Do you like/enjoy your job?

I know what you mean. I am wishy washy in general, and when i used to work menial summer jobs, it took me a while to really get into them. Once i got going, i was fine. But if i stopped to go back to school, or to find a new job, it was HARD getting motivated to find something new. I thought i just wasn't the "working" type.

Since then, i have graduated from college in winter 2000, and I am now a 4th grade teacher. I am not advocating or attempting to persuade you to become a teacher, but let me tell you WHY i love my job.

First of all, it is challenging as hell. There is always something i can do better, something i can be working on, etc. That may be frustrating, but atleast i never feel bored or unchallenged by my work. Lots of room for improvement, growth, etc.

Secondly, time flies. I am so busy during the day attempting to get stuff done, that it is time to go before i know it...and i'm STILL not done with everything. Bear in mind that I spent this past year, my first year of teaching, at the school basically from 630 am to 5pm, sometimes LONGER, and often several hours on weekends, too. And the time FLEW.

Third, I love feeling like I'm making some sort of difference. Everyone has their place in the overall scheme of things, but my job is fulfilling to me in ways that a desk or sales job would never be TO ME. That might be different for you, but for myself, I couldn't work very many other types of jobs again after working with kids, and just learning and having fun and laughing and crying with them. Nothing compares.

Finally, I love the people i work with. I can be my dorky self around them, i can be honest, i can have fun, i can trust them to help me or listen to me when i need it...i just love them. I think, above all, no matter where you work or what you do, you need to truly enjoy the people you work with. I know it can be kind of a crapshoot starting off, but i'm sure any type of interview will give you a brief glimpse into the work environment there.

Yes, I know my salary SUCKS, and it is a LOT of work, but these 4 reasons, as well as the summers off, do it for me. Enjoy college, get a degree in SOMETHING, and go from there, i say. I had no CLUE for the first 2 1/2 yrs i was in college, so it's no time to panic....

 

Scary but true: I'm a professor at a small liberal arts college (as of this fall). (yes, I know, time to grow up and act my age and start transitioning out of that grad student mentality) I think I will enjoy my job, though I've only done this sort of thing part-time in the past.

No, teaching doesn't pay well. I enjoy it because, in academia, knowledge is valued. There actually is some weight given to "what you know" as opposed to "who you know". I can't stand the level of politics and BS that you have to put up with in "the real world". Some of us just aren't cut out for it. The most important thing is that you can be yourself at work (which I certainly could when I taught part-time last fall).

Also, our schedules have some flexibility. If you have class, office hours, or a meeting, you need to be there. Otherwise, it's up to you. If I want to work hard during the week and leave for the weekend early Friday afternoon, assuming I have no classes then, I can. Everyone else probably will anyway. It's easier to take care of any business you have during the week (doctor's appointments, etc.), and if you need to run back home and get something (or stay home and prepare your lessons from there), you can. Most importantly - lots of vacation. No one messes with your Christmas break and you get enough time to go visit family. Spring Break (woo-hoo!). Most people take a substantial portion of the summer off as well. Much better than your standard two or three weeks a year.

 

One thing I have learned is that I don't really have it in me to work for others. It is too tough for me. I like working for myself, but the discipline involved can be difficult and the responsibility/risk is very high. The rewards, however, come in the form of freedom and, oftentimes, a bigger payoff than if you worked for someone else.

Honestly, I would work for less if it meant freedom and doing what I love. That has more value to me than the money I make. Doing things that I love makes me so happy that I tend to not worry about the hours I work or money I make.

So, yeah, I really like what I do which is working for myself. Plus, I like the atmosphere and the people I work with because they are my good friends. And you can't beat the view of my backyard out of my office window!

 

Actually, I love my job. The only complaint I have is the pay.

I work at Everyones' Internet (come on everybody, say it with me "Catch a new wave its Everyones' Internet") and work as a DSL tech. To make a long story short, we first started out with a DSL provider, IP Communications. After a few months they became pretty crappy. So we went with another one, Northpoint Communications, although we still had a few hundred still with the first company. Then less than a year after we went with NP, they went bankrupt and got bought out from AT&T. AT&T, being the a$$holes they are, shutdown the whole NP network and relanched their own DSL service months later. Since AT&T did that to our customers, we decided not to do business with them.

That left us with a few hundred DSL customers with IPC that we still needed to support. On any average day, I take at THE MOST is 10 legit calls, calls in which I have to support the customer, not transfer them to different departments because they got in the wrong que. Whenever I am not on the phone, I just surf the net, play my GBA, post here on the BBS, and hell even watch movies sometimes.

The only thing I have to argue is the pay. It isnt too bad but other people that are doing my job at other companies get at least 1 and 1/2 more an hour than what I get. Whats worse is that I have been working there since March 2000 and have only got ONE raise. I guess it isnt too bad because I am working part time (less than 25 a week) and going to school at the same time.

 

Interesting thread...

My first job straight out of college was great! The work sucked, but I got put into a team of about 10 people around my age (mid twenties)... We all worked in a lab together and goofed around all the time. We would talk about anything and everything! There was even a PS2 locked away in a room (used for software testing... YEAH RIGHT), and we were able to obtain a key to the room. We wasted MANY an afternoon playing games in there. We also had a pool table, air hockey, table tennis, foosball (sp?), and LAN party set up with "Unreal Tournament"... I loved going to work b/c all these people were my friends and it felt like a big party all day! Clothing rules were liberal (shorts, sports jersey, baseball caps, etc)... Our hours were to work 40 hours a week, but at your own schedule. Since I'm an avid runner, I wouldn't get to work till 9:30 or 10am every morning! We even took REALLY long lunches on many an occasion! The best was that I moved down the road from work, so NO TRAFFIC!!!!

Funny, that division got cut and everyone was laid off... ha ha wonder why, huh?

Now that I'm looking for a new job, I'm really scared that I'll go to a company nowhere near as liberal... i'll have to work with old people, be stuck in a cubicle all day, and worst of all, have to be at work at 8am... meaning I'll have to wake up at 4am to get my daily 10 mile run in and be able to fight traffic to get to where I have to go! Boy was I spoiled at that first job!

 

The best part is that you actually WANT to have sex with the boss.

hopefully, Jeff got that one and I won't get banned...

 

I've been doing what I do for about 7 or 8 years now and quite frankly it has gotten boring, but it's not necessarily what I do that's boring, it's the places I work that I find boring. I work in IT in quality assurance and do some programming for fun. I loved when I worked as a contractor because it meant putting up with organizations and their mismanagement for about 3 months to a year before leaving them to their own demise... lol. Contracting allowed me to go to different companies and learn different technologies, different ways of doing things, meet different people, etc. I am now a "permanent employee" and it's boring and pays less. I get paid well for what I do and considering the fact I don't have a college degree, so I'm not about to complain when I know there are people out there getting laid off or looking for jobs. That said, I'm now looking to do something "on the side" that will allow me to retire a bit earlier (hopefully in my 40's), but I have no idea what. I need something that challenges me mentally, not something that challenges my patience, and I think I currently have the latter. I dunno... but here I sit typing this and starting my day depressed thanks to... THANKS A LOT SCF!!! I HOPE YOU'RE STUCK IN TEXARKANA FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE!!!

Anyway, the going to work at 8 and coming home at 5 thing is going to be a fact of life unless you work for yourself, but then when you work for yourself your responsibilities are not really any less. It's a fact of life that you have to work, and if you're going to get into the computer/IT field or maybe something like the medical profession get ready to accept you're lucky if you only have to work 8-5. I remember a few years ago, I was hoping I'd work 12 and 14 hour days because as a contractor I was getting paid for every hour I worked. As a permanent employee I don't. Blah. Anyway, this company hasn't been so bad. I get to work around 7 and go home around 4, and I live a little less than a mile away. There are days I work 10-12 hours, but they're rare. There are days I come in after-hours, but they're rare. I wish the tech boom would come back. I could work 50-70 hour weeks as a contractor, get paid for every hour, and not have to worry about working in about 10 years.

Dammit, you're depressing me again SCF.

 

In a word, yes.

In two words, hell yes.

And in three, hell ****ing yes.

I've got an awesome job where I get to laugh at dorks playing our games, research political candidates and organizations, and go to movies. Plus, I've got a kickass boss who's very flexible as long as I get my work done.

I just worry this won't last forever.

As for the normal "9 to 5" job, I've decided that there a very few lucky people out there that really truly enjoy their jobs. My goal is to make sure that everything outside of my job is ideal, and from there, try my hardest to make sure that I don't let any negative aspects of my career, whatever it may be, seep over into my personal life. I know that'll be easier said than done, but I'll give it a shot.

 

Are you guys hiring?!

 

Do you wanna call 1,000 candidates for Congress and beg them to answer our questionnaires?

 

Um...Jeff's current line of work is a partnership with Clutch designing websites. So in response to your comment...ewwwwwwwwwwwwww!

 

Eh...I didn't think that joke would go too well...it was SUPPOSED to be a wife=boss type thing, but oh well...I guess my stand up career is on hold...

 

Yes, I like my job... I work in Wildland Firefighting for a Federal Agency. It's a gov job, so there are bureaucratic hassles and inefficiencies, but most folks are trying to do the right thing and there is a satisfaction that I think would be hard to match in the private sector.

To all you kids out there who want a summer job next year, come out West and fight fires.

It's fun.
It's exciting.
It's rewarding (both emotionally and financially).
You get to use mind and body... both must be in top condition.
You aren't cooped up in an office all day.
We pay you to work out.
We train you and provide you with all the tools necessary.
Good chance you get to travel all over the West. (We currently have a few crews in Hawaii battling a fire that started from a lava flow.)

Here's a fire FAQ: http://www.nifc.gov/faq.html

There's a long tradition of kid's paying their way through college and grad school by working on fires during the summer. (This season we hired folks who are studying astrophysics, anthropology, biology, botany, sociology, and history to name a few.) I should also mention that there is no job that requires testosterone and women are welcome. I would guess our firefighting crews are about 30% female. Additionally, all kinds of communications and logistics support are needed for the effort, so if you have an interest in those areas, you can usually find a place. It's probably too late to get on this summer, but agencies will start taking apps in Feb or March for 2003.

 

Telephone interviewing has been my partime job for the last two years. (Telephone interviewers call people across the nation and ask them a number of questions in reference to politics and consumer products.) It was fun to begin with because the atmosphere is very casual and the hours are very convenient. But my main complaint is the supervisors monitoring your calls which sets up a number of disagreements with them. And these people sometimes are difficult to talk to. I would also have to say like SirCharlesFan the supervisors are unprofessional. I still have a problem with someone in a pair of daisy dukes and a batman t-shirt telling me how to conduct myself over the phone. But its a good job being young person since I can work with friends and people of my own age. But since I've finally graduated this year I can start to think of bigger and better things as I get ready for college and advance towards something that I can be more in control of what I do.

 

No biggie. You are just tragically misunderstood like all the great artists.

 

yes and no...

pros...i have a very felxible schedule, "as long as exp and results are gathered". i normaly work 9ish to 4ish. that includes checkinig this site for around 1-2 hours while things incubate. i get good pay, good job security. its very rewarding in that im doing research on diabetes that could help another company find a cure.

cons...for about 3 months i do the same experiments over and over again collecting more and more of the same data. but i knew this going in...it's science. the people i work with are nice, very international group. but they are much older than i am and in all, the only people that are close to my age are the work study students from seattle U. no music in the lab so i am moslty in my own world with headphones on. but these are only minor complaints.

all in all i like my work but im just not cut out for waking up and doing stuff that doesnt involve watching tv and sitting on my a$$.

 

For the most part I really like my job...growing up as a kid, I always wanted to be an attorney...and I caught the entreprenurial bug very early on in life, as well...so owning my own practice (with partners) is really a great fit for me. i can not imagine working for a big firm, despite the fact I would make a lot more money. I just am not willing to make the sacrifices they require.

Plus...I love having a say in who we represent...what sort of cases we take...and the ultimate responsibility. Really enjoy building a practice...that may be my favorite part.

My least favorite part is how clients really can't see the value all the time. They're usually in a situation they don't like being in, and they associate me with that situation. They watch enough lawyer shows on TV to think that lawyers always pull brilliant tricks out of their hat. They don't understand when their argument doesn't prevail, because Perry Mason would have figured a way to make it work! And they really don't appreciate when you have a great day for them....few can really understand a lot of the complexities involved, and so they don't see when you do a really good job. That's true even of many of my corporate clients.

There are good days and bad days...but for the most part, there are very few things I'd rather be doing.

 

I like my job pretty good thank you very much. It's only when there is not enough work or quality work to keep me occupied when I bounce off the walls(see my "bad day" post). Yes, there is monotony to coming to the same job day in and day out from 8 to 5, seeing all the same faces, and doing the same routine over and over and over . But, companies pay good enough for computer programmers and I really have no stress or worries. I'm never overloaded with work to where I can't function properly and have to work extra hours.

So, I am happy with what I do most of the time as long as there is consistent work flow and that is not always the case. The work itself can get kind of same old same old but there's always something new coming along. Over all, I think I have one of the better programming jobs around...maybe not the highest paying...but overall I am pleased with it.