10 ms·

>without any personal interest / passion in technology Can I not work in tech without being passionate?

by whorleater 9y ago

username223 9y ago
Tech work is like sex work: you don't need to feel the passion, but you do need to be able to fake it.
- your-nanny 9y ago
  Touche
- lr4444lr 9y ago
  I'm stealing that line.
stagbeetle 9y ago
It's a cultural-fit thing. You can, but there are the zealous who will deny you.
abritinthebay 9y ago
You have to have had some level of passion to bother learning about it. It takes time to learn a topic, that's a form of passion - a drive. That's not to say you have to burn all hours on it tho. Which I think is what you're assuming there. That's honestly somewhat unhealthy and only super passionate people (and lucky ones at that) can do that for any length of time.
- vonmoltke 9y ago
  Passion requires enthusiasim, not merely drive.
  - abritinthebay 9y ago
    And spending effort to learn something requires some level of enthusiasm
    - vonmoltke 9y ago
      I disagree. I have learned plenty of things I had no enthusiasm for because they were a means to an end.
- rifung 9y ago
  Not really.. I have friends with no interest in computers but who studied CS because they knew it would lead to a well paying job. They work at Amazon and Google now so I guess it worked out for them. One requires motivation, but that motivation does not necessarily have to be interested or passion.
  - abritinthebay 9y ago
    In that case they have a passion for making money ;) That’s what motivated them to learn. I doubt that’s what causes them to stay. If it is tho... That’s enough.
michaelt 9y ago
Passion is a relative term. Nobody goes to work at Facebook or Google thinking "wow, I'm so passionate about adverts and tracking, I want to build a world with more ads and tracking in more places". It's normal not to be passionate about your work in that sense. However, some people find computers frustrating, stupid or boring. Such a person probably wouldn't enjoy a job working with them all the time - and it's difficult to build the skills that let you advance your career if you're averse to or bored by practising them. You need to be passionate in the sense of finding the work sufficiently non-loathsome that you can readily motivate yourself to do it.
- vonmoltke 9y ago
  > You need to be passionate in the sense of finding the work sufficiently non-loathsome that you can readily motivate yourself to do it. That is a major abuse of "passion". While the original definitions are even stronger, something you are "passionate" about is something you actively seeking out to do. Something that is merely "sufficiently non-loathsome" is not a passion.
  - betterbeehome 9y ago
    This. How can people say something so wrong headed like "Passion is a relative term." No you're just manipulative.
  - michaelt 9y ago
    That is a major abuse of "passion". That's just the gap between what employers hope for when they place a job advert, and what they get. I would like someone who loves their work so much they do 150% of the expected amount of work, freely chooses to stay late to make the Foo they're working on the best Foo the world has ever seen. Someone I can promote, and trust with more responsibility and less supervision. But I'll tolerate someone who does 75% of the expected amount of work, because I'm realistic about the hiring market.
    - dvtv75 9y ago
      > I would like someone who loves their work so much they do 150% of the expected amount of work, freely chooses to stay late to make the Foo they're working on the best Foo the world has ever seen. I had a job where I did this. Know what the employer did? He whined I wasn't doing enough, and gave me more to do then expected me to stay even later to do it. I was eventually spending more time at work than I was at home - I no longer work for free. If an employer wants extra hours out of me, they pay or I head home at clock out time. Employment isn't about your dream being fulfilled, it's a commercial agreement between two parties where one agrees to pay the other for time spent at the workplace. I don't live to work, I work to live, and I have other stuff to do. On my death bed, the one thing I can guarantee that I will never think is "I wish I'd worked an extra evening for free on that project for my employer." It's far more likely to be "I wish I hadn't worked that evening for free, so I could have seen the sun set just one more time."
holografix 9y ago
Yes you can, I’ve been in tech companies where a fair few of my colleagues are not interested in tech. They want to be part of a “winning” organisation and make money. I sure as hell wouldn’t hire someone who has no interest in what my company is doing and that level of interest would have to increase relative to the role. What tends to happen is you get very slick operators who don’t produce anything because they don’t understand/don’t care and all they do is get information from A spin it in a way that makes them look fantastic and push it to B. Given enough people like that in a tech org it’ll collapse.
- nopassion 9y ago
  I used to work on email archival. Anyone who says they’re passionate about that is either lying or doped up on barbiturates.
  - stevenwoo 9y ago
    How did you get hired for email archival? Started looking at online applications and every single one has something like "Why do you want to work for us?" and yesterday I saw "How do you add to our diversity?"
    - gaustin 9y ago
      What's the problem with those questions?
      - stevenwoo 9y ago
        Sorry, was trying to figure out how the commenter got past those filtering questions.
      - bartread 9y ago
        I wouldn't be surprised to find that in the UK it's illegal to ask a candidate "How do you add to our diversity?" because it could be seen as a thinly veiled way to, for example, discover a candidate's sexual preference - something you are outright not allowed to ask about, except in very specific circumstances[1]. (Also, it's an insufferably pretentious question, even if not actually illegal.) [1] E.g., it might be legally acceptable for a role in a religious organisation.
thenanyu 9y ago
I think it always helps to care about the quality of your craft. "Passion" seems to be the prevalent HR-speak for that concept.
koolba 9y ago
Yes but you have to be able to fake it for at least the duration of an interview.
IncRnd 9y ago
> Can I not work in tech without being passionate? You can, but from the employer's perspective many markets have more applicants than positions. The employer can choose those who are closer to the ideal employee. One of the qualities of such an employee is often someone who throws themselves with passion into doing the job. Put another way, why should an employer with a stack of applicants pick those who aren't as motivated or qualified as others? That is why entry-level positions require 3 years of experience.
watwut 9y ago
Yes you can. Many people work in tech and are not passionate. And plenty of them are very good and responsible. Tech is not something special, you can lean it like anything else.
lobotryas 9y ago
Anecdata: to me and others I've spoken to 'passion' is short hand for a person having personal work standards. i.e.: a person who won't half-ass their work, who'll often go the extra distance for polish or feature completion, and who'll proactively help raise issues if their experience indicates the team is heading down the wrong path. And yes, a person who'll very occasionally stay late and pitch in when the whole team is crunching on something.

>without any personal interest / passion in technology Can I not work in tech without being passionate?

username223 9y ago

Tech work is like sex work: you don't need to feel the passion, but you do need to be able to fake it.

your-nanny 9y ago
Touche
lr4444lr 9y ago
I'm stealing that line.

stagbeetle 9y ago

It's a cultural-fit thing. You can, but there are the zealous who will deny you.

abritinthebay 9y ago

You have to have had some level of passion to bother learning about it. It takes time to learn a topic, that's a form of passion - a drive. That's not to say you have to burn all hours on it tho. Which I think is what you're assuming there. That's honestly somewhat unhealthy and only super passionate people (and lucky ones at that) can do that for any length of time.

vonmoltke 9y ago
Passion requires enthusiasim, not merely drive.
- abritinthebay 9y ago
  And spending effort to learn something requires some level of enthusiasm
  - vonmoltke 9y ago
    I disagree. I have learned plenty of things I had no enthusiasm for because they were a means to an end.
rifung 9y ago
Not really.. I have friends with no interest in computers but who studied CS because they knew it would lead to a well paying job. They work at Amazon and Google now so I guess it worked out for them. One requires motivation, but that motivation does not necessarily have to be interested or passion.
- abritinthebay 9y ago
  In that case they have a passion for making money ;) That’s what motivated them to learn. I doubt that’s what causes them to stay. If it is tho... That’s enough.

michaelt 9y ago

Passion is a relative term. Nobody goes to work at Facebook or Google thinking "wow, I'm so passionate about adverts and tracking, I want to build a world with more ads and tracking in more places". It's normal not to be passionate about your work in that sense. However, some people find computers frustrating, stupid or boring. Such a person probably wouldn't enjoy a job working with them all the time - and it's difficult to build the skills that let you advance your career if you're averse to or bored by practising them. You need to be passionate in the sense of finding the work sufficiently non-loathsome that you can readily motivate yourself to do it.

vonmoltke 9y ago
> You need to be passionate in the sense of finding the work sufficiently non-loathsome that you can readily motivate yourself to do it. That is a major abuse of "passion". While the original definitions are even stronger, something you are "passionate" about is something you actively seeking out to do. Something that is merely "sufficiently non-loathsome" is not a passion.
- betterbeehome 9y ago
  This. How can people say something so wrong headed like "Passion is a relative term." No you're just manipulative.
- michaelt 9y ago
  That is a major abuse of "passion". That's just the gap between what employers hope for when they place a job advert, and what they get. I would like someone who loves their work so much they do 150% of the expected amount of work, freely chooses to stay late to make the Foo they're working on the best Foo the world has ever seen. Someone I can promote, and trust with more responsibility and less supervision. But I'll tolerate someone who does 75% of the expected amount of work, because I'm realistic about the hiring market.
  - dvtv75 9y ago
    > I would like someone who loves their work so much they do 150% of the expected amount of work, freely chooses to stay late to make the Foo they're working on the best Foo the world has ever seen. I had a job where I did this. Know what the employer did? He whined I wasn't doing enough, and gave me more to do then expected me to stay even later to do it. I was eventually spending more time at work than I was at home - I no longer work for free. If an employer wants extra hours out of me, they pay or I head home at clock out time. Employment isn't about your dream being fulfilled, it's a commercial agreement between two parties where one agrees to pay the other for time spent at the workplace. I don't live to work, I work to live, and I have other stuff to do. On my death bed, the one thing I can guarantee that I will never think is "I wish I'd worked an extra evening for free on that project for my employer." It's far more likely to be "I wish I hadn't worked that evening for free, so I could have seen the sun set just one more time."

holografix 9y ago

Yes you can, I’ve been in tech companies where a fair few of my colleagues are not interested in tech. They want to be part of a “winning” organisation and make money. I sure as hell wouldn’t hire someone who has no interest in what my company is doing and that level of interest would have to increase relative to the role. What tends to happen is you get very slick operators who don’t produce anything because they don’t understand/don’t care and all they do is get information from A spin it in a way that makes them look fantastic and push it to B. Given enough people like that in a tech org it’ll collapse.

nopassion 9y ago
I used to work on email archival. Anyone who says they’re passionate about that is either lying or doped up on barbiturates.
- stevenwoo 9y ago
  How did you get hired for email archival? Started looking at online applications and every single one has something like "Why do you want to work for us?" and yesterday I saw "How do you add to our diversity?"
  - gaustin 9y ago
    What's the problem with those questions?
    - stevenwoo 9y ago
      Sorry, was trying to figure out how the commenter got past those filtering questions.
    - bartread 9y ago
      I wouldn't be surprised to find that in the UK it's illegal to ask a candidate "How do you add to our diversity?" because it could be seen as a thinly veiled way to, for example, discover a candidate's sexual preference - something you are outright not allowed to ask about, except in very specific circumstances[1]. (Also, it's an insufferably pretentious question, even if not actually illegal.) [1] E.g., it might be legally acceptable for a role in a religious organisation.

thenanyu 9y ago

I think it always helps to care about the quality of your craft. "Passion" seems to be the prevalent HR-speak for that concept.

koolba 9y ago

Yes but you have to be able to fake it for at least the duration of an interview.

IncRnd 9y ago

> Can I not work in tech without being passionate? You can, but from the employer's perspective many markets have more applicants than positions. The employer can choose those who are closer to the ideal employee. One of the qualities of such an employee is often someone who throws themselves with passion into doing the job. Put another way, why should an employer with a stack of applicants pick those who aren't as motivated or qualified as others? That is why entry-level positions require 3 years of experience.

watwut 9y ago

Yes you can. Many people work in tech and are not passionate. And plenty of them are very good and responsible. Tech is not something special, you can lean it like anything else.

lobotryas 9y ago

Anecdata: to me and others I've spoken to 'passion' is short hand for a person having personal work standards. i.e.: a person who won't half-ass their work, who'll often go the extra distance for polish or feature completion, and who'll proactively help raise issues if their experience indicates the team is heading down the wrong path. And yes, a person who'll very occasionally stay late and pitch in when the whole team is crunching on something.