Re: ANON: job dissatisfaction

[Elna Tymes <etymes -at- LTS -dot- COM>]

Anonymous:

Others here have focused on defining what it is that you want as a dream job,
and then going after it.  In your original post I heard a lot of
dissatisfaction, but no clear statement of just what it was that you did want.
And until you can identify just what you do want, you're probably going to
experience a lot of low-level dissatisfaction.

When I was going through biz school, one of the things we did was write a
description of our ideal day at work.  The day I described made it clear that I
wanted to run things, that I liked wearing several hats and coordinating
things, that I enjoyed writing as part of that, and that I had to have
responsibility for what I was doing.  Very clearly not the job description of
most technical writers. But in some ways it fit what a contractor does.  Since
getting my MBA I've only held one captive job in a company I didn't own, and
that was because I hired with the expectation of being part of a triumvirate
that would turn the company around from the inside. (So much for that fiction.)

That exercise made it abundantly clear to me just where I get my job
satisfaction, and I've picked my assignments accordingly since then.  Many of
my friends are now retired, and when they ask when I'm going to retire, I point
out that if the definition of being retired is getting to do what you want,
then I must be retired, because I'm doing exactly what I want to do. Most of
the time, that is.

What I'm hearing in your comment is a kind of general dissatisfaction, almost
like "I don't know what I want but that's not it."  Trying to define what you
want by reacting to things you don't want is one way of doing things, but
certainly not very efficient.  Others have pointed out that the more efficient
way of doing things is to define just what you DO want, and then go for it.
Some of the others have also pointed out that proposing what you want can be
quite effective in organizations where you're getting little recognition.

Some others have also pointed out that  your length of time on the job might be
a deterrent in looking for other employment.  That is probably true for captive
employment, but not for contractors. As David Orr pointed out, captive
employers are looking for people who have a history of staying on the job for
two or more years at a time, preferably longer.

Elna Tymes
Los Trancos Systems


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