Ask HN: At what company were you happiest and why?

Honestly? This warehouse where I was repacking lumber. The lumber would come from the sawmill on a big flatbed truck. However, the lumber would be stacked in a formation that made it impossible to fill up the shipping containers optimally for shipping the lumber overseas. So my job was to (with a bunch of other guys):

1. Unpack the lumber. 2. Restack the lumber in a formation that would allow for maximum lumber loaded into the shipping containers. 3. Rewrap the lumber in plastic and staple the plastic in place.

It was mindless work where I didn't have to think about anything, had no deadlines, and I got physical exercise to boot. It paid $12 Canadian per hour. Long-term, it would have sucked because the wage was too low. But short-term, it was exactly what I needed at the time to recharge my batteries.

In terms of real career work? Just after I graduated from university, it was a team of young hotshots that made custom .NET apps for improving work processes at a telecom company. Ton of freedom, ton of competence, ton of stuff that got done. Still possibly the best team I've ever worked with.

Autonomy, relationships and mastery.

Its never about the company or the work.

You'll be happy if you have a boss who trusts you completely and colleagues that aren't a-holes. If you have this you will find the work thats interesting.

As a teenager during the summers working for my father driving frontend loader. I sat in a AC cab and screened top soil all day. I went to work at 7am and left around 4pm. I didn't have a care in the world after 4pm.

It wasn't just because I had no bills to pay, I just didn't worry about work. I knew the pile of dirt wasn't going anywhere and the area we were digging out was going to be the same when I got back to work.

I never brought work home. It took me a good 14 years to re-learn that in tech.

My first industry job back in my home country (I live in America now). The company did outsourcing work for a large multinational technology company, and for me it struck the perfect balance between having to be too emotionally involved with the product and getting step by step specs of what needed to be done.

The work was like this: they gave us access to the product's source code and a set of high level requirements (i.e. support standard X, write a new tool that enables automation of Y, add feature Z, etc.). It was up to me and my team members to figure out how to actually implement those things according to the requirements they gave us.

I absolutely loved that setup and really, really miss it. It was challenging in the sense that I had to learn a code base, learn new stuff, read RFCs, and figure out real solutions to real problems. But the problems were handed to me - I didn't have to come up with them.

Every job I've had since then comes with the IMO unreasonable expectation that I be super involved with the product and come up with new ideas and features for it as if I owned it somehow (which I don't). I absolutely loathe that - if I wanted to have that attitude towards work I'd start my own company (which I haven't since I have no business ideas). I'm much more of a "tell me what's the problem and I'll fix it" kind of person, but I haven't been able to find any jobs like that after my first one.

I have never been happier than I was in grad school (the Space Systems Lab at the University of Maryland).

Which might sound surprising, given the pay and work hours... but there's a lot to be said for working with a group of people you love with all your heart, who have your back, in a field you are passionate about and have been since you were a kid.

Grad school was incredibly hard work, and the pay sucked. But I wouldn't give back a single day of it.

Justin.TV during the first 3 years or so. Honestly, because we were in "cowboy mode", and that's what I enjoy the most. The site was growing and changing so fast it was often hard to keep up, and we were all just doing whatever it took.

At my current company (Aha!). Fully remote which is great for me because I'm a night owl. Interesting and technically challenging work in my favorite stack (Rails/React). We use our own product so I get to see my new code/features in front of me the next day. Great environment to learn about running a seriously profitable and successful startup from the inside. And the engineering culture is right in the sweet spot -- independent and self-directed but with brilliant colleagues available to bounce ideas when I get stuck; committed to quality but pragmatic about reality for a large codebase; forward-thinking and open to new technologies but cautious about balancing value and benefit vs. the inherent risks introduced by change.

Sorry to digress - What I want from life keeps changing over time. Maybe evolving as I grow/change as a person. While I was happiest at certain roles/companies in the past, I don't think I would be as happy there now.

Not working at all is my happiest. I don't like working for money. It's always a compromise. Working for fun is something different.

I was pretty happy in my first job as a system administrator for a small B2B ISP in my hometown. Full autonomy, engaged coworkers and challenges that kept increasing.

Unfortunately, I like getting paid and I've been let down in that regard. I was there for 5 years and left for a job at a big 3-letter corporation and then some other corporations. I've been soul searching for a decade now.

Right now: self-employed as a software consultant. Flexible hours, working on average 20 hours per week. As a single parent I'm there for my kids when they need me. When I'm working it's very intense and focused. I'm more productive with my time than I have ever been in my career.

I went through a period 15 years ago where I would work 60-80 hour weeks and be on call 24/7. I learned a lot from that experience and it helped get me where I am now--but it was difficult.

Apple was the most rewarding in many ways, but I was happier working retail at Nestor's sporting goods in Quakertown, PA. I was young and full of vigor, we went camping together many nights after work, rode bicycles together every Sunday, and all was well in the world (year: 2000).

I used to get paid surprisingly well to play capture the flag and hit children with dodge balls, then we'd do stuff like make electric pianos out of 555 timers and paper clips, and popsicle stick trebuchets that could throw a rock several hundred feet.

Easily the best job I've had.

Microware Systems Corporation--it was fun to work with really good people on compilers for an operating system that, at the time, was one of very few pre-emptive multitasking OSs one could get for relatively inexpensive computers. It didn't require memory mapping hardware, and thus couldn't use compilers that presumed knowledge of some absolute address where code and data lived (or could be made to appear at with memory mapping). Probably the most fun was modifying the compiler to take advantage of the "as if" rule by avoiding the "usual arithmetic conversions" where possible. I kick myself periodically for not trying to get that published.

My current company, because it's 100% remote and I can work on my own schedule.

Bell Lab: a private office with a secretary.

These days, every office is open office. Kids so crazy.

First four years of my career I worked in seismic oil exploration. I worked in Sudan for about 18 months, then Nigeria for about the same. Also worked in Tanzania. In Nigeria we lived on house boats. In Sudan aircon trailers. In Tanzania we slept in tents besides crocodile infested rivers and lakes.

Mostly I drove a LandCruiser through all kinds of conditions, checking cables and geophones and swapping out telemetry boxes. Occasionally I would get a week or two in the "Veribo" - which was an air-conditioned room full of automated test equipment. There were long sessions of component level troubleshooting, swapping out components like voltage regulators and power transistors and so on. I became a Senior Observer and moved to the "DogBox" where the main telemtry system was and operated and troubleshot from there - it was much less fun than "running line".

In the rainy season in Sudan we were flown to work every day (and returned home) by an Vietnam Vet who I'm pretty convinced thought the war was still on - attack take offs, landing in clearings with only a few inches between rotors and trees.

It was my first job out of Polytechnic, back in 1984. It was a HELL of a lot of fun. Some great friends made, and sadly lost, in those years.

Square was great. During my time there, the company doubled in size, tripled in valuation, built a plethora of new products, and experienced all the chapters in the adolescence of a successful startup. Everyone was intelligent, most of them treated their coworkers well, and nearly all felt a sense of camaraderie and loyalty to the company as a whole. Left for YC, but if I had to do it all again, I might choose to stay! Those were good times.

My work at a coding bootcamp. I found that I find teaching about programming a lot more enjoyable than actual programming. The reason for that is:

1. Much more interaction with people

2. If I didn't sleep too well on a particular day I can still teach but with programming I'm not productive enough

3. Deadlines and pacing is easier

4. Much more free time when students are doing an exercise or don't need you that much anymore (after 2 months)

I worked as a summer camp counselor and I loved every second of it. We ran a competitive sports camp with kids aged 8-13 years. It was well-run, action-packed, and my co-counselors included some close friends that I still keep in touch with. We laughed, cried, sweated, and laid it all on the line for our weekly team of kids, which was re-drafted every new week. Team loyalty was fierce and the competition extended to include team spirit, sportsmanship, and being a good citizen.

We had enough time to really connect with and influence the kids. I also keep up with a lot of "my kids" on facebook, and they are all grown and many are married with children of their own. I'm very proud of so many of them.

Working with children is incredibly rewarding, but there was no obvious career path where I was. When I was promoted I hated it, and quit.

I was young though, and I didn't care about the money at all while I worked with the kids. It was the best time of my life, so far. Development pays better, but it's really drab by comparison.

My current company - Formlabs. I get to build really good hardware (3D printers), working with ~seven different engineering disciplines. Smart people, high levels of autonomy, and very little politics. People are there to build great stuff.

With few exceptions it's always the place I'm currently working, because happiness in work is a big priority for me, so when I move from place to place I always try to make an improvement in how much I enjoy work.

When I'm unhappy, I ask myself why, and how much effort I think it will take to change what I don't like (which often is something I can change in myself, rather than expecting the environment to do it for me), and if I think it's worth the effort to change (myself or my surroundings) I do.

Otherwise I stay where I'm at until I can figure out how to improve things.

My first real job at an ecommerce company in Sri Lanka. It had a trifecta of awesomeness. A team that cared. A company that at least at the start had a cohesive mission and till my final day there I had a 95% autonomous role. Obviously there were certain overrides but I never felt rank was pulled on me except by 1 person in that entire time. Funnily enough that 1 person was largely responsible for the downfall of the company culture, something that he too admitted.

Regardless, that was easily the most creative period of my life. I would work on one project after another, investing into productivity tools. The company was at the time doing daily deals. I wrote a suite of tools that would take a word doc which was the terms of agreement with the merchant, and convert it to the relevant HTML blocks to be pasted into our ecommerce CMS. After that was done it would cross-check the site against the doc to see if everything was pasted in correctly, and then use a set of defined resources to generate newsletters.

I passed that autonomy down to the rest of my team and it resulted in people tweaking workflows to be more efficient and learning things and taking on other jobs around the company without having to consult me.

Easily the best work of my life for now. By far.

Danger, Inc. Good people, making an important thing (the Sidekick), under hardware constraints that were neither too limiting nor too generous.

I've been at Segment for 2.5 years, and it's been pretty amazing. The founders have done a good job of establishing a solid, but not cultish, culture. Karma is a value, and it's pretty well expressed. Yes, there's plenty of room for improvement, but it's been a terrific ride, and I'm excited for more. #datkoolaid

Secondarily, every time I've volunteered my hard skills, it's been a lot of fun (and oftentimes has a positive payoff down the road). Eg back in Atlanta, I volunteered at a local private school for a couple of months which turned into a $50/hr * 20hrs/week gig.

When I first moved to the Bay Area, I met with a friend of a friend, and when he said he had kids, I casually mentioned that I'd be happy to tutor them if they ever needed any help. This blossomed into a great relationship, and this person is now a good friend and mentor that I've kept up with for the past 6 years.

I suspect one reason that volunteering is so fun is because it's low stress because you can't really get fired, and if you do, it doesn't matter because it's not your primary livelihood. I might sort of say the same thing about some second jobs (in that it doesn't really matter if you lose the second job); however, if the second jobs pays really well (or you really need it), then that stress of keeping the job can creep in.

Driving for Lyft was also a lot of fun. I only did it part time for a few months, but it was great meeting people and exploring the city. The limited-time casual conversations are very interesting because people are more willing to overshare because chances are you'll never see each other again. Back when I drove, it wasn't as mainstream, so the clientele was mostly tech-savvy early adopters, so most conversations were very interesting. I wish I had done it for longer so as to better learn the city's nooks and crannies and also to meet and chat with more people.

The outfitter that I used to work for. I taught whitewater kayaking. Great people, play outside all day, interesting clientele, sense of accomplishment at the end of the day. It never once felt like work. The pay was not good by software industry standards, but it ticked every other box you could imagine for a great place to work.

When I was working as a lighting director at my university.

It was mostly student staffed, but probably one of the best, most professional crews I've ever worked with in a technical production capacity. The equipment was also pretty top notch. It was probably one of the better-equipped venues in Los Angeles.

My coworkers/fellow students and I were pretty dedicated. A lot of us worked full time on top of taking a full course load because we loved what we did. We also socialized a lot and partied together a lot. Most of the friends that I still retain post-college are those folks.

I've really been missing and seeking out that kind of tightness among a group of coworkers ever since. I don't think I'll ever find a dynamic like that ever again, and that's okay. People in the "real world" have their families to go home to and other social lives.

I've had a few jobs that I was really happy at. In fact, most of my jobs have been on the happy end and the ones that weren't, I've moved on quickly. I generally like smaller companies where there's a "family" atmosphere.

1. My current company has been pretty good to me. During the 2011 Super Outbreak [0], when my city lost power for a week or so, they took all the employees and their families and put us up in hotels in Nashville for a few days until things stabilized and we could return home. We didn't even have to work if we didn't want to. After a stressful day of tornadoes and a few days with no power, a nice hot shower was very welcome. Stuff like that is pretty normal here. They take good care of us.

2. I worked for a company that did e-learning materials while I was in college. Our product was basically a self-contained website with videos, subtitles, tests, etc, distributed on CDs. This was the early 2000s, so pretty bleeding edge then.

The owner was a business professor full time and this was his side project. We were always small, and him and his wife always took an interest in all the students that worked for them. Getting a home-cooked meal and a night of poker once a week was a nice perk for a poor college student.

The cool thing, though, was there was no pressure to stay. They knew we were students, they knew we were going to graduate eventually and take jobs elsewhere. It was a mutually beneficial scenario where they got relatively cheap labor (but compared to my friends I was making bank), and we got good experience before heading out into the world.

3. I was a park ranger for the NPS in Yellowstone for a few seasons as well. And that was a fantastic job. I wrote about that in another HN thread [1].

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Super_Outbreak

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14390927

My first job as a junior. I worked with really smart coworkers. I got to build things that were used, and things that made money.

Most other jobs after that I ended up building things that were never used, or used to get some kind of grant or impress investors, and wasn't even what the user wanted.

A lot of the more senior jobs I get, I end up doing a lot of management and getting little work done. Sometimes when someone else does the hiring, I get complete idiots in my team, the kind who typo variable names, spend 3 days discussing specifications, but don't do them, refuse to use source control.

I would really love to get back into a job where I can just build things that people use, with smart people.

My current company (Snap). I have the opportunity to shape huge things and effect millions of dollar worth of changes every year. I personally believe in the innovation potential here. The perks/package etc. have been pretty great as well. I work out of Seattle and fly into LA once in a while. Again, two of my favorite cities in US.

To be fair, for most of my career it has been my current job: Whenever it got to a place where I wasn't happy (mind you - not even unhappy, just chronic normalcy or lack of exciting work), I usually left either the team or the company. It has worked out so far :)

4DK. A cool startup later acquired by Radius Networks. That's where I got the "bug" for coding. It was sometimes stressful and occasionally caused a great deal of anxiety. But everyday, I felt challenged and engaged to the max. Plus, I loved flying out to Chicago to meet the rest of our small dev team and drink beers. It was more about camaraderie than anything else. It was just us, 5 developers and a UX director, against the world. People were trusting me with their livelihoods. And I still feel honored to have been a part of the 4DK team.

None. Haven't found a company that would meet my standard. And we're talking about class A companies. I should try to start my own company, I think it's the only way to get what I want.

At every single company! But that lasts for about 1 week to 12 months. Then everything is automated or routine and becomes boring really fast.

As a contractor, building 3D simulations for the military. It was for man-in-the-loop simulators where we simulated various kinds of ground vehicles and an assortment of sensors (IR, visual, I^2) and our simulation entity had to interact with and/or engage other man-in-the-loop as well as computer-controlled simulation entities.

Had to quit because I was moving out of the area.

Best temp job: Cycle courier. I liked cycling and it paid well (for a guy in high school that is). Winters were a bit harsh though.

Best full-time job Consultant for embedded systems software, mostly prototypes, short projects (2-3 months), jack-of-all-trades work, often going to cool places. Long hours and often in horrible places, away from family and friends, too though.

I worked for a small digital marketing and PR agency in NYC. We worked with clients mostly in the music industry. The environment was very collaborative and it felt like a family in many ways. The work was creative while also being relationship driven. Overall I'd say it was the environment that made me enjoy the job most.

My current company - Asana. They just have an awesome work-life balance that I never had to worry about work at home.

Stratum Security was my best experience to date. They're very welcoming and provided a lot of guidance. I became a better programmer after working with them. And the way I was let go after the project ended, with a glowing LinkedIn recommendation and a bonus MacBook Pro... beats words.

I was happiest when I was working for someone who I really liked as a person

(that's only happened the once, though)

Working at a non profit in SF. I had almost full autonomy doing both tech support and dev, and by the time I left I had the job down pat. People liked me, and I liked working there.

Alas the obvious downside was not making nearly enough to live on remotely comfortably in the Bay Area.

https://quickrep.vn This is a website of our company, its size is quite small with 10 employees. However, we often talk to each other a lot about work and life. Everyone is quite friendly and fun!

My most recent job at the Canon Innovation Lab in Kitchener made me the happiest because of the people I worked with. Incredibly dedicated team that were great to be around and working with University of Waterloo students kept me young at heart.

My second job with Snappydata Inc. Best work environment and great people

Clerk at an art supplies store. Fun colleagues. Low stress.

Funiture delivery.

Load truck with furniture, take furniture off truck.