Are you happy with your career choice/profession?

[calculoso]

I'm at a very different kind of cross-roads with my career. I would absolutely love what I do, if there was a lot less of it. I wear so many hats and have so many responsibilities, all of which I enjoy... but there is just way too much work and way too little time to devote to any one activity. This results in a lot of long days at the office, which interferes a lot with work/life balance - my wife hates it, I don't have a lot of activities out of the office, and am always very tired at the end of every week.

It's a very different kind of a challenge...

[wwkayaker]

[QUOTE=kunkstyle;5401005]Whole lot of backstory here:

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.



Thanks for the article link. I just read through it and the author makes a lot of sense.

[HHW]

I have a degree in Computer Science and nowadays teach that subject at the high school level. As other teachers already mentioned in this thread, we especially love our work in the summer, but I also already look forward to getting back in the class next week.

But it was a rather round-about career progression for me.

We came to Canada from northern Europe when I was ten. My dad is a 4th generation journeyman tile setter, so we certainly had lots of exposure to the life of an independent contractor on the construction site. I did plenty of grunt work for my dad when I was young, but enjoyed it, and learned to appreciate hard work and the satisfaction of building something.

I joined the Naval Reserves while still in high school, and while going through University, spent my summers at sea. Loved it, I would have worked for free, which we pretty much did in those days anyway (along with the duty free booze and the travel, of course). Loved it so much, that I served three years full time after graduating. By that time, the pay had become much better, btw.

After living the live of Reilly, and somewhat outgrowing it, I wanted to get serious with my future, so I went back to the civvy side, and worked in software development for almost a decade. Life rolled on, I got married, we had a son, and I took a year of parental leave (an incredibly humbling experience, but I wouldn't trade it for the world). Then, within a week of getting back to my office, I realized that I didn't want to be chained to my desk for the next thirty years.

With the support of my wife, I went back to school and eventually got my education degree. After a few years of real struggle (school boards don't quite know what to make of teachers with real-world experience), I am finally gainfully employed in a role where I feel my experiences are an asset. With the CF reserves, I often worked with young people, and trained / mentored them (or was mentored myself), and high school is not really that different. I always saw it as a career evolution, not a career change.

My 2 cents are that you should not be afraid to take a chance to evolve your career. Look at your life experience, and see what you truly enjoy. Then, find the opportunities to merge that with what you are actually qualified for and/or good at. Most professions have a wide variety of roles in a wide range of industries. I suppose that I am stating the very obvious, but ya, I hate to see people limited in their career by what is they consider to be the 'standard' job for their field. Skills transfer.

And, along with others in this thread, I will heartily encourage anyone who isn't sure what they want to do to take a chance with the CF. It may or may not be for you in the long run, but you will meet fantastic people, and learn much about yourself. Most importantly, you will gain invaluable people skills (as you will work with all sorts), and also obtain great insight into how large organizations actually run. I would not have gotten to where I am with my current employer without both of those!

[Igster]

Originally Posted by troutman

A common thread in this thread - the best boss is yourself.

Yup.

Was once there and loved it. Tried to get back there again recently and didn't quite make it. I'm certainly going to try again as soon as I can. My biggest problem is hating authority. I prefer to work for myself to simply avoid other people telling me what to do. I know it's silly and just about everyone has to put up with it, but I enjoy working for myself and not having to deal with it.

[LIP MAN]

Originally Posted by calculoso

I'm at a very different kind of cross-roads with my career. I would absolutely love what I do, if there was a lot less of it. I wear so many hats and have so many responsibilities, all of which I enjoy... but there is just way too much work and way too little time to devote to any one activity. This results in a lot of long days at the office, which interferes a lot with work/life balance - my wife hates it, I don't have a lot of activities out of the office, and am always very tired at the end of every week.

It's a very different kind of a challenge...

I'm in the same boat. There's times I love my job, but when someone else was let go, I picked up the slack left behind. And it really sucks, because I feel I'm just so busy that I can't do the side projects/development that would benefit us more. I brought this up to the higher ups, and they're receptive to change. Which is why I've been with them for so many years.

[The Yen Man]

Originally Posted by kunkstyle

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.

You echo my sentiments exactly. Whenever this question comes up in a discussion, my answer is pretty much how you describe it.

At the end of the day, work is work, and I work to make enough money to do things outside of work for fulfillment. As long as I don't mind my current career, like the company I work for, and don't dread waking up every morning going to work, then I'm pretty content where I'm at. It pays a decent enough salary for me to do what I want to do.

Oh and thanks for the link. It makes perfect sense to me, and that's probably how I'd teach my kids as well.

[mikephoen]

I'm late to the party that is this thread. I really enjoyed reading everyone's stories. It really gives a new perspective on people's other posts.

My own story began with taking Engineering at U of C. I hated every minute of if. I hated the classes, the profs, and all the stupid bureaucracy of university. I managed a B+ average through the first two years, but in the summer a few weeks before my third year, I dropped out of school. Easily the best decision of my life. The day I officially dropped out is probably the happiest day of my life.

I did drop out with a plan though. I wanted to open a comic store! I bought a big collection that summer on time payments and hit the convention circuit. I also went back to my farm hand job to save money for the store. I worked 50 to 60 hours a week on the farm and did weekend conventions a couple times a month for the next year and half.

At 21 years old, I rented a space on 16th Ave here in Calgary and opened up. I did all the renos myself, and built most of my own displays to save money. The day I opened I had less than $1000 in my bank account, but I also had no debt. This was in November 1994, during the biggest crash in comic book history! Great timing, haha. Actually it worked out for me, as I was able to buy out a lot of other failed stores for pennies on the dollar and there were lots of people looking for new regular stores to replace ones that were going away.

I also started carrying Magic the Gathering a few months after opening. That was a pretty good decision too.

In my first year I worked 363 days. Every day except christmas and New Year's Day. Same thing in my second year. It wasn't until my third year that I actually hired someone to work Sundays for me so I could have one day a week off. The guy I hired way back then was CP's favorite banned poster, Bertuzzied!

Almost 22 years later, I'm still at it. Business has grown every year except one and I'm still very happy with my decision back in the summer of 1993. When I started out I just wanted to do something that I loved, and hoped I would make enough to survive. I'm happy to report that I still love it, and I've made a really good living doing it as well. I've also stopped working every day. In the last few years I've managed to transition to just doing back ground stuff, and not being behind the counter on the front lines any more. I probably still put in 25 to 30 hours a week doing orders and stuff, but my schedule is quite flexible now, and I think I've got a really good team taking care of the store when I'm not there.

Small business is really a life style more than a job. In the end, everything is your responsibility. You have to constantly rethink things, keep learning and keep adjusting. Also, when you turn your hobby into your job, you kind of lose your hobby. I still love comics, but I don't read many any more.

Like I said though, I am quite happy with my job. I feel bad for the people in this thread who hate what they do. I'm not sure I would recommend small business for those of you with young families, or if you want to have any sort of social life in the first few years... but if you can do it, being your own boss can be pretty great. It also helps to be young, cocky, and too stupid to realize that your hair brained plan probably shouldn't work!

[Coach]

^^^ So do you own Phoenix Comics?

[mikephoen]

Originally Posted by MattyC

^^^ So do you own Phoenix Comics?

Yes, I own the NW location. The SW and Inglewood locations are owned by a friend of mine.

[Coach]

Awesome! Is Mage Knight still a thing? Me and my bros used to be pretty into that when we were kids.

[I_H8_Crawford]

Originally Posted by CroFlames

Has anyone here made the transition from account managing to engineering/technical positions?

In my personal life, I am very hands on and I love building/doing. My professional life is sales. I've oft wondered about going back and doing an industrial/civil engineering degree and combining my sales skills with an professional engineering designation.

Anyone have experience with that?

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.

[mikephoen]

Originally Posted by MattyC

Awesome! Is Mage Knight still a thing? Me and my bros used to be pretty into that when we were kids.

Not really. We used to sell a lot of that in the early 2000s, but it died out 5+ years ago. They attempted a non-collectible relaunch a year or two ago, but I didn't carry it, and I don't think it was very successful.

[CrazyCaper]

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.

I'm kinda freaked out right now. I'm going through the EXACT same scenario as you. Except for the fact that I don`t have any interest in getting into the IT sector. Not sure exactly where I want to land right now.

[MrMastodonFarm]

What's the process of hiring someone like Bertuzzied I wonder. Does he giggle during it, does he say something totally off-putting during the interview or directly after?

[malcolmk14]

So I teach Elementary school and it I am really happy that I pursued this career path. I love teaching kids all day and the time I spend in the classroom is usually exciting and fun! Nothing is better than the feeling of making an actual impact on a child's education. When I get a note or a comment from a student or parent telling me that I made a difference for them, it blows my mind and I love that feeling.

The time off obviously can't be beat, and the compensation is actually quite good. A lot of teachers like to complain but we are treated pretty fairly and the time off is amazing. Teachers with 10+ years experience make $101,000 in Calgary, that's obviously a very good living. Government pension after retirement is pretty substantial as well.

All that being said, there are a lot of initiatives from the board and from Alberta Education that I find to be superfluous and silly. We spend so much time doing paperwork or pursuing these initiatives that do not contribute anything to the actual education of students. I can definitely see how some teachers with families and limited personal time can become overwhelmed with some of the paperwork and the actual teaching of kids suffers because of the demands on our time from the system.

I'm lucky right now as I don't have a family to get home and see. I don't have to get my kids ready for school in the morning and get them out the door, or pick them up from daycare in the evening. My evenings and weekends aren't taken up by kids sports and activities. But when they are, honestly, from September to June, it'll be a huge adjustment and I can see my dedication to my job slipping a little bit.

[mikephoen]

Originally Posted by MrMastodonFarm

What's the process of hiring someone like Bertuzzied I wonder. Does he giggle during it, does he say something totally off-putting during the interview or directly after?

Funny story. When I 'hired' Bertuzzied, it was actually a deal where I didn't actually pay him to work. In exchange for working one day a week I agreed to sell some of his stuff for him in my store. After a few weeks, he decided he didn't want to actually work behind the till, so he hired another customer of mine to actually work his hours. So in effect he paid someone else to work for me!

The guy Bertuzzied hired was good too! He worked for me for 8 years. He even became my store manager in his last few years. After maybe a year and half Bertuzzied realized he was paying more for this guy to cover his 'shift' than he was actually making in sales of his stuff, so I had to start paying him myself, haha. Or should I say 'hehe'.

[MrMastodonFarm]

Well, couldn't have scripted that any better

#FreeBertuzzied

[peter12]

Did Bertuzzied get banned?

[MrMastodonFarm]

Originally Posted by peter12

Did Bertuzzied get banned?

Yup, and then multiple times after that.

[peter12]

I guess I was away for some time, and missed that, but man, that above story is great.