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Comment by petargyurov | Hacker News Reader

Congrats on starting!

One bit of advice I would personally give is to remember that work is just work.

You will have responsibilities, deadlines, arguments, critisms and one day you might find yourself anxious and stressed out. When that happens, it's nice to remind yourself that the critical bug or whatever you're working on is meanigless in the grand scheme of things. No matter how passionate you are about your company, your personal life and principles should always come first.

It sounds obvious but humans tend to forget that kind of stuff.

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It doesn't sound obvious at first. Once you have a few years of work behind you, it starts becoming more obvious.

Once you see CEOs say "Everything's fine" one day, and 2 weeks later lay off 10% of the company (or 70% of my current team) with no real warning beforehand, then it starts becoming REAL obvious.

Being a freelance contractor, working 4 to 12 month projects at a time with different companies, I've seen quite a bit of crap.

But being a freelancer / contractor, I've built a client network plus a "radar" for potential trouble (e.g. company is re-organizing the whole tech team for the 3rd time in 3 years, or a new round of financing is coming up and the last 2 quarterlies were below forecast).

I've found this is easier after changing jobs a couple times. At some point you'll look back at what you did at your previous job, and most likely you'll barely remember exactly what it was or why it was considered important. Certainly nothing to warrant stressing out about it. Realizing that the same will apply to your current job in just a couple years really helps put things into perspective. Looking back, you're much more likely to remember whether you were happy or stressed than any of those details that seem so all-consumingly important right now.

This is an amazing back to basic tip that I actually fully implement. My variation is: work is just work, and when working make the most of it during the time that you work.

Without that addition, one could interpret the "work is just work" too negatively.

The discussion that this advice has created is something that I'll reread a few times as I have experienced similar experiences while I was studying at university.

I only just noticed your reply, sorry for the late answer. I agree with your variation. Work can certainly be enjoyable!

> I'll reread a few times

Me too! I'm glad to hear my comment sparked something helpful :)

+1. I need to remind myself about this almost weekly.

In my first job I reached a point where every day I'd wake up and I would quite literally dread the day ahead. It was hard to realise that I was suffering from anxiety and that I actually didn't enjoy what I was doing. I was fresh out of uni and I just thought that that's what all working adults feel like.

Looking back at it it's mind boggling how I didn't quit sooner.

If you are in a similar position consider if you're actually happy at your workplace. It's easy to tell yourself that "it's just a phase" and to "hold out a little longer" - more often than not these phases become the norm.

What if the workplace is not the problem, but me instead? I don't want to quit, it could be worse somewhere else and for me it could be bad everywhere.

> What if the workplace is not the problem, but me instead?

That's a valid concern. Unfortunately it's one of those things that only _you_ can find the answer to. Getting experience in different companies helps here because you have something to compare your experiences with. Ask yourself what problems you're facing. Write it down; it really helps.

If you are the problem you are also the answer.

I was in similar situation. I didn't quit, and spent quite a lot of time figuring out what was the real issue that me miserable. It turned out it was something I could change without quitting. I managed to change it, but I first needed to understand the real root cause. It is like debugging your life. Mindfulness and introspection are great tools in those times.

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