In Apr 2024 in the Netherlands I wrote the artcle “Future Job” (in Notion). Here I mentioned my wish-job/wish-life list with a 2 years outlook, and now the time has come.

Trigger

Before the review, this article started with me desperetly looking for an answer which frustrated me:

What did I learn in the last year? This is serious. I can’t come up with an answer. Excluding the first 3 months at work where you learn new technologies and methods to work, afterwards it’s: nothing. I mean, now my whole job is doing small data model tickets, and the only real project about ML lasted 3 weeks, and my boss was so dissatisfied by it at the level he did the whole thing from scratch.

Luca I asked this question to Luca today and the answer surprised me. He told me that in his work experience he had learned indeed: nothing. I mean, in his past has dropped a PhD, and at the age of 35 decided to drop the job and make a Master’s degree in Data Analysis, I guess that he knows what studying means. But then, if he is saying that he has learned nothing, why are people happy in some jobs, and less in others? What does make you say “this was a great day”? (Except from fridays spent talking about girls and life). To this I still don’t have an answer. But this led me in thiking: well, I can just check what I wanted a while ago and review it. If I succeeded I should consider myself happy no?

Review

Two years ago about in this period, I wrote my mid and long term goals, and here they are:

Outside the workplace do fixed activities 2/3 evenings every week, e.g. going in a bar with friends or sports.

✅ Yes, definitely. I go out with Rugg, Wanda, at least once during the week, and make a trip or go out on the weekend. This is true, definitely, but it’s not about work. This article is about my work expectations and not how much I succeded in life (I guess, assuming they are not related, I won’t get deeper).

ML engineer to get a good understanding of the Technical challenges of a ML project.

🔀 It’s probably a no. I have worked only 1 month FTE in ML, and the result wasn’t even published. The fact is that I can still sell it in the CV, so I will mark it as a kind-of.

30% programming, 40% idea creation, 30% make presentation and presenting

I have to be able to be in an environment where I can improve my ability of speak and explain myself.

🔀 Kind-of. Most of the time I’m not programming and rather thinking about solutions, thus would make this correct, but I am also not really presenting anything. Antonio is basically doing the talking.

Field: I should be working in a field of my interest. Best would be Finance, otherwise something I have familiarity with. Avoid companies which I don’t like to study more in depth the topics under the machine learning models, e.g. biomedicine.

✅ Shit if this is correct. I am seriously considering how much I should be happy about the place and the field I’m in. I recall how much I didn’t give a shit about finance and how much I am into learning topics like riscatti retroattivi now. I should consider myself lucky in this one.

I should receiving the requirements a product manager and I take decisions on what is the best process to follow, explain it to my manager, and give further ideas on how to make improvement.

✅ Yes. I am getting the business requirements and implementing it myself. I can’t complain even about that.

How Sept 2026 will look like: I have gained the reputation of being a knowledgable ML engineer with a good ability to explain concepts. People come to me to ask for feedback and I’m often talking about other’s tasks even though I’m not involved in the project.

🔀 Ok fine, it’s not ML engineering, but I can’t even say I failed it. I am constantly being asked about my opining on how to do a task by Antonio. I know that most of what he asks me I find it very basic and boring, but yet he asks me and I have knowledge that is meaningful even if it’s about knowing which directories have SQL files in our disk.

Thoughts

I am aware I am complaining and feeling down these days, but I should also appriciate how lucky I am. The first job offer I got was: a company in Finance, and in Switzerland. I am passionate as hell about finance, and even watching in my free time videos from Ben Felix, explaining financial topics most people don’t give a shit about. Having a job in a field I’m not intereted into leads me to feel like Ruggero now in the bank, don’t forget about how much I didn’t care about the rene policistico.

I have no idea why this article is not making me feel better. It should make me feel like I found out that I reachd my dream field, having good colleagues with which I am going out and having fun, while being in Switzerland and making a lot of money close to my sister.

It’s crazy to think that even in these conditions I am feeling sad.

I want more

I know, I know. You are happy, and yet you want more. This is insane to write. But let’s thinking it in a different lens. Getting stuck at this age in a satisfactory job is not good in my age. Let’s jot down a big point for my next job, something I don’t have in my current role.

Whatever the company is, how much they pay you, and regardless of the location, I should have the feeling I’m becoming senior in my position, seniority is marked by knowledge, and transferable in a job position in another company I would like to have.

I know, this is a broad statement. No KPI, no numbers. This is to say that the biggest cons of this job, as also stated by Gabriele, is that you learn nothing new. Having no senior person in the team means getting no guidance and doing things on my own.

Let’s make an example, I have currently being studying k8s for 10 months. Getting a job which uses even basic Kubernetes would make me more senior in that, and I would be using a technology I want to persue even deeper in the following job.

Conclusion

I know that this article is kind of empty. I do not have a solution at the time of writing, I only have disconnected thoughts and much more to figure out.

The only thing I want to take out of this article is that I love the fact that I am in Switzerland, and I am in Finance, I am lucky to be here and when looking for a following job search for a place where I can earn knowledge in something I want to persue in the future. That’s it.