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I feel sad about being in a standstill position in my life right now. everything feels like stopped, and i am not growing.

My only source of income is my job, which does pays well, but not much. I have been in this job for 6 months (3rd job in 3 years) and although it is satisfying in terms of the work i do, everything else is just bleh. quantity of work is a lot, there is chaos everywhere, bosses are incompetent and demanding and worst of all , its hybrid, so am wasting 2-3 days every week.

apart from work, i struggle to make myself useful. outside work hours, i want to earn more money, health, popularity and power.

- for health, i goto gym , which hopefully is the onlh thing going correct in my life. although am not getting any major transformation, the feeling of pain among my muscles feels good and people seems to know me somewhat in there.

- for money, popularity and power , am again at a still.
--- power comes from popularity and money.
--- money comes from ability to influence(and optionally with knowledge) .
--- popularity also comes with knowledge and/or ability to influence.
--- knowledge can be bought/learned.

- above all are my guesses. i haven't yet cracked the exact dependency graph in here. but the simplest thing to get is knowledge and i have been trying to get a hold of it, but in vain

- i have tried a lot of stuff in last 3 years :

--- get better in android ( which i did by working professionally) ,
--- learn web frontend (html/css/js/react, etc ., for which i took courses and i know them now somewhat ) ,
--- learn web backend ( spring, node, flask, aws, etc .,for which i took courses/videos)
--- learn no code stuff (markdown generators, wordpress etc , for which i tried as hobby)
--- learn ios/hybrid stuff(flutter, react native etc, for ehich i watched videos, did courses etc)

- the problem is, am just good at one thing (android) and have a limited knowledge (5-30%) of all the others. companies won't pay me more to be a mediocre full stack dev than what they are paying me now to be a decent junior android dev

- the areas where i lack as of now is DS,Algo, Competitive programming and System designing. these are skills expected for someone trying to crack a good fortune 5xx company

- i am not so sure if i want to do these since there isn't a guarantee whether i will be happy to be in google or amazon. i could guess the amount they would pay me for being a mediocre full stack dev.

- i am not even sure if its good for me to change jobs every few months. i contribute heavily wherever i go, nd i leave at the moment am about to receive a probable reward(probable promotion/increment) for a more concrete reward ( the definite increment from a job switch)

- my existing knowledge is being wasted like the various uselss courses i did in college as i am unable to find a usecase for them. i am tired of making useless jira clones , caclulators and portfolio pages for myself which no one will be using or appreciating.

- keeping the whole tech life aside, my family runs the blood of businessmen and i am not able to progress in that as well. my father was an average grocery shop owner whose shop is now on rent and who is now doing a sales job too. however, their family shop with grandfather and brothers was once a very popular and money minting business 40 years ago.

- i sometimes feel i could do good in business area, but i am a complete blank slate in that department with no one to support (my father is old now)

- alongside non career problems ( midlife crisis, money shortage, no friends ), life feels pretty stagnant right now :/

Comments
  • 3
    Why is the hybrid work a waste of time to you? You mention not having many friends.
    Maybe office time is an opportunity to connect with colleagues and get to know them a bit more
  • 0
    > bosses are incompetent and demanding

    Someone on here once said, if the pilots are drunk, get off the plane...

    Sounds like you're not happy. Change it up!
  • 1
    @black-kite its waste because i am not at a level of making full scale products due to 3 factors :

    1. i don't have the adequate knowledge for it : making a full scale e-commerce app or social media platform will require significant knowledge and internet surfing. This is not a blocker tho as i can do that

    2. i don't have the adequate idea and associated resources for it. I could not think of a unique idea for which i could develop a platform , which people would like, and whose content i would be able to create. i am a 1 man show. if i create a keychain selling app, i would need to arrange keychains which i don't have. same goes for blog platform, video platform etc . i have created clones in past, but what's the point?

    3. i don't have a demand for it: guess i covered it in previous point only. if something isn't churning money or fame, then why create one? for resume?
  • 1
    @lungdart yeah you shouldn't always do what everyone says. sometimes we deal with the cards we are served. 3 jobs in 3 years at the start of my career already sounds pretty bad. and my current job is with the TATAs, one of the most respected company of our country known for never doing layoffs, generating employement and having people stay for 15+ years .

    all these points do not fully matter to me, and yes i will resign, but atleast after spending 2 years here.

    Adding to it, the economy is pretty bad right now, and even if i get an offer, the companies offerring jobs now are putting exorbitant conditions and negotiations
  • 0
    @dotenvironment Tata communications? I've had a lot of friends who worked there in the past.
  • 1
    I'm working with one of the highest paying companies in India (pays more than Google/Amazon), so please hear me out.

    1. Almost everyone is miserable in their job, if job is all they count. Then why nit be miserable in a high paying one?

    2. High paying jobs give you more financial flexibility. I've saved enough to not worry about my finances. More tha. 3 years of runway = no worry about losing job.

    3. Once you're at that level, other companies will easily hire you. During my last switch I got calls from pretty much all the big companies, including Google, Uber, Amazon, Rubrik etc... Once you're at that level, you can easily switch.

    4. Also, preparation is hard just once. Once you're good at, you'll stay good. Rustiness can be shed within days if you're already good.

    Now the point is, how do you reach that level.

    Sorry, character limit reached.
    I can add another comment if you want
  • 1
    All those long sentences could be prevented by having what your desires…

    A PUSSY.
  • 1
    A job is always a job no matter how good it is.

    As a dev there will never be only a bit of work. No matter where you go, there will always be infinite work. You have to accept that "done" isn't a state that will ever apply to more than a ticket. Software doesn't get done - it is abandoned.

    Management will always decide things other than you would. Apart from incompetence, one of the very common reasons for that is that other people have other perspectives and value different things differently.
  • 0
    @BugsBuggy nice motivating comment. thanks. but it didn't added much value to my problem.

    what you are essentially saying is "hey man, you are sad because you got no money. (aim to) get money and you won't be sad".

    I am glad that getting a lot of money is working for you, but my problem is 2 fold:

    1. the efforts i am making in reaching a point where i too get a lot of money are going nowhere. I tried a lot of stuff, got `basic` in it, and remained `basic` there.

    companies consider me as `basic`/jr even after putting a lot in the last 3 years of professional coding. the only way am able to generate some worth is by jumping ships.

    my salary has gone almost 3x from my first job. but it feels more like a damage than reward

    ...
  • 0
    2. even if i somehow reach a good paying job, i was forseeing a powerless/undistinguished future. but your comment about getting a interview offers from faang changes my perspective somewhat that we devs are getting a respect at least in our community.

    So i guess i may be respected enough to get free t shirts from google but will still have to fight meekly for parking in my society.

    3. my another point of sadness comes from the fact that i am not an entrepreneur . Idk why, but i always saw people at ownership roles to be more powerful than people in service class , even if the latter had more money in the banks. there is a certain class among those jewellery shop and pharmacy shop owners who have a few 1000s in their cash counter but millions in their walls/mattresses/plots/and other black areas
  • 0
    Don't undervalue your android skills! My friend makes really simplistic Transit Apps that tell you what time the bus comes at. They are horrible and have ads everywhere but he makes at least 1000 a month in ad revenue. Focus on solving a problem you have, and think to yourself, would other people have this problem? If you think at least 10% of the population has the same problem as you, then build a solution!
  • 0
    @dotenvironment a high paying job is not so much about money.

    Let me tell you why:
    1) If the job pays you a lot, which in return lets you do a lot of stuff you otherwise wouldn't, which tricks your brain into believing your job is bearable. It works for me, I really really hate where I am right now, but the package makes it bearable.
    2) FIRE: Financial Independence Retire Early - a concept that keeps me going.
    3) Smarter colleagues, more learning, better growth and more opportunities. It will unlock many many doors for you and ease the pressure. For example, I'm actually unhappy at my current job but I know there are companies ready to hire me, with really good package albeit slightly less than my current salary.

    (let me reread your comment to add more)
  • 1
    @dotenvironment regarding entrepreneurship, I'm hoping to do the same but haven't done yet so can't comment.

    But listen to this and listen carefully.

    You work to pay your bills.
    You don't work to make yourself happy.
    You do stuff to make yourself happy.
    A hobby, a family, your friends, a vacation, the outings, the food etc.
    Don't attach yourself to the job.

    Keep learning, not because it's your passion, but because it's going to help you advance your career which will in turn help you grow in other aspects.

    Try to enjoy your work. But don't seek your life's happiness from work. Your company is not your family. Your job is not your passion.
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