Partly inspired by this thread. Some people in that thread really like their jobs and wouldn’t want to give them up. Others apparently can’t even imagine enjoying work. But also because when I read things like this, I think “OK, you’re getting fired and probably won’t be able to get another job like that. But you spent over a decade of your life (grad school + postdoc(s) + 7-year professorship) doing your dream job. How many people can say that?”
I suspect most people, even most educated people, never get a chance to do their dream job. But I’d like to know why you do your job. Is it:
[ul]
[li]just to earn money to pay the bills?[/li][li]to earn money to do the things you would rather do than work?[/li][li]to keep from getting bored?[/li][li]to do something you enjoy doing?[/li][li]to do something you love doing?[/li][/ul] Or some other reason?
If it’s the first, second, or third reason, why are you in your current job? Why haven’t you found a different one?
This isn’t supposed to be a scientific survey. Just looking for opinions and anecdotes from the types of people that read and post to the SDMB.
Earning money is good. I might be able to earn even more if I changed jobs, but I don’t because I love this one.
They pay for me to run conferences and workshops and give papers and be on panels and things. Now they get something back, but I get to have a good time.
I also have the facilities to and the seniority to say that I should be doing this, and they let me. Sometimes I get proved right. I get interesting problems to work on also.
I also like the corporate culture and environment. I suspect if I was 20 years younger I might move, but I think I’ll stick around until I can retire, when I’ll work on some stuff I can’t justify getting paid for.
My current job has nothing to do with my psychology major-- I work on DVD subtitle files for non-English languages. (Which is fun, because I’m a monolingual American. ;))
Generally, I work to pay my bills and to do something with my time. But specific to my current job, I stay mostly because the work is cool. We have all the big-name studios as clients, and almost all our projects are TV shows or movies are highly-recognizable. I’m exposed to foreign languages and cultures in a concentration I’d never see in any other company. I get to nitpick details. And I never know what I’ll be working on next. There are a lot of crazy days, but there are also a lot of fun days.
It’s not a perfect job or my dream job, but I like what I do and I know I’m good at it. I’ll probably only leave if I’m pressured to take a position I don’t want.
I like my present job as a machinist. It’s interesting, The jobs and machines change all the time. I LOVED my last job designing industrial strength computer enclosures. Packing all the items needed in a limited amount of space. From my mind, to the computer, to paper, to an actual thing being built in the shop. Very rewarding.
And still… it’s just for the paycheck, to cover my bills. I’m completely with Peter Gibbons. What would I do if I had a million dollars? “Nothing. I would relax… I would sit on my ass all day… I would do nothing.”
Just for the money, and so I can have a comfortable life. I could find more than enough things to keep me busy and active outside of this job… I just haven’t yet been able to figure out how to make them pay.
I’m only just starting my job, after finishing grad school. I took it because it pays well, is in a pleasant location, and it will let me work in the area I specialize in. But–I’d rather just do my own thing with no expectations.
I’m in my current job because it pays well enough, and I haven’t been offered another job that pays better. If I do happen to be offered/find one that pays better, then I’ll probably take it.
I get to play with super expensive machines inside a cleanroom. Right now I’m rebuilding a motor for a multithousand dollar machine. I can do whatever I want, plus there is also good food on some days. Not only all of this, but it is just a summer job that pays really, really, really well. I’d never get this kind of money otherwise. Lets just say that, by the end of summer, I’ll have most if not all of my student loans paid off from my first year at school.
I work because I like to sleep indoors. I like my job and I take pride in doing it well, but it’s a paycheck, not a calling.
If money were no object, I’d get my PhD and adjunct a few classes at the local university. But, realistically, because I’m not willing to hop around the country chasing a tenure-track job, becoming a history professor is not a smart option for me.
I’m a teacher, and right now there are more bad days than good. Not that it’s a complete write off but I am thinking of other careers. I keep teaching so I can save money to go back to school. I also like being goofy around kids. Probably more so than teaching.
I have only wanted to do two things, basically, since I was a kid: be a performing musician, and work in radio. I’ve done both. I’ve also done a lot of other things to get money to pay rent and buy food, so I completely understand why a lot of people hate their jobs.
When I came to the US, married and got my work permit, I had to get a job, so I took the first one that was offered to me. When it got so bad that I dreaded going in anymore, I put the category of “digital editing” in a local job finder on the web. It wasn’t long before it alerted me to a job at a radio station in town. I applied, and got it. I’ve been there for six years and now I’m on salary.
I love doing it. I know how to operate most of the equipment, I learn new things all the time, my voice is heard by thousands daily, I meet interesting people, I teach those new to the field some skills they didn’t used to have, and some of my work is heard nationally. I was instrumental in changing the sound of the station for the better, through production techniques. I’ve now worked there longer than anybody except the GM and chief engineer.
I like going to work so much that it’s a bonus that it pays pretty good money and has great benefits. I’d rather do this than anything. In radio, you’re hired for your particular skill set, and if you prove your worth, they let you go away and make use of it. We joke that other people have to work for a living.
The first reason. Because up until now I haven’t had a clue what else I could do. But that changed recently, plans are afoot, I have found a different calling (well two actually). This career I’m in now, lasts another ten weeks. I’d write these but they don’t fully express my optimism about where I’m headed.
I like to interact with lots of people and have interesting conversations with them. I like to be in environments where people are curious about themselves and the world, and where knowledge is valued. Since I can be paid to do this as a faculty member and/or therapist, I do those things for work.
I want to have a nice house and be able to provide myself and my family with nice things. I work to get the money to do that stuff. If I won the lottery I’d quit my job at once and spend all my time on leisure activities.
If working was fun, they wouldn’t have to pay me so much to do it.
I’m doing my dream job. I love my kids, I love my classes, I love the subjects I teach, I like most of my fellow teachers, I damn-near worship my principal, and I want 2/3 of the District Office dead, preferably after torture. Into each life some rain must fall. If I didn’t have the DO to bitch about, I’d find something else. I work because it’s fun, rewarding on many levels, and lets me act in self-defense whenever possible. The way I figure it, if society collapses there is a good chance it will take me with it. Therefore it behooves me to take action to help see that it doesn’t collapse. Therefore, I teach.
These two. I’ve worked for the same organization for seven and a half years. Two years ago, I had a different position (QA/education) that I enjoyed very much. Then, I had to move across the country. My department was just starting the planning stages for telecommuting for transcriptionists, so they asked me if I’d like to go to supplemental status instead of quitting, and then subsequently go back to transcription once telecommuting was available. I worked for another company for a year and a half, and then finally went back. I got to keep my seniority, pay rate, and PTO accrural rate, all of which were FAR superior to the interim company’s (I could have worked for them for 20 years and still not make as much money or have as much time off. Plus, their health plan costs like four times as much. They’re currently sending me letters begging me to come back. Fat chance!)
It’s kind of boring, but the pay is better than anything else I could get around here, and the insurance and other benefits are fantastic. I’d like to get something similar to the previous position I held, but I’ve never seen any job postings for anything like it in hospitals here, and if I did, the pay probably wouldn’t be as good, so, I’m kinda stuck.
They’re starting to make plans for the QA/education people to begin telecommuting soon, so maybe someday I can get back into it (but it won’t be nearly as fun…teaching people over the internet and phone is a lot different than teaching people in a classroom).
So, it’s not as easy as just going out and finding a different job. If I want to change jobs but not take a drastic decrease in pay, I’ll have to decide on a new career and go back to school, but since I already have somewhat of a decent job that pays our bills, we’ve decided that my husband is going to go back to school first.
Because I love what I do and because I am doing good in the world. And because I am a sucker for the well-nigh constant positve reinforcement teaching gives one, and I enjoy petty autocratic power. The paycheck allows me to do what I love, which is teach. If I won the lottery, I’d keep my job and quit my life–I’d hire an accountant and a landscaper and a personal assistant and a housekeeper. The time all that would save me would take all the sting out of having to go to work.
As for my current job, I stay because I love my school, the community of it. I know not just kids but families, I have a place and a role. Plus, I am teaching the one course I love most in all the world–Rhetoric–and have complete freedom in how I teach it. AND I get to coach an Academic Decathlon team, AND, starting next year, I get to play around with an economics class. How cool is that?
I work for the money, but if I didn’t need the money, I’d still need a job in order to stay connected with the world. I have too many hermit-like qualities already. Being rich would no doubt send me down the slippery slope toward Howard Hughes-like crazyville.
Primarily to make money so that I can do the things I enjoy doing when I’m not working.
I have a great job situation, I enjoy it, most days I have some fun at work, but it really all comes down to a paycheck. If they stopped paying me, I’d stop working.
If I came into oodles of cash, I would eventually leave my job (but I would feel much to guilty to clean up my desk and walk out, you know? I’d have to manage a transition to a new person). I would definitely continue with my volunteer work, and be able to volunteer more hours. The beauty of having oodles of money so that I wouldn’t have to work would be in the fact that I could do other productive things that are constructive to society, but I could schedule them at my convenience, as opposed to this work gig where they expect me to show up regularly.
I despise the current job that I have but I enjoy the industry. I enjoy the financial markets and love following them day to day. I’ll probably stay in the brokerage industry, but am actively looking for another job both inside my current company and outside.
I’d return to education in some aspect as a second choice. I worked in standardized testing for 5 years before joining a brokerage firm.
but they don’t fully express my optimism about where I’m headed.