Do you enjoy your job?

[th_tan]

What do you do? Sweep and clean parking lots
Where did you graduate? community college 9 week truck driving course
GPA? ----
What degree did you earn? certificate/class A cdl license
starting salary and current salary? 12.00/hr..should go to 13 by summer

[thekid]

What do you do? Lawyer specialized in venture capital corporate financings.

Where did you graduate? Law degree from a french Canadian university / Masters degree from Oxford university in the UK.

GPA? I kinda got lucky and graduated in top 3% (a "1+" under our system)

What degree did you earn? Law / Master in international commercial law

Starting salary? 73K$

Current salary? 108k$ Thinking of taking a government job in international relations (salary scale between 64k$ to 78k$). Lots of pros and cons about that move. Haven't come to a conclusion.

And the most important, Do you enjoy your job? No. I wouln't be thinking of changing otherwise. Some people seem to enjoy this type of work, most seem to mostly dislike it (it sounds all nice and dandy, but really is kinda boring and stressful - never thought those two would combine). People usualy do this for the money. A lot of the lawyers that I started out with, and that are still doing this, seem to have grown into it and are fine doing it.

[zetta]

I'll answer with my pre-SAHM career:

What do you do?
Software Engineer

Where did you graduate?
Private university, ranked in the top 25 by US News & World Report

GPA?
3.7

What degree did you earn?
Two Bachelor of Science degrees -- I double majored in Computer Science and Electrical Engineering

starting salary and current salary?
starting: $36k (in 1993). Current starting salaries are around $50k -$60k in CA. My raise averaged $5k - $10k each year.
most recent: $110k (as a team lead/1st level manager). We were hiring people with 10 yrs experience at a range of $95k - $110k.

And the most inportant, Do you enjoy your job?
I have mixed feelings about it. The first 5-8 years I was very passionate about it and really enjoyed it. If I could recapture that passion and find the right working situation I might enjoy it very much again. In last few years of working, I got burned out by a manager that cared more about pushing everyone to work 50-60 hour weeks than about making a quality product. My husband is currently in a similar situation -- we both hate working Saturdays. Since women still make up only about 10-15% of the field, making the job fit with motherhood is totally dependent on whether your manager is supportive. I've seen some women negotiate great part-time situations, and others looked down upon (and get laid off in the next downsizing) because they had to leave by 5:45pm to pick up the child from daycare. Personally, I'm bored with the programming part of the job (other people love it) and would prefer to manage people or projects. I had just become a manager when I finally got pregnant, and chose to become a SAHM rather than work 50-60 hour weeks during my son's first years. I worry about how I will re-enter the field after a 3-5 year absence.

If you have the aptitude and inclination for this kind of work I would still encourage people to go into it, despite the outsourcing of engineering projects to India and China. I think there will still be engineering work in the US for some time yet, as well as a need for technical folks here to oversee the outsourcing. It's also a good career to do for your first 10-15 years, build up a good financial base, then pursue another dream that pays less.