Quote:
Originally Posted by BMartin 234
One metric that could be looked at is job satisfaction: http://www.time.com/time/2007/america_numbers/job.html
It definitely shouldn't be the only factor for choosing a career, but at least for me, I would call happiness in one's career "valuable." I know that I looked at this list before choosing a college major. |
I'm not sure anyone can adequately draw any conclusions from job satisfaction surveys like that one. I could go into the Clergy... but I wouldn't be happy doing it. Theological discussions, while interesting, simply aren't something I'm passionate about. I'd be bored, wondering what I'm doing there, and wanting to get out to do something I find interesting.
If you want high job satisfaction, do what you love, what your passionate about. I found, at an early age (5th grade), that I loved computers, and even more important, that I was good at and passionate about programming them. Throughout my upbringing, I also found that I loved helping people, volunteering and making a difference in their lives. Thus my current job - a software engineer working in the Medical device field. I come in every day excited about the challenges and the work I'm doing, and go home every day knowing that what I'm doing makes a difference in people's lives. Computer programmers only have a 30% job satisfaction rating, according to that survey... but when I look around at all the programmers here, I'd say it's more like 90%.
It doesn't matter what most people in your profession say about their jobs or career. If you love what you're doing, that's all that matters.