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This is a very under-appreciated article. The more I look around the more I feel every one has at least the following phases in their career- Fall, Struggle, R

by kamaal 8y ago

This is a very under-appreciated article. The more I look around the more I feel every one has at least the following phases in their career- Fall, Struggle, Rise, Plateau. The thing is the order is not guaranteed. But the phases come in parcels of decades. The best is the order I mentioned. Sometimes the order is brutal. You go like Rise, Plateau, Struggle, Fall. The best years happen in early life- Like 20's. You go through it assuming this is how its going to be all life, don't invest or save up. And then reach 40's and realize you have another 40 to go and regardless of how hard you work, You have to suffer through the remainder. In some people's case the big success comes in the last decade of their working career. Either way the most important to note is, that luck goes around. No one remains lucky forever. One must be worried if start tossing a coin, and head comes up straight 100 times.

jondubois 8y ago
For me I lived my childhood on a plateaux then kept falling all throughout my teens and early adulthood then for the past 10 years it's been all struggle. I'm desperately trying to get back to the plateaux level which is what I need to feel normal. When I see colleagues at work who were born in a difficult place and now they have the same job as me, I feel bad because they've never been happier but I'm having the worst time of my life. At the same time, I find that people who come from a difficult place tend to have their own distinct type of mental scars.
scarface74 8y ago
The more I look around the more I feel every one has at least the following phases in their career- Fall, Struggle, Rise, Plateau. The thing is the order is not guaranteed. But the phases come in parcels of decades. That describes my career perfectly. (this started in the mid 90s) Fail - first pass of my first major development project out of college. I was the only developer at my company. I knew how to program - I done complicated side projects in assembly and C for years before and during college. Rise - Asked a former professor for help, came out with version 2.0 of the project. Between two raises, a basically guaranteed 20^ bonus, and changing jobs, I was making $40K more in 4 years. Plateau - next 8 years, took my eye off the ball, stayed at the one job too long and between bonuses being cut, and 3% raises, only made $7K more in year 9 than I made in year 2. Plateau #2 - I changed jobs, learned a lot and muddled my way through the recession for 3 years. Rise - over the next 5 years, changed jobs 4 times and made $55K more at the end. For context, because of the mistake made by staying at a job too long up until 2008 and focuses on always getting jobs where I’m barely qualified to learn and build my resume, I’ve been under the median salary for my market for my years of experience since then. So I’m definitely not trying to brag. I’m also not in Silicon Valley. I am in a major metropolitan city.

by kamaal 8y ago

jondubois 8y ago

For me I lived my childhood on a plateaux then kept falling all throughout my teens and early adulthood then for the past 10 years it's been all struggle. I'm desperately trying to get back to the plateaux level which is what I need to feel normal. When I see colleagues at work who were born in a difficult place and now they have the same job as me, I feel bad because they've never been happier but I'm having the worst time of my life. At the same time, I find that people who come from a difficult place tend to have their own distinct type of mental scars.

scarface74 8y ago

The more I look around the more I feel every one has at least the following phases in their career- Fall, Struggle, Rise, Plateau. The thing is the order is not guaranteed. But the phases come in parcels of decades. That describes my career perfectly. (this started in the mid 90s) Fail - first pass of my first major development project out of college. I was the only developer at my company. I knew how to program - I done complicated side projects in assembly and C for years before and during college. Rise - Asked a former professor for help, came out with version 2.0 of the project. Between two raises, a basically guaranteed 20^ bonus, and changing jobs, I was making $40K more in 4 years. Plateau - next 8 years, took my eye off the ball, stayed at the one job too long and between bonuses being cut, and 3% raises, only made $7K more in year 9 than I made in year 2. Plateau #2 - I changed jobs, learned a lot and muddled my way through the recession for 3 years. Rise - over the next 5 years, changed jobs 4 times and made $55K more at the end. For context, because of the mistake made by staying at a job too long up until 2008 and focuses on always getting jobs where I’m barely qualified to learn and build my resume, I’ve been under the median salary for my market for my years of experience since then. So I’m definitely not trying to brag. I’m also not in Silicon Valley. I am in a major metropolitan city.