Do You Guys Like Your Jobs? Really? Come On, Be Honest.

[Tim Regan]

Hi All,

---  "Cindy C." wrote:
> Does *anyone* like their job?  What kind 
> of job is it, and why do you like it?

Mine's great. I do research into how to make the computer a social 
tool, for Microsoft Research. The pay's fine, the people I work with 
are very bright and interesting, I get to try loads of new 
technologies as they emerge, it's at the cusp of logic and 
creativity, and being part of Microsoft there is the potential to 
change the computing experience of shed loads of people for the 
better. Check out some projects at 
http://research.microsoft.com/~timregan/ if you are interested.

That said, there are frustrating moments: I constantly feel I should 
be doing more; choosing a field to research that has academic depth, 
commercial potential, and that looks fun can be a challenge for me; 
and balancing the 24 hours in a day between family, me, and work, is 
completely impossible. An Indian colleague told me recently that he 
sees this life as his sampler, where he dabbles in lots of things. 
Next life he'll choose one to be really expert in ;-)

Cindy, I'm not sure you'll get much out of people's replies since 
the work available to you will depend soooo much on aptitude, 
training, and interest. I did read an interesting book recently that 
might help though. It's called "Flow" by a psychologist called 
(unpronouncably) Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. He analyses what makes 
people happy (particularly in their work) and tries to tease out the 
traits that lead to their happiness. Why is it some factory workers 
love their job while some rocket scientists hate theirs? His answer 
boils down to repeated achievable challenges. You want to sculpt 
your job to give you tasks that are constantly challenging, but that 
are achievable, and that you know when you've succeeded. It's worth 
a read.

Cheers,

Dumbledad.