No ur not, man!
yep.
Nitpicky advisor really hammered me for this.
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I should of stayed in school to learn grammars.
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Iām curious,
For anyone that sees this, do you guys actually ENJOY your jobs/careers or is it just a way to support your family/yourself or both options.
Most days I enjoy what I do. The grind gets to everyone at some point and many days become ājust another dayā.
I think the key to this is to not define yourself by your career or what you do. I have definitely been guilty of doing that in the past.
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I love my job most days and draw tremendous satisfaction from my career always. Some of that satisfaction comes from the money I earn, but certainly not all of it.
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Absolutely this.
What I do is not who I am.
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I enjoy my work, but it is because I feel that my job accomplishes something- I build things that people presumably want to, and will, use.
I realize thatās what I like- the sense that I am doing something that others value or will gain value from. Thatās why I hated my very short time working as a sales associate at a clothing store. I felt the customers didnāt value the time I spent putting clothes on the rack or folding them (because I personally never valued it until I actually did that job and because people donāt put them back nicely, which implies that they never cared about the clothes to begin with).
I donāt have dependents or a family of my own yet, so I donāt know whether Iād find satisfaction from working for them. Given that I enjoy the value derived from my work, I am pretty sure that Iāll feel really happy if the money I gain helps make my kids happy or buys my spouse something theyād enjoy.
The actual specifics of my job is boring. Thatās why I describe it literally like such to everyone, partly as a joke and partly because thatās literally want it is when you strip it down to its barebones-I solve boring puzzles and draw rectangles for a living.
I agree with cycloneengineer and T3hPwnisher. I think thereās a very deep, insightful meaning to these that will liberate your mind.
ā¦I write this because I struggle A LOT with getting this exact message through to my sibling, so I really like emphasizing just how liberating this line of thought can be if you understand it correctly.
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This is something Iāve struggled with the past few years. It feels like the more successful people in my trade let the job take over their life and they live, eat, sleep and dream about the work. I kind of let that happen and I ended up being pretty unhappy.
I LIKE my job. I like helping people and solving problemsā¦ but I LOVE doing things outside of work like spending time with my wife and dog, playing guitar and lifting.
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Obviously donāt have an actual job rn but I worked as a research assistant and am helping someone with their business. I really enjoyed/enjoy both positions since in the former, I got to participate and contribute to research and network with some pretty important people in my field. In the latter, I get to apply the things mum has taught me and some things Iāve learned in school.
Starting next year, Iāll be in grad school, so I guess itāll be a job. The first two years will be hell but after that, my job is to be a āresearch monkā. I cannot wait. One thing thatās always bothered me about UG is that I have to take some classes that are literally repeats of each other- huge waste of timeā¦ the best part has been participating in the research community (projects, lab meetings, seminars), so I very much look forward to doing that full time.
In the future, my dream is to become an academic, but realistically speaking, thatās probably not going to happen just based on my ability and the trajectory of academia. In which case, Iāll take up a corporate research job. Itās probably not going to be as interesting as academia, but Iāll still be tangent enough to academia (my profs collaborate with corporate researchers all the time) and wonāt have the pressure to āpublish or perishā
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This is interesting to me. I consider myself to fall into both of your categories. I work M-Th, and I am very much all about my job starting on Sunday evening. I become very focused on that everything be optimal for the work week, and particularly me. I want to be rested, because some people are boring, and I have to spend an hour listening to them monotone on without making eye contact. They deserve my alert and engaged attention nonetheless. Some people are in a genuine fix and need help problem-solving. In fact, many of them. I want not to be distracted by hunger or thirst. I want to have the inner resources to remain centered through terminal diagnoses and rape disclosures (at age 11 this week, wtf). So my days are wake up, scroll around the internet for a half-hour, work out, shower, make breakfast and lunch, and get to work early enough to be all settled in and ready when my first patient arrives. After work I feed the dog and give her some attention, eat a healthy dinner, and either watch TV or read depending on husbandās whereabouts. Then early to bed. Work is the center of those days, and happily so.
However, come Thursday evening, WEEKEND! I think very little about work starting then and lasting through Sunday afternoon. My center is home and family and hiking and playing and music and food. Maybe a couple of drinks, maybe a pizza, maybe a fancy dinner, maybe a road trip, maybe a late night.
It feels good and balanced to me.
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I do my best to be the same way, it just makes easing back into the work week that much less painful.
My issue with work/life balance is that I have a hard time saying no, or realizing that I actually want to say no. I really enjoy helping people and making them happy, but not at the expense of my own sanity. If it were up to my managers, Iād spend every waking moment in the van and making the company money. They send way too much work my way. I used to be ok with pulling multiple 60-80 hour weeks in a row, but not anymore. It had gotten to a point where I was just unhappy. Work had bled into my personal life and it was literally all I thought about.
If Iām on call, Iāll do any amount of hours that I need to do, otherwise, I try to stay as close to 40 as possible. Some guys pride themselves in saying they havenāt been home for a family dinner in monthsā¦ those are the same people that I think secretly hate their life.
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Pretty sure this is the secondary Boy Scout Motto.
I enjoy writing code and solving problems, I hate everything else about my job. Unfortunately, āeverything elseā takes up way more of my time than it should. Iām retiring the second I can financially do so.
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Thereās a very famous economist whoās become a meme for his productivity.
One of my professors was his PhD student and when I asked this prof about him, the prof responded āhe worksā
This is the same with my friend (that one). Heās not the smartest but he works.
I spend a LOT of time thinking about/doing academic stuff and would happily give up/have given up a lot of hobbies, interest and āsocial lifeā in favour of studying; however, there are things like the gym and my sleep that I refuse to give up and thatās definitely a reason Iām not and will never be top of any field, much less economics where Iām already 10 steps behind
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I thought this too for awhile. Now, ~11 years later, I am considered a subject matter expert in my particular realm of engineering. And I rarely work overtime.
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Iāll say that both promotions Iāve gotten at work, and my current status (I have a couple programs that consider me to be one of the best at my job) all happened due to me literally just paying attention and doing my job. I never needed to do anything more - I asked questions when I had them and helped when it seemed to be beneficial. These alone have done wonders for my reputationā¦ and I basically f*ck off half the day - almost every day.
Simply doing what is expected of you and being helpful makes everyone think youāre hot shit when it comes to work, IME.
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I can only speak from my own experiences, but I think this is way less normal than it should be. In a perfect world everyone would love their work and be willing to spend as much time as possible on it.
Iād say 90% of people that I know/work with/ talk to consider their jobs as a means to an end rather than a passion project or just for sheet enjoyment. Thatās not saying they canāt or will never enjoy it, but most people have many other things theyād rather do than be trapped somewhere for X amount of hours a day with someone telling them what to do
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Thatās really really impressive, especially given your field.
Yeah, Iām really lucky
If I didnāt get into the school Iām at (and rejected from the other ones) Iād be aiming for a ācareerā in finance and consulting
Also, my parents can afford the opportunity cost of me going to grad school
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Itās narrower than you might think. I specialize in aircraft fuel systems, so it narrows it down quite a bit.
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