Do you love your job and why

[Lucycantdance]

I am a solicitor (litigation). I have posted before in AIBU about wanting to leave the law. I am still up and down. I just don't think I love it anymore and I think you need the love this job to keep going through the stress. Sadly I know the feeling of loving my job and I want it again.

Please give me some inspiration - do you love your job and if so why? Would you recommend it? It doesn't have to be a job remotely similar to law!

Primary teacher and although it’s the hardest I’ve worked in my life, it’s also much more rewarding than any of my previous jobs.

General office job. Very busy and low pay but love my colleagues so stay for the laughs and support

Childminder. Love it. I have some great colleagues, get it see the kids grow & develop, plan my own days, lots of time outdoors, get to be there for my kids. Don’t get me wrong it’s hard sometimes but I do enjoy jt.

Have you ever thought of taking one of those career quizzes to see what type of career might be worth a change?
I did a big career change about 10 years ago and found this book helpful: The Pathfinder: How to Choose or Change Your Career for a Lifetime of Satisfaction and Success by Lore.
I also found the CMyPeople quiz helpful. ( cmypeople.chandlermacleod.com/CMySelf/tabid/1828/Default.aspx ) The result of the CMyPeople quiz is meant to give you a broad perspective of your strengths and weaknesses with the aim of helping you better identify any next career (or break!) step.

I was very very lucky and was made redundant 11 years ago (actually, I did have about 3 other roles in the same company that were asking me to join their teams.) I just didn't think I wanted to do more of that. So I took 3 months to travel cheaply on easyjet, accept the redundancy so paid of my debt (I had been there 9 years) and re-discover what I wanted away from home life. The distance helped! I also worked on my self esteem. (that is, I worked on what I perceived to be the "weakest" parts of my appraisals.)

All the best

I work in strategic comms and I absolutely love it. A lot of variety, creative, rewarding, sometimes stressful.

I used to love my job, I was general support for a team doing good works, my job was varied, my colleagues lovely. I hate my current job, still the same organisation but in a team where no one cares, including managers.

For me, culture trumps task.

I work in a charity. It's the least rewarding and most draining job I've ever had (and poorly paid).

I've had far more difficult, challenging jobs but I've always felt energised by those (different sector).

This one's a ballache.

Secondary teacher. Love the kids and in a very supportive school. Others experience of teaching is very different at times.

Hm… I love the conditions of my job. The work itself isn’t groundbreaking or exciting, but I have great managers, full flexi time and can take leave when ever I like.

I own my own business and love it. I set my own hours, pick my own tasks and everything hate doing I give to my VA!

Is there something you love doing that you might do as a job?

Yes - website content
Challenging and rewarding
Great boss who is understanding and supportive
Great workmates
Flexible working

@LemonDrizzles do u know if there's a similar link as I just tried this and went to assess me now but the page didn't load

Mixed here. Criminal barrister. Senior.
Love maybe 50% - in court conducting cases. Drafting appeals. Client cons. Conducting appeals. Relationships with colleagues in chambers and wider profession. Having pupils (depending on who).

Loathe - diary management, when instructed by poor solicitors, taking the flack for poor solicitors, difficulty getting hold of solicitors as they are too busy and/or in court themselves. Cases collapsing due to cps/forensic/expert problems/delays. Travel is wearing sometimes.
Absolutely hate inability to have clear certain time off. Too many cancelled holidays/nights out due to cases coming in/adjourned etc.

I might have posted on one thread of yours already, sorry for the duplicate answer if so.

I adore my job. I’m a professional musician, most of the work I do is in an orchestra.

It’s varied, engaging, challenging, creative, you need to react within miliseconds to what happens around you, and I have great colleagues. You go on stage multiple times a week and experience great feelings when making music together and sharing it with a packed audience.

With my current company we spend 25%+ of the year travelling abroad, which was curtailed by Covid obviously but is now restarting. You get the chance to visit so many different cultures and countries whilst being paid to do so and bringing your work to those who live there.

You need to be incredibly organised though, you could have 6-8 hours of rehearsals a day and then need to do 3-4h individual practice as well. Emails, accounts, admin (we’re mostly self employed) and your other part time jobs - teaching, recording, playing on your own/chamber groups - go on top of your main orchestral schedule. It’s very busy and everything needs to be done as planned. You mostly decide your schedule though (unless you’re employed by an orchestra or a music school/college), so can give yourself empty weeks as and when needed.

There are summers you’ll only be home for 1 week if lucky, or you could have 3 months without work and start panicking about paying your rent. You’re constantly working evenings, weekends and holidays. It’s tricky to manage with a family. Even more so if your partner has the same job - and most couples meet at work because that’s where we are 24/7.

If you make it to the very top the money is great and you have more flexibility. You will also travel business class everywhere and if you live somewhere that’s not the UK, will get great employment rights, pension, benefits.

I recommend it. But I started playing at 5 and our latest starter was 11 when she picked up her instrument. By the time we get a job it’s been 18-20 years of playing and studying. Not a career change option, but I do recommend starting kids on it ASAP

Yes. Quality assessment in agriculture.
Why?

• variety of locations in variety of weathers: fields, farms, office, packhouse.
• always learning
• long, philosophical chats about the world with my farmers
• colleagues who can make me laugh so hard that I cry. Daily.
• seasonal intensity - the long, crazy hours in harvests balance out against down time with the kids in the rest of the year.

I work in investigations for a big ombudsman service after years in retail banking - it's amazing. Great perks, flexibility and the work is interesting and varied

Good conditions are everything. Flexi and a "family friendly" employer aka not demanding excessive unpaid overtime

I think a lot is around the culture of the workplace. I work for a charity, genuinely rewarding and enjoyable.

But the bits I love are it is completely flexible, I set my own hours, get time off if I work extra, good holiday entitlement etc, good mix between office and WFH (long before Covid), and a great team of colleagues.

I have had jobs before that despite loving the work itself, the toxic management culture made the job unbearable.

I can do whatever work. My time to dont best is being paid for so I don't stress much about the work itself. I love my job because of the people and the respect and also the flexibility of Mgmt in relation to family life.

Administrator for NHS been there 20 years low paid but busy I like my colleagues and the school hours suit me. I'm a single mum with a dd with ASD so I need an easy job I can do and go home without worrying !

I provide property services to residential landlords and agents. I don't LOVE what I do but I own my business and love the flexibility that being self employed allows.

Yes. Love my job and feel so lucky. I work in "responsible investment" and ensure people's savings are invested in companies which are well-run, treat their people fairly and are taking action to mitigate impact of climate change on their business model (and reduce their contribution to eg global GHGs).

I work in the City (love the atmosphere), with talented and committed colleagues. Pay is excellent, hours are decent and the work is varied: producing research and reports, meetings with companies, speaking and media gigs etc. You meet some fascinating people in this line of work too.

IT here - depth technical role (think software engineer). I work in a big corp in a job I don't love, but can appreciate as being pretty great.

Pros: pays well (particularly as we all work remotely) + decent benefits, bonus, holiday etc. Interesting work. Flexible hours and no real need to work more than 40hrs a week normally (although things were a bit insane due to Covid last year). Interesting work, with a lot of freedom to choose what to work on. Great colleagues and management who really do care about us. WFH or office - up to us.

Cons: rapid pace of change, becoming more challenging to keep up as I get older. Not the job I really love doing, but the culture in those teams is terrible. Many of my colleagues LOVE our job, so I do feel a bit of a square peg sometimes. Lots of admin and meetings which I don't enjoy, but this seems to be a feature of most roles. Also corporate politics - not a game I'm very good at, so it can be an issue.

There are lots of roles around project management in IT that would be easier to move to as a career changer, with similar pros/cons. I know plenty of people who love it, but again, there's a large element of finding the right culture fit.

I worked as an accountant whilst studying for my ACCA, and after 6.5 years. I qualified.

Suddenly the idea of doing that for the rest of my life horrified me. The people I worked with were all very similar, and I wasn't like them.

I studied all those years, intense exams every 6 months. I quit 8 months after I qualified. I have never regretted this decision. But also I was young and not on a grand salary, so other than the time I'd invested, I had nothing to lose.

I love my job, it's a bit of a specialist one so not something you can easily retrain into. It's public sector so, for the level and type of skills needed, it's not as well paid as the private sector.

What makes it enjoyable:

• Every day is different. Good mix of quiet analysis time and being out and about meeting people, speaking engagements etc.
• I learn something new and fascinating every day, so it's interesting and intellectually challenging.
• It's something really worthwhile that makes a difference to the entire world.
• I have the power to decide what to do and how and when to do it. I write my own objectives, checking in that they fit into the wider organisational aims, and then after that it's up to me how to achieve them.
• The department has quite a collegiate feel - we are all treated as experts in our field, and work together as needed to solve issues.

It's also a pretty stressful job, but the benefits above help make up for that, and the hours are extremely flexible.

I haven't told you the specific job as it's too niche, but hopefully it helps that I articulated what makes it a job to love.