ThoughtFactory.CreateThought() A random collection of thoughts from an easily bored developer

The Drudgery Report

I was recently interviewed by Sheila from Sheila's Wanderings. Typically for me, I ended up with a longer answer to the "Any last words?" section than any of the others. The tone of the questions really got me thinking about my first year of University, when I was amongst 200 other students looking forward to a prosperous career in a DotCom bubble.

To quote myself:

I can remember starting my degree with around 200 people in my course. By the end of the first year, over half of them had figured out that IT wasn't all about playing computer games. I'd say that around 30 students out of that initial 200 actually made it through the degree still wanting to get a job related to the field. Make sure it's something that excites you, and if you HAVE spent three years on a computer science degree and don't want to use it just remember that you can always take a post-grad degree in something totally different. You have to live and breathe IT or the grind of continuous learning will suck the life out of you. Well, either that or you'll stop learning and will soon find yourself relegated to the sidelines.

It was 1998, and the media were all over IT. The buzz surrounding anything even remotely related to computers was so prevalent that every man and his dog wanted in on the action.

Over the course of that first year I saw a large number of my classmates gradually come to realise that Computer Science was nothing like the media spin. Many of those disaffected with the degree dropped out at the end of the first year, but quite a few stuck around till the end of the degree, with some even ending up in industry jobs. The disaffected students became disaffected employees.

I'm incredibly lucky to get paid to spend 8 hours a day indulging in one of my favourite hobbies, so I guess I've always felt sorry for those who were inclined to settle for something less than that. I can't relate to other fields, but I can say for certain that a career in IT isn't for everybody, and that's nothing to be ashamed of. It's a discipline where happiness is usually accompanied by a constant desire for self improvement, and any hint of stagnation breeds disenchantment. If you have no personal desire to better yourself then you are probably in the wrong field.

The most important thing to remember is that even if you have spent several years training for a job that you have no interest in, it's not the end of the world. It's never too late to discover how to get paid for something you love to do, and there are plenty of options for re-skilling.

If you already have a Bachelor's Degree then Post Graduate Diplomas and Degrees are always a good bet, as is simple on the job training. Many degree-based jobs simply require that you have "a degree", as well as some enthusiasm for the role. You might not be starting out as the CEO, but at least you'd be on your way to enjoying your work.

If you do have a degree that you're unhappy with and want to move into a role that does not require a University education then you may end up viewing your time at Uni as wasted effort, however all is not lost. The primary goal of University is to teach you how to learn, which is always a useful skill no matter what you end up doing. If you find that a 12 month TAFE course will lead you to career fulfillment then don't let your previous efforts influence that decision. There's no point in being compelled to continue down a path of drudgery simply because you've spend 3 years walking down it. The principle of not throwing good money after bad applies to your career too.

If you're not happy with your job, regardless of the industry you are currently in, just ask yourself "what would I rather be doing?". If the answer is "not this" then you may want to give some thought to what would make you happy, and what it would take to get you there. Many of us would have been in the workforce for a long, long time before we can officially retire, so spending a few years here or there to figure out how you can be happy for the majority of your waking hours isn't really a big ask.