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> I'm definitely 'underemployed', but the nice thing is that the work I do is so far beyond what anyone else I work with understands that I report to the direct
by rmb177 9y ago
> I'm definitely 'underemployed', but the nice thing is that the work I do is so far beyond what anyone else I work with understands that I report to the director of the company himself. As long as I get my work done, nobody really cares what I do.
I'm in a similar situation.
PROS: A large amount of autonomy, my work is appreciated and valued, very low-stress, reasonable hours.
CONS: Working on an "enterprise-y" stack, work isn't always the most challenging, concern about job prospects in the future since I'm not working on the trendy stuff always popping up on HN.
I've never been happier at a job though. My previous job was as a consultant where the pros/cons from above were essentially switched, and by the time I left that job I was pretty miserable. I loved the actual consulting company I worked for, but the environments typical to consulting just took their toll on me. Whenever I'm feeling bad about the cons at my current job, I just remember that the grass is always greener and try to focus on learning something new that re-energizes my love for coding.
I know the likelihood is small, but if I knew I could have my current job until retirement, I think I'd gladly accept that fate.
- Declanomous 9y agoI think my biggest issue is that since some people don't understand my work, they can come to the conclusion that I'm not working as hard as I could be because I don't look stressed enough or busy enough when I'm working. My boss values my work, as do most of the people I work with, but I know for a fact that a lot of the clerical employees think I do basically nothing. I've never worked in consulting, but I have friends who work as consultants for the Big Four, and it certainly seems like being stressed and working long hours is prioritized over making a meaningful contribution. That's probably a little unfair, but I've read the emails they are responding to a 10 PM at night, and it seems like everyone just stays up all night sending emails so that everyone else knows they are 'working'.
- maxxxxx 9y agoThat's the usual problem. Most people can't judge other people's output so the only metric they have is emails or meetings attended. I always have trouble justifying that I have spent two weeks in figuring out something without any visible progress.