Good work, bad work, no work

A

Aquarians

My experience with corporate jobs is that there are three categories of work that you may get to do:

1) Good work (career enhancing).
Examples are greenfield development of complex systems where you get to choose
the languages, libraries, framework, architecture. You also learn domain
knowledge and apply it practically to the systems you develop.

2) Bad work (career wrecking).
Examples are bugfixing and maintenance of legacy systems. You learn little to
nothing of value and you're busy chasing fires with the only reward after extinguishing
one is that you get two new others to take care off.

3) No work (bullshit jobs).
You obviously don't get #1 but at least you're not heavily outworn by #2.
Most of the times you don't have much to do and if your managers don't already
know that, then there's zero incentive for you to raise their awareness since
with 100% probability, that won't get you #1 but straight into #2. If you're not fired.

Any thoughts? Comments, additions?
 
Ahh, and the grass is not greener on the other side. If you were ever touched by #2, the stench will linger with you forever and with 99% probability what you'll get on the other side is #2.

If you can't get #1, your best option is to stick with a company long enough so at least #3 becomes an option.
 
My experience is there are just two types of job.

Good jobs I've had - able to make own decisions as to strategies and solutions, able to plan own workday and week, handling complex/sensitive issues so output not readily unitised and monitored, able to apply own character/personal strengths to work.

Bad jobs I've had - highly unitised work tasks, constant monitoring of output, absence of control of workflow, rigidly defined procedures, no opportunity to apply personal characteristics to add value, types/ares of work liable to arbitrary change/rotation.

The good paid about 30% more than the bad but demanded several years of training and qualifications. The bad jobs were easy to get into and had short training.

Overall, the good jobs were not like work, they were like being in a sports team. The bad jobs were less stressful but I couldn't wait to resign from them.

I am now retired. Being retired is only half as good as having a good job but its twice as good as having a bad job.
 
So don't do corporate jobs. Go do trading.

because for trading,
almost everyday is good work (career enhancing),
very few days of bad work (career wrecking),
and zero no work (bullshit jobs).
 
maxinger++ :)

Also interesting take "Being retired is only half as good as having a good job but its twice as good as having a bad job."
 
maxinger said:
So don't do corporate jobs. Go do trading.

because for trading,
almost everyday is good work (career enhancing),
very few days of bad work (career wrecking),
and zero no work (bullshit jobs).
More...

If you think trading is so great how about

Lose 1M from a bad trade (career wrecking)
Backtest 1M ideas and none work (bullshit job)
 
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maxinger said:
So don't do corporate jobs. Go do trading.

because for trading,
almost everyday is good work (career enhancing),
very few days of bad work (career wrecking),
and zero no work (bullshit jobs).
More...
There ain't no such thing as free lunch.
1% of people here are able to live with trading.
So for 99%, better keep their good or bad work, and consider trading as a leisure.

CM
 
Aquarians said:
My experience with corporate jobs is that there are three categories of work that you may get to do:

1) Good work (career enhancing).
Examples are greenfield development of complex systems where you get to choose
the languages, libraries, framework, architecture. You also learn domain
knowledge and apply it practically to the systems you develop.

2) Bad work (career wrecking).
Examples are bugfixing and maintenance of legacy systems. You learn little to
nothing of value and you're busy chasing fires with the only reward after extinguishing
one is that you get two new others to take care off.

3) No work (bullshit jobs).
You obviously don't get #1 but at least you're not heavily outworn by #2.
Most of the times you don't have much to do and if your managers don't already
know that, then there's zero incentive for you to raise their awareness since
with 100% probability, that won't get you #1 but straight into #2. If you're not fired.

Any thoughts? Comments, additions?
More...
Quite insightful.
With #2, "there is money where there us dirt". Maintenance type jobs can be quite good, no-one else can do them, no-one wants to do them.
Also with this type work, often travel involved, or at least away from the bosses eye.
The downside is, it becomes laborious after a while fixing fuckup after fuckup.
 
Aquarians said:
My experience with corporate jobs is that there are three categories of work that you may get to do:

1) Good work (career enhancing).
Examples are greenfield development of complex systems where you get to choose
the languages, libraries, framework, architecture. You also learn domain
knowledge and apply it practically to the systems you develop.

2) Bad work (career wrecking).
Examples are bugfixing and maintenance of legacy systems. You learn little to
nothing of value and you're busy chasing fires with the only reward after extinguishing
one is that you get two new others to take care off.

3) No work (bullshit jobs).
You obviously don't get #1 but at least you're not heavily outworn by #2.
Most of the times you don't have much to do and if your managers don't already
know that, then there's zero incentive for you to raise their awareness since
with 100% probability, that won't get you #1 but straight into #2. If you're not fired.

Any thoughts? Comments, additions?
More...
Who really cares when they pay 3 numerics hourly 1099. Do what they say to keep them happy, you know there's light at the end of the tunnel. Trade on, build your strategy. When the light is clear, exit stage left. The poor souls that are stuck there FTE, good luck.
 
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