I used to work as an auditor for KPMG. We worked insane hours, had the most boring & unfulfilling work imaginable, and were paid relatively little.

I tell friends that “auditing is like investment banking except without the money or prestige.”

I’ll bet that 95% of the people in those same jobs are pretty miserable, but are just afraid to leave. Same goes for people in Big Law.

When I get email responses from these young professionals in my current job I want to reach through the screen and yell at them:

YOU CAN GET OUT. YOU DON’T HAVE TO BE MISERABLE. WORK CAN BE MEANINGFUL.

Because there’s also things like this:

Lambda School Love

This is my current team @ Lambda School. We teach people to become developers.

It’s extra special because our students don’t pay us until they get a job, so we often have students who go from working at WalMart to making $80k as a developer.

We’ve been around for a year and a half and all 40 of us work remotely from home.

This weekend was our first in-person retreat. So even though we work together every day, it was the first time most of us had ever met in person.

It was so enjoyable to finally meet and hang out with everyone! Putting a body to a head does wonders to building relationships.

A few observations from this weekend and my time and Lambda School:

It’s amazing to work with people who you want to spend more time with. Who you don’t dread seeing when you arrive to work in the morning.

We’ve had a lot of fun this weekend but we’ve also done plenty of work. Both during the day in various group sessions but also at night. We’re staying up to 2, 3, 4 in the morning talking all things Lambda School. How do we continue to grow? How do we get even more students jobs? How do we…

There are so few people in this world who would spend all day with their coworkers, only to continue hanging out at night and talking about work even more. Not because they feel obligated by their bosses, but because they like the people they’re with and they’re enjoying the work they do. Because they find purpose and meaning in doing good work.

The Lambda School story is very young. I’m very optimistic about our future success, although of course nothing is guaranteed in this world.

But even if Lambda School isn’t a home run I will still remember this as some of the most meaningful and rewarding work of my life.