- Blog
- Bios
- Boards
- Classifieds
- DIY
- Gallery
- Vendor Reviews
- Shop Weddingbee
Weddingbee boards
I LOVE MY JOB!! But it took me extra years in college though, I graduated after 6 yrs instead of 4. I'm a radiation therapist (treat cancer patients) and there's nothing more fulfulling than saving someones life or improving their quality of life. There has never been a time where I hated what I did.
I was a physical therapy major before switching to radaition sciences. I did volunteering in physical therapy during my freshman and sophomore yr in college and thats when I found out it wasn't for me. So my college roommate educated me more on this program so I applied, got in, and now employeed by my university hospital 6 1/2 yrs!
There's nothing wrong with switching your career to something else even if you did yrs and yrs of school. Is your degree in something that can be used from something else? (unlike mine...its a good thing I love my job!)
I sat back and took a long and thorough look at what I enjoyed doing outside of work. I also reviewed what I did and didn't like about past jobs I worked in. After evaluating these factors I tried to look and see what kind of career that would support at least half of what I wanted. After selecting a broad field/career option - I researched online what I would need to do in order to get into the industry and what education I would need. Then I went back to school and went through two years of blood, sweat and tears to get to where I am today (I took 7 to 9 courses a semester).
Jingle - So glad to hear you love your job! I always thought that I'd love to be in a medical field if only I had any stomach for blood and hospitals and anything remotely related to cutting into people. Luckily I do have a practical degree in a field that will be useful no matter what (Business). You're so lucky to have found your fit right out of school!
MrsBtobe - Wow, 7-9 courses per semester! Holy crap! Good for you for figuring out what you want to do and going after it so aggressively! i hope that if I can actually figure out what the heck I want to do I will have the strength to go after it with such force.
Some of the best career advice I have heard is this: Find a job where you can be yourself. Or, be yourself in your job.
For example, I am creatively inclined, I like to find problems and fix them, I am interested in people, and I hate to be micromanaged. Even though my current job is kind of dry (editing), I approach it in a creative way (like by coming up with new ways to edit). I also self-start little related projects. This brings me a lot of satisfaction.
What enabled me to make a dry job a creative job was my own initiative and managers who respected the good work I did. Lots of times I come up with projects on my own, do them on the side, and then show them to my managers when they are done. It's easier to convince someone of your good ideas if you have an end result to show them instead of just an idea. So before you abandon your career, can you change the way you approach it?
Also, I try not to put all my happiness eggs in the job basket. I think that growing up with the "you can be anything you want" mentality made me think that if I didn't have a job I adored I was a failure. Then my (older, wiser) husband made me realize that for most people a job is just a job. You don't have to adore your job, but you should be able to like it well enough. That might mean that you don't have to start over from scratch to be happy. And filling your life with things you love outside of work also really helps.
I really needed this post! I am in a bit of a crisis every other day about my 'job' - I have been thinking about jobs. vs. careers and I am anxious to hear what other bees have to say! =D
And as I write this a job posting for an AMAZING looking company just came up! Good sign? I hope so!
chelseamorning - great great point about work not needing to be your everything. I must admit that it's hard to be happy with anything less than fantastic. I really admire what you said about beign a self starter and having initiative as well, I used to bring a lot more of that to my job and it is satisfying.
Krissycake - hang in there! I'm with you girl!
cbgg - You definitely "get back" what you "put in" so go at it girl! And trust me when I say blood sweat and tears when I went back to school. But it wasn't all hard and bad - I made some life long friends AND future business contacts through going back.
So once you figure out what you want to do - go out there and NETWORK..meet NEW people..and put yourself out there. It'll all work out in the end!
I hate what I'm doing right now too. And I'm in school for it still and working in a lab!
I just fill my life with other things to make me happy - I join committees, I take up second jobs teaching (which is what I would like to do for a full time job in the future), I have lots of hobbies (dancing and violin).
So yeah, I don't have advice for how to get that job you love because I definitely don't have it. But I do an ok job of making myself happy and busy outside of my job.
I'm sometimes feeling it and sometimes I don't. At the end of the day, the "superficial" things are good about my job, too...I don't jump out of bed everyday, but it's really realy awesome to be able to afford the things I want OUTSIDE of work, like a nice house and dinners with my friends or not be stressed about how I spent too much on a blouse. Over all, I find that the things "outside" work make me happier than my actual job, which is only 8 hours a day, 5 days a week. I don';t usually hate what i do. it has good and bad things to it. I am actually getting transitioned into a more hands-on machining side of things (sexy, no? lol) so i'll get away from the boring desk stuff and into the presentation giving and hopefully someday kjnowing enough to be able to tell a bunch of men why their parts suck and ours rock =].
Sometimes it's all about finding your niche where you are right now.
I was so set ona specific career when I was in college, but after working in that field right out of school, it was clear it was not for me after all. I spent a few years feeling pretty lost - but in that time I read a lot of job books inlcuding the one that really helped me "What Color is your parachute?"
That booked helped me take the next step - using the skills I had to help get a job in a big company that I thought would be fun to work for and talking to people there that did different things - kind of having "informational interviews: with people at the head of departments that looked interesting to me. Everyone was extremely open to sharing their experiences with me, and one of these actually led to a job offer that got me started in the career I have now.
That was over a decade ago. I still work in the same field, only now, I own my own company! People tell me all the time how I am great at what I do and it feels wonderful - esp considering I got a bit of a late start in it. I still like my job very much but I am open to perhaps moving on to the next thing in a few years. I think its important to realize that you can have several different careers in one lifetime, and that where you are now is not forever.
wildstyle - that's the life story I'm hoping for at this point. I started reading What Color is your Parachute but couldn't get over the annoying writing style. I'll give it another crack.
@cbgg - thanks for the encouragement! it's very funny because i really do have what i thought was to be my 'dream job' - but now it's a total "now what?" situation.
@cbgg - yeah its a tough read but I didn't actually read the whole book. just read the parts I thought I could learn from. but the informational interviews thing, i learned that from that book and that is what ultimately helped me settle on my career field. and i made some really great friends in the process!
one other thing i have learned - while i love my job, i think what i really love is running my own business. don't get me wrong - its very hard a lot of the time - right now i am very overworked and i have the flu but i still had to work today - but i got to work from my home. in two weeks, i will spend a "romantic" weekend with my partner at a trade show!
now i know that any business i have, i would really love. i think that careers are not static, you can also see a job/business evolve into something else, as is happening to me at the moment. take heart. feel free to pm me if you wanna talk to someone about this in greater depth. i have been in your position and it wasn't an easy place to be.
I found mine by total accident. I thought I knew what I was going to be from the time I was in third grade to my junior year in high school. We had to job shadow as an assignment for school and a family friend/doctor recommended I shadow the speech-language pathologist in my district. I. LOVE. IT. It was a lot of work to get through graduate school, but it's so worth it now. I'm not saying everyday is a breeze; it's tough sometimes. I feel like I'm in a place where I can do a lot of good, and not just helping kiddos with their speech and language. Some of them come from such chaos, and I feel like I am really helping if I can help take some of that away while they are at school.
The school is the setting I felt to be the best fit for me now, but there are so many opportunities. Nursing homes, hospitals, private practices...I can take my pick and move around if I feel like I'm getting bored or missing out on something.
Another big bonus (especially in this economy) is that I was being offered jobs before I even graduated. In a time when people are struggling to keep/find jobs, I had multiple offers before I had even finished my degree. I am only working one job right now, but if I chose, I could be picking up additional hours and additional pay easily.
Schools don't pay the most, but for where I am in my life, I feel like I'm in a good place. I get to do something rewarding everyday and am so glad I stuck with it through those tough times in grad school. Thank God for that family friend that cared enough to suggest a career she thought I would be enjoy!
a stroke of utter and complete LUCK!
seriously. my degree is in television production. i graduated in 2003 - moved from chicago to indianapolis in hopes to find something in a smaller market (2004)...and ended up working crap jobs for a year ... got fired from one (totally unjustified, but best thing ever to happen! lol) I was unemployed for 6 months, refusing to take small piddly jobs...went through a temp agency and ended up working in a pharmaceutical research lab as a data entry / lab assistant temp...got hired on there after 4 months. (not my current career, go into that in a second)
i remember when I first talked to the temp agency they told me it was from 5 a.m. - 1 p.m. BUT it was $12.00/hr - and at that time - that was like a million bucks when one is unemployed! lol
This was actually a last ditch effort - had I not found a job literally the week I found it - I would have had to have moved back home with the parents (250 miles away) as my unemployment benefits were up...
anywhoo - I stayed down in the lab for about a year then I got promoted to the Desktop Publishing Department in project management. I LOVE LOVE LOVED that job. It obviously wasn't my "dream" job growing up - but there were so many opportunities for me to shine and really mold the job to me as well as show my talents through a different type of job than I thought I'd ever do...
And two months ago I moved up AGAIN within project management and now I am an "Associate Technical Administrator" (will be a "Technical Administrator" in 6 months after training)...basically what my company is is a pharmaceutical research company that does clinical trials. I now "load" all the information which the clinical trial sites use to run the trial. (can't really go into too much other information) - but I absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVE my career.
but if you'd have told me - when I graduated college that this is what I'd be doing in 5 years - I'd have looked at you like you were on crack - like "wha???" what are you talking about? pharmaceutical research? but I wouldn't trade it for the world.
so basically - I guess what I'm saying is sometimes life throws you a curveball and you never know where you'll end up.
During that first year outta college, I did work at wally world for a few months - and that was the type of job that "drained" me. I absolutely DESPISED everything about it - and would go cry in my car at lunch it was so bad. so I totally understand that type of job.
(i had another job in between wally world and current, which is the one I got fired from - won't talk about it...i was a leasing agent) anywhoo
as far as this current company - I hope I'm there for life. Seriously. I absolutely LOVE my job. I've NEVER once ever woken up and thought "ugh I have to go into work today? i have to go THERE today?" now granted, not every day is peaches and cream...but for the most part it's fabulous. I make INCREDIBLE money and I'm SO mentally stimulated and challenged - all thanks to one last ditch effort / a call to a temp agency!
plus - thanks to this job - I met a friend who - because of her - I started going out and being social and met mr. junebride!!! :D
Something I've learned is that there isn't always a set course to get to the job of your dreams. I got the job that changed my career for the better after NOT getting hired for the job I thought would be the key to success - and it was all at the same company. The second job I at first saw as a compromise ended up helping me to build a very unique and valuable skill-set, and ultimately helped me get an even better job two years later.
Good Luck!
I'm SOOOO in your same boat right now! This thread is really inspiring to read! I love Beach's advice about not necessarily having to love your job and I also love the stories of those of you who just fell into jobs you just love. It gives me hope that I'll find my place in the world one day...just hope it's sooner rather than later because I'm sick of the job I have now!
I tried everything I could think of to find fulfillment, but still my dream of becoming a physician was in the back of my head. I knew I'd never be happy until I explored it... So at age 28, I went back to school and did the prerequisites for medicine. Went to med schol at 29. I love my job!
Is there anything that's been in the back of your head all your life? I kept ignoring mine until I couldn't anymore.
Thanks for this post, I feel the same as all of you. I almost feel stuck since the wedding and getting an apartment. I am hoping after the wedding, I can start my search for a new job. I really don't like where I am either, and I feel like I have so many interests in random areas, i don't know how to bring them all together into a career that would fulfill me. So I was happy to hear all your stories, I hope more bees have more to share!
Anyone who wants to talk about finding a job/career you love, feel free to PM me. I worked very hard at finding at the right thing for me and I really love to help people with stuff like this. I had a lot of great mentors when I was younger and they really inspired me.
I feel like I should be a career coach or something b/c I really do love helping people find what they are cut out to do.
I'm wierd, I know!
Sigh. I needed this post too, more than anyone can realize. I don't have a career, just a job, and one that pays shiiiiiiiiiit at that. I've been dragging my feet but last week I realized I needed to change. Onward, upward I suppose.
Like a few others, I am feeling the same way right now! One of my closest coworkers recently quit and now that I am stuck with a lot of his past job responsibilities, and carrying the weight of 2 jobs, I realize that what I thought I wanted isn't actually what I want (as I was aspiring to someday do what he did).
The wedding, too, made me start to think that maybe I wasn't in the right job. After doing all the stationery, planning, and handling every last detail on my own we ended up with one fabulous wedding. We received overwhelming compliments, and compliments that made me begin to think that maybe I should drop my analytical job and focus on something more creatively.
All I know is I need to start doing more of that, whether it be starting up my own Etsy shop to start and just dabbling here in there in other creative things (I just started taking a photography class on the side earlier this week)... I can't keep going through the motions.
Hopefully you and me both, and everyone else here that is stuck in a rut, can find what they are supposed to do and not have to look back!
I feel the exact same way. I'm stuck in this job, I don't hate it all the time, but I'm not passionate about it. I wake up not wanting to go to work, I'm always running late, and hitting my snooze. But, I need the money. I'm in Ohio so there's not much hope for a better job either. I want to be a fasion designer so badly. I just feel like it's such a hard career to get into, and I would have to move to New York or California to achieve it. On the other hand I know you only have one life, and I will regret it if I don't even try.
I need this post too. I HATE my job and I think even my career. What makes it worse that I went back to school to do this. I'm an attorney. I am miserable. I was miserable in law school and miserable now. Everyone always told me that practicing law is different from law school. I hoped that it was and that I would be happy when I got out; I was WRONG. I am nothing like most attorneys. I don't have a type A personality and I HATE working long hours. I hate billable hours. If i leave at 6pm, I feel as if I am sneaking out of the office. AND I have an hour commute!
It is so hard for me to get out of bed everday...ahh. I just wish the perfect job would come around. One that I love and can pay off my loans. AND believe me, I am not even getting paid that well for being an attorney - which makes it worse. WHen you are 150K in debt from JUST law school, its so discouraging. The only things that interest me are public interest stuff - like working with the elderly, victims, etc....but there is NO money in that. Finace is unemployed, so I could never do that.
Ok, I'm done with my self pity post. Sorry...that is awesome for everyone that loves their job!!! YOU all must be so happy!
KMSULL-- Right there with you girlie. I like to say im trapped in my own "8 hr nightmare" everyday. I work a job I never DREAMED I would ever be doing, hate it daily and just get more and more miserable with it everyday. I guess for me I havent yet decided "what I want to be when I grow up". Which makes it very hard to concern leaving this job, bc at least I have one, until I have an idea where I'd like to start looking for something else. Id love to do something creative but financially cannot take the risk of not having a wellpaying job at this point in my life, way to many bills. Ive considered getting a second job but I cant stand the thought.
soooo...any English majors out there with ideas on finding a job?
I need some.
I'm currently working in a job that is not the job for me ... I feel this one big time - I'm nto fulfilled in the least but, well, it does pay my bills. Of course - my boss tells me I could really make a career out of it in banking. But it's not me.
However - I did find exactly what I want to do. I started going to school and decided on a major in Creative Writing. Then I took an art history class and wanted to join that. Then I got an internship at the Design department - and fell in love. Ultimately, that's what I want to do! It's frustrating, though - because I don't want to leave where I'm stable, either. In time, I'm sure it will come up.
@ darling blackbird - I have tons of friends who were English majors struggling with this, too! Have you thought about teaching?
@darling blackbird - former English major here, though my major was specifically Writing and Rhetoric, which I think opened a few more practical doors than a literature track. Not too many jobs out there that will let you write papers on the deeper meanings of the best books ever, which was really my dream job. (Well, I mean, if you get a Ph.d. you can totally do that, but I have neither the time nor the inclination.)
Have you tried any kind of writing/journalism/editing jobs? Technical writing? Or anything related to marketing or business communications?
I wouldn't say that I'm passionate about my job, but I do like my career progression. I love learning new things and looking to the future to take on new projects or positions. So my advice is to search for a career that will let you grow and evolve and try new things. Or maybe you are already in a job with those possibilities, and you just need to explore them.
Chelseamorning has great advice- make your job into what you want it to be. I've definitely gotten joy from creating my own projects, proposals, or even something as small as a filing system.
I love this post, because I'm struggling a lot with this same thing right now.
English came very easily to me all throughout school, so I didn't really pay attention to other subjects in high school although I always did well in the social sciences. When applying for schools, however, I felt I had to reevaluate where I was on, and on a whim, chose Political Science as a major.
Again, it was an interest that I was good at, and I got A's, but I wasn't happy. Anytime someone would ask where I was going after school, I'd have a mini panic attack. Grad school was really the only option, and the thought of five or more years of Poli Sci after college just scared me. I wasn't passionate about the subject like I thought I was.
I'd loved Psychology for a long time, but a Psych teacher in high school scared me out of it. He said, "if you're not good in Biology, don't go into Psychology! And don't bother going if you're not going to become a Psychiatrist, it's not worth it."
For some reason I believed him until I was at the barn where I board my horse one day and saw an Equine Assisted Psychotherapy session. It was amazing seeing an autistic child who had so much trouble relating to the outside world connecting with an animal that way. I looked back on the one job I've consistently kept since high school, at a nursing home, and realized that it was all about interacting with people.
I'm pretty sure Psych has been on the back of my mind all along, but I could get that teacher's voice out of my head. Now I'm in my second year of my Psych major, and love it! My one worry is that I don't know how to get my foot in the door. I have no idea where I want to start my career. Most of my professors have advised getting a master's in a specialized Psych field, but I'm wishing there was some kind of "Psych Career Test" because I'm at that stage where everything interests me, but I'm not quite sure what is me. I know I've loved working with individuals, and I'd love to facilitate therapy sessions, but I don't know how to turn that into a career! If anyone on here has any advice, I'd love love love to hear it.
I struggle with "do I not like my job?" or "do I just not like the political BS?" and "does this career always have this BS"?
I guess for now I'm a sellout, bc I think I'd be much happier NOT working in corporate America, but I plan to be here 2 more years, pay off some loans, then maybe be a stay at home mom or branch out. I like to do a lot of different things, so I think I could be happy elsewhere. Luckily I graduate this December, so I will see how much better I feel in my job w/o the extra stress, since I've only been in this dept. during grad school!
My last job I also didn't like, but that is where I met DH! So, it was WORTH IT!
lilyfaith, have you considered working as a behavior therapist for children with autism? It sounds like something you might enjoy and you can definitely make a career out of it as you work up to supervisory positions.
You must log in to post.
| Visit our sister sites | eHarmony Online Dating |
eHarmony Advice Dating Advice |
Project Wedding Wedding Songs |
JustMommies Pregnancy Calendar |
Create the honeymoon of your dreams.
Right now I'm struggling with a career I find to be completely unfulfilling. It's especially frustrating because I've gotten a lot of education and geared years of my life to get to where I am and I.JUST.HATE.IT. All the superficial stuff is fine (pay, working conditions, co-workers, boss, etc) but the job is intellecturally and spiritually unfufilling. Whether it's not a fit with the job itself or not a fit with the organization it's hard to say.
Which brings me to my question: for you bees who love your jobs - how did you find a career that was right for you? What makes your job fulfilling? Did anyone make the transition from a career/work place that drained your soul to one that made you want to spring out of bed in the morning?
Your stories, advice, links, inspiration, whatever are needed! Help me bees! Life is too short to do work that's not important.