Are you happy in your career?

In My Humble Opinion
21

I like my job. I do make decent money (not good money, but enough to survive on, which is really all I ask), but that’s not why I like it. It’s not even necessarily what I do, although I don’t dislike that. I like the atmosphere of my place of employment and my coworkers and boss. I do like that I get to write for a living, but writing obituaries pales after a while.

On the plus side I AM on my way to becoming what I wanted to be when I was growing up - a newspaper reporter.

On the even more plus side, I will be getting a raise soon. So overall, I like my job quite a bit. Although waking up early in the morning kinda sucks.

~Tasha

22

Yes, being on the radio and creating stuff that gets heard on the radio is lots of fun. Now, at least, with the current staff it’s a fun environment, and there is laughter in the halls - something that was never there before. I’ve not dreaded going in one day, and I can see myself doing it until I’m old.

23

I’ve recently started over in my third job category. What I’m doing now is completely new, not in any way related to my education. It is tangentially related to my former occupations in the sense that my ability to organize, prioritize and delegate is a much-appreciated skill. Also my ability to learn, and to interact with people, some of whom are unhappy, and still maintain professional conduct is a big plus. And I’m (obviously) learning new stuff. I come home every day with a story of some sort. It’s a short commute, too. And I have an actual private office, with a window to the outdoors that I can actually open on nice days, and a door that I can close when necessary.

On the negative, the salary is less than half of what I made when I got laid off last summer. :frowning:

So, yes, I’m happy with the job itself.

24

Yes. I’m happy being a librarian when I do work, and mostly I’m at home with my kids, and I am happy doing that too.

25

Ditto.

26

Yes and no.

Mostly yes.
I work with some nice people.

However, the pay isn’t terrific, & there’s no promotions.

But I’m in Government, & am unlikely to get outsourced/downsized.

27

Very happy. After several hard working years in the business, I opened my own consulting firm 5 years ago, and I’ve never looked back. I get to set my own hours and choose my own clients. The pay is decent and the people in the building where I rent space are terrific. Finally!

28

Hey! I used to write obits for a radio station!

29

I am happy with my job ninety percent of the time. The ten percent that drives me nuts sometimes makes me want to climb a tower, but I do get through those times. I work for an organization that provides services to people with disabilities. Even though my job is administrative, I still get lots of interaction with those we serve. That’s what keeps me happy with my job. If I didn’t have that, I would not be happy. I do some traveling around the country several times a year in work that is related to but not exactly my regular job and I like that too. It gives me a chance to see what’s going on in organizations similar to mine and I have had several occasions to meet up with some dopers to boot. What’s not to love about that! :smiley:

30

In my career? Absolutely. I love libraries, and the years I’ve spent working in them have been terrific. I have high hopes once I get my second masters, and I see myself going far in this field.

In my (current) job? Welllll . . . It’s OK. The pay’s fine, and it doesn’t enroach on my personal life. It’s just kind of boring and unrewarding, that’s all. Sometimes I feel like I’ve accomplished a lot and helped a lot of patrons, and everything’s rewarding, and sometimes I feel as if I’m just an overpaid babysitter for a bunch of abnormally well-behaved children.

My coworkers are all OK, but it’s not like we hang out after work. I’m the youngest one at the desk and the newest one as well, so they get all the interesting assignments, and I’m stuck greeting the patrons and sending emails. Some days are OK, and some days I storm home after work and impulsively apply for every library and clerical job I can find on BostonWorks.com before dinner. I update my resume an average of twice a week nowadays.

My job’s not terrible, and it’s not overwhelming, but sometimes I long for something that just kicks my ass every day I’m there and makes me struggle and bleed and hurt just to get through the day so that I at least know I have a purpose in life. Now everything’s just . . . vanilla. I haven’t felt so underused and unappreciated since that year I decided that working in a corporation for a year would be the way to go (OK, that lasted for nine months, not a year, but close enough.).

In between overwhelmed and underwhelmed, I’ll choose overwhelmed all the time.

So to answer your question, my career is good, but my job kind of sucks.

31

Well, I am not bored. I do get to help people every day. I get lots of perks from outside work contacts. I get personal and letters of thanks on a daily basis. I learn something new constantly. I am respected in my work community. I like my current co-workers.

On the down side it is very demanding and I deal with quite a few complaints. Pay is so-so. I work weekends and some nights. Lots of turn over.

I have stayed with the company for 13 years as of yesterday so I must be doing a pretty good job. I would say I am happy, but unsatisfied.

I do remind myself that a lot of people have it much worse, so happy, but unsatisfied does not seem so bad.

32

Meh. I get paid more than I deserve because the job is awfully easy with lots of down time. That’s the plus.

The minus is boredom, or general malaise. And I have the world’s stupidest coworker.

There’s nothing wrong with my job. I don’t mind it. But part of me wants to save the world and, well, I ain’t doing it there.

Anybody want some fiberglass?

33

Yes and no. It’s challenging, my work ends up in print everywhere (often with my name on it), the pay is fantastic and the workplace is friendly and casual. On the other hand, 12-hour days are the standard and I really feel sometimes that I’m wasting my life here. However, looking at the balance of rewards (as well as respect and appreciation) for effort, it’s a much better deal than anywhere I was working before.

Overall… I’d vote yes.

34

Yes.

It’s only been 4 days so far, though.

35

Well, it’s been a little over a week as training to be the director of environment (read: housekeeping) in a nursing home. I’ve got no clue how I got into it, but there I am. I don’t make a lot of money doing it, but I’ll zip through the training because it’s pie. I’m still job hunting. The way I see it, this job isn’t a career unless I stumble into something. I may be interning in the winter as a help desk technician for tax software. Yes, another thing I have no clue about…yet, at least. I do like new knowledge, though.

To answer the question much more directly, meh. I’d like to deal with “real” problems and solve them. I can’t do that with my job, and I’m notirely sure how to bust into that sort of thing. I’m not ecstatic with it, but it’s really easy (did I mention this before somewhere? it’s to the point of easy where it’s downright boring).

36

I need a job that lets me Dope at work.

Sorry, this is just a mini-pout.

37

At the moment, No, not really.

I don’t hate it, per se, but I do realize that this most recent move took my career in a direction slightly further away from the things I’d ultimately like to do. On the plus side, this is only my second job away from college and it’s helping me nail down an idea of the things I do like to do. I try to take account of the things I’ve liked best about my jobs and think of a job that could encompass those aspects in greater quantity. I’m willing to give this job a try to see if it’s the type of thing that I’ll grow to like more, but I don’t expect this to become my life for the next 20 years or anything.

38

I am very happy with some parts of my job, and very unhappy with others, and tedium-distracted with others.

I like doing autopsies. (Everyone I know in the field does, too. It’s somewhere between art, science, and gardening. It’s a lot of fun - sorry, dead people)

But no one likes doing too many. Do more than two or three in a day, they can really overload you. I love it when I get a really interesting case with an answer that’s either in plain sight and satisfying (pulmonary embolism, thrombosis on a coronary stenosis) or not at all in plain sight, but wonderful to figure out (spontaneous coronary artery dissection in a male driver, unsuspected diabetes in a nine year old). I hate, hate, hate the cases in which I work and work and work to find out what the person died from, and never do figure it out. Those depress me for weeks.

I like teaching - love it, really - puts a spring in my step, brings me back to work. But if you have to teach too much so it becomes a burden, it drags you down. And if you have to teach a medical student how to do something you’ve done 1000x before, and they’re all fascinated but clumsy and slow the way you were your first time, and you have to be somewhere and have other duties and the clock is ticking, it makes you feel so insane.

I know that my work is meaningful, and that matters a lot to me. But the flip side of meaningful in my line of work is grief, and believe me, I never talk to a happy person. All the families I deal with are grieving. Many of them are in the anger stage. That can wear out your soul if you’re on the phone a lot.

And the last straw is tedium - because I work for the government. All those Dopers who work for the government, join with me in chorus: We’re from the Government. We’re here to help. Now, where’s your #2 pencil? We have a few forms for you to fill out.

So I can’t say I’m happy at work, and I can’t say I’m unhappy at work. There are rewards and there are miseries. Some days it evens out and some days are very much more one than the other.

39

Love my career, not so crazy about my particular job. Does that make sense to you?

40

Yes. I really enjoy my job. Some days more than others. I make really good money, I get to play with high-tech toys and I am actually pretty good at it.