The fastest indicator that you will like a job is your working relationships with your colleagues. Get on with them, and the job will likely go well. If you don’t get along with them and, well, let’s just say you shouldn’t update your LinkedIn profile.

When I took up my most recent jobs I liked almost all my colleagues, and that was a great sign of things to come. Of course, it didn’t last too long, as one of the ones that I worked most closely with, quit after about a month.

Yea, it was sad. But many things in life are. He left on relatively good terms, and sincerely asked to keep in touch.

Two weeks or so after he left, I reached out to him, and about two weeks after that we did meet up.

It is weird sometimes to what extent friendships seem so heavily contextual. Meeting up with this person really shinned a light on this phenomenon. His first questions for me were, of course, all work related. I am not sure I can blame him, as this was the grounding of all our inside jokes. He asked a lot about some of our most hated and annoying business partners. He then asked me about a bunch of procedures about work and how things were going. It felt jarring almost immediately, and thankfully the conversation did quickly turn to other topics.

But the thought put its self in my head pretty deeply – what will happen when the collected pains of the previous job disappear for him? What happens when all those past experiences lose relevancy in his life?

For what it is worth, I see this guy as a friend. As far as friends go, I like him. And at my age, friendships are hard to find. It bugs me that I see this as something that is likely to happen.

But, I guess, such is the way that life goes. And there really isn’t much of a point in fighting these things. They are a part of life. I would be happy to see me being proven wrong on this one.