Go on, admit it; you like your job!

14Jan2010 Filed under: Play all day, What shall I do with my life? Author: John

Being a careers coach I inevitably meet a lot of people unhappy in their job who want to do something else. But I also occasionally meet people (at social events) who love their job. And it’s funny how shy they are about it.

I ask what they do and they sheepishly reply “Oh very boring, I’m a solicitor” or “I’m in IT I’m afraid” and when I scratch beneath the surface it’s obvious they love it. Why the apology? Well I guess it’s actually quite revealing to show our passion for something, particularly if it’s not something a lot of people understand - ”Actually, I am just crazy about object oriented programming”.

But when we do show our enthusiasm for what we do, we give permission to others to do the same, we take another bite out of the myth that we all like the same things, and we inspire others to dare to do what they really enjoy.

(I met one woman who had engineered a job where all she did all day was pore over figures in a spreadsheet and she was in heaven. What was really pleasing is that she didn’t apologise for it.)

So if you do love your job (even if it isn’t a sexy one) shout it out!

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5 Responses to “Go on, admit it; you like your job!”

Pete
January 17th, 2010 at 5:04 PM

I work in I.T. and I LOVE MY JOB.

I get to do pretty much what I want with my time at work. Of course I have objectives to meet but how I meet them is up to me.
My company offers me flexibility around working hours.
The poeple I work with are great to be around, we’re a real team and we can have fun whilst we work.
Pete
February 24th, 2010 at 11:55 PM

So I guess I must be the only one then… wow I am so lucky.
John
February 25th, 2010 at 10:31 AM

Looks like it Pete - congratulations!
Vico and Timbits
December 21st, 2010 at 10:55 PM

I completely understand this! I’m a student right now, but I am studying writing, among other things. I’m always hesitant to tell people what I’m studying because I don’t want to admit that I really enjoy writing! I guess I should just embrace my nerd-dom.
Andrea
March 7th, 2011 at 10:39 PM

Hey Vico and Timbits (and John :-))
That’s funny, because i study as well and I am also shy about admitting what I study. I work at the same time for a market-leading international company and I’ve always been very career driven, but what I study is so different to what I have always done for work that when people ask what I study I always feel they won’t take it seriously, or they will think ‘what the hell is she studying that for?’

Andrea

about this blog

This is the personal blog of John Williams, author of "Screw work, let's play: How to do what you love & get paid for it" to be published by Pearson in June 2010.

Join my mission to play all day and get paid - to do whatever creative, fun stuff we feel like doing and make a good living out of it.