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That is a real problem. Here is my advice to people in tech. First, don't think you can work in tech until you retire. Maybe you will. But burn out is real and
by tinyhouse 5y ago
That is a real problem. Here is my advice to people in tech. First, don't think you can work in tech until you retire. Maybe you will. But burn out is real and it usually happens gradually. The key is to save (and invest) as much money as you can in your early career so that when the time comes you have options. That also means being active and looking for jobs every 2-3 years in order to improve your salary. (you'll also gain more experience by working for different companies)
As for the learning part. Yes, finding motivation for self development is not easy when you're depressed or burned out. I'm not going to talk about dealing or treating depression since I'm not an expert. One thing I found helpful is developing different interests of mine since it solves the motivation problem. For example, recently I got into the world of investing and I'm learning a lot. This doesn't solve the problem of finding motivation for self development for work, but it helps in making me more productive and overall more excited about learning and doing.
- pmoriarty 5y agoThis is good general career advice for non-depressed people (or maybe people with minor depression), but unfortunately the severely depressed person is unlikely to be very interested in anything (or not long enough to make a career out of it), and just doing career-oriented things like looking for jobs could be an enormous struggle. Not that it's necessarily completely hopeless, and it varies from person to person, but people tend to underestimate how difficult ordinary, "easy" things are for people who are severely depressed.
- tinyhouse 5y agoI cannot argue with that. My comment is more about burn out. Someone who is severely depressed needs professional help.
- tayo42 5y agoDo you mean your learning unrelated things and its making learning tech and work related things tolerable again? Or just learning in general has been good for you?
- tinyhouse 5y agoA combination of both. For the most part just learning in general has been good for me. But it has a positive impact on my overall mood and productivity so it helps at work too. I should also mention that it can also have a negative impact on work. Often I'm more interested in doing non-work related learnings during work time. But so far it didn't get me into trouble. I can still get enough work done to be a valuable employee (although not a top performer which I'm totally OK with). I think what I'm trying to say is that my work productivity is effected by my overall well being. I think that's true for everyone.