Been making internet ads more reliable for a few years now. That’s literally my entire job. Making sure that ads get shown on your computer screen with as little errors as possible. I was able to handle it okay at first because it pays well and I have no ability to get another job (combination of awful labor market and low experience) but I’ve been dissociating hard af and have started to get incredibly dark thoughts while at work (I’m perfectly fine outside of it) the last few weeks
It’s not even a fake email job, it’s pretty complex and has a decently high workload too so I can’t just screw around. I actually need to be able to focus deeply for hours every day which is now almost impossible because of how empty and dreadful it’s been making me
Haven’t quit because I’m supporting my partner as well who makes no money living their desired career
I’m sorry you’re going through that. I have a meaningless tech job, but fortunately it is mostly low stress with stretches of down time and stretches of crunch. If you can find a job with a schedule like that, it may help. But on the flip side it doesn’t pay much compared to most tech jobs and my spouse and I are just breaking even each month. You may be able to find another job with similar skills in another company, field, maybe NGO etc that is closer to something that interests you? But that’s a big if. Others in a similar thread here on hexbear, https://hexbear.net/post/4704897, were giving advice along those lines. Looking ay NGOs, doing GitHub projects for employers, etc. You may need to find a way to switch jobs to something that is less demanding so you have a better ability to “check out” and treat the job for what if is - just a means to an end. You may take a pay cut though - but sanity is priceless. It would be nice if work wasn’t alienating, but you know the drill there.
I’ve been casually looking for the last half year and the only people giving me interviews are hedge funds, Meta, Amazon, Doordash, Tiktok, and <10 people startups that want you to work 60-100 hours a week making an LLM wrapper to automate away workers or some stupid blockchain shit
You got more interviews than me lol. I couldn’t get big tech compact interviews, just smaller companies, and I got desparate enough to take the position I have now. My friend also was looking for work and found some tech job with a small company that builds art supplies. He can live with that. But none of these positions were the typical data science, or data engineering dev ops position that most people in tech are seeking. So the pay is less. But, the work load is less too than your job from what it sounds and it isn’t complete a completely bullshit
job.
I remember back when I was still looking for jobs and an acquaintance of mine was so excited because they had found a data science job finally. They were so excited to tell me about this interesting position at Netflix where they use machine learning to find the optimal place to inserts ads into the TV shows…
Shit like that just crushes my soul, and I was confused as to how this person seemed like they were excited by that shit. Some people are just built different I suppose… tech people are smart but clueless and always stuck me as soulless empty people who would happily program the fascist death machine and geek out about it. I have stories, and I’m sure you do too.
I imagine any high paying job with start ups or the big tech companies is just working for the demiurge.
It took me a long time to find a job, so keep looking. I thought I would have had more luck in the job search half a year in, but it wasnt the case. Luckily you have no financial stress to find a job now. So you can be picky. I would keep looking, and give yourself some room to explore atypical job titles or institutions.
So I’ve heard that working at a big tech can lock you into only other big tech companies. Non tech or smaller companies won’t give you a chance because they’re scared you’ll quickly leave to a higher paying job and are only using their job as a temporary measure while you look for something better
That may be true. Sorta makes sense in their twisted logic way. If you can get an interview they may ask you about that, so make sure to have some response. But for getting an interview it is a numbers game, and applying for jobs is a full time job itself. The whole thing’s a shit system. You’ve only done it for half a year, and only casually you say. So there is definitely a possibility of getting another job, even if the “lock in” effect is true, it can be broken with enough well tailored applications.
It sucks though. Everything about capitalism sucks
Also, idk if it’s just me, but linking hexbear posts or comments just doesn’t work on my phone. Maybe it works for you though, but on my phone the link just returns me to this page…
In case that link doesn’t work for you, search for the post “First job as software engineer. Realized I don’t love it as much as I love the humanities/social sciences. What to do?”
Some extra advice there may be somewhat related to your situation? Idk
Sorry for the tech fail.