You may have noticed the decreasing frequency of my blog posts of late. I’ve been having a bit of writer’s block, which I attribute primarily to tax season. Nothing saps your creativity like filling out IRS forms all day.
I think at my core I really am a creative person who enjoys being challenged intellectually. That is likely at the heart of my lack of satisfaction with my accounting career choice. I can’t argue with the financial benefits of my path. Had I chosen to be some variety of starving artist, Steve and I would not be making such encouraging progress on paying off his student loans. However, accounting is not terribly challenging, at least not in an interesting way… trying to figure out tax code, while challenging, is decidedly not interesting.
I’ve heard two schools of thought on satisfaction in the workplace:
1) Do what you love and the money will follow (which just seems overly optimistic and like it was coined by rich people)
2) Work is work, just try to tolerate it and do your real living after 5 pm and over the weekend (which is a little depressing when you’re facing at least 40 more years in the workplace before retirement)
Are you satisfied with your career choice? What would you tell someone who’s early on in their working life… follow the dream or follow the dough?
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6 comments:
Couldn't tell you. Mostly I try to balance the two. Do something at least marginally interesting that will also pay money.
I followed the dream as far as Berkeley and then took the job at Poly to pay some bills. I liked the job at Poly and knew it was an honorable career, but I always felt like crap anytime someone asked me what I did and prefered to evade the question.
Then I followed the dream back to school and as far as Chapman. Then when the dream turned a bit sour and I was offered more money I took it again, with about the same result. To be totally honest, while I wasn't laid off for poor performance, I'm sure my performance would have been better if I'd believed in what I was doing.
And now I can't really get back into the dream before August at the earliest, and while looking for other jobs, the fact that they aren't my dream sticks out like a sore thumb. (I need to learn to avoid telling the irrelevant better.)
So at the moment I'd settle for either, but I couldn't tell you which is better. Even the dream has its moments of trial and frustration (arguably more than the money options), but even taking the money isn't guaranteed. I think you just muddle by with the best choices you know and hope for the best.
I was very happy with my career choice during most of my career but certainly not all the time. What I tried to do (and usually succeeded) was to "follow the dough" so that we could live reasonably and still have the size family we did and the lifestyle that was comfortable for us. Then, within that job, find a niche that is interesting and challenging.
For instance I really like programming, systems analysis, and network design but except for a couple of brief temporary positions I never had jobs with those titles. But in almost all my financial management or operations management positions, I managed to spend 10 to 20% of my time doing one or more of those activities.
Those times when I couldn't manage such a combination, I really started looking for other employment even if the job otherwise paid well.
Tough call for me. My newest job matches my skill set very well. When I describe to people what I do, it makes sense to them that I would do it. I suppose I was not really raised to dream. I was raised to get the job done, to be loyal to an institution. My father worked for the same employer for nearly 40 years, my mother for 20. Monkey see, monkey do...I've been working for the same employer for 9 years. I wouldn't think about switching over to another employer. It wouldn't even compute. Does it make me happy? Well, I don't jump out of bed when the alarm clock goes off, but it has its moments.
I've dreamt of fantastical things, like druming for a metal band or serving aboard a starship...things that are clearly impossible. I've thought here and there that I wish I had studied computers instead of accounting and banking.
To the actual question, then. I suppose I would examine the practicality of the person's "dream." If it seemed like something I thought they could acheive, I would get behind them. If not, I would work delicately to make them see reason.
Incidentally Lisa, in your case, what is "The Dream"?
Lady, I wipe sh@# off kid's a%^'s for a living. And for that I graduated with honors from Cal. If I hadn't managed some early life achievement, I might have jumped off a cliff by now. Then again, if I had not been led to expect that early achievements would lead to more and bigger things, perhaps I wouldn't feel like jumping off a cliff as often as I do now. But until I find something I really really wanna do, there's no point in complaining. You do what needs to be done.
I think I follow my father's approach. If I had my choice of professions and they all made the same amount I would study and practice languages all day. I enjoyed all of the science and math classes I took in school but I have seen that it can be difficult to turn some of those choices into profitable careers (and I don't envy all the grant requests I remember seeing my mother write).
Audit can be very interesting depending on the client and has become a lot more enjoyable since I stopped worrying about how well I am doing and whether I am about to get fired (no indications yet). I have also always enjoyed computers as a hobby and I get to help out with the IT at my current job. If the main IT guy is not in, they call me. I get my superhero fix by helping people out and it adds some variety to my job.
I am happy with what I have but if someone called me with an opportunity to move to Japan, make similar money, and not completely ruin my chances of coming back into my current career, our little family would be on a plane pretty quick (Jenny asks me to find a job there at least once a week).
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