Are you happy with your career choice/profession?

[peter12]

Originally Posted by Hey Connor, It's Mess

I was more curious how you acquired a sense of pride from not having a certain career. Seems humorous to me.

I was joking. It just seems that so many lawyers are very stressed out all the time. I like lawyers. A lot of my friends are lawyers. I don't envy any of them though.

[flamesfan1297]

I can honestly say that I love my job and love what I do. But I hate how unstable it is, and never knowing when the next layoff is coming. But I wouldn't change anything right now, eventually I'll get into something more stable though

[Johnny199r]

Originally Posted by peter12

I was joking. It just seems that so many lawyers are very stressed out all the time. I like lawyers. A lot of my friends are lawyers. I don't envy any of them though.

When you're in a profession where the name of the game is blame. That blame sometimes gets thrown at, or falls on the lawyer. It's tough.

[peter12]

Originally Posted by Johnny199r

When you're in a profession where the name of the game is blame. That blame sometimes gets thrown at, or falls on the lawyer. It's tough.

Oh yeah, it seems incredibly hard, stressful, thankless, and increasingly... underpaid.

[Lubicon]

If I had to go back and do it again I would do things differently for sure. I'm not at all happy with my career but am so far into it there seems impractical to change now and start over. I also made the excuse to myself why I should not change direction and so something else and before I knew it time had passed. I make decent money (when I'm not in the middle of yet another wage freeze or wage cut) and that's the only thing that has kept me going but I don't particularly enjoy my work and the stress and toll it's taking on my family life doesn't seem worth it at times (more and more often it seems). Trying to hang on for a few more years and hopefully be able to retire.

[Buff]

Still the IT Manager of my company. Still love the IT world. I'm a little less thrilled about the management part when it comes to dealing with staff issues. Actually, just one person on staff who had issues that needs to be dealt with. Nothing to make me unhappy or even close to considering a change on career and or place of employment.

[Reggie Dunlop]

I took a retirement/buyout package four years ago (after 26 years with the same company) and after some puttering around have started my own businesses.

I really enjoy what I'm doing now, I'd just like to make a bit more money at it (but hopefully that comes along).

[Muta]

I love what I do, involved in city building and seeing our communities get built. It's so much fun, although I had to work stupid amounts to get to where I am today. The pay isn't great, but at least it's a universal industry and there's the potential to work anywhere in the world if I decide to leave Calgary.

Recently I've been thinking about starting my own development firm, similar to RNDSQR. I think that would be a neat next chapter to do. Now, how to do that, I have lots of research to do.

[Bonded]

I totally fell into my career but I enjoy it. City kid that ended up in grain trading. It is higher stress but nothing quite like trading through a position multiple times successfully.

[driveway]

Not only am I loving my career (teaching) but choosing to go the route of International teaching led me to being in, quite probably, the best possible place in the world to spend 2020.

[Minnie]

I loved working in the financial management world a number of years ago. If I wasn't so mired in medical stuff with my daughter, it's definitely something I'd love to get back to. I was only a paper pusher/admin type stuff, but I like paper pushing. I like the order. I was working toward getting licensed so that I could eventually be a sales associate to an advisor, but I'd happily go back to just being a branch assistant.

[JohnnyB]

Originally Posted by JohnnyB

I am struggling with this a lot right now.

I manage a private middle school program. My work is meaningful, I get lots of respect from those I work with and the community of parents, I have loads of control over my work life, the compensation is good and I have about four months of paid vacation in a year, but I don't feel satisfied at all right now. I first became a head of a school when I was just 26 and this will be my seventh year in leadership. My current program is something that I have led the build up of from scratch into what is now a stable and thriving program with very positive feedback from students, parents and staff - and I feel totally demotivated because I don't see a lot of personal growth for me from here going forward.

I feel like when I take a step back and look at what my career provides me with it's hard not to see it as really enviable, but I don't feel the passion. I chose education as a career field because I wanted to be in a field where I'm helping people and where I was working for something much more important than money. I feel that all the time in my work, but I also feel like I'm ready for a new life challenge. At the same time, I worry that I'm not going to find anything much better than where I'm at.

Originally Posted by JohnnyB

That is exactly what I feel. I love the building process, but when it comes to just the maintenance and refinement stage, I can feel my passion slipping away and I fear no longer giving my best to what has been built.

Over the last few years I've also worked on entrepreneurial projects in trade/investment between Canada and China as well as a new private school project and found I really like the challenge and the breadth of what needs dealt with in them. I'm planning to come back to Canada next year to do my MBA as a bridge back to Canada after ten years abroad and also as a way of getting my head out of private education for a while to look at other directions I may go.

It's a big change and a bit scary.

Going back and reading these posts from five years back is kind of cool. When I look back on the program I had built back then, I see it as probably the most meaningful work of my career, but also very small in looking back on it.

I went off to do my MBA after writing this, and had a hell of a good time doing so. Made great friends, learned a lot, worked on a BCI edtech startup, then went back to Shanghai to direct development of education for a large education group where I worked on a lot of future of education sort of stuff. I connected with some great communities bringing me into more innovation spaces bridging Asia and Silicon Valley, have gotten to speak on panels and share stages with some amazing people, and built friendships with a lot of special people across a broad range of industries. Now I'm temporarily cut off from my career while I'm stuck in Vancouver during covid, but I'm also starting a new business, setting up a new non-profit, and doing my doctorate studying directly under a global leader in the future of education sphere who is part of leading a massive initiative with one of the big international organizations that I find inspirational.

I've worked hard, taken some big risks, had a lot of fun, and definitely moved forward in my field quite a bit in the last five years. Being unable to get back to Asia during covid has been a big, big hit, but I'm hopeful that I'll still pull through with enough going on to leverage in the next big steps I have planned, which I don't think I even could have conceived of myself doing five years ago.

Who knows how it will all turn out, and it hurts right now, but I feel glad in looking back that I'm at least shooting my shot. It also cheers my up to put the challenges I'm facing now in a bit more perspective thinking of the broader arc I'm hopefully still on.

[GreenLantern2814]

I sell cars, so... no.

Once, I thought maybe I could be the next Stuart McLean.

Maybe naming it is half the battle. Writing it being the other, larger half, obviously.

[topfiverecords]

Originally Posted by Muta

I love what I do, involved in city building and seeing our communities get built. It's so much fun, although I had to work stupid amounts to get to where I am today. The pay isn't great, but at least it's a universal industry and there's the potential to work anywhere in the world if I decide to leave Calgary.

Recently I've been thinking about starting my own development firm, similar to RNDSQR. I think that would be a neat next chapter to do. Now, how to do that, I have lots of research to do.

Step 1: Get someone else's cash.
Step 2: Use some of it to buy land.
Step 3: Use most of it to develop the land.
Step 4: Use some of it to pay your fee.
Repeat

[The Yen Man]

Definitely interesting reading what I wrote five years ago. I'm still with the same company, was promoted to another position in Finance, but still work with the same people. Only thing I miss is our old office location as we've moved down south now, so the commute is a bit of a pain.

Love the people I work with, and the company's support during the pandemic has been very impressive. We've been working at home full time since March, and have not stepped foot in the office since. My company trusts us working from home and have recognized it really is the safest way for everyone until we get people vaccinated. The fact that my company has not laid anyone off, and have been very supportive of allowing flexible time for people with kids has also been fantastic. I just feel very lucky, to be honest.

[troutman]

Originally Posted by Reggie Dunlop

I took a retirement/buyout package four years ago (after 26 years with the same company) and after some puttering around have started my own businesses.

I really enjoy what I'm doing now, I'd just like to make a bit more money at it (but hopefully that comes along).

More Cronk is being made!

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by Reggie Dunlop

I took a retirement/buyout package four years ago (after 26 years with the same company) and after some puttering around have started my own businesses.

I really enjoy what I'm doing now, I'd just like to make a bit more money at it (but hopefully that comes along).

Just curious as to the type of business that you got into. I find these stories to be really interesting. Plus, I'm trying to setup a referral network.

[Titan]

Originally Posted by Minnie

I loved working in the financial management world a number of years ago. If I wasn't so mired in medical stuff with my daughter, it's definitely something I'd love to get back to. I was only a paper pusher/admin type stuff, but I like paper pushing. I like the order. I was working toward getting licensed so that I could eventually be a sales associate to an advisor, but I'd happily go back to just being a branch assistant.

Dude. An assistant the is registered and loves paper-pushing is worth their weight in gold. Do it. You would be hired very fast.

[Minnie]

Originally Posted by Titan

Dude. An assistant the is registered and loves paper-pushing is worth their weight in gold. Do it. You would be hired very fast.

I'm not registered though. I was just in the process of starting to study, my branch manager was mentoring me, then the entire company went under an internal restructuring, and they went a different direction with branch management, and my mentor left. So...on that front, I would not necessarily be anyone's cup of tea. I have never had formal training in anything, but I love learning new things, and I am typically a very quick study.

I don't know why I like paperwork/paper pushing so much. Maybe it's the order, the organization, seeing a job through, getting things done. One of my favorite things when we brought new teams on, was setting up their offices, ordering their supplies - LOL, I am an office supplies nerd. My favorite part of back to school was getting new pens/pencils, paper, binders, etc.

Anyway, I'll stop droning on.

[I_H8_Crawford]

Originally Posted by I_H8_Crawford

Funny - I am at that same cross roads now.

Been in sales all my professional life, and am pretty good at it too... but I am tired of it, and ironically, my personality is NOT one of a sales person.

I am actually quite introverted and would prefer to not talk to people/be in social situations, lol.

I am looking at getting into IT - get onto the other side of things. I was just laid off of my sales job, so now it's a tough choice - I have some companies already wanting to hire me into another sales role, and the money is fantastic.... I also have another opportunity to be a Business Analyst, which would be a contract position, and less money... tough decision for me coming up, haha.

5 years later, still in sales.

However, found a company that just fits. Love it. Promoted to a manager (first manger based in Canada in the company) 18 months in and now run my own team who are all based out of the US. Best company I have ever worked for - culture is amazing, the vertical team I am on is incredible, and I have never been part of the insane growth my company has experienced this year.