I could never relate to people who care about their career, "success", getting ahead, or climbing the corporate ladder.
For me virtually everything else in life has been more important, and careers/jobs were just a necessary evil because it's almost impossible to survive without money.
> careers/jobs were just a necessary evil because it's almost impossible to survive without money
I don’t think this is incompatible with caring about your career.
My perspective is that I am very fortunate to have a job as a software developer, and that someday my luck may run out (bad economy, unexpected expenses, decreased demand for my skills, etc). My goal isn’t to be rich and live in luxury, my goal is to insulate myself from bad luck.
So at least for now, I would like to “advance my career” (especially since I’m in an entry-level role), just to give myself a bit of extra security.
Career and climbing the corporate ladder are orthogonal. For example, I don't care about climbing the corporate ladder but I do care very much about my career progression because it defines what job opportunities I get to choose from in the future and better career progression allows me more freedom to choose only the ones that are likely to be fun. (Unlike many here, I actually enjoy my profession.)
I think I agree. The job is a means to an end. The only two times that I actually applied for a higher position is when I noticed a really, really bad candidate applied ( with a good chance of getting that position too ) and would effectively become my boss. I am not the manager type, but sometimes you have to bite the bullet and choose lesser evil.
> careers/jobs were just a necessary evil because it's almost impossible to survive without money
> Once you have a family, debt, obligations it does matter. Health care too.
Health care is obviously the elephant in the room. But generally, you'll find that people like this have structured their life in a way that allows them to have this attitude toward their career.
We in the tech industry are particularly blessed in our ability to do this. (perhaps less so in the Bay Area)
"Given the necessity of work, I would rather enjoy my work and excel at it than sluff off."
True, but from my perspective the career oriented people don't actually care about that stuff or solving problems. In my mind, the people I would label as career oriented are usually pretentious assholes preoccupied by the "status" of someday being in the C suite and driving the most expensive BMW/Tesla.
On the other side, you can have fun, perform well, and solve problems yet have a stagnant career. You would have to play the politics to leverage those into career advancement.
I'm not saying everyone is. I'm just saying the people I know who are, or have the ambition to become, CEOs etc are that way. My sample size is low, and does not include FAANG. Perhaps FAANG is more meritocracy and less politics (and I'm talking about management, not ICs). In finance and healthcare admin (CEO) it seems it's about image and politics, with the ones I know being pretentious assholes.
> True, but from my perspective the career oriented people don't actually care about that stuff or solving problems. In my mind, the people I would label as career oriented are usually pretentious assholes preoccupied by the "status" of someday being in the C suite and driving the most expensive BMW/Tesla.
But make no mistake my family and I come first. If a doomed project is not my fault and I can’t fix it…. I’m still taking that paycheck and finishing tasks….
A career can be meaningful or meaningless. It can be meaningful if you are making money doing something you feel it's important to do in the world: for example, nature conservation work. I am working on that, and in that realm I care about the work I do. But I also have a corporate job, where I'm just hired to do something for someone else. In that case, it's only about money and I just satisfy the job description without putting anything more into it. In that case I'm just using it to make enough money to support my future projects and I don't plan on staying here much longer.
For some, a creer is a means to something else. For example, if you want to retire early, making more money is the best way to save more. Progressing in your acreer can be a great way to increase your income. Therefore progressing your career can be your best option to reach a goal outside of your career.
I also feel that work is among the least important things I've got going on, but that doesn't seem like a reason not to care about maximizing career success. If you've got to work ~40 hours per week anyway, why not make an effort to maximize the return on your time?
It might help to learn about how they spend their time out of work, and to learn about their upbringing and parents. And how they see their goals at work.
I can tell you that many of them also see work as a necessary evil they need to do what they really want.
For me virtually everything else in life has been more important, and careers/jobs were just a necessary evil because it's almost impossible to survive without money.