May 5, 2014 at 8:35 pm
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Vocation or Career
May 6, 2014 at 6:04 am
I feel that overall it is a vocation, however, there are certainly days - or worse, whole contracts - where I feel it is more of a career. I do feel luck that I only have part of my working life when I feel the drudgery. I suspect that it is a similar experience for many.
Gaz
-- Stop your grinnin' and drop your linen...they're everywhere!!!
May 6, 2014 at 7:14 am
Working in I.T. has been my carrer. I enjoy it. I am really drawn to music. Music is my avocation; I.T. is my career. I.T. earns the money to pay the bills and allows me to pursue my true love of music. As my I.T. work wanes, I hope to change music to my vocation.
Tom
May 6, 2014 at 7:17 am
I'm with OCTom
IT for me is definitely just a job, but at least the pay isn't too bad.
May 6, 2014 at 7:40 am
How about neither? Right now I'm in a position where database admin and development was the initial focus. But, I got things pretty much under control after not too long. It's a small company. So, they are using me to solve many other problems. I don't mind that too much, as I'm a "team player" with a broad base of experience.
However, I'm certainly not enjoying the work I do at the moment. (I'm the Quality Manager, Purchasing Manager, the de facto Personnel Manager, and manage about a third of the customer accounts.) I have started to look around for something more purely IT in nature. Life's too short to do work that doesn't turn you on.
[font="Verdana"]Please don't go. The drones need you. They look up to you.[/font]
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May 6, 2014 at 9:03 am
Steve, I agree with your article, but with the caveat that I agree mainly in principle. I've been in my current job for many years. It wasn't what I wanted, when I first joined, but I've come to love it, or at least aspects of it. I use my technical skills, education and training to help a segment of our society that is very poor, to help them get assistance for their needs. I'm proud of the work I've done, and believe that, indirectly, I've helped potentially thousands of people in my area needing support they couldn't afford.
However, one of my personal problems is I'm not particularly good at looking for other work. My current job has brought along new challenges, which has helped keep it fresh. New skills to learn, new tasks to accomplish. But it is also a "term" position, renewable from one fiscal year to another. Over the last few years I've mentioned on these forums how we've not had a pay raise since 2008, how our budget has been cut each year. How we've lost people every year since 2008. Well, this year is the one where I'm one of the chosen that they're going to get rid of, due to yet more budget cuts. Since 2008 our operating budget has been cut 58%, so it's really no surprise that eventually they'd have to let me go. I've got almost 2 months to get a new position, but this is where I come back to what you said. Ideally I'd like a position that's more in keeping with a vocation. Failing that, I'd like a position that's at least more along the career that would interest me (not necessarily what I've done where I'm at now). However, since on July 1 I'll be out of a job, right now I'm just in need of something to get food on the table, keep the roof over our heads and pay the car payment. That's not what I want, I'd rather it be career based or even if possible vocation based. But at least from where I sit, sometimes those vocations aren't attainable. It just that sometimes it seems as though there's the ideal, but then there's the real, and sometimes one can't get to the ideal.
Let me end by saying to any reading this, I'm available. Please contact me, if you have an opening.
Kindest Regards, Rod Connect with me on LinkedIn.
May 6, 2014 at 9:38 am
Rod at work (5/6/2014)
Let me end by saying to any reading this, I'm available. Please contact me, if you have an opening.
Best of luck finding something, Rod.
FWIW, you might post where you're available to work and start pinging friends on LinkedIn and other places.
May 6, 2014 at 9:45 am
Steve Jones - SSC Editor (5/6/2014)
Rod at work (5/6/2014)
Let me end by saying to any reading this, I'm available. Please contact me, if you have an opening.Best of luck finding something, Rod.
FWIW, you might post where you're available to work and start pinging friends on LinkedIn and other places.
Perhaps you could add a link to your LinkedIn profile in your signature to make it readily available.
Gaz
-- Stop your grinnin' and drop your linen...they're everywhere!!!
May 6, 2014 at 5:55 pm
Definitely a vocation and a passion for me. In 1968 (I was 12) I saw the motion picture "2001 A Space Odyssey" (S. Kubrick) then read the book (A. C. Clarke). I was facinated by HAL9000, the supercomputer that plays a very important role in the story. From then on, when I was asked what I wanted to do when an adult, I used to aswer "I want to work with computers" (I did not know the proper words at that time). And that's what I did!
May 7, 2014 at 1:34 am
When my kids ask me what I do I still say 'I work with computers'. It is less complicated that way...lol:-D
May 7, 2014 at 11:07 am
Gary Varga (5/6/2014)
I feel that overall it is a vocation, however, there are certainly days - or worse, whole contracts - where I feel it is more of a career. I do feel luck that I only have part of my working life when I feel the drudgery. I suspect that it is a similar experience for many.
I'm with you on this. Overall IT is my vocation, but if I spend too long working on a project, it starts to feel like a career. I think the company I work for plays a part in this as well. I love the company I work for now, but the previous company I was at could fill anything with drudgery.
May 7, 2014 at 11:26 am
skanker (5/7/2014)
When my kids ask me what I do I still say 'I work with computers'. It is less complicated that way...lol:-D
That's what I tell most people.
May 7, 2014 at 12:40 pm
Steve Jones - SSC Editor (5/7/2014)
skanker (5/7/2014)
When my kids ask me what I do I still say 'I work with computers'. It is less complicated that way...lol:-DThat's what I tell most people.
At parties I usually tell people that I am an astronaut. Everyone understands that I am not but I do manage to avoid people asking me how to do something in Publisher 97 - which I didn't even use in the 90s!!!
Gaz
-- Stop your grinnin' and drop your linen...they're everywhere!!!
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