I am 32 and had a slow career start. I did a master’s degree in a field I was not a fit for. It was was a struggle at times, but ok enough to continue, but it went painfully wrong near the end. I left university unprepared, unemployed, with no plan, almost zero work experience, and feeling worthless as sh*t. I knew about EA and 80k, but that did not help. In fact, EA made it worse.
And I was so happy to take on a temporary job at a printer manufacturer in a small town far away from my social circle. At uni, I sometimes felt that I learned too slow and wasn’t worth other people’s time. This was not the case here. On the contrary, they were friendly, patient, and talked in clear language (or dialect). I could ask dumb questions there—but did not need to. I was productive on day 3. I felt I could contribute something to my team.
Career capital from this job: zero. Unless getting back my self-worth is ‘career capital’.
It would take me another 7(!) years to find another job that I am truly happy about (though I had many positive experiences on the way), though the impact is mediocre. I still have a long way to go. All I can do is to keep trying and learning, and maybe, with a lot of luck, do something good for the world before AI takes over.
I wish I could believe in career longtermism. AI timelines are probably too short. It’s just that career progress is slow, at least for some people.
Thanks for your comment and sharing your story. I understand what you mean about EA making you feel worse—making your comparison group extremely smart people can further diminish confidence in one’s abilities.
I would say getting your self-worth back is definitely career capital, or can be viewed as something that will make you much more effective in the long term compared with if you’d stayed in the mental state you felt prior to this job. Your temporary job will have been a lot more ‘useful’ than mine was (trust me on this) and it doesn’t mean it was devoid of developing your soft skills and confidence.
I’m glad you’ve found a job you’re now happy with. My new job will probably have minimal impact too for the first few years while I train and am a more junior member of staff. But try to retain some optimism—assuming you’re not much older than I am, even if AI takes over there will be some way to have impact—I very much hope! Like with action to target climate change, feeling all is doom can equal inaction.
A friend recently reminded me that it’s possible (but not certain) that some humans have an impact on the world even after AI takeover. If true, careers can be long.
Good to read this.
I am 32 and had a slow career start. I did a master’s degree in a field I was not a fit for. It was was a struggle at times, but ok enough to continue, but it went painfully wrong near the end. I left university unprepared, unemployed, with no plan, almost zero work experience, and feeling worthless as sh*t. I knew about EA and 80k, but that did not help. In fact, EA made it worse.
And I was so happy to take on a temporary job at a printer manufacturer in a small town far away from my social circle. At uni, I sometimes felt that I learned too slow and wasn’t worth other people’s time. This was not the case here. On the contrary, they were friendly, patient, and talked in clear language (or dialect). I could ask dumb questions there—but did not need to. I was productive on day 3. I felt I could contribute something to my team.
Career capital from this job: zero. Unless getting back my self-worth is ‘career capital’.
It would take me another 7(!) years to find another job that I am truly happy about (though I had many positive experiences on the way), though the impact is mediocre. I still have a long way to go. All I can do is to keep trying and learning, and maybe, with a lot of luck, do something good for the world before AI takes over.
I wish I could believe in career longtermism. AI timelines are probably too short. It’s just that career progress is slow, at least for some people.
Thanks for your comment and sharing your story. I understand what you mean about EA making you feel worse—making your comparison group extremely smart people can further diminish confidence in one’s abilities.
I would say getting your self-worth back is definitely career capital, or can be viewed as something that will make you much more effective in the long term compared with if you’d stayed in the mental state you felt prior to this job. Your temporary job will have been a lot more ‘useful’ than mine was (trust me on this) and it doesn’t mean it was devoid of developing your soft skills and confidence.
I’m glad you’ve found a job you’re now happy with. My new job will probably have minimal impact too for the first few years while I train and am a more junior member of staff. But try to retain some optimism—assuming you’re not much older than I am, even if AI takes over there will be some way to have impact—I very much hope! Like with action to target climate change, feeling all is doom can equal inaction.
A friend recently reminded me that it’s possible (but not certain) that some humans have an impact on the world even after AI takeover. If true, careers can be long.