Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Whats life like at your job?
- Thread starter glocke12
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Self-employed. Good because I do things the way I want. Bad because all my clients are my freakin' boss. Great a few years ago when the economy is doing well. Not so good now because people demand much more for their $. At least I get to stay home most of the time.
At the moment, i am designing and implementing a SBS 2008 server at work, with a secondary Server as a fall over DC which is super interesting well to me it is whatever. Other then that i am not enjoying it at the moment. I have some how become the " lets pick on that guy ", you would think that someone who has been there 6 years they would respect you? So not really a good working environment if you catch my drift.
I work for a friend who hired me to start a company. He pays me REALLY well but we work a ton. I get to make my own hours but often am working 12+ hours a day and 7 days a week. 
But if we are successful, I'll be given a piece of the pie and all will be worth it.
Also working on trying to start my own firm, but that's taking a while.
But if we are successful, I'll be given a piece of the pie and all will be worth it.Also working on trying to start my own firm, but that's taking a while.
Self Employed Music Producer babyyy!
Although sometimes I am an Audio Engineer on tour when work is thin on the ground.
Best job in the world. Working with a band called Fiaxa at the moment. It's so much fun, although a bit of a rollercoster at times, and can be quite emotional.
Although sometimes I am an Audio Engineer on tour when work is thin on the ground.
Best job in the world. Working with a band called Fiaxa at the moment. It's so much fun, although a bit of a rollercoster at times, and can be quite emotional.
That it is......
I'm currently a full-time student, so my workplace is my home, unless I'm in class. My wife also works from home, so it's nice to have company all day. Right now, life is pretty hectic with finals approaching......
In my prior career, my workplace was a clinic. It ebbed and flowed, but when it flowed, it was crazy. There's nothing both better or worse than having a waiting room full of patients.
Well for reals now...
I work most hours of the day from home. It's great though, since I love working and the more I work - the quicker my product is out - the more money I make. It's a distilled system alright. I do overwork at times and get tunnel vision where everything else is disregarded.
The money is good, it brings a small shard of worldwide recognition and a few mad fans. When I started at university one of the lecturers spoke about a game I developed under a pseudonym, that pushed me along this career path.
It's not something I want to stick with.
I work most hours of the day from home. It's great though, since I love working and the more I work - the quicker my product is out - the more money I make. It's a distilled system alright. I do overwork at times and get tunnel vision where everything else is disregarded.
The money is good, it brings a small shard of worldwide recognition and a few mad fans. When I started at university one of the lecturers spoke about a game I developed under a pseudonym, that pushed me along this career path.
It's not something I want to stick with.
I work for a super duper rich guy, top 100 wealthiest in Canada. Half the time, it's 9-5, but other times are 12-13 hour days and I don't get overtime. I do get a big bonus 2-3 times out of the year and I do get stock options for one of the companies we manage. Right now, I'm up 3.5 times on the options and it's going higher.
It's fun (even though it's not my money and I can't have any) to watch him make multi-milion dollar deals like it's nothing and he just bought a $47M private jet with he's own money. (I designed the paint job on the jet.) He doesn't take a salary in any of his companies, just buy stocks with his own money and the only way he can make money is with share price going up.
I'm a graphic designer and I do get paid more than I would if I were to work else where on based salary. But I'll be leaving in 6 months and managing one of a restaurant my friend owns. I'll miss this job, but I gotta look out for my future.
It's fun (even though it's not my money and I can't have any) to watch him make multi-milion dollar deals like it's nothing and he just bought a $47M private jet with he's own money. (I designed the paint job on the jet.
) He doesn't take a salary in any of his companies, just buy stocks with his own money and the only way he can make money is with share price going up. I'm a graphic designer and I do get paid more than I would if I were to work else where on based salary. But I'll be leaving in 6 months and managing one of a restaurant my friend owns. I'll miss this job, but I gotta look out for my future.
I'm a user experience researcher for a software company. My software team is spread out across five cities in four countries; my own manager is in a different location than I am. Between my spread-out team and the research that I conduct, I travel a lot. I've just started a big research project, so I'll be hitting six cities in the next six weeks.
Software development is cyclic. There's busy times, there's quiet times. We're in the busy time right now. After we release, it'll be a lot quieter as we transition from this version to the next version.
When I'm in my office, I like pretty much everything about my gig. I live close to work so my commute's a breeze (15-minute bike ride or a 30-minute walk), I've got my office set up the way I like it with pictures on the walls and a sofa, my co-workers are mostly sane, I get to attend conferences and there's plenty of training available, and I like the job I do. When I'm not in my office, the only thing I don't like are flights that are late or cancelled. I've got flexibility to work from home when I want to.
It's all pretty good. I mean, they could double my pay and I wouldn't turn 'em down, but I like it well enough without that.
Software development is cyclic. There's busy times, there's quiet times. We're in the busy time right now. After we release, it'll be a lot quieter as we transition from this version to the next version.
When I'm in my office, I like pretty much everything about my gig. I live close to work so my commute's a breeze (15-minute bike ride or a 30-minute walk), I've got my office set up the way I like it with pictures on the walls and a sofa, my co-workers are mostly sane, I get to attend conferences and there's plenty of training available, and I like the job I do. When I'm not in my office, the only thing I don't like are flights that are late or cancelled. I've got flexibility to work from home when I want to.
It's all pretty good. I mean, they could double my pay and I wouldn't turn 'em down, but I like it well enough without that.
I teach English in two very rural Japanese public high schools as an employee of the Japanese government, holding the position of ALT (Assistant Language Teacher, meaning I'm always stuck team-teaching with various Japanese teachers). One school is normal, and the other school is a marine hard-ass school for all the kids who can't function in normal schools; basically they take all of the prefecture's rejects and stick them in one school where they live in dorms and learn how to be fishermen or seafood processors.
Since I'm a government employee I have a lot of perks at my job in terms of time off, good hours, national health insurance, subsidized housing, tax-exempt in both Japan and America, etc. etc.
So how is the job itself? Well, I'll be glad to be leaving in July.
The schools themselves are over sixty years old and decrepit; heat and A/C are nonexistent outside of the staffroom, but even then they are used sparingly and you spend the majority of your time sweating your ass off or freezing. I do share a crowded staffroom with all other teachers and we each have our own desk with ethernet.
The kids--I have some classes of really great kids (advanced kids at my normal school) who are willing to learn and are just really good kids and I enjoy teaching them. But since I'm in a rural spot, it's well known that the schools are terribly low-level in general, and the vast majority of my kids will never go to college (they are put in tracks in high school, only the advanced kids [3 classes out of my 30-35] are going to regular universities) so coupled with the fact English is required throughout junior high and high school (even for my marine kids who will go get fishing jobs on the docks 200 meters away) you can imagine how few kids give a crap about English and it gets pretty depressing.
I hate the education system here too, which only compounds the problem; the emphasis is on college entrance exams and college entrance exams only, so English classes are taught exclusively in Japanese lecturing grammar out of a book; aside from my classes, there is no speaking component for students. End result? After six years of English, kids truly can't answer "How. Are. YOU?" They just cock their head to the side because the system failed to teach them how to speak English, and only taught them how to pass a stupid exam. Add to this that most kids won't go to college, and add to this that discipline in Japanese schools is next to nonexistent (since the parents pay about $100 a month for students to attend) and you get a lot of smart ass kids who think it's ok to sleep, walk out of class, throw a fit and slam doors and knock over desks, get up, talk nonstop, screw around, fight, or just not DO anything in class no matter how many times you tell them flat out to pick up their pencils. I should note all of these things happen at both schools, not just the marine school. Also nothing they do in class counts towards their grade and they know this--the only thing that matters is tests, so if they "don't feel like" doing something and want to disrespectfully whine, that's ok too.
Another problem is that a LOT of English teachers can't speak English themselves; a teacher of mine (who speaks well) said that the sole requirement for a teaching license in any subject is to attend a few weeks' worth of classes; sit through it and you get a license at the end--there's not even a beloved test the the Japanese tend to hold in such high esteem for everything else in life. You'd be surprised how many English teachers I have to communicate with nearly exclusively in Japanese. The kids lose on this.
So basically you have a system that forces kids to learn something they hate and have even less use for (as a whole for all but the advanced kids) than other subjects, teaches it very poorly, and has no semblance of discipline which is a recipe for unfulfillment. To make it worse, the students *generally* like me more than other teachers but they don't see me as a real teacher--I am just seen as a novelty and to most kids a friend and not a teacher they feel they need to respect or listen to (again advanced kids aside). English in Japan is pretty abysmal.
I should also note the system has no idea how to prepare ALTs to work with the Japanese teachers, nor does it prepare the Japanese teachers with how to implement ALTs; it's a bit soul crushing standing in class as a native speaker while the Japanese teacher plays a CD for a listening activity of someone with a horsesh*t forced accent.
That's kind of a short version of my insights into the Japanese education system and the students.
So aside from that--the other aspect is how us foreigners are viewed by our coworkers. A lot of coworkers (particularly English teachers) are pretty warm (and are many others) but at the end of the day the general feeling you get is that of a neglected stray dog; people assume that you can't speak Japanese (even if you can), but in a lot of cases there are heavy rural dialects that make communication difficult on both ends. People will never say it, but in surveys conducted by the govt the Japanese teachers tend to resent the ALTs because we have far less work to do (as a whole) and in many cases get paid the same or more than our Japanese counterparts. Even if you come here with a teaching degree, the other teachers will never see you as a 'real' teacher--no matter how nice they are to you and vice versa, at the end of the day you will always be the pissant ALT, the lowest on the totem pole in their eyes. You are not Japanese, and you never can be.
While most ALTs do no lesson planning, exam writing, or grading, I am utilized fully and even run an English Speaking Society club after school (on Fridays, damn why can't it be any other day) and help with speech contest and Eiken (some English test) interviews. In some respects I'm happy I get to plan and run my own lessons entirely but at other times I wish I could just tag along like most other ALTs and just do what the Japanese teacher wants during their lesson. What gets frustrating is that I have no textbooks to work from and when I got here I spent weeks asking what the students' abilities were (came here during summer vacation) and just kept getting "low level" whatever that meant, and kept asking what they were capable of after 3-5 years of English instruction. Needless to say, my low expectations weren't even close to being met and LOTS of lessons failed miserably, still with no input from the Japanese teachers afterwards because culturally they want to preserve the harmony, aka talk amongst themselves about how bad your lesson was when you aren't around but never give you feedback or suggestions even when you ask for them (another thing they do which shows this cultural mentality is annual evaluations--I'm never told or shown the results, so how can I improve?).
So I was basically dumped in a completely foreign education system with no input on the students' abilities, no set curriculum or input on what to teach (besides "I dunno maybe some game"), and no textbooks or materials to work from--I literally pull stuff out of my ass and make everything from scratch and have been doing so since day one. The worst aspect of being an ALT is probably that when a lesson is failing, and the students are doing whatever the hell they please, the Japanese teacher stands in the corner like a potted plant, often offering no assistance or saying anything--but watching your lesson fail; it's much like having your boss standing over your shoulder watching you work on a computer.
My work load tends to oscillate; I can work 12 hour days on end, and then wind up doing literally nothing for days on end. Right now the school year has just ended, so until April 10th or thereabouts the kids are on Spring break and I have ZERO responsibilities; nonetheless, I still have to come in, plug in my computer, play on the internet for eight hours, and go home. I could take vacation, and I probably will all of next week, but generally even if I have nothing to do and no classes I have to come in, including 6-8 weeks straight during summer. On one hand it's super boring, but on the other hand I've learned that it's completely stress free and a pretty easy way to collect forty gs tax-free with $130 rent.
Don't get me wrong--there are a lot of things I like about my job and there are a lot of perks and it looks awesome on a resume since it's a well-regarded program and I love a lot of my students and many of them are good kids--even if they are disrespectful in class--they are still just normal teenagers so some of that is inherent--but overall there are a lot of immensely frustrating things about the job and the education system, and even more so what's frustrating is that everyone seems to realize it but nobody in Japan wants to be the nail that sticks out and disturb the harmony by complaining and raising hell (teachers work 6-7 days a week every week for upwards of 14 hours but a LOT of it sadly is just lazy face time, devoting themselves to "The Company" and having no quality of life as is the common work culture of Japan). The other issue is the group-think mentality--something may be done in an absolutely retarded way, "But that's the way it's always been done."
So all in all, I will be glad to do something else come the end of July. It's been a good experience and an interesting insight into the work-centric culture of Japan and a pretty shocking insight to the public education system though.
*back to being a stray dog playing on the internet*
Since I'm a government employee I have a lot of perks at my job in terms of time off, good hours, national health insurance, subsidized housing, tax-exempt in both Japan and America, etc. etc.
So how is the job itself? Well, I'll be glad to be leaving in July.
The schools themselves are over sixty years old and decrepit; heat and A/C are nonexistent outside of the staffroom, but even then they are used sparingly and you spend the majority of your time sweating your ass off or freezing. I do share a crowded staffroom with all other teachers and we each have our own desk with ethernet.
The kids--I have some classes of really great kids (advanced kids at my normal school) who are willing to learn and are just really good kids and I enjoy teaching them. But since I'm in a rural spot, it's well known that the schools are terribly low-level in general, and the vast majority of my kids will never go to college (they are put in tracks in high school, only the advanced kids [3 classes out of my 30-35] are going to regular universities) so coupled with the fact English is required throughout junior high and high school (even for my marine kids who will go get fishing jobs on the docks 200 meters away) you can imagine how few kids give a crap about English and it gets pretty depressing.
I hate the education system here too, which only compounds the problem; the emphasis is on college entrance exams and college entrance exams only, so English classes are taught exclusively in Japanese lecturing grammar out of a book; aside from my classes, there is no speaking component for students. End result? After six years of English, kids truly can't answer "How. Are. YOU?" They just cock their head to the side because the system failed to teach them how to speak English, and only taught them how to pass a stupid exam. Add to this that most kids won't go to college, and add to this that discipline in Japanese schools is next to nonexistent (since the parents pay about $100 a month for students to attend) and you get a lot of smart ass kids who think it's ok to sleep, walk out of class, throw a fit and slam doors and knock over desks, get up, talk nonstop, screw around, fight, or just not DO anything in class no matter how many times you tell them flat out to pick up their pencils. I should note all of these things happen at both schools, not just the marine school. Also nothing they do in class counts towards their grade and they know this--the only thing that matters is tests, so if they "don't feel like" doing something and want to disrespectfully whine, that's ok too.
Another problem is that a LOT of English teachers can't speak English themselves; a teacher of mine (who speaks well) said that the sole requirement for a teaching license in any subject is to attend a few weeks' worth of classes; sit through it and you get a license at the end--there's not even a beloved test the the Japanese tend to hold in such high esteem for everything else in life. You'd be surprised how many English teachers I have to communicate with nearly exclusively in Japanese. The kids lose on this.
So basically you have a system that forces kids to learn something they hate and have even less use for (as a whole for all but the advanced kids) than other subjects, teaches it very poorly, and has no semblance of discipline which is a recipe for unfulfillment. To make it worse, the students *generally* like me more than other teachers but they don't see me as a real teacher--I am just seen as a novelty and to most kids a friend and not a teacher they feel they need to respect or listen to (again advanced kids aside). English in Japan is pretty abysmal.
I should also note the system has no idea how to prepare ALTs to work with the Japanese teachers, nor does it prepare the Japanese teachers with how to implement ALTs; it's a bit soul crushing standing in class as a native speaker while the Japanese teacher plays a CD for a listening activity of someone with a horsesh*t forced accent.
That's kind of a short version of my insights into the Japanese education system and the students.
So aside from that--the other aspect is how us foreigners are viewed by our coworkers. A lot of coworkers (particularly English teachers) are pretty warm (and are many others) but at the end of the day the general feeling you get is that of a neglected stray dog; people assume that you can't speak Japanese (even if you can), but in a lot of cases there are heavy rural dialects that make communication difficult on both ends. People will never say it, but in surveys conducted by the govt the Japanese teachers tend to resent the ALTs because we have far less work to do (as a whole) and in many cases get paid the same or more than our Japanese counterparts. Even if you come here with a teaching degree, the other teachers will never see you as a 'real' teacher--no matter how nice they are to you and vice versa, at the end of the day you will always be the pissant ALT, the lowest on the totem pole in their eyes. You are not Japanese, and you never can be.
While most ALTs do no lesson planning, exam writing, or grading, I am utilized fully and even run an English Speaking Society club after school (on Fridays, damn why can't it be any other day) and help with speech contest and Eiken (some English test) interviews. In some respects I'm happy I get to plan and run my own lessons entirely but at other times I wish I could just tag along like most other ALTs and just do what the Japanese teacher wants during their lesson. What gets frustrating is that I have no textbooks to work from and when I got here I spent weeks asking what the students' abilities were (came here during summer vacation) and just kept getting "low level" whatever that meant, and kept asking what they were capable of after 3-5 years of English instruction. Needless to say, my low expectations weren't even close to being met and LOTS of lessons failed miserably, still with no input from the Japanese teachers afterwards because culturally they want to preserve the harmony, aka talk amongst themselves about how bad your lesson was when you aren't around but never give you feedback or suggestions even when you ask for them (another thing they do which shows this cultural mentality is annual evaluations--I'm never told or shown the results, so how can I improve?).
So I was basically dumped in a completely foreign education system with no input on the students' abilities, no set curriculum or input on what to teach (besides "I dunno maybe some game"), and no textbooks or materials to work from--I literally pull stuff out of my ass and make everything from scratch and have been doing so since day one. The worst aspect of being an ALT is probably that when a lesson is failing, and the students are doing whatever the hell they please, the Japanese teacher stands in the corner like a potted plant, often offering no assistance or saying anything--but watching your lesson fail; it's much like having your boss standing over your shoulder watching you work on a computer.
My work load tends to oscillate; I can work 12 hour days on end, and then wind up doing literally nothing for days on end. Right now the school year has just ended, so until April 10th or thereabouts the kids are on Spring break and I have ZERO responsibilities; nonetheless, I still have to come in, plug in my computer, play on the internet for eight hours, and go home. I could take vacation, and I probably will all of next week, but generally even if I have nothing to do and no classes I have to come in, including 6-8 weeks straight during summer. On one hand it's super boring, but on the other hand I've learned that it's completely stress free and a pretty easy way to collect forty gs tax-free with $130 rent.
Don't get me wrong--there are a lot of things I like about my job and there are a lot of perks and it looks awesome on a resume since it's a well-regarded program and I love a lot of my students and many of them are good kids--even if they are disrespectful in class--they are still just normal teenagers so some of that is inherent--but overall there are a lot of immensely frustrating things about the job and the education system, and even more so what's frustrating is that everyone seems to realize it but nobody in Japan wants to be the nail that sticks out and disturb the harmony by complaining and raising hell (teachers work 6-7 days a week every week for upwards of 14 hours but a LOT of it sadly is just lazy face time, devoting themselves to "The Company" and having no quality of life as is the common work culture of Japan). The other issue is the group-think mentality--something may be done in an absolutely retarded way, "But that's the way it's always been done."
So all in all, I will be glad to do something else come the end of July. It's been a good experience and an interesting insight into the work-centric culture of Japan and a pretty shocking insight to the public education system though.
*back to being a stray dog playing on the internet*
Life is ok here in the unemployment lane. Being a software Quality Assurance Engineer/Analyst I got laid off last year and had a long vacation. To the point where I'm sick of staying at home. Found things for myself to do over this time but at this point they're running out too.
Quit my job to move back to co and go to grad school in a COMPLETELY different field than I got my undergrad in
I am also looking into starting my own company as I want to work for myself
I am also looking into starting my own company as I want to work for myself
I work as a computer technician. It's pretty straightforrward, 8-4 kind of job. I get to work, grab a computer and diagnose it. Then I put it away until the parts arrive. Sounds maybe boring, but I love it. Also, it's a great working environment and I like my colleagues.
It's a great place to be until I decide I want to start my degree.
It's a great place to be until I decide I want to start my degree.
I can relate. Deciding to change careers was one of the best decisions I've made.
I was laid off last year from my job as a Procurement Manager for an IT company and now I work as a Customer Service Manager in a Jobcentre. Hours are great but the customers aren't! I have daily confrontations with either workshy criminals, drug addicts, alcoholics or the mentally unstable. Whilst it can be good fun it is also incredibly frustrating having to be polite and helpful to rude, violent and lazy people who I am basically giving free money to from my own pocket so they can spend it on drugs and alcohol. When they don't get their money because of either a blip in the system or their own stupidity in not following the rules they usually get really aggresive towards staff and end up having to be arrested. Ahhhh the underbelly of society....isn't it great
Otherwise I quite enjoy it
Otherwise I quite enjoy it
I work in advertising at an agency. Main role is digital account but I'm moving into Strategy and Analytics which is sweet.
Life in advertising is awesome, but sucks. People are great, experience is great... clients can be a pain but most of the time the agency life is different than other jobs I have had.
Drinking at work while the CEO and CFO come around handing booze out=awesome.
But, I'm looking to move so this will be over soon... anyone in CA or CO want to hire me
Life in advertising is awesome, but sucks. People are great, experience is great... clients can be a pain but most of the time the agency life is different than other jobs I have had.
Drinking at work while the CEO and CFO come around handing booze out=awesome.
But, I'm looking to move so this will be over soon... anyone in CA or CO want to hire me
I run a communications company. It's all-consuming. I live and breathe what I do, and I suppose that will always be the case until I stop doing it.
My staff, on the other hand, have a relatively relaxed working environment, generous holiday entitlement, and a 38 hour week. If only I was my own boss. Wait a minute...
My staff, on the other hand, have a relatively relaxed working environment, generous holiday entitlement, and a 38 hour week. If only I was my own boss. Wait a minute...
As a regional sales rep my job is to be the face of the company that interacts directly with the dealers and end users. It can be fun, and making a big deal is sweet! (Commision baby, yeah!!!!)
Problem is, the company I work for sucks. Always missing delivery dates, shoddy product build quality, poor designs, non-existent parts support. Lately, my "job" is to take a daily series of humiliating a** whippings from our customers and dealers over things I have no control over.
We are hemorrhaging customers at a prodigious rate, sales are down, as are commissions.
To top it all off, we have a new president who is a real Machiavellian style pr**k. He doesn't tell you what you're doing that he doesn't like, he just f**ks with you.
To whit, I was recently told by my supervisor that management views our declining sales numbers as proof I'm not working hard enough. So they've decided to inspire me to greater efforts, by cutting my pay scale.
No excuses, I was told.
Problem is, the company I work for sucks. Always missing delivery dates, shoddy product build quality, poor designs, non-existent parts support. Lately, my "job" is to take a daily series of humiliating a** whippings from our customers and dealers over things I have no control over.
We are hemorrhaging customers at a prodigious rate, sales are down, as are commissions.
To top it all off, we have a new president who is a real Machiavellian style pr**k. He doesn't tell you what you're doing that he doesn't like, he just f**ks with you.
To whit, I was recently told by my supervisor that management views our declining sales numbers as proof I'm not working hard enough. So they've decided to inspire me to greater efforts, by cutting my pay scale.
No excuses, I was told.
Get paid $100k+/year at an international news organization that reaches 200+ million households, and get to meet amazing people including celebrities, authors, musicians, heads of state, travel to LA, Mumbai, Dubai, Singapore, London, Paris, Abu Dhabi, Doha, NYC, Tehran, Rio, etc, and work 5-6 hours a day when I'm home in DC...can't complain. Oh and I get to work with my future wife as a managing producer for the weekly shows I shoot and edit=awesome...
Now that you're done telling us all how awesome you are, why don't you answer the OP's question and tell us what life is like at your job?
I am a graduate last year and have quit my job twice, because i do not like them. I always believe that i should do what i want to do and enjoy my job and my life.So i quit twice. Now, i have found my Interested job and have a good working environment for my boss and workmates are kind and friendly.Of course, as for now, it is not easy to find a job, but i have seen that a lot of people do the job they do not like even not in a economic crisis.
I work part-time as a promoter/hostess for events. My job is to stand and look pretty. And answer stupid questions. And always have impeccable hair.
I can literally feel my brain cells dying throughout the day.
I can literally feel my brain cells dying throughout the day.
so why do you continue to do it?
take steps to do something you like!
I mean we only live once so do what you want. Life is too short to be miserable