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Comment by langsoul-com | Hacker News Reader

Beware of working in a passionate industry. You will get treated like shit and there's nothing you can do about it. Someone else would gladly take that work for half or even free.

Other it businesses can't do this shit without suffering heavily, but game studios can because passionate works will be willing to join.

There are exceptions, but those are exceptions for a reason.

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This is exactly why my advice to CS students always is – find a job writing business software. You can pursue your passions on the side, contribute to open source, volunteer or do whatever else you want, but hold on to that stable, "boring" 9-5 job like your life depends on it. Ten or twenty years later you are going to look back and thank yourself for going down this path while your peers who chased more flashy jobs are abused, burned out and have lost all passion for the art.

Why business software? As a veteran of the "software industry" this would literally be my last choice. There's nothing I hate with more vengeance than business software ;) I mean might as well go work for the government if all you want is a steady job.

I would say go work somewhere where software engineering is what produces value for the company.

Really I'd offer the exact opposite advice. Never go for a stable/boring job. You're just or more likely to get laid off from those in an economic downturn. They pay less. Less growth prospects. It'll suck the life out of you and you won't have energy for anything else.

There are a lot of good jobs out there that are interesting, pay very well, reasonable life-work balance, opportunity for growth/learning. If you're good and passionate go after those. You'll be fine in the periodic recessions and everyone will want you on their team most of the rest of the time, when the economy is booming.

EDIT: I do agree that game-dev is one of those areas where lots of people are willing to do the work because it seems glamorous. The industry has a reputation of treating software devs poorly. There's some exceptions but it's definitely in the "be careful" category. But there's lots of other options out there.

It's a good way to end up financially secure, but that may not lead to a satisfying career. If you want to be a game developer, are you really going to be happy writing business crud apps with the majority of your working energy? Not necessarily disagreeing, but with kids despite having plenty of passion for those side endeavors, time and energy are quite lacking.

I think you should try and make your passions into your career personally, as long as you are realistic about the opportunities and lifestyle.

> If you want to be a game developer, are you really going to be happy writing business crud apps with the majority of your working energy

You may not be happy doing that, but you will also not be sad, especially if your financial situation makes life tolerable.

On the other hand, you will certainly be unhappy if you were always poorly paid for your skills and were abused and exploited by your employers due to making an effort to be working in something you are passionate about.

In the world we live in, pursuing a passion job is reserved for people that come from families that already sorted their financial situation for them.

This is classic supply and demand doing its thing. People in passionate industries (artists, musicians, game devs) have a hard time because there's a large over supply of people who want to do it relative to less glamorous/fun jobs which creates a supply surplus, pushing down the cost of labor.

Will stick to working an easy job and putting my passion into an AI that creates games for me so companies like Blizzard’s cease to exist.

I didn’t ask to be born and didn’t sign a contract to believe a bunch of GenX and older CEOs are “powerful people” due to political status quo.

CEOs and the like can get fucked. We are not their serfs.

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