The Hamster Wheel and a Dog Park Epiphany

We all gripe about our career. It’s natural. That’s why we chase FIRE. I doubt there is anyone who likes 100% percent of their job. The grass is always greener on the other side affects everyone.

This week I got to reflect on my career choices based upon a random conversation that made me examine my path. We all look back at the critical turning points from time to time where our career could have gone in an entirely different direction. The “What Ifs” are limitless.

I meet and have open conversations with strangers when I go to the dog park. The dog park is where you go and let your fur child off leash to play with other fur children. It is basically a non-structured play date for your dog. When your dog finds a playmate you inevitably start talking to a stranger you typically wouldn’t meet.

Allison was today’s stranger. As we got talking, we naturally ended up in the typical “What do you do?” conversation. She was cheery, social, and one of those people who is remarkably easy to talk to.

Part of that easy social charm comes with her line of work. She is a dental hygienist. She sees 8 to 12 people a day and is a true master of small talk in a scenario where no one can actually talk back to her. It’s a tough skill, and honestly, one I often wish I had.

Yet, mid-conversation, one of her comments referred to her career choice as a “hamster wheel.” Coming from such a pleasant, upbeat person, it actually shocked me.

The truth is, we all feel like our jobs are the same day in and day out, and in many ways, they all are. We are all on this hamster wheel of our own choosing. As long as we keep the wheel spinning, we get our food, water, and comfort. Once on the wheel it is really hard to switch to another one. The golden handcuffs become more like a golden hamster wheel.

Allison has the exact same day, every single day. One hour looks like the next, just with a different set of characters in the chair. She likes the social aspect of the job, but she is really missing the chance for any meaningful change to her day to day.

I led her through my own winding career path. The first ten spent manufacturing hardware for high-tech companies, the second ten spent exploring different aspects of back-office functions (like Quality) of tech companies, and the third ten in the defense industry.

She envied my ever-changing career. She envied the sheer variety and the number of different jobs—around 14 or so jobs, across various companies, over 30 years. Where I look backward and see stress, volatility, and instability, she looked at it and saw adventure and fun.

In many ways, I envy her job. Meeting new people, getting to know their stories, always being actively engaged.

It got me thinking about my path versus hers, and all the paths not taken. Twice in my life, I started down the path to become a teacher. It always held a quiet appeal for me—standing on a stage, always on, and dealing with strong emotions every single day. Twice I turned away at an inflection point to fall back into what I know.

When you are locked into a corporate role, typically all you can see is the stress and the never-ending change that comes with a constant barrage of new projects. From my own micro-level view, it often feels like I do the same thing over and over again. I typically am on a six-month to one-year cycle. You define a project, work on the process and the team, and then start all over again when the next cycle rolls around, usually on related processes or products that really don’t seem to change all that much.

So how would I have fared in a career that operated on 1-day cycles? Come in and do the exact same core thing day in and day out. A huge percentage of careers are built like this: doctors, dentists, pilots, retail workers, nurses, teachers. There is a massive portion of the workforce where the daily routine is identical every single day.

In some ways, I think I might actually like a 1-day cycle. I suspect those roles can be much more social as different people flow in and out to receive service throughout the day. In my upcoming retirement, being more social is one specific thing I genuinely strive to achieve.

But as for working a 1-day cycle job full-time? I don’t know if I would like it. I have a natural work style where I do intense, focused sprints, and then get some downtime. I almost need it structured that way. In corporate life, I can have slow days, and slow weeks. I can have days where I recover . If I am in a crappy mood I can hide away behind my door. That is just my natural cadence in my line of work. There is no hiding in 1 -day jobs.

Then I look back at everything I have been involved with over the decades, and I feel proud—or at least satisfied—with the products I have helped bring to life over my career:

Early 1990s: Built home computers during the era when every family was finally getting one at home.
Mid-1990s: Built telecom and cellular equipment that enabled the mass adoption of mobile phones.
Late 1990s / Early 2000s: Built early internet equipment so everyone could connect at home, watching speeds jump from a 9600 baud crawl (remember dial up) to full gigabit downloads in seconds.
Mid-2000s: Worked on broadcast equipment used to air global events like the Super Bowl and the Oscars,
Mid-2000s: Manufactured one of the top smartphones in the world.
Present: Build and support mission-critical equipment used by Naval ships around the globe.

When I zoom out and look back at what I’ve participated in, I am happy with what I have been working in. At the end of a career I have gratitude for my winding road.

For most of my career, without knowing it, I was right in the thick of significant technological shifts. From assembling the desktop computers we first used at home to the pocket computers we now carry everywhere. From crawling on the early World Wide Web to having the sum of human knowledge at our fingertips. To providing military personnel with safe, reliable technical systems to carry out their duties in an ever-changing world.

And if you look at your career, I expect we all have highlights that we never imagined would happen.

My ever-changing career path has certainly had its bumps, and it has definitely had its stress. When we are living in the day-to-day grind, we sometimes wish we had taken a different fork in the road. But taking a different path doesn’t mean it would have led to a better life.

I have been truly blessed when I step back and look at the full adventure.

It is remarkable how a chance, 15-minute conversation at a dog park can suddenly grant us a 30,000-foot view of our own lives. I spend so much time down in the trenches—dealing with the quarterly cycles, the corporate politics, and the relentless project roadmaps—that I easily forget I spent three decades sitting in the front row of the the technical revolution.

It will be nice when I can get out of the hamster wheel. Be thankful for your career ups and downs. They have made you who you are.

And who knows? Maybe in retirement I will finally become that teacher (not a chance). Or maybe I will just keep heading down to the dog park to meet interesting strangers.