Changing Jobs for Job Satisfaction?

I-love-my-work, who is considering rejoining the IT world after a stint in business, asks: "A molecular biologist with a PhD at University of Birmingham, in the UK, quits his lab position to become a plumber, since a plumber apparently earns twice what he currently makes (~US$42K). How many of you would change careers if given a chance? What factors would influence the decision (money, hours, upper management, a chance to enjoy more of your life)?" What factors would make you seriously consider leaving your current career for another?

Paid?

[Antarius]

Paid? I'm supposed to get Paid?!

Duuuude....

I changed him once

[Anonymous Coward]

And believe you me, Steve Jobs was PISSED. When he finally got out of the closet where I was keeping him, he killed the cloned Steve Jobs I made, and fired me.

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Yup

[ENOENT]

If I ever get an offer for the position of "Beatle", I'm outta here.

I kill bugs

[hoggoth]

All day long, every day, I find bugs in software and kill those bugs.
I just found out that I would make more money if I spend all day long, every day, finding bugs under furniture and kill those bugs.

Re:The fact that it has all but moved to India...

[Anonymous Coward]

If you find someone that is hiring let me know I'd like to grave rob as well.... Oh you said grave digging

Re:Time with my family

[indulgenc]

"what fun is the money if you never get a chance to spend it?"

Ask you wife.

Re:Find a job you love....

[Deitheres]

Or perhaps one could find a job that does not require work, and therefore come to love it ;-)

A plumber?

[NetNinja]

To go from an air conditioned lab to unclogging shitters is not my idea of job satisfaction.

Re:I would change if I got paid the same

[tessaiga]

I have considered this time and time again but the only thing keeping me from changing out of IT to something more gratifying is money.

Are you perchance posting this from India? 'cuz I'm having trouble making sense of this if you're American ...

Re:I would change if I got paid the same

[nervouscat]

Every time I try to get out of the (IT) business, I get pulled back in. ;-)

Re:yeah.... I'm just not gonna go anymore

[2names]

You don't need a million dollars to do nothin. my brother-in-law don't do shit and he's broke.

(almost) a true story

[targo]

One professor of mathematics noticed that his kitchen sink at his home broke down. He called a plumber. The plumber came on the next day, sealed a few screws and everything was working as before. The professor was delighted. However, when the plumber gave him the bill a minute later, he was shocked. "This is one third of my monthly salary!" he yelled. Well, he paid and then the plumber said to him: "I understand your position as a professor. Why don't you come to our company and apply for a plumber position? You will earn three times as much as a professor. But remember, when you apply tell them that you completed only the seventh grade. They don't like educated people."

So it happened. The professor got a plumber job and his life significantly improved. He just had to seal a screw or two occasionally, and his salary went up significantly. One day, the board of the plumbing company decided that every plumber has to go to evening classes to complete the eighth grade. So, our professor had to go there too. It just happened that the first class was math. The evening teacher, to check student's knowledge, asked for a formula for the area of the circle. The person who was ask was the professor. He jumped to the board, and then he realized that he forgot the formula.
He started to reason it and soon filled the board with integrals, differentials and other advanced formulas to conclude the result that he had forgotten. As a result he got "negative pi times r squared." He didn't like the negative, so he started all over again. He got the negative sign again. No matter how many times he tried, he always got a negative. He was frustrated. He looked a bit scared at the class and saw all the plumbers whisper: "Switch the limits of the integral!!"

Re:The fact that it has all but moved to India...

[op00to]

What happens when plumbing jobs go offshore? We'll eventually be a country of rich corporations and unemployed citizens.

And it'll smell, from all the shit piling up due to the lack of local plumbers!

Re:I kill bugs

[Dr. Banana]

Finding and squishing a sofware bug can be mildly satisfying.

Finding and squishing a real bug just gets your shoes all gooey.

Re:Find a job you love....

[Loki_1929]

"All too often the 'job' part ruins the 'fun' part."

So you're telling me that Ron Jeremy responds to a woman coming onto him with, "Naa, you look pretty hot an' all, but it'd feel too much like work..."?

Re:A plumber?

[op00to]

Some people enjoy the look on people's faces when their clogged toilet flushes again. And some people enjoy the look on people's faces when they get the bill for this poopsmithery.

Re:Find a job you love....

[gareth6889]

which is why i NEVER want to be a gynecologist :)

In the words of Clark W. Grsiwold...

[Drunken_Jackass]

"It's so beautiful, I feel so ... I feel my juices are just you know ... it makes me so ... I want to write, I want to paint, I want to sculpt something massive. I've got a creative urge. I wonder if there's a men's room around here."

I'd give up my day job in a heartbeat if there was any money in the massive sculpture market.

Re:Time with my family

[selderrr]

what fun is the money if you never get a chance to spend it?

Outsource the spending part. That gives you more time to earn money. And purely concidental, I happen to be an excellent spender, so I'll be your outsourcing company for very reasonable fee.

Re:The fact that it has all but moved to India...

[pbox]

Invest what???
My unemployment checks or the money I get from the coke can recycling???

Re:Find a job you love....

[Anonymous Coward]

How about a job that lets you spend 90% of your time reloading slashdot? (like mine :)

Re:I get paid to

[Anonymous Coward]

sit at home, hack perl code, and watch tv/listen to music. I work in my underwear most days...in fact I'm posting in my underwear. I have sex while i'm at work when my gf comes over. I can drink if i want, smoke whenever i want, get a tan on my deck since i have a laptop, whatever i want. sometimes i walk downtown and go to a coffee shop for a change of scenery.

plus i get paid well :) what more can I ask for? maybe i could buy a house close to where i am now, which is 3 blocks from the beach.

Whoa, you live in 1998?

Re:Paid?

[the cobaltsixty]

Or waiting to get paid back, like an Infinium Labs VC...

Re:I changed to IT

[yagu]

If it's alright with you, I'd like to hate your job for $100K/year.

As a disgruntled helpdesk employee...

[dos4who]

... I'm going to quit my job and go into the pr0n industry. That way, instead of getting busted for viewing it at work, I'll be busting a nut making it for a living :)

~m

Re:They must have not heard of entry level...

[4/3PI*R^3]

"...I actually moonshined for a friend..."

You must mean MOONLIGHTED.

Moonlight : too work a second job after your primary job or a '80 detective show with Cybil Shepard (back when she was still a hottie) and Bruce Willis (back when he was still screwing Demi Moore)

Moonshine : an alcoholic beverage made with corn, wheat, or whatever one can get ahold of that will ferment usually causes blindness and draw the attention of revenuers -- the stuff granny made on the Beverly Hillbillies

Re:Health, time, family.... and then money.

[Rosco P. Coltrane]

but my hands were tied with the responsibiliti

I trust you haven't been too busy untying yourself...

so damn true

[Tsiangkun]

I used to love science. I would read articles, study the techniques and figure out how to do experiments on my own. I once cloned a gene using jello, gummi worms, a rubbermaid box, some wire,some twine, a tylenol bottle,a pinch of lye, and a lantern battery.

Obviously science and biochemistry was something I would do as a hobby . . . out of school now, and having been working for 6 years in the field. . . there is no desire left to do science in the kitchen, it just feels like work without the pay.

Even at work it feels like work more than a hobby with pay.

--Tsiangkun

Plumbing eh .. ?

[Anonymous Coward]

"The Plumbing Business Is Not As Glamorous As The Porn Industry Depicts"

.. theonion

Re:Find a job you love....

[Saeed al-Sahaf]

What blows me away is that any woman would "come on" to Ron Jeremy at all!

Re:Find a job you love....

[Rosco P. Coltrane]

Come on Taco, we know it's you, no need to post as AC ...

Re:Time with my family

[Tackhead]

> > what fun is the money if you never get a chance to spend it?
>
> Outsource the spending part. That gives you more time to earn money. And purely concidental, I happen to be an excellent spender, so I'll be your outsourcing company for very reasonable fee.

Tinfoil hats rejoice! Proof positive that the Government does read Slashdot!

Re:(almost) a true story

[Anonymous Coward]

Please! Mod points for whomever can explain the ending to me :-P

Favorite Quote:

[kid_wonder]

"Oh, you hate your job?! There's a support group for that. It's called everyone,
they meet at the bar."
-- Drew Carry, the Drew Carry Show.

Re:Find a job you love....

[RLW]

Does anybody do plumbing as a hobby?
I can hear it now: "I used to like installing PVC drainage pipes but now, well when I get home and find a leak under the sink it's just too much like work to get under there and fix it."

Frist rule of plumbing: shit don't run up hill.

I wanna...

[amyhughes]

I wanna create monthly management initiatives for a living. I already have a program to name them.

Amy

Re:I changed to IT

[El]

I hear SCO is still looking for a CFO... you can make over $100k/year for a couple years, spend about 5 years in jail, then pay yourself $20k a year out of what's left after you pay your lawyers...

What I don't get is...

[Anonymous Coward]

Why anyone would want to be a Microbiologist?? I mean I have desire to be a plummer personally, but at least I would get tons of meaningless casual sex... That is unless porn has lied to me... :)

Re:Find a job you love....

[El]

Find a job you love...

and you'll never work a day in your life...

after they outsource that job to India!

Re:Find a job you love....

[Amoeba]

Not always true, unfortunately. All too often the 'job' part ruins the 'fun' part.

This is why they call it a "job" and not "blowjob"

Amoeba

Re:Find a job you love....

[fungus]

Cmdr Taco reads Slashdot?

Re:What bills are necessary?

[jazman_777]

I'm working on a PhD in archaeology. ... But I love my life! ... I don't plan to stay here forever.) But for me, it was no choice: job and LIFE satisfaction over any amount of money, any day.

Professional Student!

Re:I changed to IT

[jazman_777]

Now I just shut off the computer if it pisses me off.

I would never sacrifice my uptime stats to indulge in such impulsive behavior.

Re:Find a job you love....

[Anonymous Coward]

Everything except the articles.

Just like everyone else.

Re:What bills are necessary?

[Skater]

Err...I'd rather date a student that's happy than a professional pulling down a half-million that isn't...

And I bet many guys would agree. (Okay, the half-million might be a stretch.)

--RJ

Re:Eh....Blah,Blah,Blah was right..

[greensquare]

Dude;

> not everyone can code 4000 (good) lines in a week

Especially not network administrators.

> Yes it is a horrible plan (ebay selling combined with windshield repair)

I'm sure you'll make good with all your ebay selling and windshield repair. Clearly both more lucrative then writing (good) software.

> and plan on hiring part time java programmers
Which part of your business are they going to help with? The windshield repair? or the ebay selling?

> I still come back here even though 95% of the posters on slashdot haven't a clue

I see you what you mean.

k

Re:Eh....

[mrroach]

Sorry, I have to nitpick this one.

> Mod down this rant if you want, but it is an objective opinion of the consensus of this thread.

objective
adj 1: undistorted by emotion or personal bias; based on observable phenomena

opinion
n 1: a personal belief or judgment that is not founded on proof or certainty

> not everyone can program a pix without looking at it.

Uhh... what would looking at a pix tell you about "programming" it?

-Mark

Re:Find a job you love....

[JBv]

Obviously, they will become plummers as well.

Re:Find a job you love....

[garyrich]

'Like they say, nobody ever said on their deathbed "I wish I'd spent more time at work".'

Trite and true, but how many have said "I wish I could have put my kids through college", "If could have afforded health care I wouldn't be here now", "I wish I hadn't had to kill my female children so I could afford to feed my male children", et friggen cetera..

Re:What bills are necessary?

[appleLaserWriter]

Err...I'd rather date a student that's happy than a professional pulling down a half-million that isn't...

Why not have it both ways? The profesional pulling down half a million will be far too busy to notice the student on the side. :)

Re:office with no windows

[Anonymous Coward]

isn't working outdoors also a workplace with no windows?

Oh! I thought she meant she was working in a Solaris shop!

Re:What bills are necessary?

[Afrosheen]

If you're a vascular surgeon, you already know the basics. ;)

Re:What I don't get is...

[shadowbearer]

It has.

As someone who has done quite a bit of plumbing (on with the jokes) the closest you usually get to sex is wiping the accumulated cunt hairs off the toilet bolts you're replacing...or cleaning the piss off of the toilet you're fixing. Truly glamorous profession (if profitable, you wouldn't believe how profitable it can be if you work for yourself; ever wonder why plumbers demand high wages? Well, HEH :) and WHY DOES EVERYONE WONDER WHY PLUMBERS AND CRACK ARE ASSOCIATED?

*sniff*

*gag*

Jesus, people, clean your bathrooms occasionally.... :)

SB

second rule....

[Anonymous Coward]

payday is friday

Re:What bills are necessary?

[phaggood]

"- Don't have kids until you can afford them"

Afford them? AFFORD THEM?!?!?

Dude, you are so deluded. You can never afford them, ever. You just have them and then you spend and spend and spend and spend....

Re:Umm, hey He-Thinks-He-Knows-What-He-Doesn't boy

[gosand]

I guess I meant it more of a joke than you took it to be. And I never said that it was wrong to end sentences with a preposition, just that you shouldn't. So their.

. (Don't even bother, that was intentional to get you're hopes up.)

.

P.S. Hah! So was that. :-)