Whole lot of backstory here:
Originally moved out to Calgary to get into web/media design. Saw myself doing either that or film for a number of years. Took a 2-year diploma course from SAIT, and graduated right around the time of the dotcom crash. It was a pretty abysmal course (still in its infancy, and not really geared to anything specific). Anyone I graduated with that wanted to stick in the field either went on to take a more established course, or design oriented course, or worked piece work for well below minimum wage while working part time as call centre tech support with Shaw. So I was stuck as a fresh grad from a not very good course, trying to get a job when thousands of people who had been in the industry already were out of work. About a month before I graduated from SAIT, I read an article (which I still have bookmarked) titled:
Do What You Love and Starve. Honestly don’t remember how I even stumbled across it, but it always stuck with me.
I floundered around in retail “management” for about 5 years, which was fine when I was in my early 20s, and getting loaded on cheap beer with my buddies was basically my only priority. However around my mid-20s when I came to the realization that at this rate I wouldn’t ever have a house (or live without roommates), or a vehicle (forget about new even), or an RRSP, I started to look to something else.
It was right around then that that article came back to my mind. I decided that, for me at least, that I’d rather do something that may not be my lifelong dream, or something I’m passionate about, but could give me the freedom (both financially and time-wise) to actually live a life I actually enjoyed outside of work. Work to live, not live to work, so to speak. So I looked at a few fields that could be used in O&G, but weren’t limited to it. I had it narrowed down to Instrumentation, and a family member mentioned I should look at Power Engineering as well. So back to SAIT I went, applied for both, and got accepted to both. The decision ended up coming down to work schedules. I loved instrumentation when I took a few basic courses, and would actually really enjoy being on the PLC / DCS programming side of it. However given my mantra of being able to live the life I want outside of work, Power Engineering won out. Instrumentation is generally straight days, operating is shift work, which as odd as it may seem, I still love. Stretches off that can allow me to go on vacation without taking vacation, going skiing, hiking, or running errands in the middle of the week with no crowds is absolutely fantastic.
Fast forward to today, I’ve had a few jobs at gas plants, did the SAGD/camp stint which was fantastic for the money, and great for travelling. Not so much for the single/social life though. Moved into the control room for about a year or two which I enjoyed, but I was I getting sick of the camp life. We had new management that was slashing budgets even before oil started crashing, so when oil started to dip the writing was already on the wall. Talking to some people still left there they’ve started rationing bacon in the kitchen in the morning. And I get that that sounds incredibly trivial to someone who’s never worked in a camp before. After a lot of deliberating this year, I ended up eating about a 50% paycut to take a job in the city in a similar setting, different branch of O&G though. The upside though, is the schedule is fantastic (and more stable), I actually have more job security, great pension, it allows for a enough flexibility, still pays the bills, and I’m actually starting to have a social life again.
TL;DR version:
So to answer the OP, do I love what I do? No. Do I dread going into work every day and come home a zombie every night? Nope. And that, frankly is enough for me. I love my life outside of work and I feel that’s way more important in my world, but obviously a personal preference. And to be perfectly honest, I’ve got a pretty decent gig. My only regret is not doing something I enjoyed for the 5 years I was floundering, since it's not like what I was doing was paying any bills. However I'm quite content where I ended up.
In a perfect world would I rather be a parks officer, or a ski patroller, or K-country search and rescue, or running a snowcat in the winter? Sure! I would love all aspects of those things… as a hobby. However as glamorous as stopping Yogi Bear from stealing pick-a-nick baskets sounds, the reality is I’d be likely making 40k a year dealing with threats of getting bear sprayed by a bunch of roided-up ####rats because I told them they can’t have a bonfire during a fire ban. Right now I have the choice if I want to ski in -30 days, and not clean up after idiots who think they can tackle a 30ft drop because they saw it in a ski movie one time. I can hike and scramble and not care about anything else. Or I can hit the hill during the day instead of grooming it at night.
So for me, I’ll work to enjoy the things I love, not make the things I love turn into work, and not have to worry about things like will I be able to afford the mortgage this month.