It is a sad truth that there are people out who are probably stuck in a job they abhor. The reasons why they are still in it are probably due to them needing it to pay the bills, to feed their family, contractual reasons, afraid of being jobless etc.
Are you feeling satisfied with your job? If not, you are among the majority of Americans—52.3%—who are unhappy at work, according to a new report by the Conference Board, the New York-based nonprofit research group.source: forbesEvery year since 1987, the Board has run a job satisfaction survey. Nearly three decades ago, 61.1% of workers said they liked their jobs. That number has slid over time, reaching an all-time low in 2010 following the Great Recession, when only 42.6% of workers said they were satisfied in their jobs. It has been ticking back up since then but rose only .4% since last year.
How about you? Do you love your job? If not, what would you rather be doing and what are your reasons keeping you motivated to complete another arduous day at work?
It's all about expectations...
People come in thinking that as analysts they'll build every model from scratch, go to meeting and not do any bitch work will be miserable. A guy with the same job that comes in understanding the hardship ahead might really like his job.
I think so much of unhappiness stems from people thinking that work should be this lovely fun thing with no BS or bosses with unreasonable asks. We're not all born to run a company while wearing jeans and vacationing in our 4th house in Hawaii. That's life.
I'm probably younger than you are but my expectations have been high my whole life, and most times it's ended in disappointment even if the new internship or job is great; the novelty just wears off quickly. Intolerable discontent is a great motivator.
How do you utilize that discontent as a means of growth while also appreciating where you're at? The two seem irreconcilable on the face.
P.S. Suicide rates are highest amongst perfectionists.
This is spot on. I started my last internship at a boutique with very low expectation. To be honest, 10 out of 12 weeks were all about bitch work but I was happy to be able to do PowerPoint slides and excel work. I think the best thing about the job was the fact that my boss loved to take me to client meetings and take me out on lunch where he talked about his previous deals. 80% of the time he was a pain in the ass tho.
So true, and this applies to all aspects of life, not just work... Happiness = Expectations - Reality
Oops, didn't scroll down to see @Sil posted the same thing
Majority of people go for work or stick to their work to meet their commitments and needs. While rest take the risk to explore something new in their job which makes them to love it more.
To piggyback off of what HY.r.e.a.m said, several years ago, someone posted this formula: happiness = reality - expectations. Simple formula, but it really drives home the point that your happiness is based off of reality exceeding your expectations. So many Americans are unhappy with their jobs because they have unreasonable expectations going in. Case in point: going into banking thinking it's all models and bottles.
That being said, I think the main reason why most Americans, and probably people in general, are unhappy with their jobs is because they are disconnected from the end product. With the segmented work that is so common these days, it is hard to see the big picture and the final result of your work. If you do some Googling, you will quickly see many management articles and theories about this.
Agree with Sil here with the notion of "disconnect from end product" - it's easier to take pride in work (and ensuing pain) when you see how important your contribution is. Insofar as finance goes... it's never fun to stay late formatting stuff, but when you sit at a meeting with people and you have good work product to put forth, it makes the hours more bearable.
Yeah I don't really get the expectations on this forum. People think it's MF PE or bust and complain about the bad banking hours when they are practically the same. I really don't believe anyone likes 100% about any given job. More pay usually mean more tasks that may be seen as "bitch work" and less of the buzzword "work-life balance" that people use way too often. That being said, there are plenty of good finance jobs that aren't IBD that have better hours and only a slight pay cut (or even a raise per hr).
Young Wolf good topic to start a discussion on. My thoughts are as follows:
How about you? Do you love your job?
I don't like my current role nor the company I work for. I started off in a Leadership Development Program which turned out to be more fluff than what was pitched. In addition my current assignment is less structured and often times I have very little to do.
The company I work for was acquired by a major player in my space and, with a slump in O&G prices leadership is scared of making bold decisions and doing what needs to be done. Add to this post-integration activities that lead to nowhere and you have too many cooks in the kitchen sitting around. Lastly, constant layoffs have tanked morale and very little of any value gets done.
If not, what would you rather be doing?
I'd prefer to work for a fast-paced company in a finance role. IB appeals to me, especially M&A and contrary to popular opinion I would take the longer hours and work that comes with it than my current role. Beyond this I wouldn't be opposed to working within the Foreign Services as I have always been interested in geopolitics.
Education reform and mentoring/tutoring students has also appealed to me so working for a non-profit in this psace would be exciting (i.e. Khan Academy).
What are your reasons keeping you motivated to complete another arduous day at work?
I need a paycheck and I have developed skills and familiarity with processes so I'm comfortable in my current role. Also I'm unable to find an opportunity in IB so I'm going to be studying for my GMAT in the meantime while I continue to just go with the flow.
If you are looking for something fast-paced I would look into S&T rather than IB. IB is not fast paced. it is months of working on deals in which much of the work is a very iterative and tedious process. A lot of the time you are waiting around for decks and models to get marked up and given back to you. You will be conducting analyses and building models that take days. I would not consider it a fast paced environment.
Working on a trading floor, you are servicing clients whose demands are very sensitive to market timing. Your ability to execute these orders in a timely fashion that benefits the clients is how your value is derived as a sales person/trader. If you are looking for a role that is fast paced and finance focused (in a broad sense of the term), I would take a hard look at sales and trading.
I really enjoy my job, maybe not love, but I definitely enjoy it. Having great coworkers and a boss that seems very interested in my development definitely helps, and I can tangibly see how my work impacts the company. My only qualm is the pay.
No
Used to. Not anymore - the sector I am working for has taken a major beating, and now I need to do a lot of "value-add" work that I do not appreciate. Plus the sector I work for sucks for PE exits, and I am not excited about VCs (which are a more likely exit). I am becoming hyper specialized and I DO NOT like it. I was offered a chance to go to the healthcare team, but I foolishly denied. I got into a real estate fund after my first year, which I said no to, because at that time my sector was really hot.
So...what sector are you in?
Consumer internet.
This 'problem' terrifies me even though I just started university. I was 90% sure since I was 15 that I wanted to do Ibanking/PE just because of the money . But my passion is politics, largely criminal + prison reform, to the point where I have been spending four hours a day since 8th grade on news sites and researching on how bad America's justice system is. Wanting desperately to solve things like the horrible sex offender registry (you can get on it for streaking, flashing, peeing on a tree, taking a photo of yourself as a minor). Don't know whether to seek money and have a decent/normal life or pursue politics with a million variables and very little chance of actually changing things (Plus I was born in Canada and am brown so my chances are diminished as is). But I can't complain because I still have time to figure stuff out!
Yes - great boss/team, paid fairly (I think I could be paid more but it's not to the point where I'm underpaid), find the work interesting enough (good ratio of intellectually engaging to menial grunt work)
well frankly I always feel my friends are doing better than me they are happy at their job. They have better environment and they get paid well too. But when I talk to them they feel the same. May be its a syndrome many of like me have.
Ditto this.
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