What's your job and do you enjoy it? I'm sick of mine...

colourofsound

I studied music at Leeds and have a number of good gigs under my belt both as a live person, composer and studio guy...but that's never taken off for me. This is due to a mixture of small-fish-in-a-big-pond syndrome but also a lack of discipline on my part. I've sort of come to terms with it and am still going through the process of 'relegating' music to hobby status.

So anyway, to pay the bills I work as an IT technician at a University. It's boring as fuck. There's no career development, i feel underappreciated and I spend a lot of my time watching green or blue bars fill up on a screen, or showing lecturers that PCs don't work unless you switch them on.

It does have it's benefits though - I'm often out of the office by 4pm, the pay is pretty good and I have a good set of lads in the office. Unfortunately though I still spend time day-dreaming about travelling, music or working a different job. I'm concerned that the lack of stimulation at work is driving me mental - something that's easily seen just by how much time I've spent here since joining.

I think in an ideal world I'd be working outside a bit and/or have some involvement with music or pro audio; but I've realised that 'outside' jobs don't pay well and, as previously mentioned, music/audio is very competitive and I just can't seem to crack it.

So - what do you do? And do you enjoy it? I'd love to try something new, something that feels like I'm contributing a little bit. Honestly I'd consider anything at this point!

EDIT: Thanks for the replies. Much to think about. Needless to say, if you think you can find a job for an IT-Musician, send me a PM...

NPP

would your employer offer roles that allow you to do something more in line with your interests? Perhaps looking after a studio space, or teaching in the areas you are good at?

Danny1969

I work as a musician and sound engineer for 80 % of my income, the other 20% comes from my electronic repair business. I actually built a large professional recording studio along with a friend 6 years ago and we lost an enormous amount of money ...... so I won't be doing that again

In my area, Portsmouth there's generally a lot of bands and gigs .... it's not hard to be gig'ing 4 nights a week. I really enjoy it and it means no early starts in the morning and generally the whole day is your own

colourofsound

@NPP I have tried that avenue actually. The Arts Faculty did advertise for a few jobs that I applied for (at less pay) but I didn't have the Health and Safety quals that they wanted. This is due partly to my employer blocking me going on H&S training that was running in my building because they didn't want to pay for it/let me have every Wednesday off for a weeks to do it.

Additionally, the studios that the University own are about an hour from where I live; which is not the end of the world but further complicates the issue.

I *nearly* did a lecture on audio implementation in video games (I work in a Computer Science and Engineering Faculty) but they cancelled it due to low attendance and I did a screencast instead.

Sporky

I design audio-visual systems, and explain to customers how well I've done it so that they give my employer money to install those designs.

It's mostly pretty ace. The pay is good, I am presented with interesting challenges on a fairly regular basis, most of the people I work with are enthusiastic and good at their own jobs.

There's going to be a lot more IT in AV over the next few years (working on a giant streaming project now where half the cost is the network switch) so if you're used to that and dealing with people who don't understand things that seem obvious to you, you're probably well prepared for this sort of thing.

stickyfiddle

Infrastructure finance here. My team advises clients on financing stuff major infrastructure projects, whether that's getting loans or submitting bids or helping governments tender major projects. 

I enjoy it a lot on a good day, but corporate crap is looking like it might fuck me over soon so i'm not in the best mood with it all this week. 

Don't fear change though - I was in a boring environmental consulting thing before this and the change was a big improvement overall.

colourofsound

@sporky Yeah that does sound pretty good actually. I do like building/fiddling and problem solving. Will look into that...

CabbageCat

I'm generic_IT too. I don't mind it. It pays OK and it's low-stress. It would be nice to try another career but it feels like I'm making hay while the sun's shining at the moment and I'd probably get disillusioned about any choice I make eventually. When the clouds come I might move to something else that doesn't require too much training or I might just retire. Time will tell.

randella

I thought I hated software, just turns out I hated the people I worked with, and the environment in which I worked with them.  Found a less corporate sketch and am loving it again.  I've been offered training for industry qualifications this year too, alongside moving into mobile.

I work hard for the man, they pay me well (and have promoted me once already) and the people - this is most important of all - are sound.  I've no intention of leaving.

Sounds you just need to find the 'challenge' bit.  Keep an eye on the internal recruitment, something'll crop up sooner rather than later.  Your management will also know this, which is why they'll have kyboshed the H&S training.

Sporky

colourofsound said:

@sporky Yeah that does sound pretty good actually. I do like building/fiddling and problem solving. Will look into that...

I've done a few jobs that turned out to be a bit brainless; I got through them by having difficult hobbies.

I am much happier, though, having a difficult job and hobbies!

jonnyburgo

I work at a residential High school up in the High Peak area. The kids that live here have been referred by social services and have all  had a bad start in life, some live here full time and some just come to school and go back to their care homes/foster care.
 The kids are great although they only have 1 tool in the toolbox of coping mechanisms, which is a hammer. Very prone to violent reactions when challenged. It's hard work but I love em all. I couldn't do office based work, it's meaningless to me. Although having said that there is a lot of paperwork in this job, always incidents to report etc.

digitalscream

My job title is Senior Developer. Basically, I build and maintain web stuff for money...personally, I think it's more money than I should really get for this job, but I'm not going to complain.

Do I enjoy it? Not even slightly, but it's an easy way (for me) to earn money. I've come up through the ranks from being a lowly desktop support dude 18 years ago...I do remember enjoying it then, but I got bored easily and kept moving around. I don't think I've really enjoyed anything about my career (apart from the money) since about 3 years after I got started.

Probably the worst part is that I've essentially reached the end of the road; I actively don't want to be a systems architect or a manager of any kind, so there's not really much more I can do. This is probably it for the next 25+ years...what a joyous thought.

randella

digitalscream said:

Probably the worst part is that I've essentially reached the end of the road; I actively don't want to be a systems architect or a manager of any kind, so there's not really much more I can do. This is probably it for the next 25+ years...what a joyous thought.

Yeah I have that problem - this job does leave me as the sole manager of a lot of projects which is great, I like the responsibility.

I've no intention of managing people though, the thought fills me with dread solely because I've had enough bad managers myself

vasselmeyer

I work in a specialised area of IT that will probably be around in 15 years when I am planning to retire. I cover the whole of Europe, Middle East and Africa, although that mostly means western Europe as that's where the money is.

I am based from home, fly to see my customers, pretty much organise my own diary, and am well-respected in my own company and in the industry. I kind of fell into it after technical college and I find it quite bizarre how well it's worked out for me.

RobDavies

I work in Air Traffic Control Training - and have done for 27 years.   Great company to work for, very nice monthly sum for a fairly stress free role, wear what I want to work and a rather nifty final salary pension, too.   I'm also extremely fortunate to work with some of my best friends, too.

underdog

I done IT jobs for a good chunk of my adult life (after spending my younger days learning to be a lifeguard/sports instructor). I done first line support, then 2nd line then supervisory roles, hated it all but payed very well.


6 years ago I retrained as a body piercer, absolutely love it, really good job, meeting lots of people every day most are pleasant and some are brilliantly eccentric.

I work in our (my wife and I) tattoo studio, it's 6 days a week, rarely do we take holidays apart from closing for a week over Christmas but I love it.

mellowsun

@colourofsound any chance of you doing fewer days? A well paid, steady but boring job can be survivable if you only need to do it 4 days a week

proggy

I'm a printer, I operate a Heidelberg press.

Sometimes I enjoy it and sometimes I don't.

TTBZ

I'm a video editor and I do enjoy it but after about 5 years in the tv industry I've had enough of the crap hours and wannabe tv luvvies. Luckily I have a pretty awesome new video job lined up at Marshall Amps, I can't wait to start. If you don't like their social media/youtube video content from about a month from now then it's likely me who's to blame :P it'll take a bit of adjustment coming from a tv/news background rather than marketing but I'm looking forward to the change! Plus it'll be nice to work somewhere I'm actually passionate about.

stimpsonslostson

I'm an evolutionary biologist in a uni research group. 
My boss & I design experiments, then i do them. I also run the lab and supervise/support anyone else working in my space. 

Pros:
It's good, very interesting, the money is decent & generally everyone is nice (we're all doing something we find interesting).
When I'm done I'm done & can go home. If that's at 1400 great. If it's 2200 less so. 

Cons: 
My salary is tied to our funding, which is by no means certain (especially with Brexit & indyref2 on the horizon). I was 10 days from redundancy recently- not good with a wife & kids to support. 
When we have a big project on i often work every day. For example: I had 2 days off (including weekends) from 21/11/16-17/1/17. My last day off was 20/3 & it looks like I'll be busy till mid may. 

I've been looking for other jobs, but the aforementioned political upheaval is forcing the competition upwards- I've not been getting interviews for things I'm overqualified for as people with postdocs are applying for everything! 

mikeyrob73

I.T Reseller, and yeah its crap but pays pretty well. Often sit at my desk and wonder exactly what i am doing with my life. Pays decent though and i can walk to work in 20 minutes. Do i want to do this for the rest of my life? Hell no, but for the time being it pays well enough that i can just about cope with the mundane day to day bullshit.