Photographs and stories by Jim Grey

Since 2007

Tag: work

Seven things I want my sons to know about making their way

Advice I gave my sons about making their way in the world.

18 July 2018
Living life after running out of things to graduate from

As my son prepares for his senior year at Purdue, I reflect on how real life offers no grades and no graduation day, and how to adjust to that.

11 July 2018
single frame: Under construction

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20 June 2017
single frame: Drink coffee, do work

Photo: Drink coffee, do work

18 May 2017
Beginning a new adventure

Thoughts on starting a new job, as Director of Engineering at a software startup.

3 April 2017
Fortune’s careless aim: The myth that hard work alone creates success

It’s the American mythos: if you work hard enough, you can accomplish anything. But I no longer think it’s true. Mind you, I’m all for hard work. But I think success also requires good resources and good luck. Actually, I think resources and luck are more important than hard work. They make hard work gain solid traction. Without them,…

25 April 2016
What I did on my summer vacation

It feels like summer break is ending today. It’s because when I was a kid, school started the day after Labor Day (as God intended). Even though I haven’t been in school in decades, today still feels like the end of summer break to me! But this year, I really did get a summer break, thanks to my employer realizing the first…

7 September 2015
I shed no tears for Amazon’s white-collar workers — but its blue-collar workers deserve better

Some companies are just hard to work for. Amazon appears to be one of them. I shed no tears for its white-collar workers, but in many cases its blue-collar workers deserve better. The big online retailer’s corporate culture has been in the news a lot lately after a damning article in the New York Times lambasted the…

24 August 2015
The power of saying no to yourself

“You’re just going to have to say no more often.” I was having lunch with a friend, who also happens to be the pastor at my church. We get together most Fridays to talk church business and to catch up on each others’ lives. I told him that I feel relaxed. As relaxed as I get, anyway;…

24 July 2015
Rolling with the transitions

My older son graduated high school on Saturday. It’s a day for which I long have planned, but which, nevertheless, comes with some sadness. I was glad to celebrate this passage with him, though he said he felt much as I did when I graduated high school: “Dad, I’m a good student; was there ever…

8 June 2015
Getting fired was the best thing that ever happened to me

This is the last in a short series about the most difficult time of my life, ten years ago right now. I told this story in January of 2011, but rewrote it for today. I knew I didn’t fit, but I took the job anyway — I had been laid off, and I wasn’t able to pay the mortgage. I stayed…

29 December 2014
Twenty-five years in the software salt mines

Tomorrow it will have been 25 years since I started my career in the software industry. It might seem odd that I remember the day only until you know that I started work on Monday, July 3, 1989, making my second day a paid holiday. The office was nearly deserted on my first day. My boss regretted…

2 July 2014