Ask HN: Who here loves their job?
Some parts of internet culture (including HN) would make you believe that barely anybody is actually fulfilled by their job.
I know that there'll be people who say that they prefer to keep their job as just a job and find fulfilment elsewhere, but I'd like to hear from those who've managed to crack the "secret" in making a living from doing what they love.
If you are one of those people, what do you do and how did you come to working a fulfilling job? Loved my job for the past 40 years. Taught myself programming, always keeping an eye on preparing for jobs that most other programmers would find difficult but that I also liked. Started with games, went to embedded, then compilers, then PM, then started a good business, now retired but working on static site generator. Proposed my strategy to my wife before we got married. I only took jobs that I would enjoy, and didn’t worry about the money much. She is a far better programmer than I am, but didn’t particularly like it. We both knew if both of us worked, we would just come home and complain to each other. She was very happy as a housewife. Since they were programming jobs, they always paid pretty well, but not amazingly well due to my strategy of choosing places, I would enjoy working. I first chose to work in Orange County California, instead of Silicon Valley, for example, because I always felt the latter was just too stressful. Eventually moved to the Seattle area when Microsoft offered a job. For the first 20 years I always made sure I was close enough to work that I could walk or bike to it in case I somehow got poor and couldn’t afford a car. Yet we always found very nice apartments. I always studied for my next job at night. my wife accepted that this was the cost of having a good life, and eventually when we had children, I had a good enough financial situation that I could quit work. We always saved money for the same reason: if I were fired, I wouldn’t have to take a bad job due to lack of resources. I did get fired once, and I had plenty of time to prepare for the next job. I’ve told this story a lot here, but it was a strategy that worked in both good times and bad. I immodestly think this was one of the smartest things I ever did. I like you approach to life. Over a 30 year period l loved my first job, didn't love my second job, and now love my third job. I got into self-protection in my second job. A mindset of, I am doing the best I can here, if it's not good enough sack me. It seemed like a clever mindset at the time, but doesn't now. It probably translated as I was unhappy and didn't feel valued. I am still unpacking this though. > A mindset of, I am doing the best I can here, if it's not good enough sack me. Or maybe you just have a robust self-image? If it's that, I think it's a strong adaptation. > I am still unpacking this though. I went through years of therapy & many therapists. Got almost nothing out of it. Much of my childhood still lives with me for some reason. So... same here! One thing I love about programming is that it has far fewer of the kind of gray areas that I couldn't navigate as a kid. Can't tell you how much I love that when a program runs right, I can usually be assured it will continue to run right. It's totally awesome to have a job where you can be provably correct a lot of the time. > Or maybe you just have a robust self-image? If it's that, I think it's a strong adaptation Thank you. I think there was truth in my point of view. I always wished I could express it in a less aggressive manner. I also had a difficult childhood. I'm in my 50s and still working it out. I have had a great life and have the most wonderful wife and two adult children. I have found family, friends and work is not a bad order of priorities. I love my job most of the time. My company is great and treats its employees well. I get to work on projects that I generally find interesting. I’m in a field I generally find interesting. Specifically, I work for a robotics startup in web technologies. So I get to play with an interest and work in my field of expertise. My manager and hours manager are both really relaxed, and we hit our deliverables regularly. I sort of stumbled into it. I was looking for jobs and came across a robotics company that was looking for web devs for interface building. That fell through, but it made me realize that my skill set and robotics intersected. I found a startup that was looking for someone, They really liked me, but decided the role was redundant. Then I found my current role. And my now-manager and I really connected over a few things and it was a good fit. For the company, I worry about a shift in employee benefits and culture when we eventually go public - especially as I’ve seen the belt start to tighten in the time I’ve been there. I want to say that even though I get fulfillment out of my job, it is still work. There’s the whole “do what you love and you’ll never work a day in your life” which I think is total bunk. Work is work, even if you enjoy it it. I love my job... been with them for the past decade... as a web designer. I remember when I first applied on Craigslist and didn't even think they were legit until they sent me a laptop. The job comes with creativity and a feeling of accomplishment, and I've built a massive portfolio, and work experience along the way. I get to design landing page advertisements for big companies and celebrity names such as J-Lo, Rihanna, Beyonce, Disney, Marvel Entertainment, and many more. I hope to be with them for another decade. But with the good comes the bad. I have fought to keep my position for many years. Aside from dealing with at least five or six bosses over the course of my employment, letting power go to their head and trying to get me fired, every single of them failing to do so, in part because it's a bit hard to justify firing someone whose good at their job with projects equaling over half a million dollars a year, but at least I have had the privilege of observing all but one or two of them being let go, getting fired, or leaving the company themselves. I have also faced pay cuts, lack of merit increases, and bonuses probably to appease our CEOs, which have been plentiful... as they can't seem to keep them. Not saying I don't get paid well for what I do, but it is well below the average for someone in my industry. However, I've utilized my remote position to acquire other jobs while continuing to work my primary job. So why do I stay despite all I've been through? I love my company and what I do even though I've survived massive layoffs through the years, non-pandemic and pandemic. There is something about working for a media corporation that I love in spite of all the abuses or lack of incentive. I do what I do because it brings out the very creative side of me. Why were they trying to get rid of you? I would say it's just me.. and any job I'm working in I'm always facing a boss who needs to exert that superiority over me. I'm not a rebel per se but I guess I have that energy of doing things my way. But I couldn't tell you exactly what the reason is for the behavior of my supervisors towards me. Currently, as we speak, I'm under review for work performance, yet my weekly meetings with my supervisor are only praise of how well I'm doing. I'm not working any different than I normally do. But I've learned to keep very good documentation of these incidents in my back pocket just in case. I love painting. I paint landscapes in my free time. Tons of them. I love my career: being a painter. No one pays me for painting landscapes, so I work for company Paint Inc where I paint portraits. They pay good money since I'm very good at painting. I don't really like painting portraits. It's okeish. I don't hate it either. I take it as a job. No more nor less. Now, do you wanna meet up to paint landscapes? I pay the drinks! must be a dream. a smaller, lesser-known landscape painter i like was a french artist by the name of alexandre louis jacob, you might find his work interesting: https://www.tuttartpitturasculturapoesiamusica.com/2016/04/A... This sounds really great, good for you :) Do you happen to have any photos/exhibits of your works, because I'd love to see them! Hello from an aspiring landscape painter! If you're in NYC, would love to hang out. Email in bio I’m a software engineer in a non profit research organisation. I can play with the latest and greatest technology all the time. I assist researchers, I break their dreams, I make experiments happen. I also worked on the industry a few times but it was quickly boring and I couldn’t care less about the profits for the wealth of the shareholders. Can I ask what kind/fields of research you support? I left my big tech job some months ago to try start something of my own (in an attempt to find more joy in my day-to-day, hence the post), but if things don't work out for me what you describe sounds pretty appealing as well. My field is mostly about data engineering and human computer interactions. But the projects are diverse, with healthcare, air traffic control, museums exhibitions, drones, factories… Nothing too crazy but it’s a lot of interesting things to think about. I don't think I've ever had a job I completely loved, and I've worked in video games as an engineer, designer, and producer. But that probably came closest. I'm not currently doing anything close to that in my current job, and it's very mentally draining. But there's a lot of toxic and abusive behavior in the video game industry too, and it pays a hell of a lot lower (especially if I were to try to switch back into it now). If I didn't have to worry about my paycheck today, I'd probably work in board game industry (or just write novels and be a freelance game designer). The board game industry has its own problems, but I think that would be the most fulfilling. But that would be an even greater paycut. I might have to take a job making 25% or less of what I'm currently making to go into that industry full-time, and that's not really doable for me right now. I absolutely love my job as a resume writer with CareerBands. I've been in this role for the past 10 years and it has been an incredibly rewarding experience. Not only do I get to work with people from all walks of life, but I also get to help them craft their professional narrative and propel their career forward. I'm passionate about helping others succeed and this job allows me to do just that. It's very satisfying to watch my clients progress in their careers, knowing that I had a part in making it happen. Additionally, the team at CareerBands is amazing and we have a great time working together! All in all, I'm very proud of what I do and couldn't imagine doing anything else. No ChatGPT copy&paste in hn comments, please. I'm good at what I do, care about our customers, get treated well and get paid in the top 1%. There are definitely weeks where I want to set my head on fire. But most weeks are good. I don't know that it gets much better than this. Ask me next week and I may feel differently :) That's still not "loving the job", though. Sounds more like you're tolerating it fairly well, and are convinced that it's better than the available alternatives. There are times I love it too! I guess what I'm saying is I'm content with my reality and all the ebbs and flows between loving and hating work. It's not as binary as people make it out to be in conversation. I love my job in cybersecurity automation. A lot of it is just shuffling data around APIs, making Python apps in Docker, working in AWS, and thinking of new ideas for automation. I am making relatively less money than I could be at other places doing this work, but the work environment is extremely chill (100% remote) and I have already taken two 2-week trips to travel to Europe and Japan since I started less than a year ago. My manager and team are also good people who I trust. I suppose it’s not all about the work but the work environment/benefits as well. Not currently. However, I've had jobs that were really great and were very fulfilling for stretches of a few years at a time. Mostly because they were a stretch / challenging for me at the time, and allowed me to move to new cities and better my lifestyle, meet new people, etc - so it's not completely stupid to expect fulfillment from a job. The problem is that whether a job is fulfilling or not isn't under your control, it only takes one bad reorg or boss or layoff to mess it up for the next few years. This is interesting, do you ever think back on those years and have a desire to actively seek out such environments again? Or have you simply found peace with your current situation and are happy to give your attention to other things in life? Wanting to “love your job” is a mindset where you are constantly looking to someone else to keep you afloat. Seek FI. Then you can “love your life”, and if that involves continuing to put your efforts into what you did before, great. You’re now a willing participant. The secret to loving your job is not needing it. I have been in love with my job for more than a decade. And i needed it. Its not mutually exclusive. FI is great but certainly not a good enough reason to quit a job you enjoy for pursueing something that is not guaranteed to work out. what is FI ? Not op but I’d guess Financial Independence I used to love my job. In the last few years my company has moved from tech teams having a lot of ownership over the products to business teams having more ownership and the tech teams fulfilling requirements where the requirements aren't great (imo). Now I don't love it so much. I'm lucky enough to program at a place with technologies I love (e.g., Linux) and with really awesome and smart people. It's still work, so it's still more stressful and less fun than programming could theoretically be, but I feel super grateful to be here. I like my job. It's a little light on code and heavier on process and ops than I'm used to, but it's still fun and challenging and it feels like i'm responsible for a third of the internet working. I like tech in general because its all one big puzzle. Solving bugs is fun I'm a teacher. I love my job. Are you happy with $65k a year for 9 months of work? That's with a Masters Degree, 20+ IT certs, and 20+ years of experience. I like my job, I love having a job, and I'm afraid of losing it, which makes me enjoy it a bit less... me,i fucking love coding and the money people pay you to do it for them. the challenge of creating tevh startups too since it is technical and business going hand in hand. some parts are headaches, but a goodind headache.