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Do you enjoy working? Are you happy with your role? Then please share your story and how upi came about to find a fulfilling job. I'm trying to explore career paths or income-earning activities that I can genuinely enjoy that would make time fly. Usually this brings out the classic follow your passion advice. However I can't see making a sustainable living from travelling, surfing and dj/production. Something like being apart of Nat Geo crew sounds really appealing and yet unreachable, but i can see that would be very enjoyable exploring remote parts of the world. What are some ways to experiment or job shadow different roles in completely different fields? Internships require some background education in the field you may or may not be interested in and volunteering appears to be limited in the scope of roles offered. I'd like to see what a typical day looks like in different professions what kind of environment they work in. Something like seeing Mike Rowe's Dirty Jobs but in other professions and not just "dirty jobs". It would be great to see the life of a business manager, engineer, day trader, internet marketer or unconventional jobs. Just something to give you enough understanding on a job before fully commiting to education and realizing you wasted years of your life pursuing something you thought you'd like but then dislike when you first start out in your field. So tell me the secrets to finding meaningful and fulfilling work and what did you do to get there? It helps to tell us why your work makes you happy. Is it work/life balance, the environment, the activities, the perks, location or other factors? And it may help to describe your personality and interests so that someone with a similar profile may investigate further into the line of work your happy with.
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Dec 22, 2014 02:21
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Unfortunately to move sideways you have to get good at something first. Once you have demonstrated skills and ability in one area it's not that hard to find a position in a new field which has overlapping aspects with your old field. I started in biology and animal research/veterinary medicine, then moved to molecular biology, then genomics and informatics, then microbiology and biochemistry and now clinical cancer genomics. I get bored and move around to keep things interesting. I'm a research scientist and my day, week, month and project are all determined by myself. I work in labs with a big picture research goal but the way in which I achieve that goal is completely up to me. I can take any avenue using different skills. There are many roads to any particular destination. So basically don't be a scientist unless you are self-motivated, have curiosity, are good at figuring things out and problem solving, and good at self-teaching. Science is a terrible place for people that need structure and micro-management. Also it needs commitment. Once you figure something out and complete a project you have to dig in and fight to get the work published, it could take multiple rewrites, multiple rounds of additional research and up to two years. cowofwar fucked around with this message at 07:05 on Dec 22, 2014 |
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Dec 22, 2014 06:58
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To address the main question: don't seek personal happiness or meaning in work. Seek satisfaction in work, and seek happiness in friends and family or hobbies. Discover your talents and aptitudes and do what you're good at, and learn how to find satisfaction in a job well done. When work goes to poo poo, your sense of happiness and meaning will stay constant because friends and family endure.
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Dec 22, 2014 18:13
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Movendi posted:Do you enjoy working? Are you happy with your role? Also don't be scared of getting a degree and then not liking the field. People change fields all the time.
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Dec 23, 2014 02:37
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cowofwar posted:To address the main question: don't seek personal happiness or meaning in work. Seek satisfaction in work, and seek happiness in friends and family or hobbies. Discover your talents and aptitudes and do what you're good at, and learn how to find satisfaction in a job well done. When work goes to poo poo, your sense of happiness and meaning will stay constant because friends and family endure. Wisdom right here. No job you'll ever have will make you as happy as spending time with your hobbies and people you care about. Find a job you don't hate that maximizes earnings. Money is happiness. (Although I think there are diminishing returns at ~70k). Get money get paid
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Dec 23, 2014 08:57
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Yeah I guess I'm happy at work but I'm not happy with work. It wouldn't take very much to make me perfectly content with work either. A little extra money and it would be nice if they hired someone here my own age (Almost 30, everyone else is 55-70) even if it would bring more competition. My goal is to save as much as I can when I'm here so when I decide to leave I can easily afford to live/work part time somewehre else and go to school for my dream job. It's going to be a few more years before I feel completely safe but I'm well on my way at this rate.
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Dec 23, 2014 16:06
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My dream is to work hard until I can afford to buy some land and retreat into the woods like some kind of weird hermit. I want to build something like a large pole barn, like one of the big metal ones, make the upper floor into a nice apartment and have the bottom portion as a big workshop because having a traditional house doesn't interest me much at all. And chop firewood whenever I want, which I don't get to do nowadays. I am content at work but I dislike the institution of having to work in general so I'd like to make enough so I can opt out of all that nonsense some day.
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Dec 23, 2014 16:37
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100 HOGS AGREE posted:My dream is to work hard until I can afford to buy some land and retreat into the woods like some kind of weird hermit. I want to build something like a large pole barn, like one of the big metal ones, make the upper floor into a nice apartment and have the bottom portion as a big workshop because having a traditional house doesn't interest me much at all. You may find this thread interesting if you haven't read it yet - this goon commits pretty fully to a lifestyle like that (with lots of pictures): http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3518232
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Dec 23, 2014 17:54
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JIZZ DENOUEMENT posted:Money is happiness. (Although I think there are diminishing returns at ~70k). This is important, though as my aunt used to say, "Money doesn't buy happiness, but it makes the suffering a lot easier." Once you hit around $70k, you should easily have "enough" money to live comfortably and save for retirement, unless you're a super-spendy person. Money you make on top of that means less to most people. Getting a $5k raise to take you from $55-60k is huge, going from $100-$105k is less important. There's been a lot of chatter about this in the programming industry recently: It turns out that raises and bonuses have less and less of an effect as a "morale boost" the more a person makes. For me, it's all about work/life balance, the people I work with, and being able to work remotely. First, work/life balance. When I was younger, right out of college, I lived to work. My group had free lunch and dinner, so I would be in the office around 10am and stay until 8ish, and I'd often work from home on top of that. It was my first job and I felt like I had to work this hard to impress people. I did well, got a promotion fairly early in my career, and didn't stop. I managed to do this for five years before unhinging a bit, wondering what I was doing with my life, and being diagnosed with a stress-related autoimmune disease. When I run myself ragged or get too stressed out, my body starts killing off all its platelets and I start bleeding internally. That was my cue to reevaluate things. Luckily, the half-decade of no life and frenzied programming put me in a great spot, financially. I switched roles/groups at work, with he goal of joining a less stressful team. Deadlines are still deadlines and stress happens, but all in all it's been much better. Most amazingly, I get to work from home three days a week. I can roll out of bed and into a conference call. I could pretty much end my post here. I have turned down jobs with 15k+ salary bumps because they would have required me to go into the office every day. This is the best benefit I could ask for, and I'm not sure I could easily quantify it in dollars. If I'm sleepy, I can take a nap. If a programming problem is giving me trouble, I can take my dogs for a walk to clear my head. Finally, the people I work with are great. My management chain (going 3 managers up) is filled with well-meaning people who I do feel genuinely want me to succeed and do well. We have normal discussions about life goals and career development. No one is asking me to stay int he office until 7pm, or work over the weekends. My direct manager has fought for promotions and raises for me every year, and gotten them most of the time. My coworkers are all smart people with small egos and great senses of humor. I am very fortunate to be a computer nerd in a society that overvalues that skillset, and to have found the job and team I did. Inverse Icarus fucked around with this message at 18:06 on Dec 23, 2014 |
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Dec 23, 2014 18:04
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Knyteguy posted:You may find this thread interesting if you haven't read it yet - this goon commits pretty fully to a lifestyle like that (with lots of pictures): http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3518232 Haha yeah I've been following that thread.
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Dec 23, 2014 18:07
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I would agree with the others. You can be happy with and enjoy your job but you can't derive happiness from it. Happiness comes from people you spend your life with and the things you do. Money is the means to make that happen. I love my job, don't get me wrong, but it is because of who I work with and because I provide a lot to society. But I get a lot of time off (for America) and that is a tool I use for happiness (yesterday I had a 2' powder day snowboarding because of that PTO and an awesome boss). I made the mistake of living to work for way too long and now I try my best to work 40 hours and enjoy life (the work ethic I have ingrained in me makes that very hard). Find a job that let's you go to work every day content and allows you to pursue happiness outside of it. Sorry that was a bit rambling.
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Dec 23, 2014 23:18
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spwrozek posted:I would agree with the others. You can be happy with and enjoy your job but you can't derive happiness from it. Happiness comes from people you spend your life with and the things you do. Money is the means to make that happen. I love my job, don't get me wrong, but it is because of who I work with and because I provide a lot to society. Totally. I'm happy at work because I work with smart, competent people, many of whom I actually genuinely like. The work I do solves interesting problems that are important to a certain group of people, but the primary reason I like going to work every day is because I really like the people I work with. I realize this when half the office is out, and I have nobody to talk to, grab a coffee with, or bounce ideas off of.
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Dec 24, 2014 03:01
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I guess I'm a counter example of what everyone else is saying about putting more into your circle then work. I love what I do, and I've sacrificed a lot of things to put it first..but that's just perspective. I never looked it like sacrifice, because I was and am truly the happiest version of myself when I'm working. It's been a huge struggle to pursue my dream, but I honestly think that's what life is..Not to sound too cliche, but the journey feels important to me. It shapes and molds and ultimately makes my work better for having had to put in the effort to follow that dream. For me, choosing my path started at 18 (I'm turning 31 in few a months), and it's been the constant in my life, despite everything else changing. That desire to be this thing has been the driving force throughout everything. It's without a doubt my sense of purpose. On top of that, in a purely vain and narcissistic way, I have the ability to put something out into the world that will last well beyond me. Something that could influence others long after I'm gone..or the power to do something that influences people right now..the possibilities exist and are achievable in my medium. The idea of being able to leave a legacy appeals to me in a way that children or the "safe" path doesn't right now. And finally, my work has afforded me the luxury of being in places or witnessing events or even meeting people I highly doubt I'd have found myself in had I made other life choices. I am my work, I'm inseparable from it. It drives me 100%. I don't regret that life choice at all. I have never had a day of work that I've dreaded going to. I'm going to be 13 years into my career this year, so we'll see if my tune changes further down the rabbit hole. I'd like to think that it won't.
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Jan 1, 2015 19:11
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anitsirK posted:Totally. I'm happy at work because I work with smart, competent people, many of whom I actually genuinely like. The work I do solves interesting problems that are important to a certain group of people, but the primary reason I like going to work every day is because I really like the people I work with. I realize this when half the office is out, and I have nobody to talk to, grab a coffee with, or bounce ideas off of. Love that my department consists of only 10 folks and all of which are seasoned professional physicians and health care workers. The passion they bring in daily rubs off on me and the projects they let me take over feels like I'm actually contributing to things that really matter. I'm at a entry level position right now but starting here with them made me realize I may actually have a chance to do more compared to where I worked a few years ago. That and because they're always away from their desks I get the peace I need. Wished I worked here sooner too. Edit: Helps they're chill as hell too. Faux Pas fucked around with this message at 19:23 on Jan 2, 2015 |
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Jan 2, 2015 19:04
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