What to do when you don't like your job?

Hold on!

The question is more serious than you think it is. I know you have discussed this over hot coffee with your friends but ultimately there were no conculsions or actions. Let's discuss it here with fellow CEans from around the world.

I've met tons of engineers who dislike their job but they must do it, because it ensures monthly paycheck. No, we aren't talking about quitting your job and doing something on your own (which is one of the options), but let's think about what can you do to make your job more interesting or if that's not possible, other options you can explore.

I believe the first step would be to figure out what's going wrong. Is it the mismatch between your likings or is it the people around you or is it the workplace, your boss - whatever. A job is what it is - a job. It can't be good or bad. So figure out what's the pain-point!

Secondly, one should figure out what options he/she has. Don't start with 'Project change' or 'company switch'. The chances are that you'll end up with a situation worse than the earlier.

Thirdly, figure out what can you do to make your job more interesting. If your job is too monotonous, how can you do differently so that you'll enjoy doing it.

I've just laid out few pointers - the discussion is now open for your comments.

Replies

  • rishna
    rishna
    What i do is all simple things but they do have an impact:
    I keep changing the tools i generally use for testing purpose. Right now i am using snagit screen capture. Try to finish off as early as possible with a mind set to explore something else. I keep changing the look of my desk top, add colors and change font sort of things would help me sometimes.
    In the end it all depends on the nature of the Job and the boredom is anyways there😔
  • Saandeep Sreerambatla
    Saandeep Sreerambatla
    I just do things which motivate me.

    I hate working currently at my office this is because of the slow movement of everything , I get bored everyday because of the useless meeting I attend daily.
    SO I just do read something inspiring or I do some thing which is the part of my work in a pretty effective way such that it helps in reducing time for execution and give better results by which I get motivated.

    This is not a permanent solution though , but it is needed to be figured out..
  • Prasad Ajinkya
    Prasad Ajinkya
    Heh, in the morning today I had read this post by Susan Cramm (#-Link-Snipped-#). She says ask yourself this two questions about your job -

    1. If you had another job, would leaving your company be difficult?
    2. After you left, would anybody call?
    If both the answers are a resounding 'No', then here's what you do -

    1. Know what are the contribution spaces in your job. It can̢۪t be that there aren̢۪t any, there always are.
    2. See how you can develop capacities to contribute in those spaces.
    3. Communicate. With team members, seniors, juniors and your customers. Try to understand what is it that they really want. Keep a wider focus than just adhering to a given process.
    4. Do something in your job that makes you happy. For each of that act, do something that makes others happy.
    What do you think?
  • durga ch
    durga ch
    The work what I do is not my dream job.
    My job has me to attend and do Root cause analysis for issues presented by Teir 1 guys and system I support is just a layer above the real switches . Application being a UNIX system, though the root causes might be boring gives me scope to interact with real network engineers ,ask them queries and go out to switch exchanges and get hands on exp with them and since the application is unix based I try to learn a bit of unix as well. This learning part is the only thing which keeps me alive at work.
  • durga ch
    durga ch
    kidakaka
    1. Know what are the contribution spaces in your job. It can’t be that there aren’t any, there always are.
    2. See how you can develop capacities to contribute in those spaces.
    3. Communicate. With team members, seniors, juniors and your customers. Try to understand what is it that they really want. Keep a wider focus than just adhering to a given process.
    4. Do something in your job that makes you happy. For each of that act, do something that makes others happy.
    What do you think?
    I agree, when I was new to my job, I had two people in my team. Both had different mentality and approach of solving a problem. One was extrovert, sopke to clients a lot , understood what they are trying to say and tried to help them out her best. The other was lethargic, pushed work on other.
    I choose to follow the first lady .

    Following processes sometimes might not allow us to see the real impact of the job. Rather moving across and finding new ways help us be active and happy. For me as a part my my job, Finding the correct Root cause gives me immense happiness , which inturn builds confidence of the client on my company as vendor.
  • Vega
    Vega
    Well, I agree with what Big K said. One must find out the reason(s) behind not liking the job. They could be a) Shere monotonous b) associates c) workplace d) type of work e) lack of challanges f) poor work-environments and many many more. Once one decides upon the reasons, it's easy to work on them. Simply changing the job may not solve the problem.

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