Job Satisfaction-with Survey

[ohiobrewtus]

I really, really like my job 99% of the time. I'm the IT manager at a small/medium (100mm/yr) company. I'm the network geek who got picked to also have to do all the paperwork. I still get to spend most of my time working on things that I like though.

Just 30 minutes ago I ordered a $25k server that I'm going to install VMWare Enterprise on and consolidate 6 servers to, and come next month I'll be putting an all Cisco IPT solution in. Good stuff if you're a geek like me.

 

[ShortSnoutBrewing]

Love it

I work for a wine maker at their main office as a Customer Service Specialist and general office *****. We are a small, new company (though a spinoff of a much older winery) and there are only 4 of us in the office so I end up being everyone's assistant. The team is great and extremly laid back and relaxed. The pay could be better but to me the package as a whole is more important than money. I did the money thing and was miserable.

And we have a foosball table, a 120 bottle wine chiller 30ft from my desk, bar, great view of downtown Portland from the roof.

 

[kornkob]

Internal Quality Assurance at raven software (part of Activision Blizzard).

Breakroom with Free soda, foosball, Guitar hero. Monthly free pizza day. Flexible working schedule (really flex-- like-- be here between 11 and 4 but otherwise just get your 8 hours in). Parital days off don't count agaisnt vacation. Dress code: no speedos and you gotta wear enough to not get arrested. Game at lunch and after hours on company gear if you want but you gotta keep a copy of the game disc on site. really cheap games by Activsion, access to Nintendo's company discount and cheap prices via PCMall discount. Solid insurance coverage for 2 costs about $15 a month.

 

[DUCCCC]

Blah, blah blah...

Thanks for making my existence here on earth that much more crappy, You officially suck.

 

[Ryan_PA]

Just 30 minutes ago I ordered a $25k server that I'm going to install VMWare Enterprise on and consolidate 6 servers to, and come next month I'll be putting an all Cisco IPT solution in. Good stuff if you're a geek like me.

I have managed over 20 server virtulizations on VMware this year alone. That is some impressive stuff. I am currently working on a project where there are 6 slices on the host, 4 relate to a single production application, 3 on red hat one on windows. It is mind boggling what you can do now. Also, when you need to do a hardware refresh, the snapshot software on the market makes it annoyingly easy. Geek on ohiobrewtus.

 

[Lil' Sparky]

I voted love my job, but I've got to qualify that.

I love my career. I'm a Communications Officer in the USAF. My last assignment was teaching computer science at the USAF Academy - GREAT JOB!!!

Which leads me to my current assignment - grad student at TX A&M. I'm not saying it's bad. I'm not paying for school, we're close to home, and I make as much as most of my professors, but I wouldn't say I love it. It's a means to an end, which is returning to teach again.

 

[ohiobrewtus]

I have managed over 20 server virtulizations on VMware this year alone. That is some impressive stuff. I am currently working on a project where there are 6 slices on the host, 4 relate to a single production application, 3 on red hat one on windows. It is mind boggling what you can do now. Also, when you need to do a hardware refresh, the snapshot software on the market makes it annoyingly easy. Geek on ohiobrewtus.

Sweet. I'm really looking forward to digging into this project. If it goes well I'll likely be doing the same across my server farm.

It's good to be a geek sometimes.

 

[blacklab]

I said 'Pays the bills'. I work in finance for a big semiconductor manufacturer. It's basically doing computer stuff all day, but it pays pretty well. Basically I organize and manage some of the activites of all of the overseas people who do the real work. This means lots of earlly/late conference calls.

The company tends to hire and attract a certain type of personality(type A), which I am not, so it gets sort of overwhelming at times. I hold my own, but get sort of tired of the go getters and desk pounders.

But, it gives me flexibility in my schedule so I can spend time with the kids and wife. (and do a little brewing)

 

[Kevin Dean]

"Free Software Systems Administrator"

I run the servers, both raw metal and virtual, for a small company in the Dulles Corridor that desigs and markets web pages for other small businesses.

I've never been one to like money. I like having money, but I hate the things associated with money, like bills, credit, debt and what I see all-too-often - people who feel enslaved to the dollar. The fact that I make less than average for someone in my comparable position doesn't matter much to me.

My entire job is done remotely (with the exception of rolling out a new server or whatever) so I can work from home as often as I want though I prefer making the commute in to work (it reminds them to print my paycheck, so I think). I have no schedule, I can come in at 5 am or 5 pm and stay for 12 hours or have lunch and go home (though I've only done that once).

I don't have a "boss" in the traditional sense, ther eare 5 people in the office and each has skills that are unique to our positions and each of us are the "expert" in that matter. The closest thing I need to "approval" to do something is to have the accountant actually enter the credit card number to have the computer stuff shipped out.

I'm valuable to my company and there aren't any asses working here, though I'm nto exactly "friends" with the people here, I can happily spend a night at a party with them and enjoy myself.

I have managed over 20 server virtulizations on VMware this year alone.

Not fond of VMWare as a non-free application but I love virtualization. There's soemthign that gives you this warm and fuzzy feeling to hold a "rack of servers" in one machine.

Virtualization is also a godsend when dealing with comprimised servers, something that becomes more likely when you have to support those so-called "legacy applications".

Snapshoting is nice, but I thought VMWare's product offerings hinged on guest management, does snapshot utilities not exist in part of their base offering?

 

[cubbies]

Not ideal, but OK

I also work in IT, but I am still in support. Technically my position is PC Administrator, but I am just a glorified help desk. My company is somewhat small with about 200 users on site. I don't run a normal help desk in the sense that I do the phone support and dispatch level 2 support if needed. I am level 1,2,3....etc. We have me (the PC Administrator) my boss who is the network administrator and a couple of software guys. Anything that is related to support and/or fixing/setting up computers I handle. Sometimes this can become quite cumbersome because even though 200 users isn't huge, it can be a lot for one person on some days.

However, that is not my gripe with my work. My gripe is that it is not a challenge anymore for me. I can pretty much fix any PC related problem, and most of the stuff I deal with is very rudimentary anyway. It is rare that I actually have to sit down and figure something out, and that was the allure of this field when I first got into it about 5 years ago. I am the type of person that likes to figure stuff out. On top of that, the money is below average. Far from terrible, I do plenty well enough, but the fact that I know there are people in the same position, that do less work, make more money, it bothers me...I know it shouldn't but it does.

Other than that though, my work is great. We are very laid back, if I don't have work to do, they don't really care what I do. The people I work with are totally cool, the benefits are good enough, I get a lot of vacation days etc. Also, just this week there has been talk going around that they might start getting me involved with the network administrators projects so that I can start moving my way up.

So, it doesn't just pay the bills, but I also would not say I love it. The way I have always looked at it is if I had 10 million dollars, I would stay at a job I loved. I would leave this job in a heartbeat if I had that kind of money.

 

[Cauldron7]

Love the job, besides the underpaid part.

 

[Cauldron7]

I have managed over 20 server virtulizations on VMware this year alone. That is some impressive stuff. I am currently working on a project where there are 6 slices on the host, 4 relate to a single production application, 3 on red hat one on windows. It is mind boggling what you can do now. Also, when you need to do a hardware refresh, the snapshot software on the market makes it annoyingly easy. Geek on ohiobrewtus.

Ryan_PA, I am local to you and in the same line of work, we should get togeather sometime and talk shop over a few brews. We may be able to help each other out.

 

[Brewsmith]

I've got a couple jobs. My main job is just that, a job. It pays the bills. I don't love it, but it isnot too bad on the schedule. I'm going to school right now working on my teaching credential, so as soon as I can line up a teaching job, this one's gone. I also work part-time at my church doing music. I love it, but its not as easy as you'd think and not as flexable. On top of that I teach music lessons. I love doing lessons and wish I had more time to do them. The money for them is good and doing them is a blast.

 

[kappclark]

The day job I have pays the bills, but I could be making more...(doesn't everyone say that!) .. the real challenge is keeping what you have !

On the other hand, I have a 30 min drive to work, with 3 stop signs and 1 yield sign. Superior to the Holland Tunnel IMO .
When DSL comes out our way (I have a whopping 28.8 dialup connection), I can justify working from home.

 

[e lo]

I'm in grad school right now -it's never ending and pays almost nothing. I do like the research though and it's a necessary step to get the job that I do really want.

Yup. I picked Hate It, but then I'm in pre-thesis-defense-why-can't-I-get-this-damn-paper-published-80-hrs/week-if-I'm-lucky mode right now. I honestly can't wait to defend and go back for the last two years of med school, and if M3 year looks good, it can only be because you've been down so long, it looks like up.

/end rant

 

[MTpilot]

I put love it, but with three jobs, it was a hard decision.

I'm a flight instructor at the college I got my degree from. Flying is great, but after 2.5 years on the teaching side, I"m ready to get into a bigger plane. So this goes into not ideal.

Then I wait tables at a brew pub. I enjoy this one mainly because of the people I work with and the cash flow. Also not ideal.

But then theres the mon, wed, fri days when I'm the assistant brewer at said brew pub. Absolutely love it.

 

[Yuri_Rage]

Internal Quality Assurance at raven software (part of Activision Blizzard).

My brother-in-law has a very similar job at Zipper - the guys that did the development for SoCom 3. His office is much like yours - freakin' amazing.

I made him watch Grandma's Boy...I thought it was hilarious, anyway...

 

[The Drizzle]

Captain at a regional airline. Love the flying, hate the BS, hate the company.

 

[Chriso]

I guess I'd rather be in a different field all together. The whole "working on computers for a living" thing is getting old, and I really think I should have gone into, OK don't laugh, plumbing. These stinkin' computers are changing daily, and it's all a person can do to try to keep up with patches, and AV, and spyware and all the other crap, let alone trying to keep up with the latest OS versions and licenses.

THANK YOU. Someone else understands.

I do I.T. for a graduate college (dental in nature) that is part of the Medical Center, which is part of the University here in NE. It's a state job, so it's pretty secure... but we're drastically underpaid for what we do. It's especially hard-hitting for me because I currently fill about 3 different positions - I manage help-desk, accounts requests, new user training, project coordination, ordering/purchasing, billing, records management, warranty repairs, part orders - and then I also am involved in basic web authoring, and in multimedia broadcast. So, I'm going about 5 different ways here.

So all in all, I should be a "Departmental Coordinator" or "Project Coordinator" or something like that. But instead I am, on paper, a "Computer Maintenance Technician". I'm worth about twice what I make.

To make matters worse, the college has some deeply-rooted attitude issues with most of its faculty and administration, so we get almost zero respect, we have unreasonable demands, expectations, and timelines assigned to us with no channel of feedback to the people placing those assignments. Additionally, we have very little respect for each other within our department - but that's a whole 'nother story for a whole 'nother post. Preferably in another sub-forum.

I'm ready to quit. I have been ready to quit for about 6 months. I want a job with normal expectations, I'm tired of being Superman that has to save the day whenever all of my co-workers screw things up.

So, uh, job opportunities, please email/PM me.

 

[Chriso]

Blah blah i'm so cool.

Hey. If your company ever needs a really talented general-fixing-**** guy, PM me. I want to move to Madison so badly, I'd consider getting rid of the "boys" to do it. And working for Blizzard is fun.

 

[bradsul]

...I want a job with normal expectations, I'm tired of being Superman that has to save the day whenever all of my co-workers screw things up...

Not sure you're going to find something like that in IT unless you can get one of those sweet gigs in the gaming industry or with one of the super-companies (no pun intended). 'IT' seems to be short for 'I will work every hour of every day for less than I'm worth and for no respect'.

 

[Chriso]

'IT' seems to be short for 'I will work every hour of every day for less than I'm worth and for no respect'.

Don't you mean 'IT' seems to be short for 'I. will work every hour of every day for less than I'm worth and for no respec T.'

And I made my "desires" pretty generic. To be more specific, I want a job where at least my coworkers, the other Tech people who are directly alongside me in my department, to have normal and reasonable expectations of me, and not just pile on the work as high as possible, with no apology. If I don't do something at my job, it doesn't get done period. If they don't do something, it becomes my problem. It's not that I want a cushy no-real-work 8-to-5 facade of a job. I'm just saying that I want at least INTERNAL respect from my teammates, even if people outside of our department and outside of our knowledge base (non-techies,basically) don't respect me/us/our work.

 

[budbo]

The red tape, paperwork, office sitting, pencil pushing, desk driving, keyboard thrashing, crappy bosses, political garbage, additional tasks, and pissy attitudes that come along with having a government job make me hate it sometimes.

Ahh The Joys of being a Contractor.

I love my Job, I travel as much as I did on active duty, I work in my chosen (non-flying) field, and get paid a lot.
I do miss flying but the Airlines were not hiring when I retired

 

[quickerNu]

I voted Love it, for my current career as a Harley-Davidson salesman. I have been with the company for over 10 years, started sweeping floors right outta high school. It was supposed to just pay for college. I worked my way up to technician- very rewarding but stressful, became a parts manager while at A&M, and when I left school became an asst superintendent of a top golf course, using my degree.
Running every square inch of 200 acres can be very rewarding. I knew every tree, animal, golfer, and blade of grass. But it was sunup to sundown, and I had kids. Went back to Harley. Work 6 days a week but only 9-6. I BS about bikes all day, and get people to do something they have always wanted to do!

 

[DUCCCC]

I voted Love it, for my current career as a Harley-Davidson salesman. I have been with the company for over 10 years, started sweeping floors right outta high school. It was supposed to just pay for college. I worked my way up to technician- very rewarding but stressful, became a parts manager while at A&M, and when I left school became an asst superintendent of a top golf course, using my degree.
Running every square inch of 200 acres can be very rewarding. I knew every tree, animal, golfer, and blade of grass. But it was sunup to sundown, and I had kids. Went back to Harley. Work 6 days a week but only 9-6. I BS about bikes all day, and get people to do something they have always wanted to do!

I'm quite jealous of you, but I'd have to be gettin' me a Buell 1125... I assume you're allowed to ride a Buell if you're an HD salesguy?

 

[quickerNu]

haha, rode a '98 S1 White Lightning for years. Have a 06 VRSCR Street Rod now. Crotch Rocket for fat guys. Unfortunately my shop doesn't carry Buell anymore.

 

[DRAGGER]

I LOVE IT!!! What could be better then this????? This is a photo of my re-enlistment in 2002 now I have 19 years and 7 month in.....

DRAGGER.....

 

[budbo]

I LOVE IT!!! What could be better then this????? This is a photo of my re-enlistment in 2002 now I have 19 years and 7 month in.....

DRAGGER.....

Why on the pole?

The most unusual one I was asked to do was re-enlist a guy at the wreck of the USS Butler, It was actually fun we were at 70' and had to remove the regulators to do the oath.

 

[DRAGGER]

That is what I do! I am a high voltage electrician at the time I was an instructor now I just run a shop of 62 linemen maintaining 680 miles of Distribution and 70 miles of transmission lines and the interior of 4001 facilities......

D

 

[DUCCCC]

That is what I do! I am a high voltage electrician at the time I was an instructor now I just run a shop of 62 linemen maintaining 680 miles of Distribution and 70 miles of transmission lines and the interior of 4001 facilities......

D

Sweet, just saw your location. I worked in Bldg. 836 on the South base for 8 years. How are things in Lompoc? I moved out to NC in '03, so it's been a while.

Matt

 

[merc]

I voted love it, but really I need to semi-sorta qualify that. Most of the military members will know exactly what I'm talking about.

I've been Air Force for almost 14 of the last 17 years. Years 1-11 I was a C-130 Crewchief. I loved it when I was single, but as I got married and had a family, the deployments + normal temporary duty load started to wear on me.

I got out at 7 years, and was a Tool Crib manager and Maintenance Repair of Operations coordinator for a forklift manufacturer. I would probably still be with this company but they got bought out and shut down.

I couldn't find a job at the time with comparable pay/benifits, so I came back to active duty. 4 more years on/around the flightline. I finally got to take a Special Duty assignment as a Military Training Leader at Sheppard AFB.

I love the job of helping mold young airmen and transferring skills to make them productive members of the military. I also take a bit of pride in helping weed out the bad apples, before they move to the "real" Air Force and waisting a bunch of time/money. I currently have about 60 airmen assigned to me, and have had as many as 200 assigned to me.

The part of the job I have a love/hate relationship with is all the extra duties. I have the flight Purchase Card. I am the Client Support Admin. I'm responsible for all the Computer hardware as well. I'm the flight Safety Rep, Hazmat monitor, and I run the Charge of Quarters program. I can't let these other duties take away from my primary job (taking care of/dealing with the airmen). So if I need 8 hours to take care of the airmen, and I have to put in 4 or 5 hours pushing patches/fixing or setting up hardware/running to the Supply centers/planning budget/etc. so be it. Atleast I get to tuck my kids in most nights.

Now I just need to figure out what I want to do when this tour is up, with about 5 years left until I hit 20 years. I still don't know what I want to do when I grow up.

 

[buckrogers71]

Love my job (teach 1st grade) hate the people I work with. Its not a real friendly place

 

[skinfiddler]

I respnded "pays the bills."

Had I been asked the question a year or two ago, I would have been in the "Love it" category. I have watched my company downsize (Home building ) for two years. It is a very uncertain situation. It seems like people have been fired all around me for a couple of years.

My primary job (Field Inspector) I really DID love. I have since been "reassigned" to multi-family property management (one of our companies is property management) and inspections part time.


I'm just hanging around to see if homebuilding starts to pick up this next quarter. If not, I'll be re-inventing myself all over again. Not crazy about doing that at 55.

JW

 

[DRAGGER]

Sweet, just saw your location. I worked in Bldg. 836 on the South base for 8 years. How are things in Lompoc? I moved out to NC in '03, so it's been a while.

Matt

Everything is the same here. I got here in 2004 hope to leave soon for the east coast.....

Russ

 

[hagen505]

I voted that it is o.k. I drive a liquid nitrogen tanker truck around Chicago, night shift, for a compressed gas company. It can be fun at times, but it can get kind of routine at times also. I do get some good stories to tell at home about some of the characters I see at that time of night. One of the perks though is I get free beer gas.

 

[Bedlam]

I love what I do and wish it would pay the bills.

Bet you never expected to hear that from a physician, did ya?

The issue is that I got very soured by "corporate" medicine and decided to have a go at running my own private practice. So I've been doing that for the past year and a half. I love the work, and feel like I'm FINALLY practicing medicine in a way that is fulfilling and useful.

Trouble is that I brought home about $45K this past year. It may not sound bad, but then add in six-figure med-student loans in repayment. Yikes! Add to that that I have no life or disabilility insurance. Or retirement.

So I interviewed for an academic job a couple of weeks ago and hope to get an offer. The private practice? I gave it my best, did all I could, but I need more...and more SECURITY.

That's where I am.

 

[Sluggo]

One of the perks though is I get free beer gas.

I'm jealous. Been looking for a western Chicago burb supplier for a while now with no luck.



I voted "Hate". I'm an electrical engineer in the auto industry and it's horrible. Doesn't help that my company is an industry giant and bankrupt. Pay is below market, management is, well...management and the Big 3 customers are a total PITA. Add to it that our location is being closed in a few months and we'll all be out of a job and it's just icing on the cake.

 

[Chairman Cheyco]

I love my job, but I love going home from my job more.

 

[brauhaus]

Voted "I love it" but should have voted "Other"

Right now I'm still new here, basically we are construction managers and not a construction company... we design lighting, fire and security for OSPD (off site data protection) facilities for the US Government and the top Fortune 500 companies... in fact most nationwide companies are now utilizing this service...

Our main client is Iron Mountain, we do all of the designing for the lighting, fire and security systems and manage the projects from start to finish...

Right now, being new I'm only a designer, I have the most AutoCAD experience here and run our CAD Department, altho I don't have I title, I don't mind... I'd rather keep it that way... I handle all of our drawings for our company, when we create, receive, ship and approve drawings, etc., etc. I'm the guy doing it.

Right now I enjoy my job and hope to be a Project Manager, I basically handle all of the drawings and prep each job for the PMs here (in a nutshell I do everything to get the project running and the PM just oversees it).

I'm working on Fire Inspection I Certification and then FI II and then Plans Examiner, altho I'm not 100% confident that the company I work for supports this decision.

I'm happy here, but sometimes I wonder.... I enjoy being able to work from home and enjoy the traveling this job offers... I hope one day I'll make this a career and not a job, right now I feel like I'm disposable I just want to secure my position here.

 

[hagen505]

I'm jealous. Been looking for a western Chicago burb supplier for a while now with no luck.

http://www.airgas.com/

I kind of messed up the quote feature, but try that link and go to store locator. there should be a place near you.