Comment by themckman | Hacker News Reader

Comment by themckman | Hacker News Reader

Parent Full thread

  I've talked to several developers over the years that dream of being a groundskeeper.

A little about this. I worked plenty of my summers at a country club (my dad is a superintendent) and there is something to the work. There's some really shitty jobs (how about weed-eating the the creek banks in 90 degree temps and 90% humidity?), but mowing grass can be really enjoyable. When working at nicer clubs there is a certain amount of pressure to cut straight and even lines on greens/fairways/tees which is a nice little challenge and rewarding to look back on when you've done a good job (its art). Being out in the sun and working your body a little bit makes a man feel good and you're done around 3 (you start at 6).

It's funny how when we're young we'll look at a job like that with a sort of scorn as if we've got better things to do, but then as you get older you long a little for those nice summer days of cruising up and down the fairways, just you and your machine.

I don't think I'm ready to quit tech anytime soon as I do enjoy it and feel like I might eventually make some lasting impact somewhere, but thinking ahead towards "retirement", there's something appealing about the idea of heading down to the local country club, filling out an application and collecting my $10/hour to cut rough 3 days a week.

The best, most fun job I ever had was being a bag boy at a golf course during the summers when I was in undergrad. Got to spend the day outside, talk to the golfers as they came in, and everyone I worked with was enjoyable (one of my best friends actually ended up working with me when he found out how great it was). Plus, free golf, and during the downtimes we would go hit balls on the range or something. And picking the range (driving the machine around to sweep up the balls off the range) was incredibly chill and relaxing, like you described mowing.

As much as I loved that job, though, there's no way I could do it for a living. There's a reason it's only high school and college kids that do it -- the pay is horrible. Which is honestly fair, since the job's not very intense.

But there's a reason a lot of guys end up as golf course rangers in their retirement years.

> It's funny how when we're young we'll look at a job like that with a sort of scorn as if we've got better things to do, but then as you get older you long a little for those nice summer days of cruising up and down the fairways, just you and your machine.

Totally... also, there are some places that hire summer students and pay kind of lousy money and have rough conditions. But there are other places that will prefer to hire someone older, stabler, long term, and recognize that they won't be able to hold onto such a person without at least paying a living wage. That could be alright. More like $15-20 an hour for relaxed, reasonably well respected work with plenty of exercise and outside time.

> It's funny how when we're young we'll look at a job like that with a sort of scorn as if we've got better things to do, but then as you get older you long a little for those nice summer days of cruising up and down the fairways, just you and your machine.

The problem with a job like this is the lack of variety. Cruising up and down the same fairways for the seventeenth year can really get to you.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com