I'm going to quit and go be a hermit somewhere

Just to rub it in I've been off for two weeks and another two of doing whatever the fuck I want before I go back to work.

As for the focus at times my job drives me up the wall but overall it's pretty good, if not the thing I actually want to be doing which is still a few steps down the road. At the end of the day I just want to blow shit up for a living and I'm slowly getting there.

 

I'm a full-retard libertarian working for a police department in a civilian capacity, and yet I find it fulfilling because I'm a goddamn hypocrite. I've been there eight and a half years, and from about the three month mark in late '06 it's been the best job I've ever had. At the end of the day, there's two types of jobs: Ones where you're treated like a rockstar and generally appreciated, and jobs where your boss and coworkers think you're a fucking moron. Well, that's my dysfunctional experience, YMMV. I've had both, I've had one job devolve from the former to the latter, and the past eight years have been the best I've spent on any job.

 

I like my civil engineering job, I wouldn't call it fulfilling. I love parts of it and hate parts of it. I like the owner of the company and respect him. I also know I'm appreciated and respected, it shows in my salary, bonuses and the way I'm treated. I'd worked with him before I left and before he started his own company. He tracked me down to offer me the job when he found out I had moved back in the area to raise our son.

Alt Focus: I left the conventional workforce for a while and ended up doing yacht deliveries and maintenance. I will return to that later in life. I didn't make much money but loved every minute of it.

 

Fuck you man! You get to work at home. I had to drag my ass out into -2 degree weather, walk 6 blocks in shitty slushy snow, then had to wait for a bus AND train for about 3-4 minutes each. The wind chill made it feel like it was -15. Being that goddamn cold makes your nose run and eyes water, WHICH TURNS AROUND AND FREEZES ON YOUR GODDAMN FACE.

Focus: Pretty sure I'm not the person who is going to get to that level of warm/fuzziness about any work. I don't think there is a "do what you love" for me that's an actual job. But I had a job that sounded like yours doing search engine marketing. Even though the company was probably the best I'll ever work for, the work itself was just boring as fuck to me. I quit, giving up $10k to do something that is a bit more exciting.

My job now is engaging but has problems of it s own. I think it's the right career, just not the right situation.

 

I spent all Monday in my mom's hospital room, watching her struggle with a collapsing lung and crippling pain from surgery, amid a sea of medical fuckwits that can't administer pain meds properly. I watched blood drain out of my mom into a fucking bag for six hours today.

I'll fucking trade you a Monday at the office for this shit any day of the fucking week. Even with Kathy being a fat cunt, and the coffee machine broken, you bunch of Garfield-mewling twats.

I mean, work sucks, right lol? Yay vacation! Beaches and 'ritas!

 

My job at Planned Parenthood has all the potential to be fulfilling but it's squandered by some of the worst management on both the micro and macro level that I've ever encountered. It was meant to be a temporary solution to unemployment that I figured would be more fulfilling and a more helpful launching point to my next career-oriented move than working in retail, and it was for a while until there was a changing of hands. Now no one can focus on the good work we're still managing to do because we're too caught up with bullshit, and management has zero interest in improving or listening to anything anyone has to say. Every now and then it still hits me, but it's always very fleeting.

I am trying to either work in magazines or in communications for nonprofits instead. I had 5 interviews last year - 3 magazines and 2 nonprofits - and was the second choice for every goddamn one. So, fingers crossed for this year.

 

Right now, job dissatisfaction is low. I was hoping to get transferred to an overseas position starting this spring but the results came back over Christmas and somebody else got the position, so unless some weird things happen, it's not going to happen. Which is alright, I guess, but as it stands right now I don't want to wait around another few years for another kick at the can.

Where would I like to work? The dreamer in me thinks that working locum shifts in the B.C. interior with my spare time spent skiing would be the dream job. I don't know how realistic that is, though.

 

I am fairly indifferent to my current job. I work as a GIS & Telecom Technician for an engineering company that is based in India. I feel like I am underpaid, but since there aren't a lot of jobs that do specifically what I do I can't really complain. Since I am in school right now I'm also happy about the fact that it is flexible; I can work my 8 hours per day pretty much when I want to. I am working towards a dual MBA-MSIS, so hopefully I can get out of this field and get something more stable. The contract that the project that I'm working on is under is only good for 3 years, and there's still no guarantee that the project won't be pulled before then.

 

Yes and no. I'm a physical therapist in a hospital. It's like any other job with both enjoyable and crappy aspects.

The Fulfilling Parts: I get to help people. I like getting people up and moving within hours of their surgery, and since it's in a hospital I see dramatic changes in short periods of time. That's kinda fun. My job is basically to help prevent complications from developing and get people as independent as possible so that they can go home ASAP safely and function within their specific environments and social supports. Sometimes I issue equipment. Sometimes it's just teaching someone alternative ways to do everyday activities. If someone isn't safe to go home, I give discharge recommendations regarding where they should go and why. It's amazing how doctors will send people home. They can't physically move around in bed or get out of bed on their own, but the doc's like, "Send 'em home!" even though they live alone and have two flights of stairs to just get into the front door. It's not curing cancer, but it's fulfilling to help someone get out of the hospital and feel confident about where they're going.

I'm really great at what I do. There are a million things I would completely suck at, but it's fulfilling to do something that you do well.

What's not so fulfilling: There isn't a lot of room for growth in terms of my skill set or professionally. Since it's such a small department, I don't have any amount of mentorship or even someone just to bounce ideas off of. My co-workers and I are pretty much all new grads or have under 2 years of experience. We work well together, but there's nothing like being around people with 10+ years of experience who have seen and done almost everything. So that says something about the company we work for, our "management" and about the lack of mentorship we have compared to my friends working at other places. This is not a long-term job. I'm already applying to PRN jobs to get experience in other settings and to network.

And, then there are the crazy people. The people who attempt to suck the Life out of you. That's not fulfilling. It feels like you're just trying to deal with the crazy and get out unscaythed.

Alt Focus: What job or career would you rather be doing instead?

 

I manage large-ish construction projects both CONUS and OCONUS. Through the years (I have been at this for 10 years) my level of responsibility has been increasing. It is now to the point where I am starting to feel over my head...but looking back on it, I think I always felt like I was over my head after arriving at every new assignment or after every promotion.

I am personally responsible for the budget and schedule on fast-track, design-build projects. There are a lot of moving pieces and a lot of different stakeholders with differing agendas. Beyond that, I have a large team of people that I need to manage and ensure they aren't burning the fucking house down. I spend my time split essentially 50-50 between adult daycare and reporting to superiors.

The adult daycare isn't so bad. Once you get to know the people you can gauge where you need to watch them and where you don't and they likewise understand what I am looking for. On the flip side, the reporting sucks a fat baby's dick. I report to a gang of VP's on a weekly basis and no matter how good things are going, I generally feel like I have been slapped around and molested by the time it is said and done. It's high reward and high stress. I am 35 and on blood pressure meds, that's not cool. To some degree it is fulfilling at the end of the project when you look around and see something new that you helped to create but beyond that glimmer of a bright spot, the rest is a thankless slog.

I am trying to work my way out of it. I am working towards starting some different companies doing something totally different. I really don't think it matters to me what I end up doing in the end as long as I am doing it for myself. Right now I am working 90-100 hour weeks, I wouldn't mind it if I had something lasting to give to my kids when it was said and done.

 

While the career that would fulfill me spiritually and emotionally is writer, I would settle for the financial security of being a full-time teacher. Full-time teaching and financially security sound like an oxymoron, but in my case a steady paycheck and dental insurance are all I want at this point.

 

I'm also a teacher and how fulfilling my job is depends on the day.

Some days, it is absolutely fulfilling. When last semester ended, I got a few of the following comments:

"You make this class fun,"
"I actually learned from you, I don't learn from most teachers,"
"You really helped me,"
or
"I actually passed!"

I had kids go to their counselors and request to switch into my class next semester (for some strange reason a lot of kids switch teachers for a year long class after first semester) because they liked me so much.

Then there are the days where comments are:

"What do you mean my kid is failing!?"
"I'm not (insert blatantly stupid/rule breaking bullshit that I have to deal with)!"
or just the disillusioned, glassy-eyed stare of complete contempt high school students give their teachers, that even then best, most engaging teacher will see.

Those days, I just want to say "fuck it" and be a stay-at-home dad.

Then there are the meetings. The meetings about meetings. The meetings to schedule future meetings for discussions about the over abundance of meetings. We have at least 10 meetings a month, and I swear each one is more pointless than the last. I'm hoping getting a new principal next year changes that.

Stay-at-home dad would absolutely be my secondary "career." I've told my wife a thousand times I'd happily be a stay-at-home dad and take care of the kids, take them to appointments, clean, cook, all that other good stuff. I have zero problem doing that stuff, and my wife makes more than enough money (six figures when she works full time) for it to work. In fact, my salary as a teacher is such shit that when I work full time and she works part time, we make about $30,000 a year LESS than if my wife worked full time and I stayed at home.

Then again, I have openly admitted that, if I were rich, I would almost literally never leave home except to occasionally visit family. Summer? Fuck that shit, too hot. Winter? Too cold, and fuck driving on ice. Fall? Those stupid leaves suck. Spring? Too bright. I'd be a true hermit, if possible. I've never understood "Cabin Fever" because it would honestly be a version of heaven to me. When I think of the list of shit I'd get done if I could be a stay-at-home Dad, my mind boggles with how awesome it'd be.

 

I spend my day doing supply chain analytics. I find the actual work I do to be incredibly fulfilling, but trying to convince people to view things through a lens they know nothing about is endlessly frustrating. I can spend days working through complex modeling to have someone invalidate all of my work by simply saying, "Yeah, I don't feel like that makes sense". No facts. No opinions. Just, this is too complicated for me to process so therefore it must be wrong.

The worst thing about my job is that most people find it an affront to their intellect when you present fact based data that doesn't fit with their narrative. I literally have to call bullshit on people everyday and it gets tiring having to do that side of the job.

 

My career is incredibly fulfilling in a lot of ways. The singular fly in the ointment is that, like any business, finding clients can be hard and some of the people you deal with in that process are essentially sociopaths. But, when I'm meeting with a husband and wife, helping them plan out their retirement, their kids college funding, life insurance planning I am doing something truly meaningful and impactful. When I sit down with business owners and help them plan how to actually retire someday or provide benefits for their employees or otherwise leverage their finances I am putting a lot of skill, training, and wisdom to use.

I help people, I grow my own business, I invest in myself with ongoing education and certification, and my schedule has a lot of flexibility to it. I do work long hours and a lot of people are dicks, but the upsides are well worth it. I'm closing in on two years in with 2015 being an incredibly important year in terms of achieving predictability and sustainability. I'm excited, but a little scared, but generally speaking after the three year mark people this business are have either made it or washed out and I think I have what it takes.

Bottom line, I am so glad to be a life insurance agent and financial services professional and don't regret leaving the legal profession behind a bit.

 

I hate people so much.

I love nothing more than being subservient to people.

My job is quite a conundrum.

 

Focus: I just started working as an LPN recently PRN (as needed) and just got hired full time as of New Years Eve. Right now my job is fulfilling, but I know its mainly because I haven't worked in several years and the steady paycheck and soon to be benefits are huge motivators. I am able to use most of my skills and I do love helping people. Everyone seems to like me and the job I'm doing and I get a lot of praise. My residents like me and I know I'm helping and doing a good job. I go home completely exhausted because I'm literally on my feet non-stop for 8+ solid hours and barely get a break. The day flies by which is nice, and when I drive home though I'm tired, I do feel fulfilled. I can't see doing what I'm doing for long though - 2 years at most. It's just a pit stop in my career as it gets started. My ultimate career goal is to run an OR as circulating nurse.

Alt Focus: I actually was sort of living my dream life before I got laid off. I was working from home full time with benefits as a medical transcriber. The money was decent and I was a super fast typist so I was able to get my quota done at my leisure. That left me free during the day to work outside in my yard landscaping, gardening, and growing weed while I worked a few hours in the evening. I was pretty much stoned all day every day and I never felt better. No anxiety at all, I lost weight and was in great shape, almost to the point of when I was in my early 20s. Basically my dream life is to retire, become a marijuana cultivator, and work in my yard. It was the best 3 years of my life. Seriously.

 

I really don't like my work. I do location audio for film shoots around here. I've only been doing it for a little over a year, so I'm still in the independent league, but I'm already not crazy about it and I don't see it getting any better.

When you're working, that's all you're doing. The hours are crazy and, at least in my case, an hour commute to set is not uncommon. You make good money when you get into the union, so most people take a couple/few months off a year, but I hate that schedule. I would much rather have evenings and weekends off throughout the year; I think that makes for a much less dysfunctional social life. Plus, because of the schedule, when you're working with a shitty director/DOP/1st AD, your life is miserable 14 hours a day 6 days a week for however long that project is. Fuck that noise.

It sucks because I've been working towards this for ~3 years, but I definitely want a change. There is a voice in my head telling me to not be a quitter, but at some point I have to admit to myself that this isn't for me.

So, I'm trying to figure out better options now. I'm looking at maybe going back to school (again) for computer science. Get myself a nice desk job where I don't have to hold a boom pole in the sweltering heat all day while getting sunburnt. Who knows; I have no idea where I'll be in a few years, which is as scary as it is exciting.

 

Focus: I've been doing farm work since childhood; I started out just doing minor things here and there, and now after my grandfather's passing on New Years Eve (Happy New Year to me...), I'm nominally in charge of his operation. I'm also working sporadically for a cattle broker, tending to his livestock on the side. Honestly I despised farming when I was younger, I wanted to join the military or maybe be a police officer, but that just never happened for various reasons. But coming into my mid-twenties I've learned I actually enjoy my work, and I don't see myself doing anything else with my life.

I'm just a farmhand so the pay is pretty shitty depending on the season; during winter I can count on making $150 a week roughly; during the summer months when I'm working more I bring home closer to $350-400 a week. Sometimes I might get a bonus after selling cattle or hay, but that isn't always a given. Being outside every day tending to the animals is perhaps the most rewarding aspect of the job; and as I spend more time around them I've come to the notion I far more enjoy being around cattle and donkeys than humans. Oh and agricultural equipment; to me the best experience of summer is long days of mowing/kicking/raking/baling hay. Give me my cooler of water, Zune, and a pack of smokes and I'm pretty content to spend ten or twelve hours on a tractor.

The job can be unpleasant at times though; cattle can be dangerous (I've been kicked, trampled, and ran over on many occasions), tractors and equipment can kill you in an instant. You've really got to be on your guard at times; it's easy to be hurt or killed in this line of work. You've got times of bad weather, if cattle prices drop you could loose money, etc. etc. There are some risks with this job you don't get just sitting at a desk all day.

Yet, it's what I feel I've been called to do in life.

Spoiler

Any day you get to just mindlessly ride around in a $80,000 tractor drinking cappuccino is a pretty good day.