Very much so (well, I ain’t doing astronomy for the money, that’s for sure!). I love my job, and I still sometimes boggle at the fact that “OMG, they’re paying me to prod the universe and figure out how it works.” I do certainly feel a lot of passion for my work, and well, I honestly doubt that I’d succeed in my chosen career unless I had the passion for it. Like my thesis advisor told me, “astronomy’s not a job, its a vocation”, and its true. I can’t see myself doing anything else, and the thought of if I ever had to spend the rest of my days doing something other than astronomy fills me with sadness.
I’m very passionate about my occupation, less so about my current job. But mostly I love what I do and feel that what I do is important. I can’t imagine spending as much time at it as I do, if I didn’t think it was both valuable and pretty darn interesting most of the time.
Love my job, even when I’m miserable–because I am never bored, because I am making a difference, and because I have summers off.
Occupation, yes. This specific job? No.
Yes, I am passionate about my job. I teach people how to garden with native plants, and learn to appreciate the environment, to reach out and learn Nature around them. I see people come into my business, and they are wanting to learn, rather world-weary from the day to day, and it is a joy to teach people how to look at a caterpillar, butterfly, whatever that I see as normal. But, folks don’t always see that.
I love teaching connections with the natural world, especially with kids. I see it as a good gift to give, understanding how it all works on Earth, and kids always get it, the murk and dirt and stuffs. Trying to learn teaching it more ably, but, yep, love it, and will still.
I’m straddling the line at the moment.
In my part-time day job, I do work that is societally beneficial, the hours are amazingly flexible, and it pays exceptionally well for what’s effectively glorified factory work in an esoteric field. I can choose my own hours, leave when my work is done, and listen to audiobooks all day. I get an extensive benefits package, and am lucky that in a staff of 3, my two coworkers are pleasant and hard-working.
As far as all that goes, it’s an exceptionally non-terrible way to collect a paycheck and keep the mortgage paid. However, as I said, it’s endlessly repetitive and if it weren’t for the audiobooks I’d be bored out of my skull.
On the other hand, the reason I’m part-time is that I’m working towards supporting myself with my own business. I have a degree in studio art, I enjoy making things, and I am an extreme dog geek. For a long time in college I managed a little pet store and am pretty familiar with the pet industry.
I noticed I was having a hard time finding a nice leather leash for my dog, so I went and bought myself an industrial sewing machine and started making leather dog gear. As it turns out, a whole lot of other people had the same problem.
I get to spend my time making stuff with my hands, which is personally fulfilling in a way I sort of need. When I’m at vendor events I spend my whole day talking to people about their dogs, everyone is happy. It’s hard to explain, but… a kid who works in the plumbing department at Home Depot once told me that he hated his department because everyone who was shopping in that section was there because something was broken and they were pissed. Everyone who buys something from me is buying a great gift for their best friend. It’s really a happy way to spend my time.
If I could, I’d call in sick tomorrow and never go back. It’s not the money, people practically throw handfuls of cash at me and on a per hour basis it’s hugely more profitable. But NajaHusband is skittish about the potential instability, and he doesn’t want me to give up the guaranteed check. Stupid mortgages.
I talk about my job a lot, and I am good at it, but I do not love it. I never wanted to be in the medical profession, even when I was a kid with a nurse mom and everybody just assumed that I would do that too, I’ve never wanted it. I’m much more of a creative type, and not really a people person. I vant to be alone!
I’m very good at what I do and I enjoy doing it. I get a kick out of helping businesses get better. But a “passion,” shit no. Once I get home it’s all about the family.
If I won a big lottery jackpot I’d never work a full time job again.
I love mine. First of all, it contributes to computer quality, and helps keep the Net up. (I have nothing to do with the Dope’s computer. 
) Second, I got in close to the ground floor of my field, when a lot of stuff hadn’t been discovered yet. I like my official job, and my company lets me get involved in the international community, running conferences and editing special journal issues and such. I also can publish cool and weird stuff now.
Plus, I can write code to evaluate how we’re doing. I spent quite some time working on this, with full support, on the assumption we’d need it. This year we did, and it paid off. But I still love to program, especially when it is on projects I’ve dreamed up myself, and I love even more finding elegant solutions. I rewrote some code last month and cut its size in half. What could be more fun?
Not that I’m not going to be happy to retire, but I don’t have any trouble going to work each morning, and it would take a damn special offer to make me leave this job.
Currently, I’m a consultant. Some projects (those where I was able to pull my full weight) I’ve loved. Some, I’ve been bleh about or hated. When I’m allowed to really do my job, I feel like the OP’s wife: I’m making people’s lifes better, I’m doing something intellectually challenging, I’m doing something other people can’t do and being the best I can be.
I’ve also been a researcher and a lab tech; I’ve done some translation stints and am thinking of getting more translation work. For me it’s not so much the line of work as the specific company(onship).
They don’t pay me enough to care, let alone approach the job with any passion.
I keep sticking on the word “passionate.”
I adore my job, and am astonished and delighted to find myself in a position where I’m being paid very well to do something that a) I’m really good at, b) I really care about, c) provides useful information that I care about to other people who care about it. I enjoy my job, I enjoy the people I work with, I enjoy the process, I enjoy the end-product, life is good.
Maybe I’m just not a “passionate” kind of gal.
Whenever I read a thread here about commercials that people absolutely hate, and see the writhing histrionics that Dopers throw themselves into to describe how angry a particular ad makes them, that’s when I realize: I’m making a difference!
If, through the advertisements I write, I can cause someone to snap at a loved one, throw something at a family pet, or simply damage a piece of furniture in their homes, then I can go to sleep at night with a smile on my face, knowing that all my work has been worthwhile.
I find my job fulfilling in many ways and I don’t think I am suited for anything else. There are frustrations, but that is normal in any job. I guess you could say I’m in grown up love with my job, but not romatic puppy dog love with my job.
My test for if I love my job is that if I won the lottery, I fantasize about using the money to do the job I currently do, but without having to take any crap off anyone.
I’m passionate about my chosen profession (urban planning), but do find myself disenchanted from time to time. Being a profession rooted in design and the social sciences, planners are typically overeducated and underpaid; with an undergraduate degree, graduate degree, professional certification, and 12 years of experience in the profession, I earn less than a typical MBA at their first job. I often wonder of the work I do is really going to have an effect, or if it will be undermined by the good ol’ boy effect and the inability of others to see the “big picture”.
I don’t know what else I could do, though. Architecture or academia, maybe.
Hi all,
I would say I love my job, I don’t know about passionate but I am very good at my job and it’s never boring. I get paid well for my position, although more would be nice LOL! I manage a veterinary hospital and I’m really proud of it (one of the city’s best- “officially”) and the doctors I work with are great. The only things that get me down are employees who sometimes don’t appreciate it the way I do- having worked at two very “hostile” hospital environments and as a manager, I do have to be the bad guy more than it is in my nature to be (discussing payment arrangements, employee discipline, etc). But I enjoy the clients, especially the loyal ones I’ve known for years and the great dogs and cats- more than you would expect think coming to the vet is a bit like a kid in Disneyland. I can bring my dogs to work with me if I want and I have great veterinary benefits for my pets. If I do leave, it will probably be in the same field- one day I’d like to earn my CVPM (certified vet. practice manager) and become a consultant but I need to go back to school first.
No.
I don’t know. Sometimes, I suppose. Mostly, I’m bored.
I care a lot about my occupation, and I’ve chosen it over other fields which would earn me more money. And I could see myself teaching my entire life quite happily, so I supposed the answer is yes. I don’t think this specific kind of teaching (at community colleges) will keep me happy for more than a handful of years, though. I feel like I’m neither here nor there. I’ll probably either switch to high school or go get my PhD so I can teach at the university level.
I enjoy the challenge of my work. I’m always on my toes because of it. I like developing a plan, putting it into action and watching it work.
But I can’t stand the people with which I work.