Who else is fed up of their regular job & seeking a way out?
Indie hackers out there who are not quite out of the side hustle, dreaming of SaaS creation & ownership, those of us still working the 9-5 grind. There must be loads who are unhappy at their workplace and strive for a way out, to make our own living and not have to be dependant on an employer.
I'm a full stack developer for an agency, working on varying projects, which sounds great. But the set up of the company, the way they tackle projects really lacks professionalism, systems or direction and each project seems to spiral into some sort of chaos. I have come to really despise it.
I could probably be happier at another agency but I think I will always ultimately be unhappy having to work for someone else.
There will be many of us in this position no doubt, and I'm getting more and more frustrated lately.
I don't have any current side projects that could be monetised nor do I have any SaaS ideas. I know it takes a huge amount of hard work, time, patience and LUCK in order to land successfully with an online business.
And with the current situation and impending financial crisis about to hit, there likely won't be too much opportunity for landing a new job, and so it feels like I am pretty much stuck where I am for now.
Tl;dr:
So if there's anyone else feeling this way, you're not alone. Feel free to let off some steam here (as I guess that's what I've done). We can all empathise with each other. Those who were in this situation and come out of it on the bright side let us know some inspiration stories! :)
I was there. That gut instinct of wanting something more is the first step 💪
Also - Looking back, I didn't realize at the time my current job was preparing me for what was next. A few tips:
I've benefitted more from doing this than literally anything else I've done in my career. love love love
These are good tips, especially networking with coworkers.
About the first one though - can you elaborate on using your job as an investor? Is this a mindset change or do you mean something more concrete?
Mindset change. Switching from "My job helps pay my bills, lets me do and have the things I want." to "My job keeps me afloat while I invest in myself. Working on projects at night, learning by trying new things, etc.,".
This also can require a re-prioritization of how you spend money. i.e., Don't take out a massive mortgage or loan if entrepreneurship is in your future.
Nice, great advice. I may be a bit opposite though.
I have actually always considered my job as an investment into myself - I learn more at this consultancy than I would at other jobs in my field, due to number of projects I handle.
However, I've recently felt like this job is now just for paying my bills/loans, which is why I want to quit. There was a shift in the projects I was getting, and really has made me pursue my IH dream...
I hear you loud and clear Ton :) I'm pretty much in the same boat. I won't say I'm fed up or bored or tired. I'd say this. I just think I have a lot more to offer. I also think my potential is LOT bigger than what's currently being utilized. I don't blame anyone for this though. You do tend to get into a comfort zone sometimes and then it becomes hard to get out of that. No one cal help you out of this but yourself. I've finally realized that recently and have taken action on that. I started on my side hustle last year and proud to say that we're done with our MVP and have built up a list of 100+ users who have shown interest in what we have to offer. It wasn't easy. It didn't happen overnight. You have to take it one day at a time. You can do it too. You just have to reach a point where you feel that fire in you to finally admit that enough is enough and you're capable of a lot more.
I'm not sure I agree completely with your statement about success. While I do agree that hardwork, patience and luck are always required but I don't think it's rocket science. I actually think it's very easy once you make up your mind that you want to get something done. I think that's actually the hardest part. Admitting to yourself that you CAN do better and you DO have options. Trust me. I've been in your place. I used to think the same way. It took lot of self reflection (and watching tons of inspiring videos - specially the one from Will Smith. Highly recommend it - I think this is the correct link - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gG-F_rRVdLc)
Hope that helps. Feel free to ask any questions.
Awesome video, thanks for sharing. Didn't come across this when I went into my inspirational video phase years ago :)
But I think this perfectly sums up the feeling I have. I have more than an inkling that everything will be so much better and not scary if I were to make the transition and quit my job. But it's still hard to come to terms with.
I totally understand. Please know though that you don't always have to go ALL IN. You can take baby steps. Start something on the side and see how it goes. That's the path I've taken and it's gone well so far. We'll see :)
Yeah! Definitely agree on starting something on the side first. I wouldn't want to go all in without a project in mind but that's just me.
We've been making a game on the side + made a business last year for it and have some other ideas for the future too. I feel like we could be more successful if I had more time to commit to it now that we're approaching release.
But the safer thing would first be to convert to contracting/part-time at my current job if they'll let me. Not opposed to going from 100 to 0 but maybe that's not responsible lol
Great work on starting something on the side and getting active users! It's good to have that spark and desire to work on projects outside of work.
You're probably right on the success thing! Inspiration of any kind is always a big help. I'll check out the link you posted, thanks.
Thanks :) But know that you can do it too. Hardest step is to make the decision that you WANT to do better. You don't necessarily have to quit your job right away to do this. Feel free to ask any questions. Good luck!
Of course, I can't just quit my job. I have a mortgage and no real savings, and I am way too sensible than to just take such a leap of faith!
Small steps, I've known this the whole time I've been around this community, which isn't all that long really.
I guess I can always keep an eye out and apply to other jobs if I continue to really dislike my current role.
What exactly is it that you don't like about your current job? For me, one of the reasons was that I felt like I wasn't being challenged enough. Not that I'm an extra ordinary coder or anything but I felt majority of it was just your run-of-the-mill CRUD type of apps. It wasn't anything that required deep thinking or architecting a solution that require scaling, etc. Something that was more challenging and that's what I craved. I think anything online these days is quite challenging. Even after all this new tech such as serverless. I love using serverless but it has its own challenges and I love to deal with them and come up with smart solutions to automate things. It's THIS drive that got me to make my first move.
I was in a similar situation a long time ago, this led me to burnt out. I then left my work intending to stay 1 year doing nothing, but taking care of my health (long story). Created a company and thought I'd be happy. At the end, I understood what really makes me happy: to make others happy....
Sometimes we might think of having more freedom or having more money will bring us happiness, but in my case, it was temporary.
Long story here: https://www.indiehackers.com/post/i-sold-my-b2b-business-and-achieved-my-dreamed-meaningless-life-9e5bd4ab80
Yeah, sort of. I like the job but hate waking up early in the morning to go to the office.
Ever since the pandemic occurred, I managed to work at home and I love it. But I would have to go back soon :(
I'm in that boat too.
I'm in the same boat, been working from home since the pandemic started and I love it also. Really dreading having to go back to the office really and I think it has emphasised the point I'd rather work from home constantly.
Same here. Although the people are great I cannot be bothered to go back to the normal routine.
Hey @TonnnnUK! I think we chatted once in a thread of mine about your app, Fightnight Scores :) (I said it was awesome and mentioned that I'd love to use it for MMA as a brazilian jiujitsu practitioner and avid UFC fan)
I can totally empathize with your situation! It's totally soul-sucking to work somewhere that leaves you feeling so unfulfilled.
In my last position, I was grinding 50-60 hour weeks out to deliver features on projects for clients within harsh deadlines. I worked remotely for a company based out of New York City, and after almost a year being in the position, I entered talks with the CEO regarding a promotion + paid relocation to work onsite out of their office in Manhattan.
When things didn't work out, I was super disheartened. I felt like because I was making good money and because I was "hustling", moving anywhere else would be a downgrade. However, it turns out that I was miserable in a way that I didn't realize at the time, and it was extremely detrimental to my physical and mental health. I was becoming something of a dead-inside workaholic, and the effects of my behavior were reflecting in almost all other aspects of my life.
I transitioned to working for a small startup local to where I live in Arizona. The company had a huge emphasis on work-life balance, and its vision resonated incredibly well with my own personal values. Going to work everyday became exciting because of the opportunity to build something great and interact with other amazing people that I enjoyed being around. Today, I'm in a position at the same company that allows me to weigh in on critical strategic decisions at the business level, and work is more fulfilling than ever; now it's much less working FOR someone than it is working WITH someone.
In retrospect, I'd still be in the same spirit-crushing routine if I hadn't had a lot of luck on my side that caused a series of dominoes to fall perfectly into place, and I'm incredibly grateful for that. However, I don't think that the dominoes would have been capable of falling if I hadn't recognized that I deserved to be happy and decided to seek out greener pastures.
Keep your chin up! Being an Indie Hacker, I'm uber confident that you have a huge advantage over most others in the job market, and despite COVID's catastrophic impact on the economy at large, the economy of remote work is booming! It's hard to think of a better time in history to be a developer or to build a product. :)
Thanks for your story Jordin! Very encouraging!
I think I have always had this resentfulness in me about working for others, rather than as you put it working WITH people.
I'll send you a message regarding the app for MMA by the way, so keep an eye out :)
I also work for a dev agency right now. I feel your second paragraph in my BONES.
Having a side project helps keep me sane. Because even when everything explodes I am comforted knowing I'm working on a way out.
We're in it together! Keep on grinding. It's good to try and keep that mindset knowing we are working or willing to work on personal projects to get us out of there.
Just checked out Fantasy Congress, and it's such an amazing idea! Hang in there!
Aw haha thank you!
I'm a full stack developer for an agency, working on varying projects, which sounds great. But the set up of the company, the way they tackle projects really lacks professionalism, systems or direction.
To me it feels like you described every software agency ever, I am also in a very similar place except things are okayish for now. I don't want to make job change just want to do something so I can get out of working for someone.
I want to do my own thing so bad. I'm kind of lacking vision at the moment, but working on my web dev skills right now.
My day job doesn't challenge me and I hate the lack of autonomy that comes with a 9-5.
Not long ago I incorporate a routine to think about transferable micro-skill each morning.
It goes like this: Before I start any work, I would write down ONE thing that I would like to learn from today's job and try to orient my thinking about that. It could be some general point, like learn to communicate to teammate about XXX, or specific ones, learn how to package Chrome extension.
Of course, I won't be able to always to finish learning that micro-skill during that day. We are busy after all. But thinking it this way helps me think about what skills / learnings are applicable to other context and provides another perspective to look at my current work.
What do you think?
Wow, it looks like your message has resonated with a lot of people, including me. This pandemic has only amplified the same feelings in me. I have recently shifted my mindset and work has become much more bearable. I see my current job as a source of funding for my next endeavor. My "next endeavor" would ideally some sort of software, but I don't have the capital or time to make this a viable option. I have considered other business models that show more immediate returns on investment. This includes things like digital marketing, consulting, or even freelancing.
I'm not sure if this is helpful to you, but it is nice for me to share my thoughts. Thank you for sharing!
Certainly surprised with the amount of comments being posted, and I'm glad it has resonated with a lot of folks. Sometimes it's good just to vent a little and I guess that's what I was doing in the first instance and it's good others can feel they can share too. We can all empathise with one another.
I'm the exact same as you. I see my job as just a stepping stone to bigger and better things, pays the bills and allows me to gain more experience in solving problems. This will all be useful in moving forward.
But it's just easy to forget that mindset when the job gets frustrating / annoying.
I am the same. I love helping clients but in corporates most projects you have middlemen, so you don't work directly with clients. I have seen so many projects fail in corporates due to PMs or BAs who don't have a passion for helping people and don't put requirements properly on paper and the client is unhappy at the end result.
I thought of doing a startup but I cannot build something unless I have specific company's pain point to solve. My dream is to build SAAS sites for companies but without the goal of scale. Just helping companies with spesific problems. Like 5 clients per SAAS site. Maybe the first client I work with to solve a pain point so the client doesn't pay the huge amount for custom development but just a normal yearly SAAS fee. They win and I win as my motivation is to help others. However, this is not possible as where do you get corporates with specific pain points who want a solution now and want to pay for it. The only meet and greets are for moonshot ideas, where your target is huge number of users.
I wish there was a website that link admin people at corporates with developers to solve their pain points by building a SAAS. They list their industry pain point and how much they are willing to pay for it.
Ironically, I think should open a Wordpress consulting company although I don't know anything about Wordpress. That way you can at least connect to small companies. Corporates just have so much rules that prevent you from helping someone with your craft.
I'm exactly in the same boat right now. Although it sucks to be grinding from 9 to 5 the thought that hustling for my own self could be more fruitful does not stop haunting me. I did start a venture 2 years back but it failed. Since then I have been wanting to take a plunge again. Some times in life we need some a little more than a desire to get started. I guess I'm waiting for mine. :)
Hey if your failed effort hasn't put you off trying again that has to be a win!
You may change one overlord for another. Any customers you have will literally be putting food on your table. They have demands and needs too.
Well this is true but they either like and use your product or they don't. They won't rule and dictate what I do day to day. They won't insist I track how many hours I'm spending on a task via Google worksheet. If I want to lie in bed for an extra hour before I get up and start on bug fixes, I would be able to.
I suppose we are never truly free of such "overlords" but there are varying degrees of freedom :)
Find me someone on this website who isnt
Ha, no doubt many who come here are the same.
Some serous guitar chops you have there by the way!! From one player to another :)
Appreciate it :)
yeah, I would love to be able to quit my job someday, even though I actually am enjoying it right now, working as an Oracle integration cloud specialist. I got to a point at my job where I felt I was stuck in the same role for a long time, but an opportunity for free training in Oracle integration came along, I took it, got certified, and basically reinvented myself and got to use it on the job ever since.
I love to build APIs and figure out how to connect various sites together. I've often thought of building a SaaS app as well on the side, using Node.js.
It's good you're enjoying the job, and there are days were I just get stuff done and it's enjoyable but they are few and far between.
My previous job was so easy and relaxed, I was in too much of a comfort zone and wanted something more demanding, something where I would be needing to learn and keep up to date with tech. So it was a good move in that sense and I always have stuff to be doing.
The downside is a lot of days I deplete all of my brain power and desire to then open up my own projects to work on in my spare time. Not so good!
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Thanks for sharing Simond. It's good to let out these things to understanding peers sometimes.
You're dead right about MVP. My hobby project I just keep convincing myself it needs more, this feature, that feature and there's barely any users!
But going forward, working on any possible viable business, I'll be keeping in mind about the MVP required.