Latest / Black Box Theory Podcast / What These "Dream Jobs" Actually Cost You
Transcript
- Malcolm: We want to talk about like some of the some of the pressures. And this doesn't only apply to our industry, which is big tech for first time listeners or people who may not be familiar with our backgrounds, but this is also all the other like high pressure, high kind of expectation industries, right? We're talking about consulting, we're talking about investment banking, we're talking about finance, we're talking about like our like these these very like high pressure, high expectation, like very kind of demanding corporate white collar jobs, right? And if we want to talk about like You know, a lot of times we see these super fancy titles, lucrative, you know, signing bonuses and and salaries. and it yeah, right. And and to a lot of people, right, to hungry college students, to people who are trying to make a name for themselves, get out into the world and and make a splash in corporate, like this is very enticing to them, right? This is very like this is very much like this is what I I work for, this is what I want, right? And so, Thomas: million dollar stock options. Malcolm: And and rightfully so. I'm not saying that's a that's a bad thing, but I think that now that, you know, like I said, both Thomas and myself have kind of been in the swing of things for almost a year now coming up. I think it makes a year for you next month and then a year for me in in August, right? So it's like like I said, by no means do we do we have twenty year ten years in in in our respective roles, but it's like you can you can learn a lot in a year. and so one of the biggest things that's kind of like been like a I think a recurring theme for us has just been like Obviously the difference between what's plastered online and and what actually goes on behind the scenes, I think, can can apply to a lot of things, but I want to talk about a lot just about like the some of the mental health implications of kind of like the expectations and kind of like just the kind of like grueling and I don't say grueling, but like some of the just the the high kind of like demand behind or expectations behind like some of the work that we do. and how that kind of like translates to like, you know, how you carry yourself and and how that kind of makes you, you know, how it makes I don't I don't want to disrespect like actual people who are doing like real, like physical labor who really have something to complain about. people who are like, you know, welding or like on o oil rigs or things like that or like kinda like doing manual labor, things like that. I'm by no means are these comparable. but I really do kinda just want to touch a bit on like the the the mental the mental health aspect and kinda like just like like like like what does that look like behind the scenes? Like what does that look like when you actually are working for one of the biggest companies in the world and it feels like, you know, stuff just keeps piling and piling and piling and piling on top of you. Like and it's like, you know, in your mind it's like, hey, I'm I'm getting paid X amount of money. I I need to keep performing. I need to keep succeeding with all these kind of like looming pressures of of things all in the background, right? There's all these these things about, you know, agentic AI, right? There's things about layoffs, there's things about like you know, your team being an underperformer in the company, right? So it's all these like, you know, re-reorg within the company, like it's all these kind of like floating things I think that go around in the back of our heads while trying to balance being, you know, a top performer, someone who still delivers impact, someone who still does a really good job at, you know, doing their job, right? So I think like All these things, like it's it's it's it's a lot it's it's it's a lot of different I think routes we can go down, but wanna wanna kinda get your perspective on on on what's what's that's been like for you and and and what you would share to someone who's who's considering, you know, trying trying to get into one of these spaces that that we're in right now. Thomas: Yeah.