Ask HN: 9to5/Consulting/Startup, where are/were you most happy? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: 9to5/Consulting/Startup, where are/were you most happy?

51 pointsalt37 comments

I realize that HN is the place for startups and living the dream. Sometimes it's not a happy dream, so I ask, "Where were you most happy?"

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My experience:

                |  % of time   |  % of time   | % of time
      mode      |  working on  | cleaning up  | wasted on
                | my own stuff | others' crap | other B.S.
  --------------+--------------+--------------+------------              
  a. 9 to 5     |      10      |      40      |     50     
  b. consulting |      30      |      40      |     30
  c. start-up   |     100      |       0      |      0

The winner: c.

From what I hear there's a lot of BS to deal with when you run a startup. You have to run the business, so there's accounting stuff to deal with and such. There's support. Eventually there's raising money and hiring people, both of which often take way longer than they should and are frustrating, but they're both very important.

Sure, it may not feel as unproductive as sitting in meetings all day and not accomplishing anything, but it's still time that you're doing annoying tasks instead of hacking.

Of course. That's why I entitled Column 1 "working on my own stuff" instead of "writing my own software".

  Good:    writing someone else's software
  Better:  working on my own business (not writing software)
  Best:    writing my own software

A start-up includes "Better" and "Best". Both fall into Column 1.

it's not really BS because it's your BS. I think the issue is motivation.

Depends on what the BS _is_ I suppose. For me, I'd categorize almost all of the time I spend on HN that I should otherwise be working as BS.

Not sure what you mean by support, but supporting users of your stuff, getting feedback and even just having a conversation about what you've made is one of the most rewarding parts of running your own business.

You don't necessarily need to raise money or hire people. Accounting can be as simple as you'll let it be -- there are some dials you can twiddle in terms of complexity, especially very early.

Thats why you get a good business side cofounder ;)

Next week I will go from freelance to employed 4 days/week. That's a fourth option: 9 to 5 but not a full week.

If you want to know how I'm doing follow my blog Opportunity Cloud.

Having done mostly 9 to 5 and only consulting once, I'm convinced that working on your own start-up provides the best chance for happiness. I think this is mostly true because in a 9 to 5 and consulting, the primary metric is time instead of productivity.

Most 9 to 5s are about face time (or butt-in-chair time) and consulting is about billable hours. If you can do your job more efficiently (better job done in less time), a 9 to 5 says you still have to be at work looking busy until a certain time and in consulting, getting the job done faster can result in less money earned (if you're charging by the hour).

In your own start-up, finding more efficient ways to get things done benefits you directly. You now have more time to complete the next task. The sooner you finish, the better.

I've done all three. Working for the man is the easiest and most soul-crushing. Shaking the idea that you are wasting your life away is not easy - because you are.

Working on a startup is the most difficult, and the most draining. It requires some personal sacrifices that have negative side effects, even if you don't buy into the "work 100 hour weeks" BS. Emotionally, it's draining. Financially, it sucks - until it doesn't (if you ever get that far). Once investors step in, the stress ratchets up and things just generally become a pain in the ass. On the plus side, you're living it - making something from nothing in an all-out effort. To bad "living it" gets pretty old after a while (and it takes more than a while to get something good going).

Consulting is a great balance for me. I work on my own stuff a lot, meet great people, do interesting things and generally live a low stress life. Financially, it's ok. I'm not getting rich, but it's better than startup pay (.i.e. zero). The one drawback is the nagging thought that your side project could be a "real startup" if you just put more effort into it and got some other people involved...

So basically, pick your poison. There's a flavor for everyone.

Let's see: 6 years in 9to5, 4 years in small business, 5 months in consulting (and these overlap). I really enjoy consulting for the intellectual challenge, and the money is lovely, but hands down working on my products makes me happiest. The quality of life improvement versus 9to5 (or, ahem, 10to27) is impossible to overstate.

I haven't worked full time on my owns startup before. But I have worked at 3 different startups in the period of 3 years as an employee before landing a cushy job in a big corporation.

Working at the startup before having my first child: not too bad, sometimes stressful, but I could handle it well. The work was always engaging, and it was hard to separate work from life.

Working at startup post-child: stressful, because now having a kid means I can't put in long hours at work as my family needs me at home. I would much rather forget about work and focus on the needs of my family when 5 PM rolls by. I was more susceptible to burn out once I started my family + working at a startup.

Big Corp: lack of stress, nice compensation + benefits = happiest workplace. The slower pace does not drive me crazy, and instead it gives me a chance to indulge in my technical curiosities.

For now, I'm enjoying my big corp employment. It's only been 3 months so far, and I realize that may change if I have to deal with more corporate BS, but it's the most enjoyable workplace I've been at so far.

The catch here is that my team here is top notch, and the section I'm in is very engineering/hacker oriented.

Out of curiosity, is the big corporation a software, or at least technical, corporation, or are you working in an IT department in a non-technical corporation?

Yep, it is a technical corporation. Mostly dealing with aerospace software.

I've never been so happy as I'm today :)

I'm currently doing consulting and bootstrapping projects with my wife as co-founder, living in the country-side of france in a cheap place, with our son.

Startup are really not my dream actually: I worked for one in my early days. 9to5 jobs really appear "cluttered" to me (ie: lot of time wasted on low value stuff, where you could really benefit from that time with family or hobbies).

> with my wife as co-founder, living in the country-side of france in a cheap place, with our son

That alone sounds like a dream. Where in France are you living?

Replying a bit late: we're in Tesson, a village near Saintes.

http://maps.google.fr/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=fr&...

I have been consulting for the past 6 months and the transition from the 9-5 job to this has been horrible. It has taken a while to get some good projects and I have almost run out of money (I've had several sleepless nights over these months), but I'm starting to see the rewards. I'm starting to get some pretty high paying jobs and I totally work for myself from home/coffee shops.

I have a love/hate relationship with contracting. I love the actual work and the dynamics involved, but I hate not having a monthly fixed budget and always having to fight for high-paying projects. A lot of business/administration is taking up my time which I could by spending on my own projects.

I think I'm most happy at a small company which is just emerging from the startup phase. I like flexible hours, working from home sometimes, dynamic and intense environment, a salary, an office to go to, etc. Best of both worlds I guess.

I've worked for 11-12 years in startups, as a consultant (both freelance and employed by bigger firms) and in 9-to-5s building products for the man.

They all have ups and downs but if there's any one conclusion to draw from my experience it's that the most important thing to make you happy is the people you work with day to day.

The second thing is having a life outside work.

The third would be a job that makes meaning.

Adding it together I would think that starting a small consultancy business together with people I know I enjoy working with would be the optimal scenario.

Why not a product based startup? A startup has to consume almost all your mental energy. It's much more uncertain, more stress. Sure, the highs are higher, but the lows are also much lower.

9-5: people are happy here because there very little pressure (in a typical job) - if you think there's pressure, then you haven't been in the initial stages of consulting or worse, in bootstrapping your startup for the first time.

Consulting: once you get out of the mindset of feeling you always need steady income (getting sporadic client payments, having to follow up with clients, etc), this is actually pretty comfortable. You have a lot of freedom to define your life's activities. Just be sure to charge appropriately and know what you need to live on.

Startups: starting a startup is very different than just working in one; working as an employee (even with equity) in a startup may seem hectic at times, but in the end, everything isn't sitting on your shoulders when all is said and done. Being a founder has the additional burdens of a business - including dealing with incompatible partners/founders. Its easy to walk away when you're an employee - harder when you're a founder.

I've done all three (any two of the above at the same time) and can say that I would be happiest in a functional startup (rather than dysfunctional!) - just be sure to choose your partners well. I'm reasonably happy doing consulting work at the moment, but I don't feel particularly challenged, which is why I'm looking to dive back into the world of startups again.

I have a 9 to 5 right now. It's a good job and I feel like it's important work, but I'm also starting something on the side. There's something about picking your own problem, finding your own solution, and building that into a business that just beats working for someone else.

You know, you can restrict the hours you work on a startup or consulting gig. You're not going to get billions that way, but you can make a nice living.

Regular job, but working from home and with no fixed hours.

Consulting is nice but a little stressy in that you always have to find clients.

Haven't done a real startup.

Your job sounds like a ROWE (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ROWE). Do you work for Best Buy?

Yea it's pretty much that. No, not Best Buy, just a great boss :)

I've worked for small businesses and big hulking bureaucracies. I've done a little contracting. I'm always searching for a place or set of circumstances where I can joyfully engage and excel for the long term. One of my biggest character flaws is my tendency to be restless and dissatisfied.

I guess my most happy place would be contracting or consulting. University was also a very happy and stimulating time for me, though I didn't realize it at the time.

I'm having a really difficult time with my career path and work life at the moment. Can you tell?

I hear you loud and clear.

I've worked at two startups: one small and untested that failed, and another that was more a very immature established company(they had products, customers, revenues, etc) but espoused the "work all the time, because there's too much to get done" philosophy.

I've also worked for a private company that did consulting for the US Government (mostly, but not all, for the DoD). The quality of life was great, but I was surrounded by people who were interested in punching the clock.

I started working as a game developer earlier this year, and have found its lows way lower than I imagined and its highs few and far in-between.

I don't think there is a panacea. I second the opinion that: - work you find rewarding - with people you enjoy doing it with - for acceptable compensation

is about as good as it gets.

Currently extracting myself from the 9 to 5 because I am thoroughly soul crushed. I would rather halve the money and be happy that I am not wasting my life.

Working in a technical position at a startup has been the best experience for me. Although I haven't done much consulting, it is a definite improvement over working a 9 to 5 at a fortune 500 company. I feel like everything I do is worth my time, which is all I really need.

Currently I'm doing the 9to5, consulting and working on more than one personal venture. I couldn't be happier with all the work and challenges but I think along with a few other comments here I'd enjoy just working on my ventures more and some consulting.

I started a company and it barely survived for 12 years. So happy to be taking a vacation with a normal job and a paycheck. For now. In another couple years I'll be back on the wagon.

Working on a startup gave me extremes of happiness and stress.

Working at a 9-5 -- sorry, 8-8 -- is like Prozac. It dulls the extremes, and sometimes that can be a good thing.

Personally I seem to be reasonably happy when I'm consulting 2 hours a day and working on my new startup 6-10 hours a day. However, I'm happiest when I'm spending 4 hours per day down at the swimming pool flirting with my cute neighbors. That's what I mostly do since selling my last company, I highly recommend it.

Where do you live?

But my company is worth nothing and my dog is cutest than my neighbors!

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