do you like your job or at least where your career is headed?

[sdifox]

Originally posted by: Random Variable
I thought we're head towards 100% unemployment, no?

Impossible. There is always someone working in the public sector.

 

[speg]

Screw the rat race, I am going to go travel the world.

 

[meltdown75]

i'm 33, been at my job for 9 1/2 years. i hope i get to retire here, i love my job. i work in commercial / industrial property assessment.

 

[meltdown75]

Originally posted by: speg
Screw the rat race, I am going to go travel the world.

rich kid?

 

[child of wonder]

I enjoy my work immensely but not my job for various reasons. May get a new job soon so hopeful things improve.

Once the kids are grown up and out of the house I plan on going back to school and changing careers entirely. I'll only be 42 when the youngest is 18.

 

[ggnl]

I don't dislike what I do, but my employer has been getting increasingly more bureaucratic since I got here 5 years ago, and it tends to make things unnecessarily difficult.

I wouldn't mind doing the same job at another employer that was run a little more competantly.

 

[Feldenak]

As a functional SAP guy, yes, I like where my career is headed.

 

[rasczak]

Originally posted by: meltdown75

Originally posted by: speg
Screw the rat race, I am going to go travel the world.

rich kid?

wish i was a rich kid

as for OP, I love my job and the company I work for. However, I don't see myself being able to retire on the income provided by this job, so I am looking to buy up property and rent it out for additional income under a an LLC for each property bought (tax breaks and asset protection ) Hopefully it goes somewhere, but if not, at least in 30 years, the loans will be paid off, and I can leave the properties to my children to do as they wish with them.

 

[polarmystery]

I just got a new job. I don't think my new job is that outstanding but I like the company a LOT more. My new job allows me to head towards the career I want vs. the old one did not.

I'm fairly content though.

 

[Bu B3ar]

Originally posted by: TruePaige
Meh..didn't see much of a future in my IT gig, so I'm going back to school. Accounting is exciting. =)

Lies! Lies And Slander!

 

[cherrytwist]

Nope. And I'm looking for solutions to change that starting summer or fall.

I have a ton of college credits (~80) but I was "finding myself" and never chose a discipline. That's how I ended up in IT.

 

[jlee]

Yes

 

[vi edit]

I sort of fell into a PACS administrator position for a decent sized health care system. Medical imaging is a huge growth area right now and is only going to grow as more modality types start to get moved to a PACS based system as well as the consolidation of image storing at regional centers from rural and smaller facilities. It's almost going to a hosting/reselling revenue producer for some hospitals.

I could hang around here for quite a while and really learn the ins & outs and then eventually get into a consulting/project management gig doing installs and upgrades for vendors and facilities if I wanted a change of scenery.

I have no complaints.

 

[thirtythree]

I like my job, though it's hard to say where it's headed. I'm sure I can move into a salaried position at some point (I get about 25 hours currently), but I don't know when. I'm not too concerned, truthfully. I'm hoping for a 30 hour salaried position as I don't like working 40 hours a week...

 

[ViviTheMage]

imo, it's what you do outside your job ....

I like my job, I wouldn't mind middle management...I take enough vacations to tide me over ^_^

 

[BoberFett]

Originally posted by: rh71
why anyone would want to be management at any level or capacity (even PMs) is beyond me.

Some people enjoy working on the big picture more than they do grinding away at the details. I enjoy software development or network administration (I've done both) in small doses but at this point in life I'm far more interested in using my past experience to turn an IT department into an important part of a profitable company than I am writing SQL queries all day. I actually find a lot of joy in exposing non-techies in other departments to IT in ways they didn't know existed, in order to make their lives easier and/or their department more profitable.

 

[rh71]

Originally posted by: BoberFett

Originally posted by: rh71
why anyone would want to be management at any level or capacity (even PMs) is beyond me.

Some people enjoy working on the big picture more than they do grinding away at the details. I enjoy software development or network administration (I've done both) in small doses but at this point in life I'm far more interested in using my past experience to turn an IT department into an important part of a profitable company than I am writing SQL queries all day. I actually find a lot of joy in exposing non-techies in other departments to IT in ways they didn't know existed, in order to make their lives easier and/or their department more profitable.

That's all well and good (really it is), but you also have to manage people who don't do in a timely manner what you request of them (even simple clerical stuff) and essentially you're hounding them to complete tasks like a babysitter. What percentage of their time is used to come up with big ideas [which aren't always theirs anyway] and what percentage is used to "oversee" that the real guys who do the work get it done? Essentially if you have great workers then the typical manager is pretty unnecessary... except for the clerical or liason roles they play.

I suppose if there were more prestige and pay [in comparison] for the guy in the trenches then management wouldn't look so hot anymore. The role is a necessity because there are fvckups, but I don't believe there's much of a skillset required for it. Well, is stress-management a required course? Generally speaking - do you honestly want to deal with that or do you just suck it up and take the money/status?

 

[speg]

Originally posted by: meltdown75

Originally posted by: speg
Screw the rat race, I am going to go travel the world.

rich kid?

I wish. I just hate North American society's view towards work->consume->work. I worked in high tech for 2 years, and put my earnings to work for me. I still do seasonal work, but am always planning my next adventure. Picking up volunteer work in exchange for room and board, or just traveling light and cheap.

Maybe when I settle down I'll take on a more regular job, but for the immediate future I don't see a reason to sell my life to the system! :thumbsup:

 

[hanoverphist]

Originally posted by: rh71
why anyone would want to be management at any level or capacity (even PMs) is beyond me.

more control? more freedom? more pay?

i love my job, and i work for family so i have a vested interest in seeing it prosper. as for moving up, i report to the VP only, the PMs have to schedule my time with me directly, and have no authority over me. id say im about as far up as i can go, but thats ok. the stuff i do is always different from job to job, yet is all based on the same principals and software/ hardware. i get to train often to keep up with technology, and i get to travel at times. i also get free lunches from salesmen that want me to recommend their products.

 

[Engineer]

Currently...no.

 

[vi edit]

Originally posted by: speg

Originally posted by: meltdown75

Originally posted by: speg
Screw the rat race, I am going to go travel the world.

rich kid?

I wish. I just hate North American society's view towards work->consume->work. I worked in high tech for 2 years, and put my earnings to work for me. I still do seasonal work, but am always planning my next adventure. Picking up volunteer work in exchange for room and board, or just traveling light and cheap.

Maybe when I settle down I'll take on a more regular job, but for the immediate future I don't see a reason to sell my life to the system! :thumbsup:

I'm rather envious of one of my wifes' coworkers arrangements.

He's a single guy in his mid 20's. He makes close to $100,000 a year as a pharmacist. He bought a house in the absolute ghetto part of town in cash for $28,000. He drives a motorcycle back and forth to work (3 miles) that's paid off. His work schedule is 7 days on, 7 days off. On his week off he makes trips to different countries. Last month he was in the Canadian rockies. This month he's in Costa Rica on a beach.

He's basically debt free and only has to pay for food for himself and utilities. No kids. No wife/GF. With a fat paycheck every two weeks. I'd be fun for a while.

 

[habib89]

yup, i'm very happy with my career and the path it will eventually lead down, probably ending somewhere in the middle to high management position.

i don't know why everyone sees middle management as such a horrible thing. i'm ok with managing people, i'll still get to do some technical work, and i get to travel when i want, how i want, and where i want. maybe it depends on the company? maybe on the people you have to manage? as long as i don't have to manage idiot union workers, then it's all good.

 

[LordMorpheus]

I like my current job, but I wouldn't want to spend my career here.

But next fall I'm off to grad school for four+ years and will leave with a Ph.D. in Mech (controls / robotics), and then build a robot army and conquer earth.

I'm happy with that career path.

 

[Red Squirrel]

I'm happy with where I'm at, and what I like the most is my hours. 12:30pm to 9:00pm. No dealing with the hardness of getting up in the morning, and I can go to bed late. It's like Friday every day.

the job itself I'm getting kinda fed up, just dealing with retarded users, and all the crap that should not be happening in first place if systems were setup better. I work at a help desk.

Though I have many possible advancement paths as well as a promotion which I'm just waiting on but looks like it's a go. So I'll soon be doing Level 3 server. Way less stuff to manage, and no need to deal with users as much. the best part is, no need to touch desktops. At least with servers, it's only techs that have access to them so they are usually fairly clean of crap compared to desktops.

 

[Descartes]

I couldn't be happier really. It's almost to the point of feeling slightly guilty, because I'm not always sure I deserve these opportunities and so many people I know are looking for work. Nevertheless, I never rest on my laurels and am always mindful that no matter how great things are now it doesn't take much for it to all disappear; I think it took the latest economic crisis to really remind everyone of this fact.