My workplaces for the past 17 years, summarized:
- Year: Learn the job.
- Year: Get really good at it.
- Year: Get bored with it.
- Year: Get fed up and quit.
I have this variation:
- Get hired. Enjoy awesome coworkers and decent perks.
- Wait, this is a fintech company.
- Why did I go with a fintech company again? I hate fintech!
- Fuck it, I’m not quitting after a single year; I’m not gonna nuke my vacation planning two years in a row.
QueueCue endless scrum meetings about badly defined PBIs referencing ancient versions of a poorly defined domain model.
I’ve never seen a sector of IT less organized, more averse to basic best practices, and more fixated on procedural boilerplate than fintech. It’s like ADHD poison and my relationship with it can be summed up with these lines from the Muppet Show theme:
Why do we always come here? I guess we’ll never know.
It’s like some kind of torture to have to watch this show.This is me, except for 4. For me, #4 is “be miserable while doing a half assed job”
Yeah. Mine too. It always goes down this path, and after 20 years of doing it, i actually decided to stop working and see if I can cut my costs a lot and live off stocks and savings.
Its also the feeling that i want to decide what I do every day, even if that just is doing nothing. Why cant i do nothing if I want to?
This hits so hard it should come with a trigger warning. If it stops sparkling, I’m out, no guilt, no countdown. Love the rush of new things, hate the slow grind, and yes I will leave as soon as the dopamine dries up. Reality: that impulse is real and stubborn, not a character flaw.
Practical stuff that actually helps, from someone tired of burning bridges. Build novelty into your life instead of pretending it will come later. Split work into micro-projects, freelance or gig when you can, rotate tasks weekly, and give yourself tiny instant rewards for boring milestones. Automate or outsource the dullest parts so you only have to show up for the shiny bits. Save a financial buffer so quitting isn’t a panic decision.
Also, stop apologizing. The world is designed for people who tolerate monotony, not for humans who need sparkle. Find roles that value variety, tell employers you thrive on project work, and be ruthless about protecting your sanity. Wanting instant gratification isn’t lazy, it’s honest.
I took up painting, bet it will take some time to master that skill!
Doesn’t pay though…
In my team I’m cover. I dont have my own tasks, I have to learn enough of everyone else’s to be able to do them if they’re on holiday or sick. It has massively increased the ‘mastering’ time.
That sounds like a cool role
I enjoy it, it has forced me to get good at making notes though (and pc based rather than in a book so I can search them) otherwise I’ll come back to try and do something I’ve not done in 6 months and not have a fucking clue where to even start.
Im pretty sure everyone who is a consultant has ADHD and consults to avoid this very problem.
I tried consulting for a few years but had a really tough time with the networking part. It’s like a constant job search!
It is! Only really messed up people are consultants. 😉
Okay I figured a fix that more or less work for me. I work in a service company. Other companies need help on a project for a few months. I get sent there, help get the project done and then I am sent to a new project
As soon as you think you mastered it
I thought i mastered my job 5 years in. Then I learned there is no mastering it only surviving it. Every day is chaos! I just didn’t know cause senior staff took care of it before.
There’s actually nothing wrong with this. When you work, you should ideally get paid in skills as well as money. When you’re really good at it, if you’ve maxxed out your skills, you’re not getting ‘paid’ anymore, so it’s time to move on and get paid in training somewhere else.
