Do you find your job rewarding and satisfying?

[toomanydirections]

What is the best thing about your job? I haven't worked for several years now because of illness and a bereavement and feeling directionless. I used to have so much enthusiasm but was only ever very junior, and then my health broke down and lost all my confidence.

I just don't know what way to go - I'm daunted by every job description and not sure I could manage at all. How do you make a decision what job to go for and stick with and focus on learning all the skills even if you lack them to start?

What proportion of people do you reckon like their jobs, I also wondered?

I’m a social worker and really enjoy it. I didn’t qualify until I was 31 and I’m mid 40s now.

it can be quite stressful and emotional but it’s also enabled me to process some of my own trauma, through clinical supervision.

I love my job for the most part. I'm a deputy of a care home and spend the majority of my time with residents. I feel valued by my manager and most residents and families and it is a privilege to care for people in their final years/months/weeks/days/moments.

Many people have no idea what we do though and think we just sit around chatting to residents and making cups of tea. We are very understaffed and underpaid considering the amount of responsibility we have. But I started in care whilst doing my masters and knew that was my calling.

I don't enjoy my job at all. It's not in a field I'm interested in (I have a PhD in a totally unrelated subject) but I stick with it because it's fairly flexible so it fits with child care, I can mostly work from home, and work part-time which generally seems harder for the better paid jobs. By the time I no longer need the flexibility I'll be too old to find anything better!

I don't like my job and am always on the look out for something else. But, it's not awful and needs must! All my colleagues feel the same way about work and so do a lot of friends and acquaintances. It's completely fine and I like my colleagues a lot but given the option I wouldn't do it for free or anything. I just do it because I need the money really

@CurlyhairedAssassin yes the money is rubbish but I love chatting to people and helping them and the fact no 2 days are the same . Yes some days are more stressful than others , we are down on practitioners this week and all appointments for the morning were gone just after 9am but I'm polite and apologetic and hardly anyone is rude about the situation. Obviously for emergencies the on call Dr is at hand . It helps that I'm in a fantastic team - everyone helps each other and there is no bitchiness .

@TammyJones there is so much variety isn't there and I think that helps the day go so quick , I was on the phones yesterday for 4 hours and it literally felt like half an hour it just zoomed by !

After spending many years in a huge global corporate (which I hated at the end) I left and became a funeral arranger. I love my job now because it's hugely satisfying. I meet wonderful families and it's rewarding to be able to help them when they're at their lowest. No day is the same, and obviously there are some very sad parts, but the team I work with are the best. I can't imagine ever doing anything else now.

The only down side is the salary which is pitiful.

No. That's why I'm studying for a complete career change. I've had enough 😆

I wouldn’t say I hate it but it’s not enjoyable, it’s flexible as a single parent and it pays well

Absolutely agree.

There are times when I absolutely love my job, and times when I wish I had picked a different career.

I love my patients, and the fact that I am able to play a vital role in their care. I love the fact that my skill-set has allowed me to branch out into volunteer work with the homeless and their animal companions (alongside my normal job). And I love my work mates.

I dislike that the general public still don't really know what my job entails, and the majority presume that we spend all day cuddling puppies and kittens (when in reality that is a tiny part - we have a HUGE and varied skill-set).

And there still seems to be a large portion of people who presume that we want to be a vet!!!! A tiny few of us might, but most of us chose our profession because we wanted to be nurses - a complimentary but completely different role to a vet surgeon!

And I dislike that after, over 20 years in my profession, the pay is still relatively shite.

I am a Registered Veterinary Nurse

@HellsAngel81 do you volunteer for Street Vet?