As the title states. Also, how did you get there? Education, prior experience, stepped in poo.

Currently I'm not hating my job, but not loving it at the same time. Twenty odd years until retirement and now might be a time for a change with job openings. I am a veteran but that doesn't go as far as what it once did. No college education, but a high school diploma and a ton of knowledge rattling around in my brain.

So where do you stand?

I started a new job a few months back after almost two years unemployed due to the pandemic. I herd cats for the Illuminati in a tower in the sky. It pays the bills. The people are respectful and treat me well. I’ve worked a lot harder for a lot less money. My education is largely wasted.

I’m a 911 dispatcher, and I really love what I do. The crazy calls, organized chaos, and all the rest. This is my 4th 911 job and I’ve enjoyed them all. I’ll do it till I retire, I guess. Eight more years.
I got into it by being a newspaper reporter doing the crime beat. The sheriff liked me and recruited me to work for him. Best thing I ever did job wise.

I used to like my job, truck driver. Made friends all over the city.
Now with all the DOT regs and the company being sold for the fifth time
it sucked. When we parted ways 5 months ago they were putting cameras
in the trucks. One pointed at the drivers face. Any pinhead in management
could watch you. Eat a cracker or take a drink of water, reprimand or
possibly fired. Screw that. I'm happily unemployed.

Was in my senior year at college (finishing my BS in Physics, finished my minors in mathematics and computer science) with 6 classes left and somehow ended up in Law Enforcement. I still need to go back to finish those 6 classes. I'm in my 24th year now. I'm still okay with it. The work is fine, the people are fine. Management is not. Hence, I keep opting for permanent night shift year after year and I get to pick my shift second.

It's been a long weird ride. I started in USAF avionics, and ended up as a software engineering manager. Do I love my job? No. Am I very happy with it? Yes. I have exceeded my dreams.

I really like my job, love might be a bit of a stretch though. I'm a Chief Human Resources Officer for a medical campus. I spent 26 years active duty in the Navy, have a Masters in Human Resources and have my SHRM-SCP, and SPHR certifications. I'd do it again if I had to start over.

I'm not sure I love my job, but I like it well enough.

I am the corporate subject matter expect for assembly of our primary product lines, so I work with plants around the world. I've started up several new assembly plants in Asia, put a new line in Mexico, and now I am working on some projects in the US and UK. Also consulting on a project in Japan and maybe a project in Thailand.

This job has allowed me to travel around the world (literally) and spend a lot of time in other countries - China, South Korea, Japan, Mexico, UK, India. 700,000+ lifetime miles so far on United Airlines, hopefully reach 1M before I am done...

As a result, I have friends all over the world. Some though work, and others I met outside work. Almost anywhere I go, I know someone who is happy to see me, and like an old friend, even if we just met in person.

No matter how much virtual work you do, and of all countries, UK is about the easiest to work with due to shared language and compatible culture, there is no substitute for being in the field and meeting people in person. I learned more about our UK operations and people in 1 week than in 7 years of virtual interaction since my last visit.

I work with large companies (for the most part), that have purchased our software, to help them implement it. These are typically global implementations in which I engage with customer teams from all over the world.

The implementation timeframe typically ranges from six months - two years.

I really enjoy it and it pays really well too. I’ve been in my current role for over six years now (12+ years in the industry).

I basically stepped into this software arena right out of college (BS, Business) .. although it took 5+ years until I made my way to the Project Manager / Solution Architect-type role that I’m in today.

Another bonus: I work from home full time (the company is HQ’d in a different state).

Heck yeah I love my job. I work in the gun industry.

This is greatly simplified (not wanting to bore with my personal history), but upon getting my bio degree, I worked in the biotech world. While there I gained a lot of insight into the science of frequency dynamics that would later prove useful when I started playing with barrel struts for firearms (a bit of a weird transition, I know).

I started Accu-strut initially as a hobby business, but it became my main business when health concerns forced me out of my day job. Been selling struts for 18 wonderful years now.

I love my job. I run a program management office at an automation company. I love manufacturing in the U.S.A.!!
I have thought about leaving because I know I could get paid more elsewhere but I enjoy it too much.

I make ice cream…

quote:

700,000+ lifetime miles so far on United Airlines, hopefully reach 1M before I am done...

Be careful what you wish for. I am United Lifetime Global Service (GS) with a little over 4M butt-in-seat lifetime miles on United flying all over the world.

While I'm still saving for retirement, I hope I never have to retire. I sell final expense life insurance, work for myself, answer to no one, make really good money working 3-4 days per week and every day out there is an adventure no one would believe, even though everyone tells me to write a book about it. Just spent a week at a ridiculous resort in Key Largo on the dime of my main insurance carrier, just booked a European vacation minutes ago for July.

I've been retired now for 16 years, but I really did love my job before I retired. I was a COBOL programmer on IBM mainframes, and prior to that on the big Honeywell WWMCCS computers (military).

flashguy

I used to love my job, untill I got promoted recently. I'm now assistant lead engineer for the largest of 8 data centers on our campus. Job wouldn't suck if we were properly manned. It takes 4-5 people to do so. One coworker quit, one is out for surgery/recovery, another is good for taking a 'me day' every week or two, and the lead engineer treats it like it's a part time job with flexible hours. If property staffed it's an easy job, when understaffed there's not enough hours in the day for my administrative tasks because I'm off escorting people. We are not allowed to have vendors in data halls or other sensitive areas without an escort. So every Monday I come in with loose ends from the week before.

As much as I loved my job, it sucks now, and I see no end in sight. The lead time to hire and train someone is three months minimum. I checked for other sites in the area with my company, but none are currently hiring. We do have multiple buildings in various stages of construction and build out, just none open now. So I'm half assed looking for a new job. I have applications in with Microsoft and Oracle both with referrals from inside people.

I'm in manufacturing (engineering) and I dig it. As a car nut, I wanted to get into the automotive manufacturing industry right out of college. That didn't exactly work out for me, and in hindsight it's turned out well. I did almost seven years at a Tier 3 automotive plant, and as I've told people before "I learned a lot there -- not all of it was about manufacturing." I learned a lot about people at that job.

I used to wonder about people in the generation ahead of mine -- those who kept a job (or employer) for 40 years or so. Shortly after the 20-year mark in my current job I was waking up each morning wondering "what do I do next?" Then my boss left to take another job. I slipped into his position (largely out of fear -- I worried about who corporate would send in here to take his place) and having been department head for almost two years now I don't have that "what next" thought each day. In a year's time the population under my umbrella has increased from 5 to 12. I'll tell anyone: I've got a great team.

Being in M.E. is cool for me because I'm not chained to a desk, nor do I do the "same old thing" day after day. I get to work with the product some, and work with the people some. It's a good mix.

Each day brings its unique madness, for sure. But as I told Dad a bunch of years ago: I look forward to getting there in the mornings, and I look forward to leaving in the afternoons. There are a few things at work that bug me something awful, but nothing (yet) that makes me say "this sucks, I've got to go do something else."

Skins,

I have been in IT since the early 1980s. I can retire any time I want to now that I'm at that age. I still really enjoy writing software so I'll keep doing it until I don't like it.

I'm not sure what the IT market is like in Va but in Utah the unemployment rate is near zero percent. We can't find UI engineers, API engineers, DBAs, dev-ops developers, or even business analysts. I've never seen it like this. EVER. It won't last forever, things never do. If what some are saying about an upcoming recession is true, you won't have a hard time finding qualified candidates for open positions.

With that all that being said, maybe take a look at the various job sites for yourself. Without a doubt you will find something that will fit your criteria and probably for more money.

My $0.02.

Retired 5 years . Worked in the electric utility industry for 40 yrs . Most of that in high voltage substations . Started at the bottom and retired as a Foreman . Fascinating work with constantly evolving technology . We always said that not many people understood or could do what we did . Of course that's true of many fields .
I retired early because I got tired of the jackasses I worked with . They made it a chore to come to work every day . No regrets though . I like being retired .

I'm a clinical and forensic psychiatrist. Great stories, daily challenges. It took a long time to get here. I'm happy.