Do you like what you do? Do you like your industry but dislike your job? Do you like your job but not the industry? If the salary was $200k what would your ideal job be?
No. Although I would think lots of people in these parts are in IT. I've been doing cyber security research for a bit and I don't really like what I do.
My job has A LOT of idle time and I'm required to be in office. At the moment I'm making 56k and yeah if I made (shit even 100k) more money I'd probably not care that much but the commute + all the idle time kinda makes me hate it.
Which is unfortunate because the job itself I don't hate it's more of the environment. Honestly if this job was WFH even at my current salary that'd be pretty ideal to me.
I'm split on WFH. I currently do, but I don't have much to do, and have no idea what other members of my group work on. The office for the group I'm in is about 600 Mi away, so I've never actually met most of my coworkers, so no real networking opportunities. Its great being able to not get dressed, but some days I'd like a bit of random conversation.
I can see that, for me though I support an entirely remote infrastructure. People are generally in office (except for special people) but all their computing is virtualized. Adding insult to injury is the fact that when I do have to go to a physical location it's usually by my house. I have to go to the office to then turn around and go back home lol.
I like my current job. I'm working on automating tree core sample scanning by creating an affordable tree core sample scanner for a university lab. Since the machines normally cost 6k+ to buy, a few other students and I were hired to design and build a machine with a budget of approximately 200$ along with equipment they already have such as a USB microscope camera. Currently, we are waiting on a PCB we ordered to arrive so we can put everything together, but that won't be for another week or three. Thankfully we managed to stay in budget, but we lack the multicore loading aspect that the 6k+ machines have. However, they are interested in expanding the budget to see if we could do that since the PCB was designed to be able to drive multiple motors so we wouldn't have to design a second one.
There are parts of what I do that I like - I happen to be fantastic at the customer facing portions of IT/Help desk, at least for T1/T2 problems, and I can fix or at least workaround almost every issue because I understand the software. But ticket tracking's not one of my strong suits, and everything else about the job (Hierarchy, Meetings, Performance reviews, even positive ones, and the expectation that I'm supposed to walk in whistling every morning) makes me tired and angry. It doesn't help that I'm ND and the office is loud, I've already had a panic attack this morning because my coworker apparently can't answer calls without fucking yelling into his phone, and there's no noise cancelling or barriers anywhere so I can hear everyone else yakking all the fucking time.
I don't think I have an ideal job - I'm so burnt out and depressed from two decades of nonstop grind that I think I would spend a few months doing absolutely nothing, if for no other reason than to enjoy not having obligations.
Being good at the job is always half the battle. I hate documentation, training, procedures... I just want to do the things. Sorry about the burnout. I'm sure there is something you have a lingering passion or desire for. Low pressure jobs that let your mind drift, or something fun that just doesn't pay.
I think I'd like to teach at least the idealized version in my head. I don't know if I could deal with the people if half the stories you hear are true, and I don't think I would be happy with the pay cut.
There are parts of my job that I like and parts that I dislike. I like working with my hands and solving problems, I like not dealing with customers. I like being in a union and all the benefits of that and when I become a journeyman I'll be making a little over 100k a year so the money will be good. I dislike the conditions sometimes, a week or so ago it was probably 30°F IN the building (New building, no heat, was 19°F outside), it also gets rather hot and humid in the summers here. The commute can be long depending on jobsite location. If the salary was 200K and if it wasn't hard to get into I think I'd like to work in a national park or animal sanctuary.
Grass is always greener and all that. I work an office/lab job. I wonder sometimes if I would have enjoyed working a trade. I think I could get behind parks or sanctuaries.
True! I feel like I wouldn't enjoy an office job that much honestly, but I have never worked so so I wouldn't know for sure. I definitely wouldn't say I dislike my job. I do enjoy it so far. Just certain aspects of it I don't care for lol