Is it possible to still enjoy your career choice 10+ years on?

[Donutofdoooooom]

Not sure if I'm burnt out from my current role or just my chosen profession in general.

I started with a degree and at the bottom of the corporate ladder, worked my way up to various stages and across 4 or 5 companies to being a head of department. I am now a chartered fellow through professional qualifications, so highest level, although of course you can always expand and learn more topics etc.

I'm so fed up of recurring themes within the profession and find myself so bored of the same 'challenges'. Corporate bullshit behaviour with people not taking accountability has really switched me off in my current role too, so much so I've started matching those behaviours even though its against what I normally do and i do find that hard, but im so disengaged.

Most of my friends are in the same boat, all different professions/industries but obviously we're all around the same tenure.

Is this normal? If you are 20+ years in the same profession, can you really still get excited by the new project or challenges, or do you just find a way to put up with the same merry-go-round???

Personally, no. But I have ADHD and a low boredom threshold!

I rose up the ladder quite quickly in my ‘first career’ in my twenties (creative industry) and had quite a prestigious job and was known as a sort of ‘hot under 30’ list-type.

But by 30 I felt like I wanted to do something with ‘more meaning’ and retrained as a teacher (sweet, naive thing that I was 😆).

I was a senior leader in education by late thirties…and bored/frustrated/felt like I was tearing my hair out by my early 40s!

I made a sideways move into a specialist education advisory role which served me well for about 8 years. But at pushing 50, the boredom set in again and I decided to take a bit of a gamble and set up my own consultancy, providing leadership advice and training, but only around topics I’m interested in 😆. So far, so good!

You don’t say how old you are, but in my early fifties, I see a lot of my friends with itchy feet at work. Quite a few have made sideways moves into other sectors to try to reclaim a bit of passion and drive - e.g. one friend was a headteacher for 10 years and now runs an educational charity; another was a corporate lawyer for 25 years and now works in the legal department of an NGO.

Some have set up on their own e.g. a marketing manager who set up her own agency; a physiotherapist who retrained as a Pilates teacher and set up a Pilates studio.

I enjoyed my 20+ years as project manager for the local hospital - had a whole range of different projects during that time, working with a variety of people, so that kept it interesting. Then I was made redundant. I took some time off but given the diversity of projects (clinical, quality, digital, facility) did mean I secured quite a few interviews when I was ready.
After a few months i did get a new role with a local charity (no mean feat given the job market!), but aren’t enjoying it - too quiet and slow, and involves largely working on my own.
Have just updated my CV again and am going to apply for a new position i have seen that suits my skill set.
So for me a busy job that inherently has built into it a lot of variety, where you are constantly learning new info and skills is key.

I worked in Early Years education and progressed to a very senior level. Absolutely loved it right up to retirement.
Would have really missed it had the DGC not started arriving!

30 years in the NHS, 8 different jobs.
Still love the career I chose as an 18 yr old. Enjoy job just as much now as I did when I started out in the 1990s.

18 years doing public sector role in my chosen career, wanted to do it since I was in year 7. Still enjoy it, yes, it can get boring and tedious but I’m content and proud of myself for sticking at it as it’s an emotionally tough job.

I'm nearly 60 and have not strayed far from the job I did in my degree industrial placement year, have shifted fields but not far and shifted specialisations but again not far, I was in a discussion today using the same technical skills I picked up in that placement. I did get pretty burned out in my 40s having worked in a variety of multinationals but shifted into a startup where I've been for 15+'years and absolutely love it still.

IME, there are (were - I've retired now) new things to learn all the time.
The job 20 years on from starting was very different from when I started, and, 40 years on, was different from 20 years on.

I doubt anyone loves every aspect of their job, all the time. There are frustrations in any job. If you switch you will no doubt enjoy some things in your new job and miss some things from your current job.