I started, and essentially always did, ops work. It's a lot of grunt work, but it pays off (if anything because there are very few people actually good ad that,

I started, and essentially always did, ops work. It's a lot of grunt work, but it pays off (if anything because there are very few people actually good ad that, and even less people good and willing to do that) and that gives a lot of learnings that are almost directly applicable outside of work. The first being: if something is not work, speak out and push for the thing to either be fixed or be ripped out entirely, propose an alternative or a solution, if possible. If you see promises that aren't kept, words and words circling about the issue, minimisation of the issues our outright denial of the issue... Just get out, walk away and don't look back. The above work as well with companies as with people (either friends or significant others). And in the house... I very often realize i opt for stuff that's low maintenance instead of shiny (99% of the time i don't need the extra features anyway). I bought a lot of "dumb" technology and it's awesome, I get none of the annoyances people complain about nowadays. I particularly love my dumb TV (that I don't watch much anyway). Stuff that mostly does one thing and it's trivial to replace. Oh and I've learnt to have spare stuff because I know from experience that things break when you need it the most (and stores are closed). So batteries, an extra shampoo, a spare laptop etc... Ops is truly grunt work but I'm truly happy to have been shaped by it (I worry a lot about the consequences of my own actions, though).