Those who 'love my job' what do you do? - Page 2

[starling&diesel]

I love my jobs!  I have two, in addition to being at home with dd, mostly.

I'm a writer of novels for young adults.  Sometimes I resent that I've been 'boxed in' as a YA writer and would love for my agent and publisher to get excited about other projects, but for the most part, I love it.  I love seeing the books come from the printer, and I love writing and editing, and I love talking to groups and audiences about it at schools and writer's festivals.

I'm also a paramedic (2-3 days a week), which I also love.  We have a terrible employer, but the actual work is exciting and rewarding and never, ever dull.  I've met so many interesting people and seen so many amazing situations and have helped so many people in a time of crisis.  When the children are older, I'd love to be a part of our Rapid Response team that goes into areas around the world to help with frontline medical aid after disasters.  I'd love to do that!

[Ragana]

Originally Posted by Owen'nZoe 
This is not the career I trained for or thought I would end up in. As a matter of fact, when I was in college, an acquaintance took a position as a tech writer, and I thought it sounded like an absolutely miserable job. I trained to be a translator, and ended up falling into tech writing when I couldn't support myself on the money I made by translating. I spent the first two years in my new career disliking the job because it wasn't what I was "supposed" to be doing. I'm glad I was able to turn my poor attitude around, because it is a great career for a mom!

Interesting! I trained to become and am actually a translator. I have my own business, and I love it!

The perks:

* Working from home

* Flexibility

* Theoretically unlimited earning potential

* I love languages and the act of translation

* Learn something with every new project

* Virtual collaboration with people around the world is fun

* I'm around to drop off/pick up for school & have a childcare trade, so kids don't need after-school care

Downsides:

* Translating the same types of texts year in, year out gets boring, so I'm doing some continuing ed to shift into a related area

* Theoretically unlimited earning potential - ha! still working on not working as hard & earning more

* Uneven income, so Q1 is really busy - few days off, no full weekends and other times are mellower

* Sitting at the computer is sedentary, and I have to make an effort to exercise and try to avoid RSIs

[KeanusMomma]

I am a massage therapist (almost...Friday is my last day of school!) and I love it! I think it so much fun and I am good at it. I never saw myself doing this. I was on my way to a bachelor's and beyond in Psychology before I decided my classes were taking away from my son. I stumbled into massage therapy, and have loved it ever since. I am going to be a mobile massage therapist, visiting clients in the home or work setting. I'll be self-employed so that I can accommodate my growing family.

As a side note, my current job that pays the bills is super fun too. I deliver pizzas. I make good tips, good friends, and my boss has a knack for making us feel appreciated and valued. He keeps morale high without sacrificing quality or integrity. I don't want to do it for much longer, but I wish I had found it long before I did.

[laura163]

I am an esthetician and I love it! I love doing facials and learning about skin conditions and helping people. I even enjoy waxing, I like it the same way I like vacuuming or mowing the lawn - instant results!

[blissful_maia]

I'm a midwife, and I love my job with all my heart. In fact, I don't even really consider it a "job", more just another aspect of who I am. I think I might even do it if I didn't get paid! I love that I can choose how busy I want to be in a given month (how many clients due), take vacation when I want, choose my own hours for clinic and home visits, and of course catching babies is amazing! I enjoy using my knowledge and skills and helping mamas become informed and empowered. My dds are proud of what I do for a living, and I feel like I'm contributing in a positive way to my community. Midwifery is a registered and government-funded here (Ontario, Canada) as well and affords us a comfortable lifestyle even with dh staying home with the kids when I have to go to a birth. I am also getting ready to get a graduate degree so that I can teach midwifery (from home) and attend less births/have more time at home to be with my children, garden, raise animals and do crafts. 

Being a midwife is the only thing I ever truly "wanted to be". I was a young pregnant woman (18 years old) and my midwife was so nurturing and inspiring that it was like a lightbulb went off and I just knew it was my path in life. I buckled down for five years of education and began practicing right after (and had two more children, phew), and am thrilled that I found my "calling" so early in life.

[*MamaJen*]

I love my job and my grad school experience. I've been a small-town journalist for the last seven years, and was managing editor for a couple of years. It's been pretty fascinating and I've learned more than I could have imagined about all kinds of topics. I love my coworkers and the newspaper is basically my second family. I also love knowing that I make my living as a writer. Definitely a rewarding way to spend my 20s and early 30s. The pay is pretty craptastic and the industry is in a lot of transition, so I am glad to have an exit plan.

I'm in grad school now studying public policy and I'm really enjoying that. I'm not sure exactly what my career path will be when I graduate, but I'm pretty confident that it will hit my two most important priorities of fulfilling and mentally stimulating.

There's a small part of me that still wants to be a park ranger, a librarian, a coffeeshop owner (I worked as a barista for years and loved it), an explorer, a travel writer, a statistician, a doctor, a linguist, an urban planner, a yoga instructor or a cowgirl.

[ericawebdev]

Edited by ericawebdev - 2/9/13 at 10:07am

[bookwise]

this is a year-old thread, i know, but wanted to say thanks for writing these posts, they're inspiring and encouraging.

i used to love my job, it was perfect perfect. i was a public librarian, in charge of the children's section at my local branch. i left two years ago almost, to move to south america and start a family here, which i'm so glad i did, and with the bad budget cuts they've gone through, i would have lost my job anyhow, but i still miss it. shoot, i think i even had a dream about working at the library last night! sigh.

now living in bolivia, i'm not sure what i'm going to do. i've done a little bit of freelance web design but my heart is not really in it and thankfully, it's so inexpensive where we live that i don't have to find a full-time job asap. i would love love to be a librarian again but since bolivia doesn't have a public library system, i'd have to open my own. so, that's the plan. or one of the plans at least. :) first we build a little house for ourselves in a town we love, and then a small cozy library for the community. cannot wait!

[librarygirl]

I love that I can say I LOVE my job. I manage the children's department of a medium size public library. I do 25 storytimes a month, work with elementary kids on library skills (and how fun the library is), develop creative programming (Angry Birds program was a huge hit and soooo much fun), order all of the new books, movies, and cds for the department, manage a staff of 5, write a monthly newspaper column, develop website content, etc. I come home tired and happy just about every single day. I made a comment the other day and my boss looked at me and said, "You really do have the makings of a great director, if you'll ever give up programming." I feel challenged, appreciated, and like I'm making a difference in my community. I feel like I have room to grow personally and professionally. I also feel that it's a field that will be understanding and welcoming to me as a mother (hopefully in the next year or so).

I'd never have admitted to anyone that I wanted to be a librarian, until I was in my mid-20s. But looking back, I remember my mom taking me to the public library as a small child and i thought, "Wow, it would be so cool to work here." Wish it hadn't taken me 20 years to realize that 7 year old me knew exactly what she wanted to be when she grew up. :)

[Drummer's Wife]

I take newborn photos at local hospitals.  I LOVE my job, and I only work part-time, so that makes it extra nice.

[krissydoom]

I'm a Breastfeeding Peer Counselor at WIC and I LOVE my job.  I'm passionate about my work, I have a fantastic boss and a good work environment.  I'm working towards becoming an IBCLC, and hopefully will have the opportunity to be a lactation consultant at WIC or the Health Department in the future.

[Juliacat]

I'm a librarian, which is the job I always wanted, but it's actually even better than I thought it would be.

[liberal_chick]

Another librarian here!  I'm the Teen Librarian at my county's public library and I adore it.  It is a job I fell in to; for as long as I can remember I wanted to be a teacher and I did that for 3 years, but my heart wasn't in it.  I got beat down by all the testing and politics.  We moved to where we live now in 2008 and I worked part time at a pre-school, just for fun and because I couldn't find a professional job.  I happened to stumble across an ad for this job at a time when I needed to get back to something professional for financial reasons and when I was considering going to grad school.  The stars kind of aligned and now I'm working a job I love and working on my master's in library science.

I, too, adore programming!

[JollyGG]

Originally Posted by CI Mama 

I've worked a lot of jobs through the years. I would say that the good ones have all had the following in common:

* Great co-workers whom I respect and enjoy working with.

* Work that means something to me (not just "mindless").

* Flexibility that allows me to have a life outside of work, while still being passionate about my work.

I'm going to agree with this and I don't think the field matters. I am doing essentially the exact same thing I've done for the past 11 years. I absolutely loved my job for the 1st 7 years because it had all of the things CI Mama listed. I now work in an environment doing the exact same thing but for a giant company who neither values my work or cares to support my department and am looking at making a career change.

I don't think it matters what you do so much as who you do it for and who you do it with.

[RebeloveMa]

I have had engaging jobs that were better than they were worse, but nothing where it all has come together with one pretty ribbon of satisfaction. I have worked part time, for a long time now, while finishing up school. I have been a teaching assistant for all different ages and in schools ranging from Waldorf to inner-city, to independent study based charter. I LOVE teaching, but the one thing I haven't been able to get away from is the piles of administrative doo doo that surrounds public ed. It is so bad that great teachers are leaving their profession to do other things.

I also do massage. When I dropped out of my masters program to go to school for massage I was convinced I had chosen my ultimate dream profession. But, alas, I was mistaken. Though I enjoy giving body work on my own terms, there is a heap of issues I have doing it in a spa, or trying to run everything myself. Not to mention that the wear and tear on my own body is much greater than I expected. Lastly, I have never jived with the massage community. I haven't found the healing tribe I belong to. My suspicion is that my tribe doesn't do this work for money, at least not enough to help sustain a family. Anyway, I went back to school.

So now I have a masters in the Humanities (an interdisciplinary degree that, for me, includes philosophy and history) and no job. Except for the one of love the bestest: being a mom!!But my days as a SAHM are nearing their end. I hope I can find a teaching position at a city college part time. Hopefully I will finally be able to teach my fav subject: critical theory/social/political philosophy and, at the same time, circumvent the annoyances and added pressures that full time faculty must deal with. Then I would be able to truthfully say that I love my occupation.