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Do you enjoy your work?

JohnE

filthy rascist
May 13, 2005
13,430
1,949
Front Range, dude...
I am closing in on retirement from the military...at which time I plan on getting as far away from the gubbmint and law enforcement and AT/FP as possible. My wad is shot, I am done, I have enjoyed my time, but its time to move along. I am currently considering my options for jobs...porn is one, cowboy, astronaut and race car driver others.

I am finishing a degree in Exercise Science, and pretty much plan on moving back into that world (I used to personal training, agility-acceleration training and strength coaching...). I enjoy that work, but it also gets old after awhile...I want to do something I look forward to doing every morning...

But the ?? is, do you enjoy your work? How did you stumble upon your occupation/vocation?

I have 3 years left to figure it out...but time flies...
 

Ruffles

Chimp
Apr 3, 2012
87
0
Selah, Wa
I did three years in the National Guard, I liked it but I was ready to be done when my time came. Thanks for serving as long as you have. It's 20 years at least to retire right?

I enjoy my new job very much. It's not really a career and I just stumbled upon it last week haha. I cook and take orders at a mom and pop burger and taco place. We also serve a seemingly endless number of desserts. I love it so far, it's like a little family!
I was riding my bike (of course) down a busy road in my city and saw the help wanted sign, so cliche I know, and so I popped in and dropped of a resume and here I am with the job!
 

mrbigisbudgood

Strangely intrigued by Echo
Oct 30, 2001
1,380
3
Charlotte, NC
For me and my job, engineering is easy, this is what my brain is wired to do. I cruised through college (except for those stupid English classes). I typically put headphones on at work, do what I have to do, and go home at the end of the day with energy to do what I want. And no, I don't underachieve, hell I'm globally responsible for a module used in several manufacturing facilities.

For you in the military......my brother in law retired as a Master Sergeant (I think) from the Air Force. He found a job relative to what he did during his service that pays decent with little responsibility and destroys his age group racing XC. I think he falls into the category of "not a single fvck given" and just lives the way he wants.
 

milohead

Monkey
Dec 9, 2008
754
0
Johnson City, Tn
I've owned and operated a small fence company for a little over 10 years and I do enjoy it. I go to a new site every 2-3 days and the jobs and environment changes all the time. I'm outside just about every day mostly in rural and mountainous areas so its peaceful and with good scenery. I wouldn't have it any other way. If I was stuck in a cubicle I would more than likely kill someone.
 

Polandspring88

Superman
Mar 31, 2004
3,066
7
Broomfield, CO
Mechanical engineer here. No, I dont really enjoy my job. I spend far too much time dealing with administrative baloney and zero time actually designing things. I suppose that's why I'm also on the job hunt!
 

Quo Fan

don't make me kick your ass
I watch stuff blow up and look at other people's houses. Right now the construction industry is very slow, so I'm spending a lot of my time on the phone looking for work. I also get to stand around and watch people work during pile driving. That is quite fun.

No, we are not hiring.
 
I enjoy my work (IT geek with paid off-hours on-call duty one week in four), It's challenging and interesting; gets frustrating at times, but I manage to work through that.

The path to this job was like frogger: High school, paper route, odd jobs. One unsuccessful semester at Knox. Odd jobs, cabinet shop gofer, truck driver, auto assembly (UAW), wire stranding machine operator, then Army as chief harbor craft operator. Electromechanical technician at a defense lab. Degree in EE at age 30. Design engineer, space shuttle fuel gauging, nuclear power plant control systems, which ended with the Three Mile Island fiasco. Manufacturing engineer for lines of power supplies, controllers, and battery backups. Minicomputer industry started to fall apart. Application developer, did not get on with boss. Got recruited by a support group, found my niche, stayed on.

What I have always done by instinct is to pick up and help whatever effort is going on. My first paid job other than the paper route was by accident. I was maybe fourteen, and hung out at a local nursery. A bunch of guys were unloading bags of fertilizer from a truck, so I pitched in. I was awestruck when the boss man handed me some money.

Work is just managing to get into mischief in a way that people appreciate.
 

was?

Monkey
Mar 9, 2010
268
30
Dresden, Germany
industrial rope access, I like it, but that's just me. I didn't stumble upon it, rather wanted to try it and so far I didn't regret it one day. It is not for everyone tough, but the guys who are into it, can be quite entertaining sometimes.


Work is just managing to get into mischief in a way that people appreciate.
^this
 

I Are Baboon

The Full Dopey
Aug 6, 2001
32,383
9,289
MTB New England
I like my job. I don't mind coming into work every day. The work itself keeps my attention and I work with a lot of nice people. Given the high visibility of my job (payroll manager), I know a ton of people in this company and I like that. It also helps that the pay is good, the benefits are good, and I get a crapload of time off.

I took an entry level payroll job right out of college and just followed the career path to where I am now.
 

Pesqueeb

bicycle in airplane hangar
Feb 2, 2007
40,138
16,537
Riding the baggage carousel.
Meh. I like my job a lot more now that I don't work nights. Things also improved considerably when I started working departures at the gate by myself. Quite frankly, I think its the happiest I've ever been at work, at least since I started with the airline.
 

binary visions

The voice of reason
Jun 13, 2002
22,092
1,132
NC
Pretty much everything that JBP said. Not the specific jobs, but I did a bunch of different types of manual labor/odd jobs - paper route, setup and teardown of event venues, I cleared power lines for a summer with a chainsaw and backpack of herbicide, I've done roofing and other general contractor work.

I've always been good at IT, though, so through a lot of that I made money on the side doing house calls and the odd webpage. Did data entry as my first non-temporary, full-time job, and just kept sticking my nose into projects that I could help with. Rapidly moved out of data entry, doing more computer systems validations, process improvements, etc.

Went to school at 25, graduated with a degree in IT and a concentration in networking.

I'm very happy with my job right now - I'm a network and systems engineer, working in the R&D department for an IT product. I get an enormous amount of latitude to do what I want, so my projects are varied, I get to play with a lot of technologies that I might otherwise not be exposed to, and I have a budget to keep buying new toys as I need them.

One of my responsibilities is to figure out how to break things, how other people broke things, and how to keep the things from breaking, so that's always interesting and challenging. As JBP said, mischief.
 

JohnE

filthy rascist
May 13, 2005
13,430
1,949
Front Range, dude...
...that pays decent with little responsibility and destroys his age group racing XC. I think he falls into the category of "not a single fvck given" and just lives the way he wants.
Thats what I am talking about...I am thinking about the resort world...where I could walk away if the mood struck me. Seasonal stuff maybe. If I could find a small bike shop for sale I may jump into that...but it would have to be the right time, right size, right place...
 

KavuRider

Turbo Monkey
Jan 30, 2006
2,565
4
CT
No, I don't really enjoy my work. Not very challenging.

Interesting comment about the military - I am currently in the process of talking with a recruiter for the AF Reserves. After the previous thread I posted and a lot of thinking, I've decided I need to make a change.
 

JohnE

filthy rascist
May 13, 2005
13,430
1,949
Front Range, dude...
I have been there, done that and gotten many t shirts in my line of work. But I am pretty much done with it, have no desire to pursue it on the outside. If the right opportunity came along, maybe...but thats a lonnnnnggggg maybe. I am just ready to move along down the trail, ya know?

Kavu, pm me if you want some straight dope about the AF. Its not a bad life...
 

Bushwhacker

Turbo Monkey
Dec 4, 2003
1,220
0
Tar Effing River!! NC
I love all of my many jobs, starting with being in the milking parlor since about the age of 7, turning ground, doing hay and straw, pruning fruit trees, paper routes, lawn mowing and even owning a radiator repair shop when I was 18. I've been climbing trees off and on for over 20 years, been a welder/fabricator/mechanic since I was about 16, worked high steel, ran heavy equipment, have a CDL A drivers license and now run our permaculture farm where I can put all of these acquired skills to use.

The only tree work I do now are the big uglies that no one will touch, or urban logging jobs where precision felling is key and there is money in the logs. This probably amounts to about 10 days a month, the rest of my time is spent on the farm, in the bike shop or on the trails doing exactly what I want. I rarely even know what day of the week it is anymore and I find this to be very comforting.
 

ICEBALL585

Bacontard
Sep 8, 2009
6,803
2,041
.:585:.
Definitely don't LIKE my job but it pays the bills so I can't complain too much. It definitely has its ups and downs. My main complaint is that I hate being stuck inside all day in the sea of cubicles. At least I spend most of my days training people how to be stuck behind a computer all day instead of being stuck myself.

My favorite job over the years was being a ski instructor. But thats probably because all we did was party and hit on chicks.
 
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SkaredShtles

Michael Bolton
Sep 21, 2003
65,379
12,533
In a van.... down by the river
See - here's the deal. The work I do is what I would consider "O.K." - kinda like JBP described. But I'd rather be doing about 43,000 OTHER things more than the jorb.

I salute anyone who would *rather* do their job than other stuff. I don't get it... but I salute them.
 

Raingauge

Monkey
Apr 3, 2008
692
0
Canadia
I like my job. Its interesting enough and pays the bills, it could be more challenging tho. I do some contract design work on the side that keeps things fresh. The people I work with are great and I have lots of freedom within my job. The best things about my job now is they understand that I'm a single dad and they support me when my kids need me. It would take a huge amount of coin to make up for that.

The most interesting job I've had was a project engineer. I got to meet lots of people, travel the world and the money was good, but it killed me being away from my kids all the time.

I got an offer two weeks ago from a small company to do design work and take care of their manufacturing. Not sure what to do with that yet, the work would be interesting and really challenging but the size of the company worries me if we see a downturn in the oil patch.
 

BUFFALO

Vigorous Giver of Reputation
Feb 11, 2005
150
0
Renton, wa
I want to die every day I am here.
This.

It's not that I hate my job. Working on cars is not too bad. All the other things that go on around the shop are usually the issue for me. Corporate owned high line dealer. Unfortunately I'm a little too deep to try to do anything else at this point. It as has allowed me to buy a house at a young age and do a lot of the things I've wanted to because the money is decent. There is really no other job I can think of that I'm qualified for. So I feel like I'm stuck.
 

binary visions

The voice of reason
Jun 13, 2002
22,092
1,132
NC
See - here's the deal. The work I do is what I would consider "O.K." - kinda like JBP described. But I'd rather be doing about 43,000 OTHER things more than the jorb.

I salute anyone who would *rather* do their job than other stuff. I don't get it... but I salute them.
I guess my assumption is that most people would rather be doing other activities.

I mean, I really like my job. I enjoy what I'm doing right now, it's stimulating and challenging.

Would I rather be hiking in the Andes? Yes. But I can like this and still like other stuff more.
 

JohnE

filthy rascist
May 13, 2005
13,430
1,949
Front Range, dude...
You know, I have contemplated ski instructoring, bike tour leading, NOLS or similar expedition/tour leader type stuff, but I think when it is being done as a profession, it must take some of the fun out of it.
 

ICEBALL585

Bacontard
Sep 8, 2009
6,803
2,041
.:585:.
You know, I have contemplated ski instructoring, bike tour leading, NOLS or similar expedition/tour leader type stuff, but I think when it is being done as a profession, it must take some of the fun out of it.
Being a ski instructor was a ton of fun, but that was back when I didn't have a lot of bills. When you're older and doing it strickly for the money then it can get stressful when you don't get the high paying lessons you wanted.
 
Thats what I am talking about...I am thinking about the resort world...where I could walk away if the mood struck me. Seasonal stuff maybe. If I could find a small bike shop for sale I may jump into that...but it would have to be the right time, right size, right place...
Trouble with the bike shop idea is that small business ownership eats you up heart and soul - bye bye riding time, I think...
 

bean

Turbo Monkey
Feb 16, 2004
1,335
0
Boulder
I work for a small tech company, and for lack of a better title, I'm called the director of product development. Since it's a small company I have a pretty wide range of responsibilities. I write scripts, copy and manuals; supervise and help the dev team; do some of the light tech work like server setup, maintenance and website integration; manage the product development process; project management; and just about anything else that comes up.

Four out of five days a week I like mine. There are some things I don't care for that I haven't been able to successfully hand off to anyone else, but I figure that's probably difficult to beat anyway.

I started working for this company shortly after graduating from college. I replied to a listing on craigslist and got a job doing tech support and customer service. From their I acquired various responsibilities over time until I was the operations manager. The company was sold and all employees were laid off so I helped a friend with his startup for six months or so before he sold it. I did some temporary work with the purchasing company there. And then not too long after that ended, the purchasers of the first company asked if I'd be willing to come back and here I am.
 

mantispf2000

Turbo Monkey
Aug 9, 2001
1,793
243
Nevada, 2 hours from Mammoth
When I first moved to Tahoe, it was with the intent of being a sales rep for a few cycling companies. Too much travel, not enough pay, had to find another job. In Tahoe, the best bets for decent money are in the food/beverage or casino industry. I was hired by the old Caesars (now Mont Bleu), before moving next door to Harrah's. Not too many jobs where you need to know how to count to 21 (or other games dealt), be color coordinated (can't pay a green chip with a black one, haha), and put up with drunkards at night, and still make $45k-$65k/year if full-time (wife makes $28-$30k part time). Now that I'm a pit boss, it's even more fun because I get to harass more people than just those on my table while dealing. And by harass, I mean-- let the sarcasm flow (if you're in a casino, in my section, and wearing your pro-team's colors, you're open season for my verbal assault).

And being close to Mammoth/N*/Kirkwood/Bay area is a plus, too................
 

bdamschen

Turbo Monkey
Nov 28, 2005
3,377
156
Spreckels, CA
I am and have always will be a huge nerd I guess. Starting playing with technology at a young age and never really stopped. Pretty much every job I've held since I was old enough to have one had to do with fixing, maintaining or building some sort of tech infrastructure. I've always loved that side of my job, however as I get farther and farther up the ladder it's more managing other people's tinkering and setting and meeting deadlines and going to boring meetings and making pretty documentation and going to more meetings and... lets just say if I won the lottery tomorrow I would definitely not come back.

That said, I'm pretty happy with my job from a non-lottery winner stand point.
 

skyst3alth

Monkey
Apr 13, 2004
866
0
Denver, CO
I want to die every day I am here.
+1. Used to be pretty fun when I was hired as it was a new field and I had to learn all this new technology. Now I get maybe 1 decent case a month, have to put up with more administrative and political bull**** than I can even comprehend...at least the checks are still coming though, and they're paying for loads of training that I can apply to any job. Got a few feelers out, we'll see what happens.

 

Kevin

Turbo Monkey
I consider my job more of a lifestyle then work.
Travelling across Europe for 8 months a year and then having the following 4 months off to explore the rest of the world on my own.
A workweek can mean working 16 hours a day, 7 days a week, for weeks and even months in a row. The only time off is travelling in between jobs and rainy days, which we use to chill out in the hotel, go fishing or play playstation.

I get the occasional weekend off during summer which I usually use to ride some DH or XC.
I dont know what the best part of my job is, getting time off to travel or the actuall job itself.
I see status updates from friends on facebook saying "Allmost weekend!" or "I hate mondays!" and dont understand what they are doing with their life.
I wake up every morning looking forward to a new day on the job, i know i wont have many regrets if I ever look back on my life when im older.
For me, this is what truly living is about.
 

Da Peach

Outwitted by a rodent
Jul 2, 2002
13,681
4,904
North Van
I fall into the "meh" category. It pays the bills and maintains my lifestyle.

If I won the lottery, I'd have plenty of other things to do.

Problem is, my job is to deal with errors (most of the time), so it is inherently frustrating.

JohnE's new job: