I’m lucky that I can say yes. That said, I still wouldnt do it for free. What about you, how do you feel about your job/career/field in general?
Open source developer.
I’d say it’s relatively unimportant in the greater scheme of things; nobody dies and the world would keep going even if I stopped.
But I’m mostly proud to do it and I enjoy working in the non-profit sector, especially since I don’t have an asshole boss or corporate interests to worry about.
On the flip side, I make less money than I would in the corporate space. But I suppose I value the freedom more than the money
The world needs more open-source software. Keep your head up king.
How did you get into this? I’ve been thinking about finding a different job but haven’t put real effort into it (yet). I’m currently a “senior” developer according to my boss, and I’m bored and annoyed by the commercial culture. Something open source sounds great if I also get paid but I highly doubt that that “senior” standard translates well.
I got into it by just committing to some projects in my free time. I built a relationship with the project, traveled to a few international sprints, and then eventually started working part time and gradually increased my involvement. I’m not sure how widely reproducible it is, to be honest, but it all starts with just getting into open source development and, like basically anything else, making personal connections in that scene. It’s highly dependent on the funding of the project, and unfortunately fundraising is the hard part of open source software development…
Plus, if you’re a senior developer, especially in the US, then you’ll probably be looking at decrease in pay to something around Euro developer rates. It’s hard to know if the long term prospects of this career are good, but I’m happy enough for now and I have a lot of agency. And it does feel good to know that you’re writing FOSS code for everyone to use. I would treat it like a passion-driven vocation of sorts.
What projects are you working on, if I may ask?
I’m unemployed!
It’s important that someone is unemployed. Who else will politicians have to point at as an example of a failure?
I’m proud to be unemployed and alive. It sure does suck when you get judged as being a useless piece of shit by virtually everyone, even though the number of bullshit jobs grows.
I set orthopedic patients up with a piece of equipment that prevents scar tissue buildup. While this is helpful to their recovery, what I find most important is the way I can help some patients with their anxiety about their surgery through soft skills I didn’t know I had prior to this job.
What they don’t realize is how much helping them helps me. It gives me a sense of purpose and meaningfulness. I get to help people get their mobility back. Mobility is freedom. After watching my dad slowly lose his mobility later in life, this allows me to help other people in a way that I could never help my dad. I know what that means for them even if my patients don’t fully.
If I won the lottery, I’d still want to do this job or something like it that allows me to feel this way.
No and no. I help produce luxury goods for obscenely rich people… 2 units of our product, depending on configuration, is my entire years salary…
I haven’t had a job that should exist since I was a tutor in college. Every position since then was either a fake busywork job, or tech support for people in fake busywork jobs. =/
My job is unimportant. I manage a bakery that I do not own. But I can’t do it poorly. Like even though I literally do not care if the building burns to the ground, I still act like Customer Service Barbie as soon as I’m clocked in.
Yep and yep and I’ve been incredibly lucky. I help run a spirituality (Buddhism-ish) related website. I don’t have much formal training, I’ve just been a shut-in nerd for decades and picked up skills that turned out to be useful for the teacher (they tried to make a website that was total shite and I told them as much. Long story short, they hired me).
I’m actually on permanent neetbux due to mental health issues ('twas partly the treatment resistant depression that led me to look into spirituality) but I’m allowed to earn a certain amount without losing my benefits. I get paid that exact amount and I largely choose when I work and how much. From my perspective, I’m now getting paid to do the stuff I used to do as idle fancy. Which is awesome. I’m also mentally in a much better place thanks to my own practice and the community. I definitely couldn’t handle neurotypical life but at least I can do a bit of work, kinda take care of myself and not let my home devolve into a total legbeard nest. Glad to be able to help provide service to others that was helpful to me. Plus despite not having very good people skills, I’m appreciated by my boss and the community and I’m welcome to be as I am, I don’t have to mask or sell “good vibes only”.
I don’t think my job is particularly inportant, but I’m definitely proud to do it. I work in repair at a small model train electronics producer. I fix the electronics for customers and also do a bit of customer support.
Unlike a lot of companies where you just get crappy outsourced call center support and if your thing’s broken you just get a new one (with all your settings reset of course), my company actually fixes people’s stuff. I love that I get to do that, and individually help people. It’s also stimulating because customers manage the weirdest things sometimes, and I get to figure out what, why, and how.
I’m a crane operator, if we still got the wages people would get 15 years ago and all the required paperwork it would feel important.
But now it’s just a: “hey guy, go try it out…see how it goes” and if it goes well you get to stay…for the same wage and no official paperwork to prove you’re capable and as such no opportunity to do the same at a new employer and maybe build up your wage.
It’s a bit if a run on ramble, but yeah… that’s how I feel, after 30 years of trying to save money, increase my skills and wage, not owning a car to save on costs and doing everything on a bicycle up to 40km a day and still not being able to buy a house…I’m ready to throw in the towel
I work as a cleaner. Just regular apartment building hallways and the like. Yes, I think it’s important - they had me work through Covid. I also know what it looks like when there’s nobody to clean for a few days. Pay is poor but I can listen to podcasts and audiobooks in peace so it’s chill enough. I am proud of the work though. I hadn’t thought about the impact of custodian work before I started doing it myself and realized how big of a difference it makes. I get by with my pay because I don’t have kids but my workmates definitely struggle. It should pay more.
I do maintenance at a telescope and occasionally fill in as telescope operator. It doesn’t pay great but the work has been fulfilling. A telescope operator recently quit and they implemented a temp salary (removing my overtime) without discussing the numbers first and ended up putting me at the bottom of a lower pay scale. I thought I was stuck but eventually complained and got reverted back to hourly, but they screwed me out of 200+ hours of overtime because “I didn’t complain soon enough and therefore that is the same as me accepting that salary”. I’m going to quit soon because I don’t work for free.
That’s a neat job. Do you work for a university or something?
University of Arizona. They have the largest astronomy budget in the country for a university.
My job isn’t important at all - it basically just makes money for our CEO, but I am proud of how little work I can manage to do while still staying in the good graces of my manager, so there’s that.
I definitely do. The companies’ key product for the last decade was developed by me.
Yes, many local businesses depend on me on a daily basis
I started a new role this week and I feel like my job is too important. A lot of self-doubt this week.
I have faith that I’ll handle things, though.
However, I am concerned that my job is morphing into something less than what I care for. It feels like we’re moving to a low-code solution, but personally, I want to get technical.
