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No, not the stapler guy (Milton). That guy who can't seem to find satisfaction in his soul-sucking corporate career path.
I'm so bored most of the time. I get paid fairly well, but I'm still so bored. Almost every corporate job I've had has been some mind-numbing, soul-sucking experience.
First job out of college: This was the most mind-numbing of all of them, but as a first job out of college, I didn't expect much. Honestly, it felt as if my managers couldn't have cared less if I was actually performing any work. I was a contracted manager on-site with our client, so I was essentially a warm body they could charge the client for.
Second job out of college: This wasn't as mind-numbing as it was soul-sucking. It was definitely an improvement over my previous job in terms of responsibilities and work load. But it was a cutthroat sales environment that stressed me the heck out. My job also mostly consisted of providing status updates and moving one stack of paper over into the next stack of papers. But at least I was uber busy. After two years, I was completely burned out and chose to leave. Fortunately, I was recruited into my next job.
Third job out of college: This was by far the best in terms of not being soul-sucking or mind-numbing, but that's not saying much. I was a data analyst and some of the work was mentally challenging and the environment was pretty laid back. But then the company was acquired by a soul-sucking corporate giant and pretty much sucked the life out of the department. So I jumped ship with like 80% of my team.
Fourth (and present) job out of college: This has to be one of the worst so far in terms of mind-numbing. I'm a senior analyst at a F500 healthcare firm and I'm always so, so bored. There is clearly a huge skills gap between what they want this position to do and what I know how to do and what I want to do in my career. I'm essentially a glorified paper-pushing admin and I can't stand it. Honestly, the most challenging project I've done thus far was build a daily report for the team, which I came up with on my own. But mostly, the job entails reviewing and matching leases/contracts with a database, responding to a few emails per day, and monitoring a few spreadsheets and shared Outlook mailboxes. I'm not so much an analyst of anything as I am an admin.
I don't get it. Each job I've had requires a college degree, the job descriptions sound so intriguing and complex (almost intimidating), and I'm paid fairly well. But when I finally get to perform these jobs, they are so terribly boring and mentally unstimulating. I don't want to spend 40+ hours a week doing some routine, mindless job where I'm monitoring spreadsheets and responding to emails. I want something challenging. I want to be given a problem set and use some creative critical thinking strategies to come to a solution.
What are some ideas to better align my career goals with my job? Not only to improve the situation with my current job, but when I ultimately jump ship again. How do I avoid landing in another mind-numbing, soul-sucking job? What kind of statements or questions should I give during an interview to vet out the lemons from the best opportunities?
Last edited by Mr. Analyst; 12-22-2015 at 09:09 AM..
Any job can become routine and boring. I designed integrated circuits for 5 years at Motorola and became bored doing that.
You need to stretch yourself. Look for an opportunity that is a bit scary. Look for an opportunity that will require you to learn a lot. You want one where you can work with a Master.
You need to stretch yourself. Look for an opportunity that is a bit scary. Look for an opportunity that will require you to learn a lot. You want one where you can work with a Master.
I agree with you. All of the jobs I've had, past and present, have been something different than what I've done prior. The job descriptions will often make the jobs out to be something way more complex than the job really entails. A couple months into the new position and you realize how monotonous and routine it really is.
Part of the problem with my current job is that I am the veteran. There are really no mentors for me to seek out in my department, as most of my team is younger than I am. My manager is probably about 10 years older than me, but I am quickly learning that he is not a good mentor type. That is also why I sort of miss working with my director at my previous job. He was full of knowledge and passed down a lot of little tricks for me to develop my data analytics skill set.
I get bored at a job after about 3-4 years. I'm fairly well paid also, but I get into a rut and it's hard to get back on track.
With my current job, I'm only a few months in and I'm already bored with the work. It's because this position was advertised as a senior analyst position, and I'm doing more menial work than I was at my previous job as a data analyst. I'm mostly doing administrative tasks, and very few of those at all. I can't really say that I've been assigned any true analytical work since starting back in September.
Usually, I give any position at least two years of my life before I decide to leave. I'm not sure I will make the 6-month mark at this job if this continues. I feel like this position is a real brain drain.
Well, uhhh, yeah, I'm gonna need you to come in on Saturday to play catch-up. Yeahh, and I'm gonna need you on Sunday too.
That was totally the case with my 2nd job out of college. I remember my breaking point being when they forced us to work from 7am until 2am during the week between Christmas and New Years. I knew I was done after that. Fortunately, I haven't had to deal with that in quite some time though.
Fourth (and present) job out of college: This has to be one of the worst so far in terms of mind-numbing. I'm a senior analyst at a F500 healthcare firm and I'm always so, so bored. There is clearly a huge skills gap between what they want this position to do and what I know how to do and what I want to do in my career. I'm essentially a glorified paper-pushing admin and I can't stand it. Honestly, the most challenging project I've done thus far was build a daily report for the team, which I came up with on my own. But mostly, the job entails reviewing and matching leases/contracts with a database, responding to a few emails per day, and monitoring a few spreadsheets and shared Outlook mailboxes. I'm not so much an analyst of anything as I am an admin.
What's stopping you from being an analyst and analyzing what other work is needed? What can be done to optimize current processes? What can be done to automate so you don't have to shuffle paper?
There's a measure of self-motivation required to shape this job, even in a limited way, into something you want.
What's stopping you from being an analyst and analyzing what other work is needed? What can be done to optimize current processes? What can be done to automate so you don't have to shuffle paper?
There's a measure of self-motivation required to shape this job, even in a limited way, into something you want.
I've definitely tried the initiation of process improvement route. In my first week, I used some of my data analytics savvy to build a daily report that our team uses to monitor workload and some related metrics. Even though I've told my manager that I enjoy this type of work and want to focus on it, he's insisted that I stay focused on understanding the day-to-day routine stuff that I find extremely boring and monotonous. He said that will come later down the road, but when that is, I haven't a clue. In the meantime, I'm twiddling my thumbs and bored out of my mind most days.
There's also the issue of limited knowledge of internal company issues, having only been at this position for about three months. The problem is I don't know what I don't know. I can't solve a problem if I don't know there's a problem. My position is somewhat isolated. I have to rely on my manager to relay information to me from his closed-door meetings with senior management and that's not been reliable or consistent. A lot of the time, I don't know what's going on outside of my realm because it's not communicated to me or our team.
Now, if I'm presented with a problem, I will most certainly work on resolving that problem. But if I'm not presented with one, I don't know what I can do to fish one out.
So I guess that leads to the next question. How do you go looking for problems to fix that are outside of your specific list of duties? How do you look for problems in information that you may not be privy to? I want to solve problems, but I don't know where they are or what they are.
Stop viewing your career as a means to obtain satisfaction and look at it as a means to pay bills and pursue satisfaction in other pursuits.
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