To ask if you actually enjoy your job?

[JanuaryJonez]

Five years ago I took a career break from an increasingly demanding role. My DH's business was starting to do well and by cutting back we've managed ok, and it's been lovely, after years in a stressful work environment, to spend time raising our DCs.

The DCs are becoming increasingly independent and it's now making sense for me to go back to work. I'd really like a different direction from my original career and have good transferable skills, but when I think back to the various roles I've had, I can't think of one that I could say I really enjoyed. It was just something I could do to the required standard that paid the bills and enabled the time not at work to be enjoyable. None were what I would call fulfilling (although quite well paid).

I thought most people's jobs were the same, but I've been very inspired by another thread on here where so many people are saying how fulfilled they are by their work. I'd just like to know, if you love your job, what do you do?

Oh and I have a second job too as a university mentor. I bloody love that one too! I am aware of how lucky I am. And I'm doing a PhD on the side. Love that as well ha!

Researcher here. Love the actual research, hate the admin in my organisation.

I recently changed jobs from Post office to Medical receptionist. I like both jobs as interacting with the public and get regulars that you get to know. I like helping people.
I'm never going to be highly paid but I do get job satisfaction.

I’m a midwife sonographer and I love it. It can be very stressful as it’s a huge responsibility and it can be difficult to break bad news but the good definitely outweighs the bad and I work with a great team. Unlike other jobs I’ve had in the past, I never ever wake up in the morning thinking that I don’t want to go to work which I think makes me very lucky indeed.

I absolutely love mine. I’m in public policy communications.

I enjoy my job because I don't have colleagues and basically manage myself.
I have worked with some amazing people and made some great friends over the years but l do like working alone and being responsible for myself. I work nights in the community for an agency. The pays not great but the flexibility is fantastic.
I do get very attached to the clients and some families though which can be hard when they pass away. Definitely prefer this role to care/residential homes. Less office politics and noticeable decision between days and nights.

I’m a primary school senco and I love it. Every day is different and I learn something new all the time. Always challenging but in a good way.

@Canwecancel2020

Vet here - it can be very stressful, sometimes clients have impossible/unrealistic expectations and the hours can be unsociable but I love it. Just the routine everyday stuff really. Taking care of the animal members of families, throughout their lives, to a kind end where necessary, is actually a privilege.

This would have been my career choice if I hadn't become a psychologist. I wanted to be a vet for years when I was younger

Community carer and absolutely love it. Have been a team leader in both elderly care and adults with challenging behaviour over the past 30yrs .Currently work in the community with an amazing team and bosses and with some incredible people I care for .I truly wouldn't change my job for the world.

I do love it on a day to day basis. I work in the media (producer) and really am very lucky.

However I’ve been doing it a long time, industry is changing, so I am setting out to try and find a new direction.

This thread has really buoyed me up in an equally dull and scary January - thank you for so many inspiring responses!

@Limosa your role sounds really interesting. Can you say how you got into the civil service after working in a different industry/profession?

And thanks @AutumnColours9 - I'll definitely check out those websites!

@JanuaryJonez, good luck with finding something you enjoy. I was working in research for the nhs in a junior role and didn't like the hospital enironment. I just applied directly for a researcher role on the civil service jobs website. They employ researchers in most departments and there's four analytical professions to choose from, so jobs come up quite often. People also apply for research roles through the fast stream. Researchers have a really large variety of backgrounds and degree subjects in the Civil Service, it's skills and competencies rather than specific experience that they look for in the interviews.

Thanks @Limosa - that's really useful!

Used to be an Executive PA. I earned very good money but absolutely hated it. Would often work 50 - 55+ hour weeks and never had a day off without my boss calling me about something.

Retrained as a therapist, a lot of my work is within oncology and cerebral palsy. I am off to uni in September to become an osteopath. I absolutely love my job, but being self employed this last year has been dire and pushed me to my limit with zero gov support etc.

I love my job. I am a year lead in a large special needs secondary school.
I am continually awestruck by how funny, resourceful, compassionate and brave the students are. They make me laugh and cry and no day is the same. The staff are great to work with and utterly dedicated. That's why I'm still there after 16 years.

I love my job, I work in the control room of my local police. We are the voices at the other end of the radio when you watch those police chase programmes.
I've been an officer, that wasn't for me. My job is the perfect mix of adrenaline when it gets busy or you have a big job running like a potential terrorist incident and being able to just hang up my headset at the end of the shift and forget all about it. No paperwork. Well paid and we get to be part of the front line team without having to smell, touch or interact with the Actual Public other than via a telephone.

I do kind of like it. Definitely don’t dislike it - my problem is finding enough time for it!

My old job was more exciting but less family friendly.

I’m a lawyer, I should have said. Office/ wfh based now whereas I used to go to court.

I woke in construction and love it mostly

I’ve had some bad moments with micromanaging bosses or rude colleagues or stressful unmanageable deadlines but in good times it’s brilliant and I must remember that and be thankful for it rather than considering jacking it in anytime someone annoys me

@Kissthepastrychef

I love my job, I work in the control room of my local police. We are the voices at the other end of the radio when you watch those police chase programmes. I've been an officer, that wasn't for me. My job is the perfect mix of adrenaline when it gets busy or you have a big job running like a potential terrorist incident and being able to just hang up my headset at the end of the shift and forget all about it. No paperwork. Well paid and we get to be part of the front line team without having to smell, touch or interact with the Actual Public other than via a telephone.

This sounds fascinating Do you have to be a PC before being able to do this job?

I love lots of things about my job and find other parts stressful and frustrating - I’m a communications manager for a small charity.

I work 3 days a week which is perfect and love that the job is creative and varied and that what I do makes a difference. It’s mostly because of my colleagues and the setting that I enjoy it, I’ve done a similar job in the civil service in the past and got completely fed up of having to deliver work for projects I didn’t believe were worth doing. Down side to comms is that there’s always more I could be doing and the work is never finished. But I love the problem-solving element of it.

I work in university admissions and I love it. Can't wait to get back to some normality (what's that?!) and go back to meeting prospective students at open days and interview days. I'm proud of the Department I work in, and proud of our current students - they're brilliant to work with. And I love seeing them grow from the point I met them at an open day or interview day, through to their graduation. Always feel incredibly sad to finally say goodbye though!

O am a foster carer and love the child I look after. He has been with us for almost 9 years and is really part of our family.

Psychologist. Love it normally, but not at the moment (working from home)