Ask HN: What was your favorite job?
31 comments
For a summer I dated a girl whose dad sold rugs in parking lots. If you lived in New England at that time you know the guys I'm talking about. There were a bunch of them, who all bought rugs from the same supplier and set up large displays.
The girl's dad set us up with our own rug display in a parking lot somewhere like an hour away. Every Friday he'd drive us out there and leave us until Sunday. We would set up the display in the morning, work all day and break down the display at night. We slept in the truck on top of the rolled up rugs.
I think that was one of the best summers of my life. In between customers I'd play my guitar. The money was great to an 18 year old, and only required 2 days of work. I'm very social and liked selling. And on top of it all, I got to spend all that time with someone I was crazy about.
The girl's dad set us up with our own rug display in a parking lot somewhere like an hour away. Every Friday he'd drive us out there and leave us until Sunday. We would set up the display in the morning, work all day and break down the display at night. We slept in the truck on top of the rolled up rugs.
I think that was one of the best summers of my life. In between customers I'd play my guitar. The money was great to an 18 year old, and only required 2 days of work. I'm very social and liked selling. And on top of it all, I got to spend all that time with someone I was crazy about.
> And on top of it all, I got to spend all that time with someone I was crazy about.
Did the relationship last?
Did the relationship last?
Not even into the fall, but it's probably for the best.
Jeff Bezos has been quoted as saying his favorite job, or one he learned the most from, was working the breakfast shift at McDonald's in high school. He allegedly can still crack dozens of eggs like a pro.
One of my favorite jobs is barista at a coffee cart at a university. Cooking puts you in constant flow, unlike coding where you're almost never in flow.
You get to optimize things like crazy. Instead of chopping garlic into little pieces, crushing it removes the acrid taste but keeps the odor. Using butter to toast burger buns instead of margarine basically doubles the quality. There's a timing & liquid quantity window for brewing tea, where you get the best tea.. though sometimes if you're making tea with milk, you want more tannins. The variations of tea also have more impact than variations of coffee. But probably because tea is cheap, it's not as much of a snob sport.
Eggs are incredibly interesting too. It's both beginner tier and mastery tier. It's your hackerrank equivalent - make spaghetti carbonara, make a french omelette, make poached eggs, make egg sushi.
I think it's sad that it's a minimum wage job and never attracts the kind of people who like to optimize things, besides the cafe niches.
You get to optimize things like crazy. Instead of chopping garlic into little pieces, crushing it removes the acrid taste but keeps the odor. Using butter to toast burger buns instead of margarine basically doubles the quality. There's a timing & liquid quantity window for brewing tea, where you get the best tea.. though sometimes if you're making tea with milk, you want more tannins. The variations of tea also have more impact than variations of coffee. But probably because tea is cheap, it's not as much of a snob sport.
Eggs are incredibly interesting too. It's both beginner tier and mastery tier. It's your hackerrank equivalent - make spaghetti carbonara, make a french omelette, make poached eggs, make egg sushi.
I think it's sad that it's a minimum wage job and never attracts the kind of people who like to optimize things, besides the cafe niches.
besides the cooking, the fun part about being a barista were all the young intelligent college folks you get to talk to, who were not yet cynical about life
Did a stint at mcdonalds for a couple of months when I was in school. Honestly theres a lot you can learn there if you keep your eyes open, it definitely made an impression on me. The standardisation of every process down to minute detail, equipment, ingredients, logistics, and people - from junior to management and those guys they fly around to fix things. Its a machine.
Obviously pretty dystopian and my experience there were close to zero ethics. They used to try and bribe the smartest young kids by offering company cars if they quit school and trained as managers. The owner even tried removing the small change from the tills as most people don't complain if they are short a tiny amount so he could squeeze that little extra (not a viable strategy btw as a tiny minority will freak out publicly).
Obviously pretty dystopian and my experience there were close to zero ethics. They used to try and bribe the smartest young kids by offering company cars if they quit school and trained as managers. The owner even tried removing the small change from the tills as most people don't complain if they are short a tiny amount so he could squeeze that little extra (not a viable strategy btw as a tiny minority will freak out publicly).
I worked in a maintenance shop for 6-7 years.
Operating equipment, fixing things, hauling items from various sites, welding. Sometimes problem solving, sometimes being "paid from the neck down".
Full of young and old derelicts, wildly inappropriate conversations, and shouting matches. I'd never been so mad or laughed so hard. It was both a blast and a formative part of my life. It really taught me what being part of a team was all about.
Operating equipment, fixing things, hauling items from various sites, welding. Sometimes problem solving, sometimes being "paid from the neck down".
Full of young and old derelicts, wildly inappropriate conversations, and shouting matches. I'd never been so mad or laughed so hard. It was both a blast and a formative part of my life. It really taught me what being part of a team was all about.
Honestly, my "favourite" job was working at a small independent computer store in the mid 2000s.
I've never been great at talking to people, but I felt useful there. Often elderly people would come in asking for a bit of computer advice and as a company we sold ourselves on our honest advice so it never felt like I was trying to sell anything – I was always just helping people the best I could.
There was no pressure either. I knew what I had to do... I made the store look presentable when it was quiet and helped the customers in whatever way I could when it was busy. There was no stress and lots of gratitude.
It was minimum wage though, and I've obviously had "better" jobs since, but if I could get paid what I do now to just help people with general computer queries I'd love that. Work today is definitely more interesting intellectually, but far more stressful. There's enjoyable aspects of the challenges, but it's enjoyable in the same way a workout is I guess.
To answer the question I think you're asking though, it takes a bit of time. In my experience it's less about finding interesting companies to work for and more finding companies with interesting problems that need solving. There's plenty of boring jobs at interesting companies. And of the most interesting work I've done in my career has been at companies most people would consider boring.
Another thing to consider is that even an interesting job can be boring depending on the project you're assigned. The interesting projects tend come when a company trusts you enough to work on something interesting. For that to happen you'll either need experience doing similar things at other companies, or prove yourself at the company you're working for. If you're a good software engineer though there's no reason that couldn't happen within a couple of years.
The only advice I can really give is to apply for companies working on problems you find interesting and who appear willing to provide opportunities for you to grow. With a bit of time and luck eventually you'll end up working on something cool.
I've never been great at talking to people, but I felt useful there. Often elderly people would come in asking for a bit of computer advice and as a company we sold ourselves on our honest advice so it never felt like I was trying to sell anything – I was always just helping people the best I could.
There was no pressure either. I knew what I had to do... I made the store look presentable when it was quiet and helped the customers in whatever way I could when it was busy. There was no stress and lots of gratitude.
It was minimum wage though, and I've obviously had "better" jobs since, but if I could get paid what I do now to just help people with general computer queries I'd love that. Work today is definitely more interesting intellectually, but far more stressful. There's enjoyable aspects of the challenges, but it's enjoyable in the same way a workout is I guess.
To answer the question I think you're asking though, it takes a bit of time. In my experience it's less about finding interesting companies to work for and more finding companies with interesting problems that need solving. There's plenty of boring jobs at interesting companies. And of the most interesting work I've done in my career has been at companies most people would consider boring.
Another thing to consider is that even an interesting job can be boring depending on the project you're assigned. The interesting projects tend come when a company trusts you enough to work on something interesting. For that to happen you'll either need experience doing similar things at other companies, or prove yourself at the company you're working for. If you're a good software engineer though there's no reason that couldn't happen within a couple of years.
The only advice I can really give is to apply for companies working on problems you find interesting and who appear willing to provide opportunities for you to grow. With a bit of time and luck eventually you'll end up working on something cool.
A/B testing. It was fast paced, high risk, you actually had to know how to program on the front end, and everything was measured. It’s what programming for the web should be but absolutely isn’t. It was like comparing special forces to being an army cook.
Edit for clarity:
When I say you had to know how to program I mean you know to know the environment and not fail. It’s not about knowing some tool, framework, or pretend gimmick. If your test executes properly you are helping the employer form massive revenue making decisions. When it break you break existing functionality in production and nobody will forgive you. If you know what you are doing you can squeeze absolutely anything you can imagine in an A/B test and most of it can be tested in a browser console.
Edit for clarity:
When I say you had to know how to program I mean you know to know the environment and not fail. It’s not about knowing some tool, framework, or pretend gimmick. If your test executes properly you are helping the employer form massive revenue making decisions. When it break you break existing functionality in production and nobody will forgive you. If you know what you are doing you can squeeze absolutely anything you can imagine in an A/B test and most of it can be tested in a browser console.
Do you still do A/B testing? As in, was this a specialty or just a project you were assigned?
In high school I worked in a Fotomat booth in the parking lot of a grocery store. It was at the end of that era when people would still drop off film to get developed and pick it up a few days later. So, it was not busy at all and I was in the little booth by myself for my shift. I did my homework, read a lot of books, listened to music, and skateboarded around the booth. It was great.
As for your specific question, I would suggest any company involved in energy infrastructure or food production/agriculture. They are hiring across the board and you would probably have a strong impact. I would avoid any frontend development, social media, or AI. AI may hot right now but I predict the turnover will be very high and the companies unstable. If you are genuinely invested in a new career, pick an industry outside of the normal tech channels.
As for your specific question, I would suggest any company involved in energy infrastructure or food production/agriculture. They are hiring across the board and you would probably have a strong impact. I would avoid any frontend development, social media, or AI. AI may hot right now but I predict the turnover will be very high and the companies unstable. If you are genuinely invested in a new career, pick an industry outside of the normal tech channels.
I like the framework of impact, thanks for that. I'm not too interested in the "buzzword careers" unless they have a mission I can really align with.
I worked in a small inner-city video rental shop during the dying days of video. It had a staff of 4-5 amazing characters - We ate popcorn, drank vodka, watched hundreds of random movies (black spine chosen at random from the back of course).
We would stay after hours, well into the night, with film nerds and random people with nowhere else to go. Our boss, the manager of the branch was a nuclear physicist turned asylum seeker - who had our backs, brought us take outs and was an all around gent.
This was during college for me. I had some great, interesting, jobs afterwards both in tech and other random things. But I think this will always be my favorite. Those I keep in touch with seem to agree.
We would stay after hours, well into the night, with film nerds and random people with nowhere else to go. Our boss, the manager of the branch was a nuclear physicist turned asylum seeker - who had our backs, brought us take outs and was an all around gent.
This was during college for me. I had some great, interesting, jobs afterwards both in tech and other random things. But I think this will always be my favorite. Those I keep in touch with seem to agree.
Wow, that's amazing. Do you have any favorite lesser-known movies you watched during that time?
Sure, the below stick with me, Im not sure if they class as lesser known, they were to my uncultured self..
- Black Cat, White Cat (1998), serbian comedy
- Brother (1997), russian revenge flick
- Kontroll (2003), hungarian sci-fi/fantasy
- The Return (2003), russian drama
- Dead Man (1997), US western/art
- Three colours Blue (1993), french drama
- Paris, je t'aime (2006), short film compilation
As a bonus if you like smoking with friends Darby o Gill and The little People (1959) is an (inadvertent?) slapstick-comedy/horror from disney.
- Black Cat, White Cat (1998), serbian comedy
- Brother (1997), russian revenge flick
- Kontroll (2003), hungarian sci-fi/fantasy
- The Return (2003), russian drama
- Dead Man (1997), US western/art
- Three colours Blue (1993), french drama
- Paris, je t'aime (2006), short film compilation
As a bonus if you like smoking with friends Darby o Gill and The little People (1959) is an (inadvertent?) slapstick-comedy/horror from disney.
In the 1980s, I was the sole developer/support person for an inspection system based on MS-DOS, Turbo Pascal, Norand corporation handhelds running code in PL/N (Their variant of PL/1). I wrote a set of libraries to do field based data editing, cooperative multitasking, and all the code for it all. I supported the system in the field, and learned a ton of things about software usability.
My moment of self actualization happened when I walked up to one of the customers locations, and I realized that no matter what... they were going to be happy by the time I left.
My moment of self actualization happened when I walked up to one of the customers locations, and I realized that no matter what... they were going to be happy by the time I left.
Thanks for sharing. Do you think being a subject matter expert is a crucial part of job satisfaction?
I'll stick to the favorite job that's "in my career" to keep with the theme I sense OP is wanting.
I did a lot of manual / hard labor in middle, high school, and college, and studied engineering.
My favorite job was about 6 years out of college where I got to combine all those. I was doing contract applied research for the private sector. Along with engineering systems and designing experiments, I was also machining, turning wrenches, taking samples, etc.
I find myself most happy when I'm running around / working with my hands at least 3 days a week and doing office / design work the other 2 (on average).
I did a lot of manual / hard labor in middle, high school, and college, and studied engineering.
My favorite job was about 6 years out of college where I got to combine all those. I was doing contract applied research for the private sector. Along with engineering systems and designing experiments, I was also machining, turning wrenches, taking samples, etc.
I find myself most happy when I'm running around / working with my hands at least 3 days a week and doing office / design work the other 2 (on average).
Auditing hung and underground utility lines, and related and low-voltage equipment.
Almost as disproportionately paid as tech, if not more, depending on your niche.
Great exercise, engaging. Flexible schedules and methodologies. Can be performed on a bicycle or e-bike(!!).
If you know what geocaching is, imagine being paid to do it!
If you've ever wanted a well-paid career that you're in control of, that's a good one - if you can get it.
This is one of a short list things I'm very interested in starting for myself.
If you're intrigued, and are or could be US-based, let me know; I'd love one or two likeminded partners for stability!
Almost as disproportionately paid as tech, if not more, depending on your niche.
Great exercise, engaging. Flexible schedules and methodologies. Can be performed on a bicycle or e-bike(!!).
If you know what geocaching is, imagine being paid to do it!
If you've ever wanted a well-paid career that you're in control of, that's a good one - if you can get it.
This is one of a short list things I'm very interested in starting for myself.
If you're intrigued, and are or could be US-based, let me know; I'd love one or two likeminded partners for stability!
If you like the outside, but not the exercise, a good portion can be done from a vehicle, as well!
Get in touch, internet stranger, no matter what year you find this.
Get in touch, internet stranger, no matter what year you find this.
Can you give us some more idea as far as qualifications needed and the US regions involved? It sounds awesome on the surface!
The qualifications are mostly physical: a physically disabled person* would necessarily struggle or be unable to do the physical auditing out in the field.
The regions involved vary wildly, depending on where infrastructure needs auditing (either because of catching up on the utility's own documentation, or updating a competitor's docs that they're buying out). Medium to large cities of differing climates.
People in this role either choose to remain in a region for around a year, or move to various areas as a perk/"vacation".
I was introduced to it by what I found out to be a really disorganized and mildly unethical group, which is why I'm not currently out doing it!; looking to forge a new group with trustworthy people, who also know what a damn computer is!
*(but, if you're reading this and strongly interested/motivated, you may be able to assist on the documentation side or more!)
The regions involved vary wildly, depending on where infrastructure needs auditing (either because of catching up on the utility's own documentation, or updating a competitor's docs that they're buying out). Medium to large cities of differing climates.
People in this role either choose to remain in a region for around a year, or move to various areas as a perk/"vacation".
I was introduced to it by what I found out to be a really disorganized and mildly unethical group, which is why I'm not currently out doing it!; looking to forge a new group with trustworthy people, who also know what a damn computer is!
*(but, if you're reading this and strongly interested/motivated, you may be able to assist on the documentation side or more!)
Can I answer any more questions, or even curiosities for you?!
Here's a couple of pics from one of the access roads on one of the runs I did: https://ibb.co/B4WWM8k
https://ibb.co/q55gK3p
Here's a couple of pics from one of the access roads on one of the runs I did: https://ibb.co/B4WWM8k
https://ibb.co/q55gK3p
Thanks. I did some googling to try to better understand what the "meat" of a job like that would be and came up pretty empty, so it must be very niche. I'm guessing it's doing contracts for service providers, e.g. in California a customer would be Pacific Gas and Electric Company, eh?
There's adjacent work for any utility, but the type I was doing was cable/fiber.
The crux of the concept is receiving a map, sometimes partially completed, sometimes with partially incorrect information, and using easily placed symbols to make corrections for submission.
Whatever % of that you feel comfortable doing in the field, you do, with the remainder being finished wherever (often in front of a TV show, from what I saw).
A slightly more complicated (and nonpublic) version of contributing to OpenStreetMaps.
The crux of the concept is receiving a map, sometimes partially completed, sometimes with partially incorrect information, and using easily placed symbols to make corrections for submission.
Whatever % of that you feel comfortable doing in the field, you do, with the remainder being finished wherever (often in front of a TV show, from what I saw).
A slightly more complicated (and nonpublic) version of contributing to OpenStreetMaps.
This is interesting and I will be keeping it in mind. I'm not actively seeking a career change, but the idea of solo outdoor survey-esque work potentially involving cycling is definitely appealing to me and I'm not wedded to what I do. Thanks for giving me something to ponder! If you want to get in touch or give me any info that's not prudent to put in public, here's an address that forwards to my personal one:
[email protected]
I currently found my way into a data analytics job within a pretty big oil company and it suites me well… but I would still claim my favorite job was manual labor (plumbing on new homes and the like). Something about doing something physical and feeling like I really accomplished something.
I was way out of my element but I really learned a lot from my co workers.
I was way out of my element but I really learned a lot from my co workers.
People working with non-manual labor always had this.
Eg: I did some things in my life which saved both the time and the labour of many people, but I didn't receive anything substantial from it, not even a t-shirt. Yet when I brought down the nation-wide money transferring service I did received the spotlight...
Eg: I did some things in my life which saved both the time and the labour of many people, but I didn't receive anything substantial from it, not even a t-shirt. Yet when I brought down the nation-wide money transferring service I did received the spotlight...
It was actually my second/third job into my career. I got #2 and #3 at the same time. One was working from 8 AM to 5 PM and the other was from 6 PM to 2 AM. I was working these two jobs like this for a year and a half. Position for both was web designer. On the weekends, I'd do web design freelance work. Managed to pay off my student loans in 2 1/2 years ;)
This current one, I'm still working and fighting for it everyday of my life for the past decade. I'm good at what I do and I do it well. I get to build landing pages for a variety of known and unkonwn companies. It allows me to be creative and I'm always working on something new everyday.
One day, a boss approaches me and tells me, "I want you to create a product that will 'wow' our clients and be different from what we are currently selling. Can you do it?" Took me a few hours to get the concept of it, but I designed a product that my company sells for $15,000 a pop, and usually takes about 10 hours to complete which includes design time and client changes, and is very popular among pharmaceutical companies.
That was the pros... a bit more about the cons... story time!
Unfortunately, while the job itself has been very enjoyable, especially because I got to work with my then-wife at the time, working with different bosses over the years has not been so pleasant. I've had a total of 6 bosses try to do it.
At one point, four bosses were trying to fire me all at the same time. They just didn't like me for whatever reason, and were trying to find every excuse to get rid of me. They should have all been fired on spot for wasting company dollars to have pointless weekly meetings with me (all four of them on the phone). Fortunately, they couldn't seem to find the justification to the HR department on an actual reason so after I caught on that it was only being used as a scare tactic, after doing the most ass kissing I'll never do again, it all stopped for a while. When you continously bring the company in over half a million dollars a year, that kind of adds some weight to your stay.
That is... until another boss arose and decided to have a go at it. For years, I played the game with him, knowing he wasn't going to be the one to get me fired. His boss is the one who hired me and once COVID-19 hit and we all were working from home, I made a minor mistake and he threatened my job, for the thousandth time. At this point, I was over it. I didn't mind being gone from this job if it meant I didn't have to work with him anymore.
So I said to him, "They let go of over 200 people from our company this past month, so if you're going to get rid of me, I urge you to do it now. All I want is one year paid salary which is reasonable considering I've worked here for so long and the fact is, I'll just file for unemployment and extend it for as long as I can beyond the 6 months they'd give me. If you come back with my exact offer, I'll sign whatever document you give me and I'll be gone. If you come back with anything less, we have no deal. Don't talk to me unless you really need to until then."
Four months go by. I waited patiently. No word from him about the offer and he hadn't spoken to me at all. And then a meeting was called. Today was the day. My day. I knew it was coming. All the bosses were there. Except him. Apparently, he'd been fired. Another boss gone. A total of five bosses now who had tried to fire me either left the company, were transfered to another department, or were fired.
And I've since had two more bosses since him... one left the company, she was not really an issue, and now I have a new boss, a former co-worker of mine, and she has tried several times, even making me fill out a "employee improvement plan", which I'd passed. Several more attempts have been made by her... she's starting to slowly get it, though I'm still working with her on it: maybe just work with me instead of resorting to trying to fire me?
The reason her job is stable and good is because of the work I do, so getting rid of me for someone else ain't going to be as easy as she thinks. Again, it's hard to justify getting rid of the senior web designer when they continue to bring in $500,000 year-after-year. Maybe it's not all about the money to all companies, but then again, maybe it is. However, I'm not doing anything to spite anyone. I can't seem to avoid every boss trying to fire me... and it seems to only be me. I've put that to the test too.
Moral of the story: if you love your job, you'll do what you can to keep it, even if that means.. just doing your job.
This current one, I'm still working and fighting for it everyday of my life for the past decade. I'm good at what I do and I do it well. I get to build landing pages for a variety of known and unkonwn companies. It allows me to be creative and I'm always working on something new everyday.
One day, a boss approaches me and tells me, "I want you to create a product that will 'wow' our clients and be different from what we are currently selling. Can you do it?" Took me a few hours to get the concept of it, but I designed a product that my company sells for $15,000 a pop, and usually takes about 10 hours to complete which includes design time and client changes, and is very popular among pharmaceutical companies.
That was the pros... a bit more about the cons... story time!
Unfortunately, while the job itself has been very enjoyable, especially because I got to work with my then-wife at the time, working with different bosses over the years has not been so pleasant. I've had a total of 6 bosses try to do it.
At one point, four bosses were trying to fire me all at the same time. They just didn't like me for whatever reason, and were trying to find every excuse to get rid of me. They should have all been fired on spot for wasting company dollars to have pointless weekly meetings with me (all four of them on the phone). Fortunately, they couldn't seem to find the justification to the HR department on an actual reason so after I caught on that it was only being used as a scare tactic, after doing the most ass kissing I'll never do again, it all stopped for a while. When you continously bring the company in over half a million dollars a year, that kind of adds some weight to your stay.
That is... until another boss arose and decided to have a go at it. For years, I played the game with him, knowing he wasn't going to be the one to get me fired. His boss is the one who hired me and once COVID-19 hit and we all were working from home, I made a minor mistake and he threatened my job, for the thousandth time. At this point, I was over it. I didn't mind being gone from this job if it meant I didn't have to work with him anymore.
So I said to him, "They let go of over 200 people from our company this past month, so if you're going to get rid of me, I urge you to do it now. All I want is one year paid salary which is reasonable considering I've worked here for so long and the fact is, I'll just file for unemployment and extend it for as long as I can beyond the 6 months they'd give me. If you come back with my exact offer, I'll sign whatever document you give me and I'll be gone. If you come back with anything less, we have no deal. Don't talk to me unless you really need to until then."
Four months go by. I waited patiently. No word from him about the offer and he hadn't spoken to me at all. And then a meeting was called. Today was the day. My day. I knew it was coming. All the bosses were there. Except him. Apparently, he'd been fired. Another boss gone. A total of five bosses now who had tried to fire me either left the company, were transfered to another department, or were fired.
And I've since had two more bosses since him... one left the company, she was not really an issue, and now I have a new boss, a former co-worker of mine, and she has tried several times, even making me fill out a "employee improvement plan", which I'd passed. Several more attempts have been made by her... she's starting to slowly get it, though I'm still working with her on it: maybe just work with me instead of resorting to trying to fire me?
The reason her job is stable and good is because of the work I do, so getting rid of me for someone else ain't going to be as easy as she thinks. Again, it's hard to justify getting rid of the senior web designer when they continue to bring in $500,000 year-after-year. Maybe it's not all about the money to all companies, but then again, maybe it is. However, I'm not doing anything to spite anyone. I can't seem to avoid every boss trying to fire me... and it seems to only be me. I've put that to the test too.
Moral of the story: if you love your job, you'll do what you can to keep it, even if that means.. just doing your job.
Wow, that sounds exhausting on your end and makes me feel like I must be missing some kind of additional context (or you've just had the bad luck of working for an org whose culture promotes awful people).
I am 1 year away from my BS in CS and have been pondering what sort of company and role to seek as I approach graduation. My best method for learning about the software industry is talking to others, so I was curious if some of you would be willing to share. This is my second career and I am trying to make the most of it.