To just want a job rather than a career?

[dancingqueen345]

I've always been career minded with huge expectations for myself, but on a dreary Monday with incompetent team members and stressful projects to work on I can't help but wonder if maybe actually I'd be happier with a 'job' that was 9-5, process driven and a little simpler.

Is there anyone out there who's left a career for a job? Were you happier?

Sometimes I think that I would love a job where I could just do it 9-5 then have no worries or stress or extra work intruding on my home time.

Be careful of responsibility creep though if you take a 'step down' in your own profession. One of the senior managers in the firm of accountants where I work left to take up a relatively straight forward purchase ledger role which was mostly data input to acheive a better work/life balance.

By year end he was running payroll, doing vat returns, preparing management accounts and even doing the director's personal tax returns because he had the skills to do so - effectively going beyond a finance management role whilst being paid as a purchase ledger clerk. He's since left, and got another purchase ledger role, but massively underplayed his skill set and is much happier.

Dh has reached a point in his career where the fiscal rewards and responsibilities are nicely balanced, I think. He's never going to strive to the top, but has his niche, and feels his salary is reflective of the job.

I have "a career" and have several times taken a step back but ended up progressing again because I can't help getting involved! Currently in a difficult personal situation with a lot of stress and really want to take a step back again, but money-wise it's difficult and also hard to walk away from something where I have built a name and reputation for myself. The industry I work in is very badly paid and even in a senior position I am not paid very well so it's either take a step up for more money and more stress or take a step down and out of the industry and be paid not much more than minimum wage.

I had a career, had kids, now have a job.

Was not prepared to give myself to a career after I had the kids, life changed, the job "fits" our family life well.

Walk out the door at end of shift and shut it out of mind till the next shift - never intrudes on family time, never anything needs doing, never any phone calls or emails out of hours - bliss.

I'm a teacher, been teaching for 14 years on and off and been asked a lot why I'm not a head of dept etc yet. Simply, I like being in the classroom and being a 'jobbing' teacher. Now my managers are younger than me and, frankly, I couldn't care less!

I work hard, my wage is ok. It could be higher, I could have a 'career' but do I want the hassle? No way.

One of dp's favourite sayings is he works to live, he doesn't live to work.

Hes really clever and if qualified could probably have gone far in any number of careers so I don't know if it would have been different if at the start he'd had the opportunity to go to uni which would have given him the choice to have a carrer but he didn't so I'll never know.

He is happy that he is on set hours and gets to go in and is left alone do his job then gets to go home and it's a job would never be somthing that he'd "bring home" so when he's here work is forgotten. it's a hard job physically but simple mentally.

Fewer men make these choices: suspect women do because men who are parents are not doing their fair share of parenting and domestics!

Fewer men make these choices: suspect women do because men who are parents are not doing their fair share of parenting and domestics

he earned a shed load more than me, we wanted one of us at home to care for the kids, obvious choice was me (had as much to do the fact that BFing 2 kids was easier without all the soul destroying expressing needing to be done both at home and at work)

oops, posted too early... and leaving a career, not working for a bit made us see how nice life was for us as a family, so my going back to full time career would have been a chore for both of us.

You know what? Was actually talking with my DM exactly about this topic.

My mom has a fab career, she likes it, she's in v senior management but she still has about 13 years to go until retirement. I can tell that she's exhausted.

Me? Changed a few (bout 5) jobs after I graduated, built my way up to management in corporate banking, I was making literally a shitload of money and I was EXHAUSTED!!!!! fhen it hit me. I can't do it. So i stayed in banking, part time, half of the pay, but when I get home.... and see my dog... and my DH and my little Sofia... I am HAPPY!!!! I go there, I do what I'm supposed to, I have time for my loved ones, shopping, gym, walking the dog etc .... ah-mazing!! So yep, don't want a career.

I'm currently daydreaming about going back to work to a job a few grades below the one I left. I enjoyed work until I had my daughter, and didn't mind the long hours and the pressure, but now I just want to do something quite mindless and repetitive that requires little to no thought on my behalf. I want to be able to leave the office at a sensible hour, with no tension knot in my shoulder and nothing to worry about.

Sigh.

I did it the wrong way round. For 20 years I had jobs, then when my child started school I was gripped by a sense of having something to prove and switched to a 'career' but am starting to regret it. But I also suspect that I'd miss the stimulation and money if I switched back to my old job now.

God I am faced with this dilemma at the moment, have been pushed into a mgt position that I really didn't want but hard to take a step back unless I move jobs, no idea what I'm going to do!

I had a career (teaching). I now have a job but it's causing financial hardship. I will go back to teaching reluctantly but what I actually want is a different career. I know what that would be but I can't afford to retrain. I know that's the wrong reason to go back to teaching but I will do it to the best of my ability for the sake of my family.

I have a career that I treat like a job. I dont take work home with me and my home life takes priority

Non professional jobs I've done impacted on my home life much more

YANBU. I'm a teacher and wanted to be one from the age of 12. It was my career for life... only once I'd temporarily stepped off the career ladder to have dc, I realised I didn't really want to step back on. I do supply and private tutoring part time now but I'd actually quite like a nice non-stressful job with regular hours and no marking and preparation. I wouldn't be bored. I don't get bored!

I have what people would describe as a career but to me it's just a job. I do it because not having any money terrifies me more. I'm not saying I'm wildly well paid but it does afford me my freedom. It's just a means to an end and frankly being entirely honest I hate the stress, sleepless nights, anxiety that it gives me. As someone else said earlier the buck ends here and that's hard. I always try to balance out that if I made less money then that would bring a different type of stress and pressure but perhaps I'm just too engrained with the status quo.

Like SugarMiceInTheRain, I also was a teacher (for over 15 years). So I've had my career. I now have an office job, not quite mindless but with a lot of downtime. Like SMITR, I, too, enjoy having all my time outside working hours as real free time. Been there, done that, no more careers for me, thank you. .

YANBU, I've found myself thinking this a lot recently because my boss is so career minded that she expects us all to be and I just wonder if that is a fair way to live life. Have thought endlessly about moving roles internally so I can do 9-5!

I've done this, but only did it once I felt confident that I could switch back to my career if I needed to. So far so good. I now work at home for myself rather than in the City for a law firm.

I suppose I started off having a career. If I had stayed in it I could've progressed to management of a dept eventually - by now I'd be team leader at least - even if I'd done mat leave. The reality is I left that career after I had kids and am prob doing my 'easiest' job ever now as I wanted one that fitted in with my DC's school/term hours. There isn't really anywhere to 'move' to within my place of work as I'm the only person to do my job and my line-manager is senior management so I'm not going there!! I'll probably be here for another year or so, then maybe get a job where I can progress. I have a degree but I'm not particularly academic.

What happy said, I lasted 6 months in a part time job I took to re-address work life balance. Then an opportunity came up and I jumped back in. (In hindsight I think I'd just hit breaking point at my old company) 3.5 years later in my new company career my friends think I'm crazy juggling all I do with family/career etc. I was genuinely bored in a pt job and the drop in salary bugged the hell out of me. I want to contribute to my family life just as much as DH! Why should he be expected to earn more because he is male.
I'm bone tired though
Wish I could find a good balance
So I will lurk here to see if anymore has the magic formula

YANBU. I'd love a career. Can't seem to get one though. Ended up with a series of jobs. Fought it for a while but there are a lot of advantages to a job that lets you go home on time and leave all work at work.

I've never had a career and don't regret it. In the past, I had several offers of promotion which I refused because I don't like being under pressure or having responsibility at work. When I was told I was capable of greater things my reply was always 'I'm happy as I am'. I now only work very part time because of an illness and I've found the adjustment far easier than most people in my situation.

I have never really wanted a career, per se. I want to teach dance, so that's what I do. I don't want to be a performer or a dancer (though many have told me that I could). That's the thing though... I know I COULD, I'd simply rather not have my life revolve around my job.

I have a part time job now. Much happier than on the career treadmill.

I miss the kudos of my previous profession and it's definitely seen as a low status, but I don't care normally only occasionally when meeting people who knew me previously