Board 8 > What's your job like?

(+) Yeah! (+)

In the middle of a job transition myself right now, and wondering what fields y'all are in. I've done about 12 years of varying customer service/account management type jobs, everything from food service to library circulation clerk to weddings/events sales assistant.

If you like your current job. talk about why. If you don't like your current job, talk about why, or talk about a job that you did like and why.

What makes a job great, aside from money? What makes you look forward to going in? Is it people? Is it the work? Is it something rewarding about the work, or being able to see a job well done?

How do you know when it's time to leave a job? Do you leave when you're just not being challenged, or do you wait until you're totally fed up and then throw in the towel?

Jobs, man. Let's talk.

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I manage a small team that does client operations for an adtech company (basically a company that helps websites/apps make money via ad revenue).

I'm fairly ambivalent toward my job. It pays well, and I generally like the people I work with, but it's fairly far from where I live (so I work remote on a regular basis). I do enjoy meeting with clients and essentially wining and dining them, though that's not a primary component of my job.

It's a tech job so it's got the typical techie office with stuff like cold brew coffee on tap, catered lunches, snacks.

All in all, it's fine. It's comfortable and not overly stressful.

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I quit my job at the end of September because it wasn't challenging me and asking for additional responsibilities was treated as a bad thing. They basically told me that I wasn't good for anything except the one or two things they'd have me do. It was terrible for my self-esteem, and I am extremely happy to be out of that shithole. My boss was awesome and the only reason I put up with it for so long - shame she wasn't able to get me any additional duties.

I just started part-time seasonal work at Target, which is only to pay the bills in the meantime while I try to figure out what the hell I want to do with my life.
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Lol job what job

Data entry. God, I thought I lived to having a boring, easy job which would be a comfortable way to make money without having to worry about a single thing.

Guess not. I can feel my mind dulling every day I spend there. The people are nice, but it's not like there are groups of people who hang out or something. Most are much older than me and it's a pretty small sales office (company is much bigger but there's not a lot of international communication). I'm staying until the end of the year and then I'm going to look for something more fulfilling and/or fun. In that sense I'm happy at least that I found out dull isn't my thing.
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I teach high school special ed and love it. it's really rewarding and the kids are great. we spend a good chunk of the day going into the community to do volunteer work since basic work skills are really what they need more than anything. I teach them reading, another teacher does math. I have fun and only time I really have any anxiety going to work is if I have an observation.

frankly, it's a really easy job but I guess you have to like kids, especially those with disabilities. I love my coworkers too.

also summers off
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I'm a structural engineer who works on nuclear power plants

I mostly like the people I work with. The actual work can occasionally be exciting (and always ridiculously entertaining, what needs to be done with all the regulatory mandates and stuff) but imo the people you work with determine everything
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Creative director at a major global advertising agency. It's good when I have a good team, not so good when I don't.
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I am part of a team that advises corporate executives on compensation strategies.

The team I work with is really fun and the work is challenging. Sometimes can be stressful when things get busy though. And like all jobs sometimes you have to do tedious tasks.
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To answer your questions, you should always leave a job before you get fed up. Try to recognize as early as possible if there is something that will make this job untenable in the long run, and make plans early to find a new, better job that will not have the same problems as your current one.

It's hard work, but it's much easier and less stressful to seek out a job because you want to (as opposed to being forced to by circumstances).
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KingButz posted...

I am part of a team that advises corporate executives on compensation strategies.

Can you elaborate on what this entails?

For me, I left Nintendo just shy of 4 years ago, and after a period where I was moving across county and didnt work, Im back in school with a year to go for my BS in IT Management.

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Dantezoid posted...

I'm a structural engineer who works on nuclear power plants

I mostly like the people I work with. The actual work can occasionally be exciting (and always ridiculously entertaining, what needs to be done with all the regulatory mandates and stuff) but imo the people you work with determine everything

Basically this only mechanical engineering and pump stations for me.
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It's like committing a federal offense except legal because I work for the government.

oh I thought this was the game where we poorly describe what we do and people try to guess
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I'm what they call a "back-up cook" at Cracker Barrel. So instead of line cooking (which I will never ever do, way too hot and crowded), I'm in the very back of the kitchen cooking all the sides in kettles and ovens, also making the biscuits/cornbread, and I do it all alone. It gets stressful especially when I'm there for 15 hours with no break, but I've gotten used to it. I'm kind of like the unofficial boss of the position too which is nice, allows me to get free food and such.

Recently I actually left the job to pursue moving away to a different state, but with the holidays coming up they're really struggling without me and I respect my GM too much to leave now. I can last a couple more months. I'll be doing another 80 hour week for Thanksgiving like last year, I'm excited for that paycheck.

The thing that's kept me there for over four years now is (some of) the people for sure. It's been like my second family and it's extremely difficult to leave. It needs to happen soonish though if I ever want my life to progress.
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i make tiny balloons for medical use only

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Underwriter at a Title Insurance Agency.

I read through deeds and mortgages and ensure Title is clean / assess risk.
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Software developer

Biggest pros:

-super generous time off policy (31 days of PTO and 10 holidays like what)
-autonomy (flexible hours, independence to choose how to implement a solution, etc. Never told "how" only told "what")
-geeks for coworkers (weekly board game night at the office, someone always is interested in the same new video game I'm interested in, etc)
-get to rub elbows with some truly brilliant people who have vastly more experience and knowledge than me. Improving via osmosis

Biggest cons:

-I kind of seasonally wish my job was more physically active and/or outdoors (maybe this isn't actually tied to the job and would happen regardless)
-despite how much of my free time is spent with a screen regardless, sometimes I think I might rather leave programming for hobby time and have a job that is more people oriented (or maybe just more of a hybrid role...I definitely love my head down technical time too)
-the best answer is a constantly moving target. You don't just learn the trade and then you know what you need to know. Technology constantly advances and you have to keep up to stay relevant (this applies to most things but not quite so much as technology)

Im a bureaucrat.

It's slow and steady and I'm ready to move on but it's great benefits so I don't want to

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So I've got two right now. My former main one is now part time and it sucks. I'm a fast food restaraunt manager. The company is severally understaffed from employees to management. I was already working about 50 hours a week of highly stressful work. Despite this corporate changed our close time from 11pm to 2am and let us know less than a week in advance. Led me to finding my other job the only reason I stayed a few days is because I do really like a lot of the employees there and I've procured enough raises to get decent pay.

My other job is a lot better slightly less pay, but I just cook rotisserie chickens for a grocery store. It's a pretty simple job, but it does keep my mind occupied as most of it is just time management. There's just enough to do that keeps you from moving from to thing, but not so much that you begin to panic. The draw is my hours are 5am-130pm. Which is really hard for me coming off of closing shifts, but I'll adjust eventually.

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I'm an investment specialist for an accounting firm, working from home, getting plenty of benefits and vacation, it's a nice gig.

turbopuns3 posted...

-super generous time off policy (31 days of PTO and 10 holidays like what)

But this guy puts me to shame. I have 22 days of PTO and thought that was amazingly high, wow.
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I have unlimited PTO and you better believe I abuse the shit out of it
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Is that 31 days of PTO per year AND you still get holiday's??

Incredible. How are they about letting you use it?

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Wait I made a slight mix up. Baseline I get 26 PTO days per year, with a maximum of 5 unused days carrying over to the next year. So this year I do have 31 because I saved 5 from last year.

And yeah the 10 holidays are on top of that. 6 of them are set dates and 4 are floating (in recognition of certain holidays but if you want you can choose to work on the designated day and take it a different time)

Apparently that's like the normal expected amount of vacation in western europe?

I'm a technician that primarily works 12 hour shifts as an Advanced EHF Satellite Mission Control Segment (ASMCS) system administrator and it's the cakest job in the world. Sure, I have a bunch of additional duties but nothing too stressful to worry about as long as I keep everything up-to-date for inspection purposes.
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ChaosTonyV4 posted...

KingButz posted...

I am part of a team that advises corporate executives on compensation strategies.

Can you elaborate on what this entails?

Basically help the company make decisions on how to pay their key employees/middle and upper management. For example, ratio of salary/bonus/equity, how/when to give raises, retirement plans, benefits, career advancement/workforce development, and other areas.
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I'm a translator. My company is awesome and I love my co-workers.

Too bad I'm getting laid off next week lol

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Fully-credentialed actuary at a very large insurance company (definite pros & cons to working at a "very large" company). I currently really like the job, it's basically exactly what I expected when I decided to pursue the field - using math to solve business problems (and lately, also machine learning / predictive modeling).

Aside from compensation, the things that make or break a job are the obvious: company culture, coworkers, manager (very important imo), interesting work. In general, I think that unless you're done attempting to move-up the promotion ladder, the time to change roles is when you're no longer being challenged. No longer being challenged probably means: a) you're not learning much from the role anymore; and b) you're getting bored, which may cause the quality of your work to suffer.

Disclaimer: I've only ever worked corporate jobs
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I run two hiring offices for a staffing agency that hire exclusively for two Amazon sites. My employees are fantastic and I am managed remotely by a great boss and awesome support team that has my back.

But Amazon is the fucking worst. Amazon management is nasty and condescending, they're very passive aggressive and treat me like I'm their servant and lucky to be breathing the same air as them. The idea is that we're supposed to be a team but they obviously don't see it that way. It makes a potentially great job almost unbearable.
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Really easy. Bookkeeper/accounting clerk. And I get to listen to video game music all day long as I work! It's pretty much my dream job.
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Office job. Lots of reporting. Lots of people wanting to know why reports aren't correct. Lots of going over those incorrect reports and being unable to figure out what went wrong.

Still, it's the best job I've ever had at the best company I've ever worked for. I'd like to stay here until I can't.

I work in a hospital in their stat lab running testing on blood chemistry. My specific bench focuses on the blood gases. Very fast paced since theyre stats but it makes the days fly by.
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Im a Librarian Supervisor.

i create programs and activities for the community at no cost to them and supervise the day to day operations of my library branch.

Im currently hosting an Anime Club, Build it Fridays, Storytimes, A Cold Case group where I present on old cold cases and we then discuss. We have an a Escape Room in December, and we just finished our craft beer reading club. Patrons were asked to meet us for a reading club at a different brewery each month and at the end they received a growler if they made it to each session.

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It's good. Pay, hours (amount of free time I have), and lack of stress are good, and that's really all it should come down to.

Llarian posted...

What makes you look forward to going in?

Like here you're talking about passion. It's obviously nice when you do really like what you're doing day by day, and you have nice meaty tasks to accomplish. But the key to having an enjoyable job is that even when you have no passion for it, it's still worth the money and the time invested into it. Any passion you can muster is just icing on the cake.

It sounds weird but the alternative is frequent indecisiveness and anxiety/depression when you don't feel the passion. I've been there a lot and you just can't control it. If you remove passion from the equation, you can be a lot more consistent, effective, stress-free, and all this directly leads to happiness and career success.

That's why having good money and free time is really important so you can use that for your passions elsewhere, so you're not super desperate for a day job and a hierarchy of managers to validate your passions every day.

Llarian posted...

How do you know when it's time to leave a job?

This is the other most important question and in general it's just when you find a better one. You should always be open to new stuff and following and leads that sound good. Email people, do interviews and such. You don't have to hate your job to leave it. You just need to find one better.

If you do hate your job though, you can try to improve it. This is where having another one helps obv, but you can say you're not happy with things and give your requirements to the bosses and see what they do for you. You have to decide what you need though, precisely. That's why money, time, and stress-freedom are good metrics to go by. There are clear actionable things they can do for those. If you ask for a passion project there's likely no way for them to give you that. Or they'll tell you to wait a couple months/years cuz something cool is coming, classic technique.
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foolm0r0n posted...

You don't have to hate your job to leave it. You just need to find one better.

Oh yeah the corrolary of this is that you definitely do not wait until you hate your job to leave it. If you always have an eye open, then as your job goes down the drain, you will definitely have something else to jump to.
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tyder21 posted...

Aside from compensation, the things that make or break a job are the obvious: company culture, coworkers, manager (very important imo), interesting work. In general, I think that unless you're done attempting to move-up the promotion ladder, the time to change roles is when you're no longer being challenged. No longer being challenged probably means: a) you're not learning much from the role anymore; and b) you're getting bored, which may cause the quality of your work to suffer.

Yeah, I had zero challenge in my job, and when I asked for more, they treated me like a pariah. My manager was great and was the one trying to actually help me, but nobody else was, some because they were unable to do anything, some because of ego. I had a few good co-workers, but the culture was downright horrific (inhibiting growth is NOT COOL) and the work was banal and repetitive, so I went insane. My work quality dropped significantly, and I took no responsibility for it.

I'm looking for a manager that can be flexible and understanding as well as work that is actually interesting and challenging. I like having some routine since it prevents me from being overwhelmed, but enough variance within that routine to prevent me from becoming bored. I'd like a culture that facilitates growth as opposed to inhibits it and a younger culture than the one I had before.

I did see that Missouri U-Haul, so unicorns are real - it's just I have to get lucky.
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