Who loves what they do for a living?

Favorite quotations, etc.
Matthew
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Joined: Thu Jul 22, 2010 6:58 pm

Post by Matthew »

I brought this up as a spin off of the Law degree question. Who actually enjoys what they do for a job or something as a way of life? If you don't, what do you hate? If you love it, what about it? I think this may be helpful for people considering different life paths/careers.
I work as a mechanical engineer, but I would say that I only enjoy what I do about 2/5th's of the time (assuming 5/5ths need be at work) and that 2/5th's is often destroyed by unrealistic deadlines and expectations (regarding actual creative design work to solve problems). Stress for me has a negative impact on my life. The 3/5th's involves following poorly planned processes (offic space?) and basically handling other peoples shit (because the process says they are not allowed to make a decision and I should support in my FREE time). I have only had one job since I have started my career (now in the tenth year), so I was wondering what other people have learned in their experience.
My experience regarding Mechanical design...only do it if you are ok working 45-50 hours a week (this is usually long enough to keep the success oriented boss off your back). It hasn't fit me well as I only work 40 hours a week because I view work as YMOYL.
Also, for people considering engineering, what are you actually passionate about designing? I have not found a good paying solution to that one yet...but then again, I never spent much time trying to find a solution to design things I am passionate about. All I think is ERE and how annoying the other 3/5th's can be.
Edit: Oh yeah, does anyone have a job they feel they could quit for 5 years without any negative consequences?


ToFI
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Joined: Thu Jun 16, 2011 1:22 am

Post by ToFI »

I have a cubicle purchasing job.

I hate it for all the common reasons people complain about cubicle job.

The thing I hate most:

1.Have to sit in front of the computer pretending to be busy even though there's only 1-2 hours of real work.

2.Confined in a small cage sitting on a chair for 8 hours a day.

3.Daily encounter of small talks. Not able to have meamingful conversation with other people because I have to be careful of what I say. If I say it louder, most peole can hear it.
I had one job in a small teashop. I enjoyed the job but the pay sucks and I can't work there forever.It's mainly for young people. I was able to see/talk to all kinds of interesting people every day. I can move around although I was standing most of the day. It's fun but at the end of day the legs become really sore. It's nice during slow time. I can just sit down and do whatever I want. There's no boss/manager/supervisor watching behind my back. 2-3 Employees are working at any giving time.
My current goal is once my stash reaches 15 times annual expense, i'll quit and seek out fun alternative job regardless of salary. After years of self learning of real investing as oppose to speculation, my portfolio is able to out performs the index by roughly 5% per year. YTD out performnance 10%. So I am quite comfortable to quit with 15 times expense saving.
I'll keep learning about real investing(value/inteiligent/business like) for the rest of my life even if I stop working at a job one day.


jacob
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Post by jacob »

Building on the E-Myth (recommended book) I think all enterprises can be divided into

1) Creative vision

2) Technical skill

3) Managerial

4) Sales
I love 1 and 2. I can deal with 3 if I have to but prefer not to. I absolutely hate 4.
I found that the standard academic career path pretty much looks like this: vision->tech->sales->manage and that it's either up or out. Eventually I chose out.
Writing the blog progressed like: tech->vision->manage->sales and then I soured on it.
See a pattern?
Now I work for a proprietary trading group R&D'ing trading strategies. This is vision and tech again.
The solution seems to be to avoid the temptation to get promoted into sales and management. With enough FU money, it may be possible to make a convincing case to management. (In case of academia, it's not because the grant-based funding system is predicated on turning your research into a sales job.)


arebelspy
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Joined: Sat Jul 09, 2011 5:50 am

Post by arebelspy »

Re: Who Loves What They Do For A Living?
We had a similar poll on the MMM forums.
Question was: How do you feel about your job on a scale of 1-5? ( 1 = hate, 2 = dislike, 3 = okay, 4 = like, 5 = love).
As of this post, 93 people have voted.
7.5% hate.

11.8% dislike.

19.4% okay.

48.4% like.

12.9% love.
So about 20% dislike/hate, 20% okay, 60% like/love.
Better than I thought it would be when starting the poll.
http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/forum/as ... -your-job/


OurLifeInc.
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Post by OurLifeInc. »

I like my job. I am a CRM/Database Analyst. It is fun. I am good at it. I get to help people do their jobs more easily. Everyone thinks that what I do is magic, which is fun.
What I hate? I hate one member of our IT dept. He consistently stands in the way of progress, attempting to prevent me from doing my job. Since I am not IT and am self trained, I obviously don't know what I am doing. This guy would walk into facebook and revoke access from Zuckerberg since he doesn't have a degree in CS....annoying.
Soft people problems can easily ruin an otherwise good job.


dragoncar
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Joined: Fri Oct 29, 2010 7:17 pm

Post by dragoncar »

There's a bit of selection bias here, don't you think? :-)
I enjoy the majority of what I do. I enjoyed the majority of my last profession too.
However, I do not enjoy having to wake up before noon. I do not enjoy having to dedicate the majority of my "disposable" time to any one profession.
If there was a job that let me do a few hours here and there of many disparate things, without any external time commitments, I might actually love it.
Kind of sounds like "business owner" to me, but I am not comfortable with the risks that entails without financial independence.


LonerMatt
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Joined: Tue Sep 20, 2011 3:49 am

Post by LonerMatt »

I love what I do, I'm a High School teacher. Most people think I'm insane, but that's ok, I sort of am.
Looking at Jacob's earlier post, I have to wonder if there are any 'sales' involved. I'm willing to bet that the book he referenced doesn't talk about sales literally all the time.


Chad
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Post by Chad »

Some of my job is ok. The client I work for is good, but my company is annoying...incompetent.
Creative - It's a little creative, but not nearly enough to be truly satisfying
Tech - The writing required isn't easy, but it isn't hard either. I actually think my writing skills have declined a little.
Managerial - Minimal, so fine.
Sales - Minimal right now, but this has to change for my company to grow. I'm not overly thrilled with that.
As mentioned by others, the ideal is finding something high in the first two criteria. I don't think I can accomplish this ideal without working for myself in some manner, as I think the ideal is very very rare in a "normal" 9-5 job.
I would add one more criteria: Quality People. I do enjoy working with people who have high morals and high competency, as no one needs to manage anyone and the majority of time it enhances the creativity/tech pieces. Obviously, being an introvert this would still be a little limited.
Unfortunately, I work with a very small number of quality people.


LiquidSapphire
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Joined: Thu Jul 28, 2011 6:40 pm

Post by LiquidSapphire »

Thought provoking question, and timely for me.
Things I've liked about my jobs:

Working with people I genuinely like and respect.

Working for people who genuinely care about me and my career and want me to succeed

Having a mentor to bounce things off of

Work/Life Balance. I have resisted all pressures to do anything work related while I am at home and so that's nice. My home time is MINE.

Working with cheerful and/or intelligent folks with no hidden agendas

I've had jobs that were not intellectually challenging but were with good people. Those jobs were "OK", take it or leave it types. The times I had a project that intellectually piqued my interest and intrigued me and moderately challenged me would make a good job great.
Things I've despised about my jobs:

Being held accountable for things outside of my control

Having to do things "wrong" due to political pressures

Working for sociopaths! Basically working for people who lack all integrity.

I really dislike standing for 8 hours a day, every day. Maybe after years and years day in/out you get used to this, but I never did.

I really severely dislike confrontation or giving bad news.

If you don't have good relationships/fun with the people around you, I am starting to think the job will suck, no matter what the task at hand is, unless the people contact is very very minimal.

Jobs that are reaaaaaally tedious and boring and not at all challenging, and also not very social. I could stick these out for about 3 months before the urge to quit gets pretty overwhelming, even if the people are pretty nice there.
So conclusion: for me at least, WHO you work with (and in what capacity) is probably more important than the actual task at hand.
I suspect I could probably quit my job for 5 years and go back... but it would definitely be at a pay cut/lower rung of the ladder. I think I'd sooner cut my arm off though.


Lorraine
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Joined: Wed Apr 20, 2011 6:00 am

Post by Lorraine »

Things I like about my job:

I work on average 25 hours a week for decent pay, I'm on my feet all

day (no cubicles in sight!), I don't take my work home with me (except for the stress of thinking about how I don't want to go back there), I deal with overall nice people on a regular basis, I get along well with my co-workers, and I'm good at what I do and I take pride in that.
Things I hate about my job:

It's not intellectually stimulating at all, and I frequently feel bad about myself when I have to do demeaning things like cater to assholes, or have to answer the question, 'what do you want to be when you grow up?' one more time. I often can't stand management. I'm by nature an introvert, so socializing for hours on end is exhausting. I hate drunk people. I hate bad cover bands. I leave the room when 'Sweet Caroline' comes on. My job is extremely repetive: the SAME people talking about the SAME things day after day after day (literally years), indulging the same annoying habits. I work with a guy who hates all the things I

Do about the job in exactly the same way, and it's a bit of a solace to work beside someone who feels my pain.
But I stay despite all this. Could I leave for 5 years? Yeah. I once left for 2 and when I returned, literally the same people were sitting in the same spot talking about the same thing, as if I had never left. That is so utterly depressing to me. Why don't I change? Because I really value

all my free time, and I feel that any other job that I have to go to will ultimately produce the same aversion after awhile. This is why I pursue ERE.


Chad
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Joined: Fri Jul 23, 2010 3:10 pm

Post by Chad »

"Why don't I change? Because I really value

all my free time, and I feel that any other job that I have to go to will ultimately produce the same aversion after awhile. This is why I pursue ERE."
I don't hate my job as much as you, but I have the same thoughts about finding another one. From my experience the next one isn't much better. At least the next "regular" job isn't much better.


Christopherjart
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Post by Christopherjart »

I love what I do.
I love teaching, but I don't love spending over an hour to get to a class and over an hour to get back. I don't love all the downtime between classes, but that's how it works. People want the class in their office.
I love creating artwork and graphic designs to place my work on cool products. I spent 3 hours last night making designs for clocks (19 versions) and another 30 minutes this morning improving a few. I only make money if people find my stuff and make a purchase though so there is a lot of marketing needed to get that to grow. Even without marketing some people still manage to find my stuff and make a purchase :-)

It is great because I love being creative and expressive and I can do it from home and close to home) It isn't great because just being creative isn't enough to pay bills so I still have to teach.
I think that everything we do has its pros and cons.


totoro
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Joined: Thu Jun 28, 2012 9:14 pm

Post by totoro »

I really love my job, well, most of it. I own my own business, a small law firm and work in a specialized area part-time. I love the flexibility with my time, the problem-solving, the research and the fact that I have a lot of free time because my hourly wage is fairly high. I know lots of folks would just work more hours but I prefer the time.
I hate the administrative detail (billing, book-keeping) aspects of it and need other people to help me with this.


OTCW
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Joined: Thu Mar 31, 2011 12:55 am

Post by OTCW »

My job is okay. I would love it if it were only one day a week. I could live off 1/5 of my salary. I am moving towards asking for that from my employer, but want to have enough assets to walk away completely if they say no. Doing my job 5 (or 6) days a week is a drag. About 2 or 3 years away,and I always have my eyes peeled for a similar part time opportunity at other employers.


before45
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Joined: Thu Mar 15, 2012 2:59 pm

Post by before45 »

I love the actual tasks involved in my job (researching and writing, speaking, teaching, counseling), but I hate feeling responsible for the survival of the congregation, I hate feeling that I have to "sell" membership, I hate when volunteers' egos get in the way, I hate working full time. . . . Basically I would like my job better if I weren't being paid, because then I'd feel that I had more flexibility. I might end up doing a lot of what I do for free after ER. Or I might become some kind of introvert hermit.


riparian
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Post by riparian »

I love the things I do, but mostly because when I stop loving one I can pick up another and then go back in a couple months when I miss it.


irukandjisting
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Post by irukandjisting »

I work about 20 hours a week - 2 x 10 hour shifts, by choice
I work from 930pm thru to 730am
Not sure how I would feel about doing this work full time - its heavy duty and I need 'my time'
I work with many suicidal, on watch, psychotic, bi polar and schitzoid people
I work with great people, down to earth people... and I/we do out utmost to support, care, medicate and aid the above people - sometimes its a 'tackle to the ground' to prevent harm to self and others - but on the whole, it runs pretty smooth with guidelines and preventive procedures in place
I really enjoy/love my work... and enjoy reading backgrounds of these people - genetics/environment, one-offs...


Tyler9000
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Post by Tyler9000 »

Any job will sour given enough time to rust, but in general I really enjoy what I do.
As someone who has chosen to switch jobs more often than most, here's my 2-cents: Pay close attention to the environment you choose to work in, and don't confuse dissatisfaction with your employer for dissatisfaction with your career. Be assertive, set boundaries, and don't settle for a specific job that makes you unhappy because you're afraid of change.
I'm also a mechanical engineer. I'm more passionate about doing something completely new than I am about any one product or industry. I work in a design consultancy (after stints at a variety of large corporations and small product companies), which is a great environment for maximum variety and minimum corporate process. It took me a while to figure out what I value in a job and what I do not, but once I found the right fit it helped tremendously with my outlook on work.
That said, I'm saving away money as efficiently as possible for when I'm ready for the next thing beyond working for a living.


Stahlmann
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Re: Who loves what they do for a living?

Post by Stahlmann »

setting bar higher: any idea for avoidant schizoid?

being night shift guard would be sad :(

Crusader
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Re: Who loves what they do for a living?

Post by Crusader »

I am a software developer in a large IT company. I "like" it in the sense that given that I have to work, I would be hard pressed to find something that I can tolerate easier (for this amount of money). In particular:
- I work on one product, so every bug or feature I work on is new (as opposed to, say, making similar run of the mill websites for different clients)
- Nobody micromanages me
- I generally like my boss and colleagues
- There is a gym at work with fitness classes that I can take for free (during non-Covid times)
- I have been working at the same job for 10 years so I know it inside out, it's not very stressful (compared to other similar jobs) and I don't need to work the full 8 hours a day

Things I don't like:
- I really don't like working, period. I don't want to be "selling" myself or convince anyone of anything, impressing others or competing. I remember when I had my first 1 on 1 with my then manager who told me how evaluations work and I told him (at that time I didn't know how to keep my mouth shut) "I don't care about any of this... the only thing I care about is whether or not *I* am happy with my work". He then explained that this is not how it works :)
- Having only 20 work days vacation per year
- Having to be working for 8 hours a day (I would rather spend the time learning something, and maybe 4 hours a day)
- Knowing that you have to have a job, otherwise you eventually end up homeless, i.e. a lack of independence.

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