Jobs thread

[danutz_plusplus]

I imagined there would already be a jobs thread, but I couldn't find it. The term was also too short to search from within rpgwatch. Google didn't seem to help.

I'm curious as to what jobs people have. How is it going for everyone? Having burnouts and wanting to quit and maybe switch fields?
I'm close to 14 years in IT, and have had a few, what I thought were, burnout periods where I just felt like giving up on it all.
I'm right now in the middle of such a funk. It's pretty awful. Anyone else?

 

[Redglyph]

Sometimes I'm wondering if there's such a thing as a job without burnout. I think that the most important question you must ask yourself - we must all ask ourselves - is whether we like what we do. Motivation makes a lot of things easier to cope up with.

Do you have any alternative in sight?

I've developed microchips for years, usually managing a part of the project, and doing some software development, IT work and other more bureaucratic tasks on the side.

Those projects are almost always executed in bad conditions, because we must use libs or tools that are not always reliable, or work with sloppy companies or subcontractors. The contracts take months of negotiation, but the deadlines don't change, and when we finally start working on it, we only get half the time we estimated as necessary.

Since it's not just software and you can't update a chip once it's made, and since there are huge costs when launching their production (NRE), any mistake that requires a modification could be fatal for the project and the company's reputation. What doesn't help is that the most critical verifications are performed at the end, when the deadline is approaching - typically when it's after the weekend, or sometimes yesterday.

Those crisis periods are an organizational and an economical problem; sometimes you can nudge the upper management, but even if they improve their process, they'll always try to outdo the competition. The clients or customers try to outdo theirs too, so it's an unavoidable cascade effect.

I came to realize that I enjoyed those intense crunches, but at the same time they are very unhealthy. And you only discover their insidious effects years later.

 

[Pladio]

I imagined there would already be a jobs thread, but I couldn't find it. The term was also too short to search from within rpgwatch. Google didn't seem to help.

I'm curious as to what jobs people have. How is it going for everyone? Having burnouts and wanting to quit and maybe switch fields?
I'm close to 14 years in IT, and have had a few, what I thought were, burnout periods where I just felt like giving up on it all.
I'm right now in the middle of such a funk. It's pretty awful. Anyone else?

I had created one years ago. So I think it's fine to create a new one.


I work in Procurement for a large bank in the UK. So I mostly handle a few smaller categories of spend and my teams support negotiating contracts and building up strategies for those areas.

I really enjoy the actual Procurement element but as a bank we have so many processes and regulations to follow that it takes over half the job.

So half the time I feel bored and annoyed and the other half I find it quite interesting.

 

[Gwydden]

I work a couple gigs at a public university in the USA. My day job is academic advising, which is a boring, obnoxious bureaucratic job. It's pretty easy and pays okay, though, so the plan is to use it as a transitional job to save up money until I find something more interesting to do with myself.

I am also an adjunct instructor at that same university. Grading aside, it's actually pretty fun, though it's dog's pay. If I could teach college full time, I'd take it in a heartbeat. Very difficult to get a full time position without a PhD, though. I considered getting one for a long time, but I learned that a humanities PhD takes forever with very little to show for it as there are practically no career prospects. I also weighed teaching high school for a while, but by all accounts it's incredibly demanding while paying about the same as my current position.

My dream job would probably be making a living from my creative writing, but that's another thing very few people accomplish. Still, to rule is worth ambition...

 

[pibbuR]

Interesting thread.

I'm retired now, but here's what I did.

I started working as a doctor, but found out after 4 years that I really disliked the work. No burnout, but I realized that 1) I don't like working with people (as subjects, not talking about coworkers). 2) I don't like not knowing what tasks I will have to deal with next day (which means being on watch is ... ouch).

So I went back to University and mastered in informatics. Supported myself and my family by teaching nurse-wannabes anatomy and pathology.

I did try medicine again for a couple of years, training to become a radiologist. But then, due to my background I got involved in getting PACS (digital storage of images) and RIS (radiology information system) to a group of hospitals in Western Norway. And when the IT department of said hospitals wanted one to maintain the systems, I switched. I remained there for the last 18 years of my working career, in the end partiaklly working in acheivement projects, partially developing and configuring solutions for exchange of information between health care systems.

pibbuR who occasionally writes about medical stuff on the watch, but has to admit that he's in no way up to date anymore.

 

[Carnifex]

Disabled and retired now, for the past almost twenty years. I did go back and get my master's four years ago, and in the next four months I'll finish my PhD. I'm really glad I was able to go back and finish university, a shame I waited so long, that's the only regret. If possible I'd suggest doing it all at once and at a younger age.

 

[SveNitoR]

Disabled and retired now, for the past almost twenty years. I did go back and get my master's four years ago, and in the next four months I'll finish my PhD. I'm really glad I was able to go back and finish university, a shame I waited so long, that's the only regret. If possible I'd suggest doing it all at once and at a younger age.

What subject are you doing your PhD in?

 

[Couchpotato]

Logistics for a large retail chain for 25 years till I was forced to retire early and go on disability. Nowadays just to much time on my hands, and a few temp part-time jobs.

As disability doesn't pay the bills.

 

[SveNitoR]

I work as a clinical psychologist with children and youth, between 6-20 yeard old.

It's very fulfilling work, but it takes a mental toll, especially considering that we are always understaffed. And the paperwork/bureaucracy is very, very tiring.

 

[SveNitoR]

Logistics for a large retail chain for 25 years till I was forced to retire early and go on disability. Nowadays just to much time on my hands, and a few temp part-time jobs.

As disability doesn't pay the bills.

I'm sorry to hear that the disability pay is too low. I hope things can turn around for you somehow.

 

[Carnifex]

My master's in history was in the American Revolutionary/Civil War eras, the PhD is primarily in First Nations' history/culture.

 

[wolfgrimdark]

I've worked a lot of jobs, I was changing all the time when I was younger. Started as a clerk boy at 13 in the country store, then was a bar boy and later waiter, then bartender. Once our of college I did retail at a book store which was great but poor pay. Finally got a job working at a public University for the graduate school doing IT, admissions, and data management. Been there 33 years and I plan on retiring next may 2024 and very, very much looking forward to that day. While I have a great job, compared to most, and have some extra privileges due to seniority, there is plenty of stress and too much change for me to deal with these days. I loved change when I was younger but now I just want things to be stable Great benefits though, open minded and diverse culture (too ultra PC even for me though, it gets claustrophobic at times it is so PC there), lots of different work to do .. or used to be .. and mostly good co-workers. Yet at this point I simply want to retire, play my games, and enjoy as much time with my dog as I can while she is still around (she is 8).

EDIT: For education I have a BA in Psychology and 12 credits short of a Masters in Liberal Studies. I also worked towards an MS in Information Technology but kept going back to the MALS as the MS IT required so much "team" work with groups in classes and I hate that stuff. I am very much an introvert through and through. I got into IT for work as I was a math and CS major off and on, many times, but tended to enjoy Psychology more. In the end, however, I realized I would make a very poor counselor so I moved into Liberal Studies with a focus on personality psychology.

 

[Arkadia7]

I work a government type job, its a mixed bag. I get to work from home, which is very good for me and my personality (introvert and hate office politics) Other good things is they have very good benefits. That said, no one gets rich working for the government, of course, and also, I'm not sure if I'm going to like my new position, that I recently started this year. (I was in a different department before) It does involve helping people, which is positive, but its maybe a bit "more" in terms of what we have to do, than I had expected.

And so, we will see how it goes. Let's just say I have my eyes open for now, and, as always, I'm eternally optimistic.

*I don't plan on ever "retiring" by the way, I think retiring means death, that is just my personal opinion* In other words, to explain better, let's say I won the lotto tomorrow, I would not retire. I would start new businesses and invest in others, and be busy doing all sorts of things.

 

[Corwin]

Most people I know, are busier in retirement than they were when they worked full time. I supposedly retired years ago from both my long term positions (High School teacher and Church Pastor) However, a ministry colleague of mine asked me to help out occasionally with his church and over a number of years I have slowly ended up running it when he passed away and the person who initially took over resigned for health reasons. I guess God still wants me in the pulpit preaching!!

 

[Hurls]

I’m now retired through disability (chronic pain) Since 2016. Previously I worked in IT with the last 10 years leading IT strategy projects for companies in a range of industries. I also worked part-time as a university lecturer (i actually had tenure when I quit that job after too many broken promises). In my fourties’ I completed a PhD in Computer Science where I mainly did cognitive psychology looking at what made people better at being an IT Archiect than others. I also worked as a part-time researcher at another university for a while.
unlike @Corwin my retirement is quiet due to my health, I can’t concentrate for long either through pain or drugs to manage it. We can manage some travel (this is being written) in Tokyo and a little charity grant advisory work (both worthwhile and interesting).
I planned to never retire but life got in the way.