Suddenly my job is interesting and even at times, fun. How weird is that? After finally learning some life lessons, most of what I learned about how to keep a job is summarized by someone else in this article. Learn all my secrets now! The most critical ones for me were learning to eat a lot of crow (if you worked with me in the heady days of splendor, i.e. 1999, you know that I was a real jerk, quite full of myself. Those days are long over and for the most part, people now find me quite easy to work with. A lesson learned the hard way for sure) and being willing to take less money just to get working again. Today, I'm just over 1 year at my current job, largely because I started out at a shitty salary, doing a job I was more than qualified for, and I shut the hell up about it. After a couple of months, I asked for a raise, backed up why I should get it, and got it. Now I'm full time, survived 2 rounds of layoffs and still here. I still knock on wood when I say that and always will, grateful to have a job with a decent salary and benefits for both me and Andrea. That it's become interesting work is a long-awaited, hard-earned bonus.