February 19, 2004 | View Comments (38) | Category: Our Thoughts
Summary: What makes a job so great?
Let's pretend that I was looking to go back into the corporate world. My history of working for others has never been good when it comes to web design/programming. Actually, the most fun I ever had was when I was contracted to work with a company, but that was it. I am sure there are many of you out there though who love your jobs and for wonderful reasons. I want to know what makes that job so enjoyable? What made the contracting job so much fun was the people that I got to work with. They understood everything that I did, but even better. They were always fun to hangout with and were never high strung, which can be a rare quality to find among programmers. I don't hear of too many companies or departments like this anymore. I must admit that I do miss being able to talk to people while working and sharing ideas. I definitely learned much faster being surrounded by more experienced people than I do now being surrounded by my stuffed animals...ummm, never mind.
I found that what really made the job enjoyable though was my project manager. This was a manger who knew what he was doing. Every other manager I have had sucked. You will find that everywhere around you there are managers (power seekers) and leaders. Leaders are in extremely short supply in this country and that is a major reason why you see many companies failing. Managers like to think they have control over you. They enjoy the power of their position and will do anything to keep that power. These people are no fun to work for. But let's save my theories on leadership for another time.
So tell me why you love (or hate) your job and why your job would love to hire me :-P. I am willing to listen to offers. I think Google would be a fun place to work...
Trackback URL: http://9rules.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-tb.cgi/153
I love my job, because for half the day, I'm my own boss!
Want to work with me? I just decided to start up a ad site for blogs. I think it will be a nice coding challenge, and I think there might be some money in it.
Trisignia (http://trisignia.com)
Sorry. I didn't mean to leave the link open like that. (Thought I caught it in the preview!)
Trisignia (http://trisignia.com)
Couldn't find anything like that, so I started my own. Highly recommended. Location is a big issue, if there was an Adaptive Path or 37Signals in Houston I would work there even at minimum wage rather than do my own thing.
I love playing music more than anything, but if I did it for a living I would have to take gigs I would rather not to support myself. Don't let a bad job sour your passion.
Matt (http://photomatt.net/)
So far I enjoy my job. My fellow coworkers are really nice. I am just trying to find my role right now among them. I am trying to learn some ASP so I can further myself in the company and get up to speed on many of the projects they do. Its more of a development company then design. They have about 4-5 developers and one main designer. Right now I am the update guy. Little things here and there come to me to take the load off other's shoulders. So far its going well.
Bryan (http://www.gamecubecheats.info)
Hey Matt - Did you know Razorfish has an office in Houston? Right off Beltway 8 and Westheimer in the southwest part of town.
I was a big fan of Razorfish, and followed their progress from the beginning. Jury's out on them now thogh, since they were bought out by that company whose name manages to escape me here at 7ish in the morning without coffee.
Mark Fusco (http://www.lightpierce.com/ltshdw)
I love my job.
I work for a small firm (4 full timers currently), and I am the only designer. I am invovled in almost every aspect of the project, from managing the workflow to designing the site to coding the XHTML and CSS. I am also involved in converting my coworkers to web standards.
The thing I like about my job so much is the variety. I am not always working on the same project and always have a wide range of tasks, whether its designing concepts, producing the sites, writing some ASP for processing forms, or building and programming Director applications.
I have the idea that being in a corporate environment, not having direct contact with my superiors (in most cases) and working on the same thing day in and day out would spoil my love for what I do, and I don't want that to happen.
Sure, there are usually bigger paychecks at the corporate level, but at some point it becomes less about making money and more about being happy and feeling good about what you do at the end of the day...ok...I think I might have stolen that last bit from Jerry McGuire. It's early. I need caffine.
Jeremy Flint (http://www.jeremyflint.com)
And the foosball table and XBox sitting across from my office don't hurt my situation either.
:-)
Jeremy Flint (http://www.jeremyflint.com)
The corporate world in my life is a shambles of a mess. It's really quite disheartening to see and be a part of. Corruption, definitely no leaders anywhere to be found - just backstabbers, liars and slackers.
There are opportunities that I get here that seem to be harder to come by at smaller companies; but I'm definitely an under-used and misunderstood employee - which is why I've started doing more freelance work on my own. I've found that more and more there are less opportunities for the right training and to actually use this in practice where I am in the corporate world.
I like a great deal of my coworkers and that's a big part of why I've stuck it out. Management is another story... There are parts of what I do that are good and rewarding, but a lot of it ends up being thankless grunt work. At the moment I'm stuck and can't afford to switch jobs yet -- not that I can find any that actually sound good or pay well...
Scott Boms (http://www.wishingline.com)
I like my job for the first time in my life. Having a manager who is not straight out of Office Space helps a great deal, as does having co-workers who are actually social. Very hard to find in the computer world, in my experience.
I'm mildly curious where you work, Bryan.
Dave Strus (http://davestrus.com/)
I think that part of what makes working for an actual design firm so great is that your co-workers all share the same passion you do for the work that is produced.
That is not always the case in the corporate world.
Jeremy Flint (http://www.jeremyflint.com)
You guys are freaking me out. The degree of seperation on the internet is just so very small these days.
I "met" Matt at Fray Day last year. Quotes around "met" because I didn't introduce myself, but I very much enjoyed The Red Button story. (Which, by the by, my roommate and I went out and found it.) Somehow me, my roommmate, and my visiting friend, Kim, ended up the focus of one of his pictures which I've linked to from my weblog before and is now the most viewed photo of the bunch. ;) After Fray Day I noticed Matt popping up all over the places I visited on the 'net. Most amusing.
Now you guys are talking about Houston (I live off Westheimer and Fountain View), and Bryan is freaking me out by sounding like one of my co-workers (with the correct spelling of the name and all). It's all very amusing in a completely terrifying sort of way.
I'm reminded of this one time... I had downloaded some of Jory's artwork from DeviantArt (which I am a member) for desktop wallpapers. My best friend's roommate visits my apartment one day and was like -- "You know Jory!?" -- Turns out they had become fast internet friends just previously.
And that is my off-topic post of the hour.
Alanna (http://www.expio.net)
Alanna -
Ready to be REALLY freaked?
My office is at Fountainview and Westheimer - right across from the HEB and two buildings behind the Houston's restaurant.
Mark Fusco (http://www.lightpierce.com/ltshdw)
Additional freakiness: I have a strong suspicion that Bryan has my old job.
Dave Strus (http://davestrus.com/)
I work for a pretty good sized company, but in a small office. Just a few web people, a sql guru & delphi/paradox programmer, and another paradox/delphi guy, a couple of people who support the software the delphi guys write, and my manager, who works as a wall between us and the majority of the nonsense politics that seem unavoidable in larger offices. It works out pretty well.
There's nothing I *hate* about the job, but I do get bored alot... not quite enough work for the number of people we have, and a corporation can only have so many distinct websites with different looks, so from a design aspect, I don't get to do much of interest there. You probably wouldn't like an environment like that, Paul... you'd work better in a design studio of some kind, either an established web design provider, or a place that does other sorts of design and would like to expand the business to include the web.
Of course, the benefits of the position are good. Decent salary, insurance, 401(k), paid vacation, etc. They'll even pay college tuition if the major is something somehow related to your work or is general (eg, they wouldn't pay for a degree in analytical physics, but they'd definitely do one in management or IT, and probably do one in english).
I have my own small business and I've considered doing that full time, but I don't think I'd make nearly as much money, and working on your own, you need to make more. If I had a good sales person, it'd be easier... I'm terrible at selling things. Too blunt. :-)
JC (http://thelionsweb.com/weblog)
Oh, and to prevent any further freakiness -- I'm in Michiana (Indiana Michigan border near University of Notre Dame), not Houston. :-)
JC (http://thelionsweb.com/weblog)
Dave - AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACKUM!
I'm currently in my apartment on Fountainview and Westheimer, which, by the way, is the Three Fountains apartment complex that takes up the majority of the block.
But am about to drive past your workplace to my workplace on Westheimer and Yorktown. Crazy, crazy, crazy.
Alanna (http://www.expio.net)
JC: I wouldn't like your job because it's in Michigan and no other reason :-P
It was 59 degrees when I wokeup this morning and I thought I was going to have to sever a limb.
Scrivs (http://www.9rules.com/whitespace/)
But yes the huge advantage of corporate work is of course the benefits of insurance. Man I really miss that.
Scrivs (http://www.9rules.com/whitespace/)
My employeer pays 100% of my insurance premium. Not sure how rare or common that is since this is the only job I have held out of college.
Jeremy Flint (http://www.jeremyflint.com)
Paul -
Indiana actually. But right on the border, so not much difference. And according to my weather.com xml thingie, it's a nice toasty 38°F right now and will be in the 30s and 40s all week. That's almost t-shirt weather, and definitely golf weather, at least, it would be if the golf courses weren't still frozen beneath and muddy mush just under the grass. :-)
It's been under 10 and even occasionally 10 under for the last month or so, so this is a welcome change. I can park in my parking space again without sticking half out into the drive because of the snow.
JC (http://thelionsweb.com/weblog)
I have found it good to start out at a corporate gig. My company is a bit on the big side (putting it mildly) and there are tons of learning opportunities all the time.
I can build skills (technical, communication, leadership...) all over the place and in different situations. And all that learning gets to come with me when I move on.
The only thing I "hate" about it is that it is hard to make changes. Even when everyone agrees the changes need to be made. I am not used to all the politics, but for good or bad I am getting better at working with it.
On a related note: Matt, and everyone else, you can always just start your own 37Signals or Adaptive Path. They did.
Matthew Oliphant (http://usabilityworks.typepad.com)
oh, and yeah, insurance is good. when you use it. I almost never have. I did order new glasses on the optical last week though, but that's not really a very good deal, I probably won't do it again.
Jeremy, it's extremely rare anymore. You must not have any employees there with significant health problems.
JC (http://thelionsweb.com/weblog)
I enjoy my job because of the people I work for. For example, one is really forward thinking, is one of the smartest people I know and is very willing to teach. I have learned so much in the year and a half I have been here. Also, he is very perceptive to other peoples ideas. And he never takes credit for someone elses work.
Jason
My current job is ok for now. I'm at least glad to be working after being unemployed for almost a year (downsizing and the poor economy here in Philly were tough to work through).
I'm pretty much left alone and that has given me the opportunity to teach myself some new things in terms of web design. My boss does interfere a lot in my designs, sometimes ruining what I thought were good pieces.
The things that suck about it: No other designers here to bounce ideas off, no vacaction or days off for a year, no paid holidays for a year, no lunch break (that's a big problem we're trying to deal with), an hour commute. That's about it.
I'm going to start seriously looking around here very soon.
Todd (http://www.monkeyhouselounge.com/loungeact/)
JC - True, 3 of us are young and healthy. Our programmer is about 50 and smokes.
I hardly ever use my health insurance either. I think i have been to the doctor twice in the almost 4 years I have been here.
Things are good right now. We are one of the few all-digital shops in the area, and most of the big ad firms that were trying to start up interactive divisions 2 years ago have been slowing dumping those divisions.
Jeremy Flint (http://www.jeremyflint.com)
I really like the environment I work in right now. The company is just getting out of that start-up phase (we're around 30-40 people), and the atmosphere is great - laid-back, informal, flexible. The people are friendly and the benefits are pretty good.
The only problem is I'm kind of getting tired of software engineering. I think perhaps I'd rather be a website developer for a design firm than a user interface engineer for a software company. Either way, I'd be implementing the visual design in HTML/CSS and hooking it up with some sort of back-end, but there's just not much variety of design at a software company, and the code tends to be more complex and take up more time.
Like Matt, though, I'd rather be playing music than doing anything else. But I've just been too scared to drop the security of a full-time job to do part-time web development, part-time music. One of these days...
Jennifer (http://jennifergrucza.com)
That sure is some freakiness going on.
Alanna, I have lived in Indianapolis, IN my whole life, so I am not sure if we were ever co workers . I am 23 and aside from a short 1 month internship I did downtown, this is the main job I have had. My only other work experience is as a cart boy (I prefer the term golf cart attendant) at a local Golf Course over the span of 6 years. And speaking of Golf, JC you had mentioned its getting close to golf temperature. Well, we still have some melting snow, but I have been getting that "itch" to go out and play. See, I have played golf since I was 7. I played in High School and I received a scholarship to play in College, so I am disappointed that I am not playing now, but thats life. Responsibility is kicking in :)
and for the record, my place of employment IS Dave's previous workplace.
Bryan (http://www.gamecubecheats.info)
gosh. Wonder if the company would pay for a 'design conference' down south. :-)
JC (http://thelionsweb.com/weblog)
Hey, the city handled the Super Bowl - I'm sure it could handle a Whitespace deal.
On the hand though, now that Scrivs' is getting so many hits, it might be a stretch...
Mark Fusco (http://www.lightpierce.com/ltshdw)
Yes. Let's all move to Waco and worship at Paul's altar. Nobody tell the FBI.
Alanna (http://www.expio.net)
I’m loving my current job, even though I’ve only “been here” for a day. I work from home, which is a HUGE perk right now. However, I like the job moreso because it’s already a bigger challenge than I’ve been faced with in the past. I thrive on figuring out something that baffles me at first (ah, the programmer in me ;) ). I felt the same way when I first started my last job, but after reinventing the same wheel so many times the feeling faded quickly. This company I’m working for now is pretty advanced, even at things I thought were “old hat” to me in the past. However, at this point in my career I seem to be far more interested in the actual level of work I’m doing as opposed to the working environment I happen to be contained in, so your mileage may vary depending on how much you love an office atmosphere.
Vinnie Garcia (http://blog.vinniegarcia.com/)
I have been self-employed as a web developer/consultant/tech guru for about a year and a half now. I highly, highly recommend self-employment to anyone who is self-motivated and has some sort of clue about what they might be interested in learning. I worked academic and corporate positions prior to taking the plunge, and was never fully satisfied getting paid to do the work that somebody else thought was important.
Now I have more flexibility with my time and schedule, and I have more room to think big, experiment with new business ideas, and pursue new interests that come up. I feel like I am compromising myself less, and able to run my business in a way that reflects my worldview and social ethics. Plus, it's fun. :)
Barb Peace (http://www.osxx.org)
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#1
>being surrounded by my stuffed animals
Any Pokemons? Haha.
Zelnox