general Have you ever had a moment where you realized you're not cut out for your job?

[KatonRyu 1,026]

As the title says, have you ever had a moment where you realized that you're really not cut out for the job you do? I have, today.

I'm a programmer. I went to college, got my Bachelor's degree, have a job, etc. Tomorrow, a new programmer is going to apply at our company. To test his skills, two of the senior devs created a test for him to do, in which he has to come up with an algorithm which sorts and merges objects along specified guidelines. I was the guinea pig for the test, and I failed miserably. After three hours, I still had nothing but errors and failing tests. A friend of mine, who hasn't programmed in two years, was able to get something more or less working in half the time, so it wasn't like the assignment was too difficult. I just completely lack the ability to come up with an algorithm. At that moment, I realized that all of my programming skills are derivative rather than innovative. I just look at what's there and expand upon it or alter it, as needed, but I've never once, either at work or in college, come up with my own algorithm for anything.

While I already knew I didn't want to program for my entire working life, that realization still sucked. So, have any of you ever had a similar experience? A moment where you just thought, "Well, I guess this really isn't my thing." ?

[Denim&Venöm 16,522]

Retail. 

I didn't take the job becasue I really wanted it. I took it because it was the nearest thing available. I had a prior job. One I actually liked. I was custodian for a historical site. Simple work. I swept floors in the maintenance department. I coated replacement doors in primer. I arranged, set up and took down for events. I mostly coated tables in paint stain for hours on end. But I got to listen to my music. I was outdoors on gorgeous days. I got to work alone free from distractions. And most importantly, I was contributing to something lasting. The little things I did, the work I accomplished, is probably still there. I helped maintain history. I even got to help put in our state time capsule. I will be returning in 58 years to see it dug up. 

But I only had the job as part of a state grant. They wished they could keep me but couldn't. Once the funds ran out, I was let go and in search of another job. And with no transportation and little money, the nearest one was the grocery store. 

It was the diameteric opposite of my old job. I was mostly cramped indoors. Instead of shorts and a cap, I had to wear a dress shirt, slacks and tie. Instead of moving about to do my work, I was stuck in one place bagging groceries. Instead of a 10 minute bike ride it was a 45 minute slog to the next town. Instead of working in private, I had to answer to throngs of customers. And that's when I found out two things. A. I'm not a people person. 2. The customer is always wrong. Instead of my music it was retro pop garbage. The same retro pop garbage. Every single day. And instead of lasting work, I'd come back the next day to see none of it mattered. the carts I gathered up? Strewn about the lot again. The groceries I bagged and organized? Eaten and/or in the garbage. Another customer served? Customer is back again with an empty cart. 

Oh and I learned to hate Christmas music, carolers and salvation army bell ringers forever. 

From the moment I put the tie on, I knew this wasn't me. But I stuck with it for almost 3 years cause I had nothing else. It wasn't until decreasing hours and a new opritunity presented itself that I took a gamble and landed my current, far superior job, in both pay and the engagement of the work. 

But to this day, there are times where I still wish I could go back to that first job. 

Edited March 9, 2018 by Denim&Venom

[Appley Hooves 136]

Ohhh definitely, provided doing unpaid moderator work on a forum could be classed as a real job.

I went in wanting to make the forums a better place, to let people who got mobbed by trolls and fanboys actually have a voice for once. Kept at it for a few years, then quit after they hired another forumite I never liked who I was supposed to work with. There was also a bit of hate aimed their way for releasing a title early and not having the courtesy to let me know so I'd be up to meet the crazy people wave AKA I woke up to 1k reported posts in a four hour span.

Long story short, as I was going back through deleting old posts of mine before quitting so people would see I really was gone, I noticed something. I became the type of mod I'd always hated. Overbearing, highly combative, and judgmental. I didn't so much moderate as tell people off using the banhammer. Most of the regulars who'd started openly fighting with me near the end had reasons, but I somehow forgot that and just decided I was a victim. Reading some of those messages of mine, I wondered how on earth I wasn't removed from my position long ago.

But hey, that cured me of ever wanting a mod spot again. Steep price to figure that out but ehh.

[Here No Longer 5,270]

Never had a job, but tried to get into coding a year ago and realized how boring, monotonous, and frustrating it can be.

Would have ended up realizing when I would have got a job coding that I wasn't really cut out for it if I hadn't already realized I wasn't really cut out for such a job.

[iceestarz 5,752]

I’m literally just not cut out for life in general lmao. I’m a psychology major. I literally don’t even know what I want to do with my degree because I do not want to continue school after my bachelors. School sucks and I’m already over it. 1 more year to go ☠️

[Envy 6,000]

In the end, I actually didn't feel like I wasn't cut out for my overnight stocking job. In fact, I felt like I excelled at it. I'm not saying I was a perfect model worker or anything, but I certainly got my job done and was frequently expected to do a lot just because they knew I could handle it. Being an individual who has always felt lesser than everyone else, it did feel good to not be completely incompetent at something for once... But being good at overnight stocking? That's so not something to aspire to. It's such an empty thing to be proud of. In reality, it required no talent or anything from me, it only required the hard working spirit I had at the time because it was my first job. That's all.

I went back to college for music because I knew overnight stocking was an empty life. I also hated working nights. But in reality, if there's anything I'm not cut out for, it is music. I am most certainly not cut out to be an oboist. At least I realize that, and cast aside anything related to instruments for Musicology (that's not the real reason I chose Musicology, but you know what I mean?). Am I even fit to be a Musicologist, though?

Choosing the oboe - the always out-of-tune, super-finicky instrument with frequent solos is perhaps the craziest decision I have ever made. I am not cut out for this instrument. I love it to pieces, there's no getting past that. I do not regret choosing it... I just know I'm not good enough for it. It's a sad realization. My crowning "achievement" is still... being an overnight stocker and getting employee of the month a few times...

[Equus 91]

Raw meat makes my OCD go nuts and I worked kitchen at a chicken restaurant for six years, and heavy lifting kills my back and stamina but I do construction work... my life is an anachronism. I need a good desk job really.

[Mortar 143]

All the time.  It's like the Hotel California and Groundhog Day all rolled into one.

[Phosphor 11,522]

I did. I worked at a shop that did tractor repair. I already had experience in small engine repair, plus I enjoyed mechanic work. Things went ok for a while, but I began to have disagreements with the way things were ran in the shop. About 6 or so months later, I had that "gut" feeling that I just didn't belong there and came to the conclusion that I wasn't a good match. I left on good terms and don't regret it.

[Brony Number 42 9,933]

I got a BS in physics then went to graduate school. I finished and got my degree but about 1 year into grad school I realized I did not / could not do that as a career. I won't go into detail but it was devastating to realize my chosen career was a disaster. But now I'm much better.

[Thuja 3,658]

My current work actually...  They keep expecting me to go faster but I'm trying to go as fast as I can without giving myself a panic attack.  I'm pretty sure if I told them that, they'd think it was an excuse, I've felt the warning signs a couple of times and I don't want to end up hating this job because of it.  I wash dishes, if anyone was curious.  The lady that helped train me has told me that if I wanted to keep this job for long, I'd have to get quicker because "it shows you can get things done".  I DO get things done, just at my own pace.  I try my best to not leave too many dishes left undone and I only tend to do that for evening shifts because I also have to mop most of the tiled rooms which cuts into my time to clean dishes.  Sorry, bit of a rant there...  I noticed that they hired a new guy to also do the same job as me, so I'm kinda expecting them to replace me with him in the near future.  Maybe, maybe it's just my anxiety talking to me but my gut tends to be right with these types of things so I trust my gut.  It was nice to be given a chance this long so I don't really hold anything against them if they actually do replace me.  I know this line of work isn't suited for me but it's definitely given me an appreciation for how the kitchen is run in this type of restaurant, something I'm probably going to bring with me to other jobs/ situations.

[Dreambiscuit 8,024]

I think I quit my first four or five jobs within a week of getting them. In some cases, I didn't have my own transportation, which took a lot of the heart of my ambitions. Others were unnecessarily bent toward technology, which is the bane of my life, so I didn't last long with those either. I can deal with difficult co-workers or bad conditions, but computers always throw me curves that break me right off the bat. My longest lasting jobs were based on tourism of one sort or another and required no computers, so they were the only good fit for me.

[Celtore 2,769]

On 3/8/2018 at 3:54 PM, KatonRyu said:

As the title says, have you ever had a moment where you realized that you're really not cut out for the job you do? I have, today.

I'm a programmer. I went to college, got my Bachelor's degree, have a job, etc. Tomorrow, a new programmer is going to apply at our company. To test his skills, two of the senior devs created a test for him to do, in which he has to come up with an algorithm which sorts and merges objects along specified guidelines. I was the guinea pig for the test, and I failed miserably. After three hours, I still had nothing but errors and failing tests. A friend of mine, who hasn't programmed in two years, was able to get something more or less working in half the time, so it wasn't like the assignment was too difficult. I just completely lack the ability to come up with an algorithm. At that moment, I realized that all of my programming skills are derivative rather than innovative. I just look at what's there and expand upon it or alter it, as needed, but I've never once, either at work or in college, come up with my own algorithm for anything. 

While I already knew I didn't want to program for my entire working life, that realization still sucked. So, have any of you ever had a similar experience? A moment where you just thought, "Well, I guess this really isn't my thing." ?

From a fellow programmer, snap out of it man! Software development isn't all about code golf; there's more to it than sorting algorithms and tree data structures unless you're in a very specific area of development. I took software development at a college level and they encouraged us to use what was out there already. It wasn't because it was meant to be an easy course, they just didn't want us to spend days reinventing the wheel when there's already perfectly good and well-tested libraries out there. As such, I've never manually written any custom sorting algorithms; heck, in most cases, std::sort is good enough anyway.

I fall down this path sometimes too and I have to remind myself that the projects I make have value and there is true design complexity behind them. Maybe not algorithmic complexity, but I'd like to see someone make a custom virtual machine monitoring service as flexible, secure, and efficient as mine. It's pieced together with components from other projects, but it's my implementation that brings it all together into the awesomeness that it is. It's had three major rewrites and each version was better than the last; that's because software development is a field where you keep learning.

And if nothing else works, just have a look over at some of the stuff in NPM. Over 25,000 weekly downloads for is-odd, with a dependency on the package is-even which has over 1,000,000 downloads per week. IsEven is exactly what you expect it to be: (n % 2) == 0. If you've never imported simple dependencies like this, is-array or left-pad, you're probably more skilled than you give yourself credit for.

[Clawdeen 12,110]

When I started my last job four years ago and struggled to lift anything due to how weak I was. It forced me to work out and I did manage to survive. I worked there 4 years and ended up being the person with the highest throughput. However I am much more suited for office jobs than physical manufacturing jobs like that one was.

[DubWolf 16,621]

Yes and it's why I wish I could move on from it, but BS has kept me from advancing, all while I have to watch others do what is insanely overdue for me.