What do you do for a career/job, and do you find it fulfilling?

[Like_Herod]

I'm interested to hear what the rest of you do for work, as people with a passion for literature and no-doubt a thirst for knowledge. More importantly - do you find it fulfilling and rewarding? Do you enjoy it and relish the prospect of getting up and going to work everyday?

I work in IT, and while it is a useful way of paying the bills, I don't think it where my true passion lies. I was close to going to university to read English this year before opting to stay in my job at the last minute. Friends and family advised me that staying in a well-paid job was preferrable to going to University and getting into a large amount of debt because you can 'still read in your spare time'. That may be true so far, but coming home tired after a nine hour day and having a disinterested flick through something light isn't the same.

So, what do you all do?

[solaris]

currently I'm seeking paid employment in office admin, but work 3+ days per week as a volunteer charity worker in a shop. it satisfies my liking for the quirkiness of people, productivity and being active. however, in my other life I'm a poetry moderator, critter, poet, and ex (now) writing/arts website owner. this satisfies my other itch for stimulation by creative minds and my sense of satisfaction when i actually write something worthwhile.

so far i seem to have a fairly healthy balance: if i had to do the writing stuff for a living, and to tighter deadlines that might stifle creativity, i'm not convinced i'd enjoy it nearly as much. it'd become a chore rather than a pleasure!

[Delta40]

I think we need to believe in what we're doing in order to sustain long hours. I'm a public servant and work three days a week, which is a great balance because it allows me to study and engage in social activities. I get to educate and inform people about their responsibilities and obligations - whether they want to hear it or not (this is where the challenge and rewarding nature of the job lies!) Sometimes I would like more money but I would have to ask myself at what cost? Your OP reminded me of where I once was while my children were growing up without me because of the hours I was putting in. It's all very well to be hailed for the sacrifice but it is time one will never get back and I am not sure whether I made the right decision.....

[Like_Herod]

You both raise interesting points:

- doing something for a hobby and doing it for a living is very different. Amongst my Dad's many passions is cooking and, being very good at it, people often ask him if he'd consider being a professional chef. He cites the pressures of working in a 'proper' kitchen as one of several things that would sap the enjoyment.

- I have relatives who have worked very hard to gain a high standard of living and pay for the best education for their children. However, they have had to work long hours in stressful jobs to achieve this at the expense of spending time with their growing children. Is it worth it? I'd love to ask them, I'm just not sure it would be taken in the right way. The other end of the scale would be my parents who struggle for money because they don't work enough. I guess the trick would be to find a balance...

[MANICHAEAN]

HSSE Manager on petro-chemical construction projects around the world. Love it. Work 6.5 days per week, then get 2 weeks off every two months, either in the UK or the Philippines to unwind.

I developed a love for books & the English language from a early age, but was obliged to develop a career, first in construction & then in safety (although originally graduating in Monetary Economics fom the LSE!)

I would have loved to have studied English Literature, but looking back now I think I made the right choice. I write now for pure enjoyment, unhindered by any imperative to write to earn a living.

[keilj]

computer programmer

no - it is not fulfilling


I taught for a while - it was the most fulfilling (and one of the lowest-paying) job I've ever had

[Patrick_Bateman]

I'm a full time learner :)

[JuniperWoolf]

Besides going to school, I work at an art supplies store. It isn't fulfilling. I basically sell scrapbooking garbage to housewives all day. At the end of the day, I get the old lady crowd buying yarn, which is a bit better because the yarn is nice and soft. Once every week or so I get a cute "artist" type, buying sketch pads or charcoal, which is really the best part of my job.

[The Comedian]

I'm an English professor at a small, rural community/technical college in the US. And, honestly, I love it. I teach the most socio/economic diverse group of people around -- ranging from 60-ish displaced factory workers to 17 year-old honor students, usually in the same class. And I teach everything from basic English and business communications to Early American literature and environmental non-fiction. I teach face-to-face, online, inter-active television, and a couple of other formats that I cannot remember right now.

[LitNetIsGreat]

I guess the trick would be to find a balance...

I'm more and more convinced that this is the secret of life.

[LitNetIsGreat]

I'm interested to hear what the rest of you do for work, as people with a passion for literature and no-doubt a thirst for knowledge. More importantly - do you find it fulfilling and rewarding? Do you enjoy it and relish the prospect of getting up and going to work everyday?

I strongly suspect that the vast minority of people relish the prospect of getting up and going to work everyday, even if they are indifferent or even like work! It is good to read that at least a couple of people on this thread enjoy and are fulfilled with work - there is hope!

Me? I completely wasted nearly 10 years of my life stuck in horrible and then indifferent work, before getting out and working in a challenging secondary school? I am still there at present and have been working as a sort of intervention worker, working predominately with targeted students, for the last two years, before that I was a Teaching Assistant with the fun prospect of covering classes.:out:

My job now is much better than that, and there are some fulfilling instances, but next year I have to make the decision whether I want to take the risk of completing full-on teacher training, via university or stick where I am. I honestly don't know what to do. Stay moderate and secure or take the plunge into the unknown with the prospect of "achieving" more? :brickwall I hate these sort of decisions. My temperament suggests to err on the side of caution and stay, but I kind of feel like rolling the dice with this one - but then again the prospect of completing teacher training and then not being able to land a job simply cannot happen. Oh boy, I hate being serious, it's so bloody depressing...

I'm off to see if I can't pick on Brian or something, that always makes me feel better and I'm sure he doesn't mind.

[Buh4Bee]

I'm a special educator, but stuck in 2nd grade hell for the next year or two until one of the positions opens up again. I often want to quit, but this is because I hate stress. I ended the holiday season with an excellent observation, so I am performing well. I do love being a teacher and I am effective at it. I think I'd kill myself if I stayed home, although I am often tempted to just quit and be a stay at home mom.

[OrphanPip]

I work with urine and feces, I get to wear gloves so it's not so bad. I mostly look at it under a microscope and write down what I see, sometimes I see something medically important, mostly it's the same old same old. When I do see something important, we send it out to the bigger and better equipped lab at the university veterinary hospital, so that they can run some other test and redo the ones I do.

I don't find it fulfilling in the least, but I'm still trying to decide what I want to do with my life. I'm also half way through a part-time BA, for personal enjoyment, taking advantage of our socialized university system in Quebec.

Edit: I'm also over-educated for the job that I do.

[Emil Miller]

What do I do?

Very little.

Is it fulfilling?

Completely.

This thread reminds me of the time when Dean Martin had retired and a young reporter was sent to interview him.

Reporter: How are you finding retirement Mr Martin?

Dean: Well son after forty years in show business I have finally arrived at
a position where I can do what I have always wanted to do.

Reporter: What's that Mr Martin?

Dean: Nothing, son, absolutely nothing!

[LitNetIsGreat]

I'm certainly with Brian on the joys of doing nothing (Wilde would certainly support this position too) - well nothing but to please yourself, live on a whim that is. That's the best part about working in education at least you get a good chunk of free time. I can never understand the naysayers who are "glad to be back" I'm not violent but I just want to hit them with a sledgehammer - "work is the last refuge of the unimaginative" as Wilde rightly put it.

It looks as if I don't have to make a decision about going into full teaching anyway as it looks as if the funding has been cut. Enough said.

[prendrelemick]

I'm self employed, and don't work to any clock. If a job needs doing, I do it, if there is no pressing task I don't go looking one. I work outdoors in the countryside, as a farmer and fencing contractor. Sometimes I struggle to get out of bed though.

[LitNetIsGreat]

I'm self employed, and don't work to any clock. If a job needs doing, I do it, if there is no pressing task I don't go looking one. I work outdoors in the countryside, as a farmer and fencing contractor. Sometimes I struggle to get out of bed though.

I like the idea of that. I like the idea of working in the countryside as a farmer, to feel a little more connected to things.

[MANICHAEAN]

Dear Orphan Pip
Courage ma brave! Rabelais had a predilection for "merde" in his writing. It was not all the pleasures of meat and drink and sex, generously treated!
Regards
M.

[kiki1982]

I'm also over-educated for the job that I do.

I think that's the problem of most people, to be honest. The more you know, the more frustrating it becomes to do a stupid job.

In Belgium, I am not joking, nearly everyone has a uni degree. I mean, equivalent of a master. That was standard in the pre-Bologna system. As a result, for the most dumb admin job you absolutely need a uni degree! :eek: As a second result, the people who do not have one (like me because of certain circumstances) are deemed stupid and unable to do the most simple thing. As a side-issue, there are no artisanal workers so any handy-work is inredibly expensive and done by people who don't know their arm from their elbow sometimes (as anyone who an possibly get a degree, gets one, does not invest in plumbing, f.e.). I believe the side effect of this system is that most people are over-qualitfied (I mean filologists sitting in a call-centre) and essentially society and the person himself have spent a lot of energy and money on a degree which is unnecessary AND people get frustrated because they can't use what they have learned. What is the purpose of kind of 'growing' people who are unhappy?

As I am intelligent, I would like something interesting. Sadly, I have no paper to prove the fact that I am intelligent so am qualified to sit at a helpdesk, that's it.
So, I have decided to throw in the towel. I keep the house tidy (which wasn't done when I worked. Oh, my got, it took the stuffing out of me! I just couldn't take up more work after doing just that for the whole day) and help my hubby with any translations. I do it and he proof reads :).

But, fortunately there are a select few in this world who have studied their passion and who are able to make that their job. It must be so fulfilling!

In the meantime I study Russian, and learn!

[Emil Miller]

Sometimes I struggle to get out of bed though.


When I was working, I struggled ( and I mean struggled ) to get out of bed every single working day, not once did I ever get up without feeling very bitter about it. Which is why I now luxuriate in bed even when there is no need too. Revenge is very sweet.

[LitNetIsGreat]

When I was working, I struggled ( and I mean struggled ) to get out of bed every single working day, not once did I ever get up without feeling very bitter about it. Which is why I now luxuriate in bed even when there is no need too. Revenge is very sweet.

:smilielol5:This is so me. I am angry and grumpy when I am forced to get up, so I make it my policy to turn up late everyday and not to speak to anyone for about 2 hours. If I didn't have to work I would not miss a single second of it. (Although Pren if there is any jobs going on your farm I would be a good steady worker.:Angel_anim:)


But, fortunately there are a select few in this world who have studied their passion and who are able to make that their job. It must be so fulfilling!

Some may, but I think that there is an illusion at play in the whole idea of work...and life. People tend to think that if I only did this, or if I only happened to do that, I would be happy, I would be satisfied, but it doesn't work like that I think. No, I think you are happier and better off at home with the free time and doing what you enjoy. I think that you made the right move without a doubt Kiki.

[kiki1982]

I meant people who have a passion like literature (we all know them as we are on here! ;)) and who study that and then go on to teach it to others or write papers on it. That must be fulfilling. There are only a select few places for that, though... The rest of them and people with history, philosophy, and the like are just saddled with jobs that do not require degrees in mos cases.

And then there are the doctors who learn an awful lot and then only get people with colds and flu... meh

For me the key thing was time to do what I liked. If that had been available, I might have been fulfilled, because my job had enough in it to make it at least bearable, a leas the last one I did (database assistant, very interesting). Sadly, the amount of days I thought that I could be cleaning my house instead of calling people, was too great...

[LitNetIsGreat]

Yes it is a shame that you haven't wound up teaching because you are obviously very educated and passionate about literature. I'm sure that you would have been really good teacher or writer, however I still think that work in general is like chasing the illusion. I'm sure that there are those who are really happy with their lot, but working in education say, is not all that you would think. Take that love of reading, that passion for knowledge, love of working with eager to learn people and feed it through a system of government targets, endless assessments, observations, red tape, buzz strategies, teenagers :reddevil: etc, etc and then the fulfilling aspect of it starts to fall away.

Right now I am thinking that it would be wonderful to grow my own food, maybe open up my own little organic cafe,:) it seems so fulfilling, but I bet that isn't all that it is cracked up to be as well. I bet the constant battle just to break more than even despite working hard can't be much fun. That's the problem with our way of life in general, there is always the failed promise of something better on the horizon that never really materializes.

[kiki1982]

Ah, yes, feed it through a school sytem and the whole thing goes belly-up! I meant as a stuffy academic, but well-paid then (say professor) ;). You will be teaching people who are interested because they have chosen it AND you will probably have personnel to deal with wathever there is to deal with (in Belgium at least).

I think it must be fulfilling to grow your own food! I mean, I would just like to move to a place where I don't have to pay tax on the ground I own and where I can just grow my own and produce my own meat and eggs. Wouldn't that be wonderful! But such a place probably does not exist anymore or you'll be having problems with certain things you need...

Having a cafe... I don't know... All the health and safety and, as you say, the constant battle to keep affloat will probably ruin it all. Although, if you actually get a plot, try to produce as much as you can and then sell it. Particularly berries are a very good sale. I mean, 250g for like 2 pounds! If you have such a few bushes, there is money to be made, AND they grow by themselves in bunches. No work at all, unlike other veggies. If the taxman doesn't find out, it could be a good side-income... Although the weather will sometimes interfere with the gardening ideal. :)

I guess, for me the key thing is pressure. From the time there is any pressure, I just get discouraged. If I can't do it my own pace (which is fast enough), I can't be *rsed. That's probably why I hate exams as well.

You know, I was once reprimanded by my supervisor. The person whose work I used to get (she was the first stage) was ill and so all the work stopped. And so I did what was lying in wait. Then that was finished and the person was still ill. When I started to surf the net after I had cleaned my desk, cleaned out my drawers and had done absolutely everything to keep busy and was at a loss what to do next, she said, 'But you should have worked more slowly in oder to keep busy.' :yikes: I mean, seriously, she was arguing for working more slowly! I surfed the internet for the next days until I discovered a way in order to get the work which the other person supplied me with. Then that one got fired because they discovered that she was in fact useless and had been for the last.. few years in fact :D.

[LitNetIsGreat]

You know, I was once reprimanded by my supervisor. The person whose work I used to get (she was the first stage) was ill and so all the work stopped. And so I did what was lying in wait. Then that was finished and the person was still ill. When I started to surf the net after I had cleaned my desk, cleaned out my drawers and had done absolutely everything to keep busy and was at a loss what to do next, she said, 'But you should have worked more slowly in oder to keep busy.' I mean, seriously, she was arguing for working more slowly! I surfed the internet for the next days until I discovered a way in order to get the work which the other person supplied me with. Then that one got fired because they discovered that she was in fact useless and had been for the last.. few years in fact .

Ah no. Yes, you see I hate all of that nonsense, it is utter, utter $%££"££$$%% and some more. I completely refuse to put up with any of that on any level, no way. Life should not be lived like that and you did quite right in avoiding it, man, what are we bored of life so much that we have to waste it?


Ah, yes, feed it through a school sytem and the whole thing goes belly-up! I meant as a stuffy academic, but well-paid then (say professor) . You will be teaching people who are interested because they have chosen it AND you will probably have personnel to deal with wathever there is to deal with (in Belgium at least).

Ah yes I bet that is a good, much better than working lower down the age scale.


I think it must be fulfilling to grow your own food! I mean, I would just like to move to a place where I don't have to pay tax on the ground I own and where I can just grow my own and produce my own meat and eggs. Wouldn't that be wonderful! But such a place probably does not exist anymore or you'll be having problems with certain things you need...

Yes I have been dreaming the farm dream for a while - to live of the "fat o' the land" indeed! I have always lived in the city but when I was younger (6-16) I spent very nearly all of my school holiday time in the countryside - fishing, picking fresh food strawberries, apples and other berries from hedgerows, walking around on farms getting eggs etc, so it is in my blood really I feel closer to that way of life anyway. I would certainly like to get back to that sort of thing, but at the moment and the foreseeable future at least, I'll have to be content growing my stuff from pots and the small space that I have.

Yes forget the cafe. I don't know about selling my own stuff, I end up baking stuff and giving it away - need to get some of that capitalist spirit maybe, hmmm, not sure about that?

This place would suit me perfectly:
http://www.zoopla.co.uk/for-sale/details/11160562?search_identifier=bd169c7fba68e5787f83ea1 d635193a0

Can we organise a Litnet collection fund for Neely please?

Oh, I've just got to have it. Get that and I would be happy...

[weltanschauung]

electrical engineer, soon to be also mecatronic engineer. i love it, worked very hard for it.

[Gilliatt Gurgle]

Architect working in the role of construction administrator. As a construction administrator, I represent the interests of the building owner and of course my firm, in overseeing the construction of the building we designed. Simply put, I serve as a quality control enforcer and resource for answering clarification requests from the contractors regarding our drawings and specifications.
I enjoy what I do, but of course, I can imagine something better such as painting, woodworking, metal work, weaving ristras, and selling cacti in New Mexico.

.

[Emil Miller]

Ah This place would suit me perfectly:
http://www.zoopla.co.uk/for-sale/details/11160562?search_identifier=bd169c7fba68e5787f83ea1 d635193a0

Can we organise a Litnet collection fund for Neely please?

Oh, I've just got to have it. Get that and I would be happy...


I do see where you are coming from Neely, but I could do without the UK's weather. I would be thinking of something more upon these lines .

http://www.azurproperties.com/rw/newlang=1/moredetails/pid=1697/Saint-Tropez---St-Raphael/SAINT-TROPEZ-Villa-Home-real-estate.html

[LitNetIsGreat]

I do see where you are coming from Neely, but I could do without the UK's weather. I would be thinking of something more upon these lines .

http://www.azurproperties.com/rw/newlang=1/moredetails/pid=1697/Saint-Tropez---St-Raphael/SAINT-TROPEZ-Villa-Home-real-estate.html

Oh yes the south of France is definitely up my street too, if I had the option I would go with something like that. If I had to stay in England somewhere on the Cornish/Devon coast would probably be the place, but if I had to stay local that farmhouse above would be it.

[MystyrMystyry]

So grass is greener over there

Transitions bring transitory peace and happiness, but the more things you try the more restless you become until transition becomes the way of life

The idea of self-employment appeals if you're working for the man (I don't know his name) or faceless beaurocracy where the results of your efforts can't be felt, or in a job that may be beneath you but is really very easy (so easy it gives you more than enough time to daydream about being self-employed, a successful artist, or doing the most worthwhile thing you can imagine)

Trouble is we all have skills and knowledge which can benefit others, but as we age we tire of communicating, and start looking to be entertained or just taking it easy

It's a problem with the world we've inherited - some get the well paid job or inherit the money, the rest get the crumbs. Communism doesn't work because it's impersonal: 'So you want to be a writer eh? That's bad luck because we need you to drive that bus...'

And then if we have the ideal situation there's more time to read the books we enjoy, but less time to teach others; more satisfying lives, but less time to just sit and think

And somewhere during the day/week there must be time for this - to daydream is extremely important to mind/brain function, and when I see old people who say they've done enough and it's their time now, it's sad - but understandable

This balance everyone says is the goal - good on you if you find it, for me every day is half the length of yesterday

[xman]

I have been a professional (primarily stage) actor for 25 years. It is an extremely rewarding experience especially with young audiences, but the profession itself, the business is terribly distressing. There's not nearly enough money in it for most actors to live on, North American culture simply doesn't go in for it much and there seems to be an inordinate amount of disingenuous egotists to get around. I'll never stop doing it though. It's in my blood now. I don't generally like the prospect of looking for work, but when rehearsing and performing I work very hard and enjoy every second of it.

I have also held a number of less than satisfying day jobs like tending bar and telemarketing, but I am sewing some now, a skill I credit my grandmother for passing on to me, and may make a side business out of that in the very near future. Satisfying in that doing it reminds me of her and I like accomplishing the task well.

[blazeofglory]

I am a banker and in fact I could not find this job appealing in the beginning.I am a creative writer and the world of finance and commerce was not my cup of tea. But I had no choice since by writing I could not earn enoug to run my family expenses.

But later on I took a liking to this career and I am comfortable wih this job.