A few years ago, I worked at a video game company. And while it was cool to tell everyone what I did and what I was working on, it wasn't always fun to actually do--especially when crunch time meant long hours and abbreviated (or no) weekends.
Now, I'm a database administrator for a school district, working 9-5. I have weekends off, more vacation, and pretty much total autonomy. My job is boring as hell to explain, but I never have a bad day, I see plenty of my family and friends, and I don't take the job home with me.
I don't regret my "more interesting" jobs, because I made some cool stuff and met some great friends. But day-to-day, I like my life a hell of a lot more, now. - mikew101, on 10/12/2007, -0/+17My first job was at Six Flags. So any job from now on will have to be compared to an amusement park.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -2/+18And here I thought digg was full of Nerds and Losers
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+14i used to work at an ISP and got free internet... and now i am a Roof Tiler... do the maths yourself
- ElectroOverlord, on 10/12/2007, -0/+11To UNL1M1T3D
Send me a resume at jpatterson@laptopdesignusa.com
We are down I-94 a bit from you in Dearborn.... - superpixel, on 10/12/2007, -0/+11It's a sad fact that you start doing something you love, and you wind up being the boss of the kids having all the fun... Maybe the extra pay is to soothe the pain? Well, that's why I think when companies like Google allow employees some extra time to do "personal projects" it tends to rekindle those fires and contributes to their overall effectiveness.
- canewediggit, on 10/12/2007, -3/+13my first job was weed dealer, and yes, it was better. it was also the most honest job i've ever had.....
- wayniethep00p, on 10/12/2007, -3/+13I worked as a computer sales rep at Best Buy for my first job. It was pretty fun at first then, like most of Best Buy employees, I hit rock bottom. Retail sales is definitely not a career path by choice for most people.
I am currently a college student and part time freelance web developer. I still have my whole career ahead of me. I'll check back with you guys in about 30 years. - nrfx, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9My first real job was working as a barista in a cybercafe back when 128k ISDN 'net access was still a super high speed novelty to the masses.. I got paid $12/hr to drink all the coffee i could handle, and play Quake & Heretic all day.. Now I've got an office job where i work 12 hours shifts by myself, doing 30 minutes of "real" work, and just basically sit and wait for something to happen. I miss the coffee shop. :
- bgoodwyn, on 10/12/2007, -2/+11Pure speculation...
The first job is all about the job. Later jobs may be selected because of things learned from experience that didn't matter previously such as commute distance, work hours, work environment, company stability, benefits, etc. - dynacrylic, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8@PrisonerOfPain
There are a few reasons; I'm sure you can guess one- the paycheck. Other reasons have to do with parts of the job itself. I love trying new technologies; I love working on web applications; I love learning new web applications and skill sets. The problem is I have very little time to devote to them.
It's difficult to convince others that you need staff to maintain, staff to develop and staff to support. I'm supposed to have 2 part-time people under me. I have yet to retain 2 part-time people under me for more than a month because people move on to better jobs. I'm told to "take advantage" of students- meaning use students to pick up the slack. With student turn arounds being quicker than part-time staff, I cannot afford to give out the admin password or provide access to certain things.
Like most state, and like most technology positions too, they try to squeeze every last drop out of you. It's hard to swallow sometimes because I have learned very little new "techie" skills since I started- the passions I adore I am unable to further; ironically that's why I loved technology because there is some much to learn and it's always changing. Instead I've learned bureaucracy and office politics- things I never wanted to know about, things that take the "fun" out of working. About six months ago I stopped maintaining my server at home which I once used religiously; now it's nothing. After work I'm drained and bitter so I plop in front of the tv, play games or digg.
So yes, part of it is the paycheck; part of it is the hope that one day I can being doing something I love 100%, not just 25%.
@superpixel
"It's a sad fact that you start doing something you love, and you wind up being the boss of the kids having all the fun... Maybe the extra pay is to soothe the pain?"
That is very true! ... except for the extra pay...
- Comatose51, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7I think the problem he talks about was highlighted in Bill Gates' book. Gates worked with IBM in the beginning and observed that good programmers was "promoted" to management, thus depriving the company of good programming talent and turning them into poor managers. Not everyone is born to manage or even likes it. For some silly reason we equate advancement with management. This might have been true in the older days when everyone who's not a manager is a dumb, cog-in-machine worker. Nowadays, in the digital economy, an individual can make a huge difference by himself. A bunch of mediocre programmers cannot match the output of a single good one. Often times, from my experience and observations, when people move onto their 2nd or 3rd job they have "advanced" along in their career and that unfortunately means more management and further away from doing what good programmers love. We need to stop equating management with advancement. A good programmer is as productive as a traditional manager and should be compensate as such while still letting him do what he loves and is passionate about.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8Help line work? Isn't the average burn out rate something like 1.5 -2 years? That's a soul deadening job
- UNL1M1T3D, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7@ElectroOverlord
It should be in your mailbox. lol. - shakin, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6Good call. First jobs may sound the most exciting, but overall the job satisfaction probably isn't as good because you had no idea what you wanted when you got the job and/or didn't have many options.
Right now my employer's product is very boring, but the path to get there is great. I have a fantastic boss, great co-workers, short commute, flexible hours, great salary, and complete control over my work. It's the best job I've ever had and yet everybody thinks I took a step down from my last job that had worse pay, a very long commute, and little control over my own work. Just because my last employer had a killer product and people dream of working there (literally) doesn't mean it's actually a great place to work. - Phr00t, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6I'm good with people -- I don't know, I just liked it. Especially the people I was working with, the environment... and this help desk office is well staffed... so there is rarely "pressure", and if any problem is really terrible, we can send it to another support tier. :)
I'm leaving a startup company that was definetly sucking at my soul... boss who works 11 hour days and expects the same from you... just too much. - Sil369, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6Wow, I think this is the only Digg thread where I have read every comment posted that was posted. Yay Me!
- ElectroOverlord, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Got it...TTYL I need my ugly sleep.
- Phr00t, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5I just gave my 2 weeks notice today at my current job (software engineering), because I simply do not enjoy it anymore. And yes, I am going back to a job I worked at previously when I saw a full-time position open up being a help desk consultant where I went to college -- environment and people were great.
Some people get to "caught up" in climbing the corporate ladder that they forget about enjoying life. It is sad. - TaeBoX, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5People born into wealth turn out to be the most useless human beings there are. Someone had to earn it in the first place, those are the people who matter.
- brhad56, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5"Who reads digg at home? :p"
lol - scarletreverie, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4@PrisonerOfPain
Ah, so young and naive. I would have said the same thing two years ago.
I am currently working at a reasonably paying job to pay off my student loans. :) - seph429, on 10/12/2007, -2/+6my first job was workin night shift at 7-11 and doin that. honestly i'll never have more fun at any job EVER than i did at that job as ***** as it was
- WombatBob, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5My first job was a janitor for a school, my second job was a delivery driver for Domino's, my third job was when I enlisted in the Marines. I would say that I have had more and more exciting jobs over the years. Of course now I run my own computer consulting firm so I may have peaked.
- PrisonerOfPain, on 10/12/2007, -2/+6As someone who's still a student this makes me wonder why you're still doing that job. Is it just the paycheck or are there other motivations?
- nrfx, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4precisely
- eddieburns55, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5So one ***** job to another?
- UNL1M1T3D, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4@narvtg
Very inspiring words. Well put. - UNL1M1T3D, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Maybe you guys can give me an idea for a good career. I am very fond of computers and have a lot of experience with them, so I would like to apply what I know in my career. Currently I am the lead tech at the Staples I work at, which is fun cause it can be challenging trouble shooting computer problems, but it can also be kind of stressful the way I am managed there. I was thinking about doing computer networking, because I have heard that their can be a lot of money involved, but I don't want to do it if it sucks.
- misterjangles, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I think the fact that everything is "new" for your first job, it is easier to be excited about everything. You do have pressure to build your skills and usually a lower salary. But i would say it's just like elementary to high school to college - every year you just have a little more responsibility piled on.
As you get older you start to see that you gotta pace yourself for the long haul. Some people respond by getting complacent and not wanting to touch anything, which I personally find very boring. But, it's easy to understand that way of thinking. With family obligations and mortgage payments, etc, you just want to live a happy life without massive stress from work.
It really takes effort to keep your mind open and continue to find the excitement in your work. - Gwydion, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Haha, yeah. I work at La Ronde(Owned by Six Flags) here in Canada...Ice cream store. The amusement park is certainly not as great as what you guys have in the states but at least I get free ice cream :)
- CountZero75, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Yeah, I would love to be able to do personal project on company time instead of eating into my personal time! Extra pay helps but nowhere near enough to compensate for the fun lost...
- PrisonerOfPain, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3@scarletreverie: No, it's not that I'm naive (I think..) but, after after reading Joel Spolsky and TheDailyWTF one can only conclude that there are only two ends to this industry. My personal experience seems to differ, however. Most software companies are Nirwana nor TheBigUnpleasantPlaceIUsedToWork, they're regular companies with regular people producing average software that is far from innovative but just /gets the job done/, most of the times. And if you're comfortable somewhere in the middle, that's fine. I, however, am not. Judging from my grades I've always been terribly good or bad at things; software development just "happens" (it didn't come for free) to be one of the things I consider myself good at (and passionate about).
The naive bit: I intend to never work at a position that doesn't allow me to do the things I like, as long as I'm solving complex problems (in my field of expertise) I'm perfectly happy with receiving enough wage to not be bothered about it. But hey, this world didn't turn out to be perfect after all :-(.
Post scriptum: the Dutch system is great from that perspective, the only time you'll have to pay back your student loan is when you fail or quit the course. If you complete the four or six years you signed up for, the loan gets turned into a gift and the government payed your education. Allowing you to start working on the future :-). - cyberghost232, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4I was all excited to read this article until I found out it was about work. ***** man I need some new glasses.
- jstohler, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Yep, my first real job was as a journalist, and there's nothing more interesting than that. It was almost inevitable that I would wind up doing something less interesting than writing about freaks, criminals and weirdos.
- JavertHolmes, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I'd say any job is more exciting/fun when you live under the security of your parents and know that if you get canned it's not a big deal. It's once you have a mortgage to pay and wonder if you should risk taking fake days off to look for a job elsewhere or stick around and keep collecting pay checks that things aren't as fun any more.
Plus, as someone said above, you carry around less baggage.
And for those people whose first job was delivering a newspaper and are now 25+, would you really say that's the best job you've had? - FearlessFreep, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3*sigh* Dugg for the remorseful reaction it made me have
- mav451, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3I'm CAD drafting right now. The 1st week I thought it was cool, but now in my 2nd month (just graduated in December), it's getting kinda old. I get to put the happy face on at work, "Golly, that project sounds so interesting."
Translation: More CAD work. - nartvq, on 10/12/2007, -3/+5I guess I'm rather atypical. I love my current job as a spacecraft engineer and find it much more interesting than my first job by far. Like a couple of people here, I used to be a CAD draftsman and worked in the industrial refrigeration business (yawn!). I later thought long and hard about what I wanted to do, made a plan, quit my job, and went back to school. Several years later I graduated and found work in the commercial satellite industry.
I don't want to lecture, but it's really all about knowing yourself and what careers suits you. Then it's just a matter of planning, getting off your ass and working towards it. - mludd, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2My first "real" job was paid-by-the-hour programming, frontends, web apps and such, it was fun but unfortunately I knew the company wouldn't last, so I was just trying to squeeze as many hours of work out of that job as possible. Then it was back to school for a while, and now I'm doing first-line tech support for residential DSL..
So yeah, I'd say my first job was more fun than my current one. Just the hours alone, at the old job it was "We're gonna assume you put in 8 hours per day on this and pay you for that.", my current job deducts $7 from my paycheck if I'm 15 minutes late for work... And you're only allowed two breaks per day, these breaks are scheduled ahead of time, so if I'm scheduled for a break at 10 AM then I can't use that break at 9:45 or 10:15, it's precisely 10 AM. - nigel984, on 10/12/2007, -4/+6This is a little bias...
If they enjoyed their job, they wouldnt be reading this digg, thus would be doing the job they love.
Who reads digg at home? :p
Great comments though - reinforces the same reasons I decided to take a break from the IT Industry. Thanks! - VeganG, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2One of the first jobs I got right out of high school, 7 years ago when I was 18, was working night shift at a sorting facility for USPS. It paid $13.50, and would've jumped to around $26 an hour had I stuck with it past the first 6 months. My share of rent was $200 a month.
I'm currently making $12.50 an hour in a job that I despise, with $600 rent. - TopBanana, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2My first job was for a tech startup - because they couldn't afford anyone more experienced, and I had nothing to lose, no mortgage, and lived with my parents. It was hands down the most exciting environment I've worked in.
It's about risk / reward. If I were to take a big 'risk' again, there would need to be a bigger upside to tempt me. That wouldn't involve working for someone else. - Cytranic, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3CTO here, I get paid to surf digg. nuff said
- Mexrocker, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2pfft... I hate my current job. I am SO quitting. Then again, I've been saying that for a while. This time, I think I am going to go through with it.
- bdbr, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1The article was about someone interviewing job candidates. Maybe the people that have jobs they love aren't as likely to be looking for another?
- yahoofrom, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Kevon Rose is allowed read digg at his work time. good job, isn't it?
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