Foo - I messed up. (On the topic of complete job dissatisfaction. AGAIN.)

Just in case you are unaware, don't browse the BikeForums when you're in a quarterly meeting and there are people who know your manager watching you.

In other words, <b>don't be like me.</b>

My manager pulled me to the carpet and pretty much asked me if I want to work the last two weeks I had remaining. I was about 98.6% ready to pull the trigger and end it all this week. However, to assume a thread of responsibility (and because I'm a roadie and like suffering), I decided to stay. I wasn't concerned about that.

Obviously, I will probably have little to do the rest of my time here because of my overall lackluster performance. Not to mention that I might not want to try surfing BF at work. I'm not concerned (much) about that.

My concern is that this is the SECOND work term this has happened. I entered a job with great expectations and quickly lost interest and underperformed. I was very anxious to get to work in the first few weeks, but soon after I got my PC and started working, that interest diminished. To replace that, I went back to BF during work...and that led me to today.

This was the second time that I didn't care about what I was hired to do. I made sure that I *did* the work, but timeliness wasn't a factor. I messed up frequently, but didn't care to make the end result great. Heck, I passed up two opportunities to meet upper management (VP and CEO), and I turned both of them down simply because I didn't care (and still don't). I enjoyed my bike and train commute (2.5 to 3 hours, each way) a lot more than I enjoyed the work.itself. I'm getting tired of this pattern and am scared that this will be the trend for my future jobs, and I really don't want to scath my recrd by being fired.

Frankly, my work ethic has always been an issue, and I've taken steps to correct it. For instance, I wanted my GPA to go up, so I experimented with different study methods and cut my social life. Consequently, my GPA went up. Even if I didn't like the classes, I *found* something to like.

When I worked as an IT guy in my first job, I loved how I was always needed. Though the work was a little tedious. I *wanted* to move up in the ranks. I really liked what the Desktop Engineering group did, so I learned how to script. I even made a script for our team (that wasn't asked of me). I *loved* that job. My motivation was to learn everything I could and help out as much as I could. Now that I think about it, there wasn't as much regulation as any other job I had afterwards (though after I left, things certainly changed...that company 'grew up' as a whole). People even said that my manager was an *******, and I never noticed ONCE.

Neither of my last jobs had any motivation for me to do the best. Some say to make the best out of a bad thing, but when you don't care, that's really tough to do. I'm scared that the next place that hires me will see this same side of me; unproductive, uninfluenced and uninteresting; everything I'm *not.*

I know what I want to do. I DON'T want anything to do with business. (If I hear SOP one more time, I will punch someone. Don't do it pgoat! :p) I want to be either a support guy or software developer. I want to be in a place that I can make *real* friends. I hate having so much regulation. I want to take pride in my company and see it succeed.

I DON'T WANT TO HATE MY JOB.

All right. I'll say it.

SOP!!!

*ducks*

That sucks to have a job that you don't like. Hopefully you can find a place that makes you happy.

Start your own business. That should keep you motivated. Perform or starve.

It has worked for me for 17 years. I haven't starved. Yet. But the Recession is young my little Crassic. Oh yes. The **** has yet to really hit the fan. Trust me on that last observation. I've been through a couple of these. It gets really ugly about 3-6 months after the market tanks. So it should start getting really crappy right around.......now.

Sorry to hear MrC. I've been on IT since high school (5 1/4 flopies era) and it's been hard (imposible?) to find a perfect place. The closest it got to perfection was only at $11 an hour :S To get a decent pay I've always have to put up with something I don't like.

Back in the day, IT people were intelligent and dedicated professionals. Over the years, IT have been flooded with wannabes, posers and smarti-arses. Now is no longer about getting the work done, but rather make it look like it's being done. Is not about knowing the stuff... but giving the impression that you know the stuff. Some places suck more than others. And the bigger the company, the worst it gets (usually).

Just keep jumping like a frog till you find something you are happy enough with.

Now is no longer about getting the work done, but rather make it look like it's being done. Is not about knowing the stuff... but giving the impression that you know the stuff.


wat



u r hanging out with losers if you think this

wat



u r hanging out with losers if you think this

Nope... I jumped around alot being a contractor (6 months here, 3 months there) and is very common to see people at meetings giving explanations out of a men in black movie. The vast mayority of people out there don't know anything. When something brakes, they call some contracting company (usually overseas). Gee ppl even call SUN to ship out a tech to swap an HD on a server cuz the locals don't know how to (or are afraid of) freaking swap it... and it's a hot swapable case with full raid redundancy :S

Actually my current employer is not that bad... but dude, out there watching an IT meeting is like watching this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHElbD1imNo).

Bottom line, good if you know the stuff... but be sure to also look like you know the stuff cuz knowing the stuff alone is no longer enough. Somebody else who might not know sh1t might steal your job because he looks like he know, better than you do.

Well, for one, I stopped caring about the money. While I came to this conclusion on my own, Cabel Sasser, one of the head developers of Audion, the very popular precursor to iTunes, said it best:



It seems you can either be free to do anything you want, to create anything you dream of without answering to anyone, or you can be rich. You're not likely to be both.


Personally, the only financial worry that I have in the long-term is that I make enough for my future family to not have to go through hardship. Fancy cars are nice and all, but fancy bikes are much cheaper and I like them more! :D Seriously though, many of the people that I have met and heard about that are doing very well financially have very little amounts of time to spend that money. Thus, in a sense, you're still a slave to your own vices...and that's not what I'm studying for.

Patentcad, I actually did think of starting my own little operation. I was going to work with my uncle and provide technical support to clients that requested it. However, it was met with a lot of disapproval from the rest of my (techncially minded) uncles, as they were worried that I might lose track of my goals at school and lose out on much grander opportunities. I agreed with them, and put it off to the side. Also, the tech support market is oversaturated anyway; for every person with the level of experience I have (which is a lot, especially with Windows and hardware), there are many more people that certainly don't, but can get jobs because they know how to solve the simple stuff and defer the harder problems to someone else (or the Internet).

I'm not going to lie though; both me and my manager took risks in this partaking. She took the risk of hiring someone that's strongly technical, but weak in business skills, and adding me to an already very small (and a bit overworked) team. I took the risk of doing something I had no experience in (and no knowledge of), and hoping for the best. We both landed up being pretty disappointed.

I did, however, realize something while I was riding home today. A big reason why I really liked that first job was because I had a LOT of freedom. My computer wasn't locked down (aside: I learned quite a bit about cryptography and security from trying to circumvent my locked-tight laptop), and I worked on side projects that tried to help improve their organize and was never requested from me. There were so many outlets for me to learn interesting things that would help my career and broaden my IT experience. This job had none; I simply don't care much about the market I'm working in or the work involved.

At least I can still ride to work and help patentcad get out of the Jobs Reality Field. :D

Velonews to the rescue.... (http://velonews.com/article/84714/velonewscom-looking-for-a-web-programmerdeveloper).. :)

Three to five years experience, i.e. not me.

Thanks, though!

I traded less money for less stress less BS and no more on call cellphone. I'm fine. I'm no longer the local guru, true. And as years pass I slowly move from hardcore techie to maybe a power user. But I'm happy (kinda).

HTFU?

j/k. That sucks. My first job out of school blew. 6 months in I knew there wasn't any advancement and the work was pretty friggin boring. 6 months later, I was out of there.

You just need to find the right job and atmosphere. And don't get into any debt so if you do go jobless, no biggie...

Just in case you are unaware, don't browse the BikeForums when you're in a quarterly meeting and there are people who know your manager watching you.

In other words, <b>don't be like me.</b>

My manager pulled me to the carpet and pretty much asked me if I want to work the last two weeks I had remaining. I was about 98.6% ready to pull the trigger and end it all this week. However, to assume a thread of responsibility (and because I'm a roadie and like suffering), I decided to stay. I wasn't concerned about that.

Obviously, I will probably have little to do the rest of my time here because of my overall lackluster performance. Not to mention that I might not want to try surfing BF at work. I'm not concerned (much) about that.

My concern is that this is the SECOND work term this has happened. I entered a job with great expectations and quickly lost interest and underperformed. I was very anxious to get to work in the first few weeks, but soon after I got my PC and started working, that interest diminished. To replace that, I went back to BF during work...and that led me to today.

This was the second time that I didn't care about what I was hired to do. I made sure that I *did* the work, but timeliness wasn't a factor. I messed up frequently, but didn't care to make the end result great. Heck, I passed up two opportunities to meet upper management (VP and CEO), and I turned both of them down simply because I didn't care (and still don't). I enjoyed my bike and train commute (2.5 to 3 hours, each way) a lot more than I enjoyed the work.itself. I'm getting tired of this pattern and am scared that this will be the trend for my future jobs, and I really don't want to scath my recrd by being fired.

Frankly, my work ethic has always been an issue, and I've taken steps to correct it. For instance, I wanted my GPA to go up, so I experimented with different study methods and cut my social life. Consequently, my GPA went up. Even if I didn't like the classes, I *found* something to like.

When I worked as an IT guy in my first job, I loved how I was always needed. Though the work was a little tedious. I *wanted* to move up in the ranks. I really liked what the Desktop Engineering group did, so I learned how to script. I even made a script for our team (that wasn't asked of me). I *loved* that job. My motivation was to learn everything I could and help out as much as I could. Now that I think about it, there wasn't as much regulation as any other job I had afterwards (though after I left, things certainly changed...that company 'grew up' as a whole). People even said that my manager was an *******, and I never noticed ONCE.

Neither of my last jobs had any motivation for me to do the best. Some say to make the best out of a bad thing, but when you don't care, that's really tough to do. I'm scared that the next place that hires me will see this same side of me; unproductive, uninfluenced and uninteresting; everything I'm *not.*

I know what I want to do. I DON'T want anything to do with business. (If I hear SOP one more time, I will punch someone. Don't do it pgoat! :p) I want to be either a support guy or software developer. I want to be in a place that I can make *real* friends. I hate having so much regulation. I want to take pride in my company and see it succeed.

I DON'T WANT TO HATE MY JOB.

When you start your next job, go to the IT people and have them block BF. Or do it yourself by blacklisting it in your browser at work. Remove the temptation & the problem is half-solved.

Half-solved.

Replace BikeForums with Slashdot, The Photo Forums, x Forums, The Wall Street Journal...why don't they just block the Internet? Then that'll give me enough time to work on my bike frame drawings!

It's not this website that's the problem. I like coming here, but I can (and have) put it off to the side for more important matters.

That still might not solve the problem of me not paying attention to what I'm doing, losing concentration, etc...

Are you sure about apathy being the cause of mis-focus? Or is mis-focus causing apathy? Forgive me if I insult you- but have you been considered the possibility of adult ADD?

A good friend of mine had such a rough time through college, and a couple years in the working world until he was diagnosed. His manifested as depression, though. I met up with him for lunch last summer after a "long time no see" and he was experiencing such a positive difference in his life. It was a great turnaround.

Dang. I don't even THINK about the internet while I'm at work. They are paying me to do a job for them and that is what I will earn. Hell, even my cell phone gets turned off or put away while I'm on the clock.

Dang. I don't even THINK about the internet while I'm at work. They are paying me to do a job for them and that is what I will earn. Hell, even my cell phone gets turned off or put away while I'm on the clock.I wish I could be so focused! This is probably opening a can of works for a discussion on workplace ethics: but, I work on the internet, so its a constant temptation. Its my own justification, but: I don't smoke, so I'm not taking those 10 min breaks several times a day. Heck, I don't even take a lunch break (eat at my desk, bring lunch in). I only get up from my desk for 1 cup of coffee in the morning, water, and bathroom breaks. I'm there from before 8 till after 5 most days, and occasionally from home evenings/weekends. Also salaried, and not 100% busy. soooo.... I figure.. if I spend a little personal time on the old 'net... :innocent: I'm still working my 40 hours.

This time I agree with pcad.

Crassic, you are a brilliant young man, that's why you're bored. You're a perfect entrepreneural candidate.

You'll be able to do things your way, choose paths that allow you more learning opportunities, and learn very crucial lessons from your failures.

I got a lot of value out of a personality evaluation... PI (Predictive Index). It's about what motivates/demotivates you. It helped quite a bit in understanding some things going on with me, and even more in understanding what's going on with how I relate to other people. Pretty good stuff.

I don't have any stock in the company that does this... just found it useful.

Replace BikeForums with [...] x Forums,Aww, I'm flattered, but... most boring forum ever.

There is a support group for people who hate their job. Its called EVERYONE.

They meet each night for moral support at the bar.

MrC... you have to tell us what thread where you reading when you got gought.

Sorry man :(

Check this book out. (http://www.borders.com/online/store/TitleDetail?sku=0071446524) It's about confrontations but it starts with the cause, namely problem stems from either a lack of skill or a lack of motivation. Obviously skill isn't the issue so it's motivation. Then you have to work your way through that. It's meant more for a parent or manager but it's really helped me see a pattern in my own behavior and then try to fix that issue.

Are you sure about apathy being the cause of mis-focus? Or is mis-focus causing apathy? Forgive me if I insult you- but have you been considered the possibility of adult ADD?

A good friend of mine had such a rough time through college, and a couple years in the working world until he was diagnosed. His manifested as depression, though. I met up with him for lunch last summer after a "long time no see" and he was experiencing such a positive difference in his life. It was a great turnaround.

Yeah, I've thought about that. I haven't gone to have it seriously checked out, since I figured everyone and their Mom thinks they have ADD nowadays. There are days where it really makes me wonder.

Dang. I don't even THINK about the internet while I'm at work. They are paying me to do a job for them and that is what I will earn. Hell, even my cell phone gets turned off or put away while I'm on the clock.

My job is heavily internet-related.

This is tough to do on pencil and paper. :p

There is a support group for people who hate their job. Its called EVERYONE.

They meet each night for moral support at the bar.

That's the thing...I know that a lot of people are in similar positions, and I don't want to be there.
I'm done with this job very soon, so I can't say that I need moral support. I'm just extremely thankful that our school has a program that lets us actually experience this. This company did their best to treat me like something of an employee, and actually gave me work that was important. I can't say that I would have had those responsibilities as an intern.

MrC... you have to tell us what thread where you reading when you got gought.

"Ok Microsoft...let me get this straight."

I was responding to Timmy's comment about Windows XP/Vista release dates and whether they were ready.

Sucks; I had a good thing going with that comment too.

This is probably opening a can of works for a discussion on workplace ethics


PERFECT freudian slip! It works on so many levels!


:D

the key is to set the performance bar low. that way you can do real good work for a few hours a day, browse forums the rest, and they just assume you were being mediocre all day.

we might be similar... technically inclined, enjoy problem solving, get bored easily? I found a job with mostly short projects, 6-15 hours or so, sometimes longer ones up to 30-40 hours, all of which have deadlines. The variety has been very helpful in keeping me motivated. I also find that I work better (more focused) when i'm under a bit of pressure. so those characteristics might be good to look for when considering a new job.

My job is heavily internet-related.

This is tough to do on pencil and paper. :p

Or on a tow motor. :lol: (Don't forget I work warehouse)

Three to five years experience, i.e. not me.

Thanks, though!

Reading what you liked and what you don't like, I think maybe you just need to find an off the beat and path IT job. For example I work for a couple of resort hotels managing their IT "stuff". In any given day, I will have installed a new server, purchased a new server, repaired a broken AD structure of our large WAN, repaired a printer, written a script that makes something in my world more efficient etc. Due to how tight the budgets are in hotels and resorts they tend to need the IT people who are good with everything. Part and parcel to that is they need to enjoy everything.

Not to mention the required human interaction of negotiations with clients who require wireless or wired for their conference ( which has made for some fun contacts at mozilla, microsoft, ieee to name a few). There is also the dumb VP of a major company (coughmicrosoftcough) who doesn't how to connect to wireless so you offer help. They feel so stupid they tip you 50$...

If you can't see what I am getting at, its offering a variety of IT tasks that keep me interested.

If that interests you, take a look at some of the larger hotels or resorts near you. 300+ rooms is usually a good starting point, 4 to 5 star usually have IT as well.

Just a thoguht, I went through IT hoops when I was younger. So far this has been the first job, that is very much the opposite of monotonous, that my brain doesn't just shut off for.

Everyone,

I seriously appreciate the advice and commentary. I will be thinking of all of what's been said here in my search.

Funny enough, two of the characteristics of my last job that made me want to stay were the variety of work and the variety of people I worked with. I dealt with so many people across so many different departments, and I was actually needed. My brain was usually "working," so to speak.

Last week, I found Project Euler, which has been a big help in giving me something to chew on on my downtime at work. These problems actually made me *think,* and I could easily spend an hour or two on finding the solution. It's also helping me sharpen my basic C++ skills.

Even more ironically, I met another epic cyclist today at work. He's even more hardcore than I am. I didn't think I would find that guy, but you never know sometimes.

sounds like you are destined to be a loser.

I never had a job I didn't like - while I was doing it!

There are a few that I wouldn't want to do again.........

Annnnnnd, I love retirement as much as I did my job!

Three to five years experience, i.e. not me.

Thanks, though!eh, those things are like a christmas whish list... everything you'd like to have, but you know you're probably not going to get it. leverage education, passion and dedication to expanding your knowledge.

Reading what you liked and what you don't like, I think maybe you just need to find an off the beat and path IT job. For example I work for a couple of resort hotels managing their IT "stuff". In any given day, I will have installed a new server, purchased a new server, repaired a broken AD structure of our large WAN, repaired a printer, written a script that makes something in my world more efficient etc. Due to how tight the budgets are in hotels and resorts they tend to need the IT people who are good with everything. Part and parcel to that is they need to enjoy everything.

Not to mention the required human interaction of negotiations with clients who require wireless or wired for their conference ( which has made for some fun contacts at mozilla, microsoft, ieee to name a few). There is also the dumb VP of a major company (coughmicrosoftcough) who doesn't how to connect to wireless so you offer help. They feel so stupid they tip you 50$...

If you can't see what I am getting at, its offering a variety of IT tasks that keep me interested.

If that interests you, take a look at some of the larger hotels or resorts near you. 300+ rooms is usually a good starting point, 4 to 5 star usually have IT as well.

Just a thoguht, I went through IT hoops when I was younger. So far this has been the first job, that is very much the opposite of monotonous, that my brain doesn't just shut off for.

Hotels are beginning to focus on security, so a competent IT person might be able to find work here, and get job references to boot. Wireless security especially, because more than a couple hotels have gotten burned by offering free wireless to all comers, only to have someone's infected laptop with a zombie spambot on it tie up bandwidth and get the hotel's IPs blacklisted.

Of course, a number of hotels have "business stations" with some open computers for guests. Unless these machines have DeepFreeze on them, these turn into cesspools bubbling with keyloggers, spyware, rootkits, and Bog knows what else. If you can sell the hotels on DeepFreeze, your life will be a lot easier.

eh, those things are like a christmas whish list... everything you'd like to have, but you know you're probably not going to get it. leverage education, passion and dedication to expanding your knowledge.

Yeah, experience can sometimes be waived if the other qualities are good.

"Ok Microsoft...let me get this straight."

I was responding to Timmy's comment about Windows XP/Vista release dates and whether they were ready.


At least it was it related...



Sucks; I had a good thing going with that comment too.

LOL... that's so funny...

Good luck looking for a new job my friend... I loved it when I was a C++ dev... but I hated having datelines... I practice my C++Fu every now and then...

--------------JobSearch.h---------------------------
class JobSearch
{
private:
int salary;
bool forawora_allowed;
public:
void setsalary(int s);
void setforawora(bool f);
int getsalary();
bool getforawora();
**;
void JobSearch::setsalary(int s)
{
salary = s;
**
void JobSearch::setforawora(bool f)
{
forawora_allowed = f;
**
int JobSearch::getsalary()
{
return salary;
**
bool JobSearch::getforawora()
{
return forawora;
**
JobSearch::JobSearch(int s, bool f)
{
salary = s;
forawora = f;
**


int main()
{
JobSearch MrC(100000,TRUE);
....
**

There's no constructor in that class, Ruben. :p

Damn, I haven't done OOP in a while!

Hotels are beginning to focus on security, so a competent IT person might be able to find work here, and get job references to boot. Wireless security especially, because more than a couple hotels have gotten burned by offering free wireless to all comers, only to have someone's infected laptop with a zombie spambot on it tie up bandwidth and get the hotel's IPs blacklisted.

Of course, a number of hotels have "business stations" with some open computers for guests. Unless these machines have DeepFreeze on them, these turn into cesspools bubbling with keyloggers, spyware, rootkits, and Bog knows what else. If you can sell the hotels on DeepFreeze, your life will be a lot easier.

Very true, but you are thinking guest side only. There is usually a hotel management side of the admin wan as well. So you end up managing two different networks. On the admin side you will have at minimum, your property management system and some interfaces running, using rs232. At maximum, you could have vpn connectors, vlanning to seperate admin/guest, not to mention exchange and possibly muliple site to sites. It goes on.

But then again, you end up dealing with IT dumb contractors. The company who designed and built 1 of the hotels I work with, put the server room under the pool.....under the freaking pool. needless to say, its been migrated to another part of the building :)

IT in hospitality is definitely booming. Heck even that crappy motel6 could have a large IT infrastructure backing it up in a hotel management company. At 1 point we had 20 smaller hotels and 2 large 4 stars under the umbrella. Makes for an interesting infrastructure challenge.