10 years ago, I was at a job that underpaid, super boring with no room for growth. No matter how hard I tried, I wasn’t able to make progress. I mustered enough courage to quit that job. I sold my ancestral property, took student loan, gathered just enough funds for a Semester and pursued higher studies. That turned out well, met great professors, fantastic students and learned a lot. Got research assistantship, got internship and covered good chunk of my tuition fee. Got a full time job at FAANG and paid remaining student loan with an year. First year at the company was fantastic. But my next year, the SDM was acting weird and I was loosing confidence. I moved to another team and I had great time. Worked really hard and got promoted in an year. That was my highest point in life. Fit, active, hitting gym, pursuing hobbies and kicking ass at work. COVID happened, lost all routines and became couch potato. Work started to become boring without any good projects. Missed out on purchasing home with super low interest rates. Mental health impacted and work slowed down. Bounced back next year and did great work. SDM was super happy and we started talking about promo. He left after a month and things changed ever since. The next year, I got very underwhelming pay increase and that’s when I realised the huge gap between my pay and Marley value: that was a really hot job market. Took it easy at work and started preparing. But wasn’t disciplined enough to wrap up quickly. Then lays off started to happen. So I have stayed put. Then SDM was supportive of promo and we even started writing the doc. Meanwhile multiple reorgs and multiple SDM changes happened. The current sdm and I are super incompatible. All he did last year was to bash and break my morale. Interviewed internally, got an offer but the team rescinded due to hiring freeze. A week later major layoffs were announced. So stuck with the team. Confidence further shattered. I went into depression, took therapy and recovered from it. Delivered good projected toward the end and recovered confidence a bit. While all this is happening, colleagues zoomed past. the promo is out of sight. Looking at all of this, while there were setbacks, I am choosing to be grateful for my progress over last 10 years and hopeful for the future to bounce back!! #tech
Amen!
Your mental health seems to be tied to what your manager thinks about you. I don't blame you but you need to get out of this unhealthy attachment.
Tc or gtfo
This sounds like typical life/career progression as opposed to dealing with adversity. You won't feel the heat until you've been laid off/fired. As mentioned earlier, try to stop tying your well-being to your job/manager. You'll only become more disappointed in the long run.
This is sage advice. But how to actually achieve this?
Everyone's learning experience will be different. For me, I spent my 20s and some of 30s like OP--- tying too much of my identity to my job. There had to be a catalyst/forcing function to open my eyes, which manifested as my job being compromised for the first time in my life. It has been a humbling experience and helped me realize that there is more to life than chasing prestige/TC. Don't get me wrong, I still want to work and live well, but never again be in a position where my well-being is negatively affected by the actions of some employer.
Thanks for sharing. Timing and luck sometimes is more important than efforts.
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