Does anyone actually enjoy their job???

I'm having a major crisis!!!
I feel completely lost.

I've been trying to figure out what to major in for what seems like an eternity, but I can never figure myself out. That, plus my current crappy job (that I'm planning on quitting this week) is stressing me out beyond words!

So I was just wondering:
Does anyone actually like their job?
What do you do?
How did you decide on that particular career?

Any answers/comments would be appreciated!

I love my job.  Im in IT, software engineering, but Im a geological engineer by education with a focus in electrical methods in geophysics.  Yeah that sounds like a mouthful but it was REALLY fun and challenging and gave me a skill base that allows me to transition between a variety of fields. 

If you love hiking, traveling, and the outdoors I highly recommend the geological studies:  mining, geophysics, geology.  You will get a wide array of skills and knowledge all while roaming around the beautiful outdoors camping, climbing, and hiking all over the place.  I have seen some of the most wonderful places in the world and I understand them in a way that regular people dont.  Its great.

Best of luck to you in your search.

i love my job....Im basically a bank auditor (regulator) so its been very interesting recently....Im at a different place every two weeks and travel constantly...i love it...I tend to get bored quickly, so this works for me...

I majored in Finance because it sounded interesting...totally random...I  WAS a music major for a year and decided I hated it...so I changed...randomly...

I interviewed for three jobs, this is the one I got and just happened to like it/be good at it

If you're really having a hard time picking a major, take random classes until you find one you like....but try not to waste too much time

Also, think about what do you LIKE to do?  It helps to do something I enjoy

I am 61 and retired and I miss my job terribly.  I loved being an elementary school principal.  You begin as a teacher get your masters in administration and you can work anywhere in the US.  I retired with 80 percent of a 100,000 dollar a year job.  I loved the children, the teachers and the parents!!.  Good luck in your quest to find the job you will love,.  Remember it is not magic but the power within you to love.

I'm also retired, but don't miss my job in the purchasing department of a heavy industry corporation, nor do I miss any of the people I worked with.  I didn't mind doing my job, and looked forward to going to work every day, but I had nothing in common with anybody who worked there. I got along with everyone and was well respected, and that's all I asked for.  I was also promoted and rewarded based on performance. 

I was forced into retirement when the company opened plants in Europe and China, closed US plants and consolidated operations.  I would have liked to have worked until 65 to accumulate more savings, have a higher pay to receive a larger social security check.  But I had to retire at 61, live off my severance and wait until the following year to collect SS.  I'm now so poor that I can barely keep my head above water.

Workers in this country are treated like dirt.  So, looking back I'd say I now hate the job and the company I worked for. 

What I'd say to younger workers is this - start saving as much as you can and put your money someplace safe, not all in your company's 401K. Mine lost a lot of value in the last stock market crash and I was never able to catch up.  If they say they will give you a pension, don't believe it - they can take it away in an eyeblink.  Don't allow yourself to work in a high stress environment because you will never get back what you put into it.  Use your vote to elect people who will protect worker's rights and don't vote for those who promote the wealthy.

Do a good job, work hard, but don't expect to be rewarded.

Ugh.  Workers in this country are not treated like dirt.  This cynicism seems very unfounded.  My company is great.  I know lots of people who love their jobs and love their companies.  Hell even when I worked as a cashier for Michael's Arts and Crafts I was treated fairly and kindly.  If you do not like your job I suggest you find a new one.  Companies are always competing for the best workers and those that dont provide a good working environment will lose workers to those who do.  Have you looked at the Want Ads lately?  Its amazing.  [The reasons companies outsource are myriad and generally related to taxes and regulations, not some horrible greedy evil ethics.  Good lord.  Ive been outsourced FROM India and Austrailia.  The system goes both ways.]

Keep looking.  Keep expanding your skills.  Keep networking.  And always plan ahead for your future.  I think you would be surprised how easy it is to save a great deal of money over a lifetime even with a moderate pay job.  Just do your research and be vigilant.

Cheers.

A person dedicated to finding opportunity will eventually find the right place for himself.  Just dont give up!

Do you mean me, Marneedear?  If so, then I guess you didn't read my entire post.  I was forced out inspite of glowing performance reviews to satisfy corporate greed.  I was indeed treated as if I were a disposable commodity.

Perhaps you've been treated well because you're young and pretty.  We who are gray haired and wrinkled are shoved aside.

At 61, and using an oxygen tank 24/7, unable to stand for more than 15 minutes, I found that nobody would hire me. Retail and bank jobs that I would qualify for were beyond my physical limitations because they required standing all day for as long as 10 hours.

I used my entire network in the industry, all my business associates, friends, family, want ads, the internet, temp agencies, head hunters - you name it.  I sent out nearly 1,500 resumes with only 4 responses over the course of a year and only one interview where they took one look at my oxygen tank and said they did some whispering among themselves and then said they didn't have a position for me.  Finally, the owner of a temp agency told me privately that there was no chance of me getting a job. 

I don't have a fancy college degree, just a lifetime of practical experience.  We low and mid level clerical workers are indeed treated like dirt, and it's worse for retail and food service employees. 

Now I'm old and sick and working is out of the question.  I can barely walk now.  So put yourself in my shoes and heed the warning - your employer will not reward you for loyalty.

Original Post by christinedavidson:

I am 61 and retired and I miss my job terribly.  I loved being an elementary school principal.  You begin as a teacher get your masters in administration and you can work anywhere in the US.  I retired with 80 percent of a 100,000 dollar a year job.  I loved the children, the teachers and the parents!!.  Good luck in your quest to find the job you will love,.  Remember it is not magic but the power within you to love.

I really want to be an elementary school teacher! And being a principal also sounds great! I've always wanted to be part of the school administration. What sorta roles did you play as a principal? Oh and I have to ask, did you get summers off?

I love my job!  It's challenging and changes daily, and it allows me to be creative and technical.

I'm a mechanical engineer in the aerospace industry.

I chose mechanical engineering because I've always like math, invention, and solving problems.

Thanks for the replies everyone!
Your careers make me wish I was smarter.

post #2, I've been taking random classes for 3 years now (for the most part focusing on Accounting and Psychology), and I'm still stuck in the same rut :(
I'm extremely indecisive. I'm okay at a lot of things, but I'm not great at anything. Things that I like (art, music, etc.) aren't reasonable when it comes to actually applying them to a career.
I'm pretty much miserable.

If there's anyone else out there, I would love to hear some more replies.

as a government major with an art minor, my advice is take the classes you want, and get internships in the fields that you think you might be interested in.  what you major in in college, especially if you go to a liberal arts school, really doesn't matter.  what matters is the experience you have.  you only go to college once, enjoy it!

after graduating i thought i would work in politics.  for 7 years, i did some grassroots activism, worked in an art studio, did a few random corporate jobs, before settling down working for an NGO (as an office manager...the organization was awesome, the job sucked). 

now, i do free-lance design work (it pays my bils) and i'm back in grad school for art.  is a masters in art practical?  hell no.  will i regret it if i never do this program?  hell yeah.

I love my job more than I can possibly describe.  I'm a phlebotomist at a local hospital, one that'll take in everyone, not just those with wicked insurance, so I see a variety of people and interesting medical cases every day.

I've been wanting to do this since I was a little kid and saw how much my big sister screamed and cried at the thought of getting her blood drawn.  I wanted to show off and so when it was my turn I hopped in that chair and the lab assistant explained in detail what she was doing.  Something about how she could stick a needle in my hand and find blood fascinated me.

My favourite part of my job is having those challenging patients that you wouldn't even dream of being able to get blood out of them, finding a vein, even if it's as small as a thread hidden beneath so much edema you'd swear the skin would burst like a water balloon the second you punctured it, and getting blood.  I also love a lot of the patients I see.  Some are just so witty and interesting, I make the extra trip to stop by their room and say hey even if I don't have lab orders for them.

I work with great people, I've got a great boss, and I live for the thrill of a stressful environment. 

I've been told some of the best careers to get are ones based on your hobbies, and my biggest hobby is sewing.  However, being a seamstress just didn't cut it for me.  I tried filling other peoples orders and designing my own garments.  It's fun, I still like to do it, but I could never do it as a career.  Same went for cake decorating. 

I love my job. Unfortunately it doesn't pay well enough to be something I should aim for doing forever, though. I am a receptionist at a small law firm. But it is really much more than answering phones and filing. We represent people in social security, auto accidents, and workers' compensation claims, and I really enjoy dealing with the people. Often they call and just want someone to talk to-- some of the people trying to get disability have had no income and been completely unable to work for several years, so it gets really tough. I can't change their situation, or rather I can't speed up the red tape process, but some of these people just really need a kind person to listen, someone to ask how they are doing, someone to greet them with a smile and call them by name.

My employers are also some of the kindest people I have ever met. The stereotype about lawyers isn't true! LOL

I love my job! 

I get to get up every day and "fight the good fight" to help make sure that kids from underpriviledged backgrounds are prepared to go to college, and children of migrant workers understand what their educational opportunities are, and that teachers are better prepared to teach students whose first language is not English.

I kind of wandered into my job.  When I finished my last degree, my academic advisor hired me to work with him, and it's been the best thing I've ever done.

The advice I give to people is that you never know what skills you're gaining right now that will serve you in the future.  A computer program, event planning, project organization--you're learning things that could be just what you need to get the next, right job.

Good luck!

I love the possibilities my job has. I'm an English and Professional Communications major. It's one of the best things you can do with yourself if you're artistic, in my opinion. You can do marketing (anything from flyer/brochure design to copy writing/editing to direct mail campagins) or you can do web design or you can do grant writing or you can do technical/manual writing or you can do text book writing or you can do magazine writing and journalism or you can do instruction design and create multimedia presentations, platforms, and documents to add in the instruction/hiring process or you can write copy for commercials or you can...

You get the idea?

It's absolutely the best if you're a decent writer. I'm graduating this year and have only had internships so far, but I love all of my classes, I'm good at all of them, and I'm so confident in all the opportunities I have in front of me. If worst comes to worst, people are always going to need manuals written, so I should always have a job somewhere.

I like my job but I can't say I love it.

 I got my bachelor's in Psych and after job-hunting I realized there wasn't anything I could do with my degree that I couldn't have done with a h.s. diploma. For a little over a year after I graduated I worked at a residential treatment facility for abused kids and ran therapy groups. Eventually I switched to a school program we had there for kids whose behavior problems were too severe to allow them to function in a regular school. That was the worst job of my life (teaching in the charter school program) and it was so stressful I was having panic attacks at work.
Sooo I decided to try my hand at teaching English overseas. I wanted to go to Russia but realized I would lose money by teaching there so on a friend's suggestion I came to S.Korea. I'm on my second year of teaching. I don't love it but I do like it. I love (most of) my students... they're so damn cute. And there are some classes I can have so much fun with.
That said... I'm starting grad school this Spring for International Development and I'll continue teaching part-time and teaching private English lessons to put myself through school. Then I'll find something new...

OP -

Have you considered the path toward becoming an art dealer, agent or curator?

Enjoy college, take classes you like.

At some point you'll find something that interests you or you won't.  You'll either get a job related to your degree or you won't.  You'll either get stay single or get married...that will affect your career decisions...

And at some point down the road, you'll find something that makes enough money and that you don't "hate" doing.  The important thing is to get some type of degree so that you have more options.

As far as suggestions, IT and medical.  Computers aren't going away and neither is sickness.  Nurses make a ton of money and there are nothing but shortages.  But don't major in something you don't have interest in...it'll make college at best a struggle and at worst a failure.

I'm in purchasing and love it. 

I'm 26 and have been doing it for 6 years now.  I;ve worked in the 3 major industries (Aerospace, Automotive and now Agriculteral).  I'm pretty academic and love the challenge of hitting targets, getting costs down and working with million of dollars!!  :O) 

I fell into purchasing by accident, I actually studied contract and criminal law at college.

Good luck finding your path.  I'm a real believer in the fact that times have changed and no longer are you expected to choose a career at 16 and stick with it, if I want to become a teacher at 30, or a florist at 40 or a lawyer at 50 then I will.  :o)

Just about everyone here has a career job, what you had was a minimum wage high turnover Making Ends Meet type of job. Those types of jobs are not really renown for giving their employees that much respect, and the customers, especially the rich snobby ones and soccer moms are the WORST! haha

Why are you working? You don't strike me as the type that has to work their way through school, unless your parents cut you off and want you have responsibility and character. Or maybe Too rich for financial aid, too poor to take it easy.

I quit my last job because I utterly hated it, and it was an Ends Meet type of job, not your lovely dovey career job. My boss was a total and extreme douchebag, but at least I saved up enough money to take a very long trip to Europe to shop around for a decent country. 

"making ends meet"...