Introduction

This was my first "real" dev job. I've done internships in the past where I was the only developer around, so I don't regard them as proper experience. A relative got me an interview at a small company, and I was ecstatic. The CEO (Boss, from now on) gave me a call, and we talked for 40 minutes or so. He seemed very authoritative and stern, which made my confidence shrink a little, but somehow I got over the interview.

I started the job next morning; it took the IT guy an hour or so to set me up and about another hour for the onboarding. At the time, I was familiar with their tech stack, but hadn't used it for any real projects. Honestly, it was grueling at the onset, but as time went on, my output got better and better. The hours of study were finally paying off.

I recognized some technical debt right away: classes that spanned 12k lines, cryptic variable names, no comments, no documentation. This was offputting, but there was nothing I could do about it. The delivery time for new features wasn't even enough to take notes, and Boss made it abundantly clear. Stress was building up. I started to really get the memes on LinkedIn.

Reaching the tipping point

Two months went by, and I slowly developed lower back pain along with tendon inflammation in both hands. One day, I went to get checked out by a traumatologist before the work. I notified Boss that I might be late and sent him the medical certificate afterwards. The conversation went something like this:

Me: "Good morning. Here is my medical care certificate to justify the tardiness."

Boss: "Thanks. Wait, why does it say you were diagnosed with lumbago? What kind of chair do you have? Send me an update on the activities I assigned you."

Me: "I guess I spend too much time sitting down, between work and college. Here's the update..."

Boss: "I work for 20 hours a day, sometimes even more, and I don't have lumbago. 20 hours a day."

Me: "Well, do I really need to further justify why I have this condition?"

Then I had a little dispute with him. He talked down on me for responding like that and went on for 10 minutes until I had to basically apologize to him for having lower back pain. I didn't appreciate the inquiry about my medical condition. Besides, I was a contractor; it's not like he affiliated me with social security or anything. In a proper scenario, the company would help out with the medical care since it's a job-related injury. Instead, he admonished me.

I quit at the end of the month, and that was it.

Why I don't regret anything

My overall health improved. After gaining clarity, I realized the importance of enjoying work and having a positive attitude towards it. Perhaps my biggest mistake was spending mental energy thinking about why I disliked it and allowing hatred towards it to creep into my mind.

These are my personal takeaways, looking back. They might seem obvious to the reader, but as my professor once said, "The obvious is so obvious, that by being obvious, it is often overlooked.".

• Working is more than fulfilling assigned tasks. It goes beyond doing X and earning Y.

• You are going to put 40 or more hours into work each week; you are going to think about it before checking in and after checking out.

• Important events and chores will have to be scheduled around your working hours.

• Sacrifices will be made: quality time with your family, significant other, and friends; time to work out; time to prepare proper meals; time to sleep well; and time to hone other engineering skills.

I would advise you to keep a healthy attitude despite uncomfortable circumstances. The way you think is the way you act, and repeated behaviors turn into habits, which are notoriously hard to break. That's why jQuery is used by 94.2% of all the websites whose JavaScript library we know 😅.