

Do you actually enjoy working? - rifung

I&#x27;ve just began working a year ago or so and I find myself extremely unmotivated, despite being in a company that&#x27;s generally well respected.<p>Is this the way life is supposed to be? I studied hard in school and always thought CS was extremely interesting, but it turns out I very rarely use anything I learned.<p>Do you guys have any advice on identifying the parts that you like or dislike about jobs?<p>Much thanks!
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dubin
Cal Newport has a great book on the topic: "So Good They Can't Ignore you"
[1]. Might be worth taking a look at, or at least Derek Sivers's book notes on
it [2]

Particularly of interest might be his discussion of Self-Determination theory
[3]. According to SDT, motivation requires autonomy, competence, and
relatedness. In the workplace, this translates to have control over your work,
being good at your work, and being connected to co-workers.

[1] [http://www.amazon.com/Good-They-Cant-Ignore-You-
ebook/dp/B00...](http://www.amazon.com/Good-They-Cant-Ignore-You-
ebook/dp/B0076DDBJ6)

[2] [https://sivers.org/book/SoGood](https://sivers.org/book/SoGood)

[3] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-
determination_theory](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-determination_theory)

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rifung
Thanks for the response! The read definitely helped identify what it was that
I don't like. The part about the disqualifiers was particularly helpful!

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zooso
Empirically, most people that I know that really enjoy their work tried many
things until they settled on something.

My advice to you: be a journeyman instead of a factory worker. It's a long
process and has a lot to do with luck but I think if you are really after
doing work that you love, then that’s the way to go

You can't possibly expect that you fall in love with your first job but most
likely you will find something interesting about it, use that as a clue to
switch to different things until you find something you like. During this
search you yourself change and the things you thought are interesting would
not be interesting anymore.

Working on a side projects is another way but until you start doing them as a
full time jobs you can't say whether that’s what you like to do.

Like most good things in life, this also comes with a combination of effort,
experimentation, and luck.

~~~
rifung
Hi thanks for the advice. I'm glad to know I'm not the only one in this
situation. I definitely am experimenting with different side projects, but
finding it very difficult mainly because I'm so drained after work.

One question. What did you mean by "be a journeyman instead of a factory
worker"?

~~~
cafard
Have a look at _Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance_ , and note the part
about maintenance welders and production welders. You probably want to be the
maintenance welder, constantly doing something different. The book used to be
on-line, but doesn't seem to be now.

(At least, I assume that's what he means.)

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mark_l_watson
I usually enjoy my work a great deal.

I worked as an employee for 20+ years, and almost always worked only 32 hours
(getting full benefits). I took Mondays off. Four day work weeks were worth a
20% salary cut.

For the last 15 years I have mostly been an independent consultant. I am
basically retired now, working a max of 8 or 9 hours a week, but when I was
not retired I still tried to limit my average work week to about 25 hours.

I don't think that I could enjoy any job if I had to work 50 or 60 hours a
week.

As to your question: if you view work as helping people, when you do get work
tasks that are less fun, just concentrate on the fact that you are helping
people.

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rnovak
Are we talking about 'jobs', or 'career'? When I was in school, I worked as a
Night Stock, Insurance Agent, bunch of other minor stuff, hated it all.

But, as a software architect, I absolutely love every day. I never wake up in
the morning going "oh man, I have to work today". Sometimes I don't like how
loud my office is (Open Office floorplan), and some of the people I work with.

Otherwise, for the past 5 years or so, I've loved almost every minute. I would
do what I'm doing for free, and I get paid relatively well to do it, how could
I complain?

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rifung
I was referring to "career". It sounds like you're in a nice place. On the
other hand I get paid a good amount and yet still find myself very unhappy

~~~
rnovak
Unfortunately I'm not in the best place, I'm still paid about 20-30% below
fair market, work in an open office layout, and have some pretty terrible
people responsible for setting requirements and such for our projects.
Probably a little bit of the 'imposter syndrome' being responsible for me not
seeking better work, but for now it puts food on the table.

That being said, I really try to separate the work from the workplace. I kind
of take pride in being able to use what I learned in school and on the job to
develop better systems. Design & Architecture are project agnostic, meaning
even the stupidest web interface can have a thoughtful design and meaningful
architecture.

So yeah, I might not like the environment, or the product itself, but I love
the actual work that I do. I'm proud of it, and I work hard to do well, and
that gives me meaning.

I can't say leave your job if you don't like it, because in all honesty not
everyone gets to do what they love for a living. But what I would recommend is
to find an aspect of your job that you do enjoy, and focus on doing that part
more. For instance, if you prefer working on your company's SDLC instead of
writing code, I know at a certain big name company we had 'Process Engineers'
who's whole job it was to create a good process.

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smt88
13% of people like going to work; 24% are disengaged, like you are[1].

I've met very, very few people who like their first job. It's called "work"
for a reason. People are paying you to do it because no one likes it enough to
do it for free[2].

If you can get a job that fits you better, go for it. If not, make the best of
it. Make time for something you love to do every day. Find interesting people
at your company to learn from.

You said yourself that you rarely use your CS degree. Guess what? Programming
for corporations is rarely a lofty, scientific endeavor. It's quick, dirty,
and has far more to do with people than it does with technology.

Eventually you'll be experienced and respected enough that you can move more
toward what you want to do. There are more scientific/tech-focused startups
that would be closer to what you studied in college. For now, you just need to
"pay your dues" \-- show people you excel at things even when you don't want
to do them and that you can do it with a smile on your face.

1\. [http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/on-
leadership/wp/2013/10...](http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/on-
leadership/wp/2013/10/10/only-13-percent-of-people-worldwide-actually-like-
going-to-work/)

2\. The FOSS movement could be described as "people who like programming
enough to do it for free" but few people at corporations are doing what they
do. They're applying generic technology to specific applications.

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Bahamut
I love working at my craft - it's fun solving various UI/UX problems as a
frontend engineer, and implementing fun animations. I also enjoy mentoring
people, helping people with their careers.

I left a prestigious PhD program in math after 4 years in part due to
disinterest (and the other part being complicated personal issues), and
enlisted in the Marine Corps Reserve - life in the military gives you
appreciation for just about anything else. It was hard finding regular work,
but after spending some time teaching myself how to code & build websites, I
lucked into the field. I was just thankful enough for finding a job with a
career track.

For me, dialing back my personal expectations of doing a high cloud in the sky
accomplishment helped me become happy with my life.

Perhaps this is what is causing you to not like your job, although only you
can answer this question.

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seekingcharlie
I love my job & it doesn't really feel like "work" for me. I see this as both
a bad & good thing - I work long (70+) hours, weekends etc & it's not because
I'm expected to, it's just because that's what is fun for me.

I had a couple of jobs before this though & I didn't feel this way about them.
I agree with others that I believe you have to trial different things before
you find what it is that you truly want to do.

And for what it's worth, I don't really know that I use a whole tonne of my CS
degree either, particularly in my day-to-day. Are you working as a developer
now? I mean, not everyone that does CS, ends up as a dev, so I wouldn't be
scared to try other roles. Having a technical background is a valuable
foundation for any role really.

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nlx
I love my work, I worked lots of jobs I hated; until I decided fuck it, and
started applying for work in the job I always wanted to do (but never thought
I had enough education for. Never been happier, not in my entire life.

~~~
rifung
Congrats! I hope I'll find myself in a similar position someday

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kmt_technical
It's natural to think once you finish school you'll settle into a job doing
what you learned in school, however, that's not always how it works. Sometimes
you have to dabble a little, experience other things and then decide. For
some, it's different. I have family members who graduated MIT and immediately
went to work for a high profile tech company in his field of study. Me...took
me quite a while to land my niche job. There's nothing wrong with what you're
experiencing. Enjoy the experience!

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Martin67321
To my mind in your case it's definitely too early to quit your job just
because you are not enjoying it at the moment. I think everybody that left
university or school struggles at the beginning of his/her professionell
career. To identify parts that you like in your job you should maybe compare
it to other jobs. Ones you found out about the advantages your job offers you
might be more enjoying it ;)

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HeyLaughingBoy
The company is well respected for what? Profitability? Product quality? Good
work environment?

All that doesn't matter if the company is not a good fit for you and that's
what I get from your post. You and the company (or at least what you're tasked
with doing) don't mesh well.

No, its not the way life should be. Life is too short for you to be miserable
at work. Most people don't actually _enjoy_ their jobs, but it shouldn't be a
chore either.

~~~
rifung
Hi thanks for the answer. Hopefully I can find something that's a better fit!
Now I just need to figure out what that means

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rjbwork
I have found out that a lot of businesses simply don't have interesting or
hard problems to solve. There are problems to solve, and it can be fun to
solve them on a one by one basis, but the overall problems that need solving
are not interesting. My internship and first job were like that. My current
one is not.

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idoh
I really enjoy what I'm doing, it is definitely achievable. You weren't
brought into the world to toil at a job you don't like. Having a job isn't
like school, it is much more open ended. If you are motivated, opportunistic,
and believe in the possibility, you can eventually get what you want.

~~~
rifung
I'm glad to hear that you are enjoying what you do! I hope I can just figure
out what it is that I enjoy

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cm2012
My work is as good as it gets. Extremely flexible hours, under 45 hours a
week, I choose my own projects, my boss is amazing, the company is brilliant,
etc. I would still rather not work given the choice!

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kostyk
most jobs in my experience are like that ;((

