An HR manager said this to my mother's face once. Please consider people's feelings before using it. It's likely to be interpreted as "you've wasted your career and/or life".
> They couldn’t believe I worked that many hours. Rather than argue about it, I told them it must have been my mistake. I realized then that in the Corporation, the aim is to fit in. Not stand out.
Oof.
Wish I'd heard this at the start of my working life.
I don't say "career", because that'd imply a plan, trajectory, narrative. Which was wholly missing from my life.
> I’m sort of a bad omen for the teams I work on. They get shitcanned or the team gets downsized or I get fired for being unreasonably reasonable. And I don’t want to work like that anymore. I want my life’s work to have some kind of meaning
Any life advices on how to leave more value behind? I have no idea how to pick the hill to die on.
I'm sorry to say this, but this is one of the saddest things a person can say in my opinion. You can definitely become your job, but I can't see myself ever wanting something like that.
"Then after a little while, put that shit on your resume and move on to something better. Rinse, repeat."
I guess I'm one of the pessimists.
I'm 10 years in and nothing has gotten better. The benefits have been eroding too. It never paid off and I have trouble seeing it ever pay off if the first third of my career has been so terrible. I've become disengaged, which I'm sure will lead to a vicious cycle.
> Im honestly terrified that the value on the resume will decline over time and i will never be able to get into a more prestigious company. The idea of being relegated to a 2nd or third tier company has been eating at me, and comments on places like CSCQ, Blind and this AskHN nearly drove me to suicide before.
WOW... dude cares way too much about work. I guess I had a similar mindset when I was 22. After about 5 years of work, he won't give a damn anymore.
> Everything I devoted my life to for years, taken from me, multiple times.
Sounds like you need to step back and re-evaluate your approach. Your work for a large, soulless corporation should not be what you devoted your life to. It's work, not your life.
> In the case of quitting your job, I'm not sure it applies since what you really want to do is to leave. If you have a good relationship with your team and company, by all means be generous with your time. Otherwise, I don't think you'll get much value out of being overly considerate of your old company.
The # of times I've encountered people from my past is staggering.
No reason to needlessly anger people, especially if leaving a good impression just takes a wee bit more effort.
> I showed up to my job and did what I was required to do, but I didn't show initiative to push myself beyond that
That’s just becoming an office drone. A few people go above and beyond and most people don’t. Welcome to the rest of your life I guess? You’ll probably lose your job a couple times due to economic factors out of your control but huge corps like when people just show up to work and do what they are required.
>Eventually, you look back at your career and notice nothing you've ever worked on made a difference to anybody. The paycheck is nice, but there are other places to get one just like it.
Can't tell you how much motivation was lost after seeing my billed rate to a client vs. what the consultancy was paying me. They should bill higher than what they pay me for sure, but 6 times my rate? I was only doing the bare minimum after seeing that.
> and get this feeling that everything needs to be finished as fast as possible.
I can tell for certain that you are at a wrong company. Soon you will realize that whatever work you do there adds no value either to the product or your career
> you can take this as a final confirmation that you are not achieving any personal fulfillment in this job
It's interesting that you say that because it's exactly what I realized from being put on a PIP and it was a large part of why, after being removed from the PIP, I quit a few months later.
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