Permanent Job Anxiety

by **Pseudo Nym** » March 24th, 2009

I find myself in a similar position. I'm just short of finishing up my PhD and after 10 years of working, studying and committing to a particular field I find myself feeling burnt out, bored with it and generally disinterested. I have a range of job opportunities, including some interesting areas related to my studies that I could obtain relatively easily and some more interesting areas that are unrelated to my studies and hence have a significant level of risk associated with going for them. Further, I'm worried that I might commit to a job and then find it not what I had hoped for and regret what I gave up to take it.

In resolving this mess of stress (by no means an easy or complete process) I find it helpful to consider several things:

1) Trust your gut feelings on whether something is the right fit for you; but

2) Accept that any job will have its high and lows, up and down. Don't expect it to be the be-all-end-all of your life or to completely define who you are. Maybe it just pays for you to pursue your passion.

3) 2-3 years may seems like a long time at first, but isn't in the grand scheme of things. Maybe the only thing you'll get out of a job is paying down debt, some savings and a resume line indicating you can hold down a real job for 2-3 years; that alone isn't all bad.

4) Consider the decision at least into the medium term (5+ years). Maybe this job will put you directly where you want you life and/or career to go (geographically, socially or professionally), maybe it will just give you the stability to pursue additionaly learning/saving towards your goals outside of work.

5) Be aware and wary of the natural fear of doing something new or taking on new committments. It's only natural to prefer the safer option of something you have excelled at in the past over something you have never tried & might fail at. This more than anything I believe to be the crux of the so-called quarter-life crisis: After excelling at study and other activities we have to take on roles with a much longer payoff timeframe, less frequent progression and feedback and less well defined boundaries, learning this new game at the same time as adjusting to other challenges is hard. The idea of changing career at this point and going back to study for a new one is tempting, but ask yourself if you really have reason to believe this new career will be different, if perhaps you can achieve it without going back to study and if, perhaps, the desire isn't just to return to something you know you can do well, such as being a student.

Personally, I'm focusing on what I want/where to do/be in 5 and 10 years time (not all ideas for which are possible together) and seeing which jobs provide me with the best opportunities for these and which 'feel right'. Maybe I'll just go with the one that pays the most, but at least that will fund my travel (and other activities).

by **meagicano** » July 14th, 2009

I want to update this! I ended up so busy with work that I haven't been on again - and I love the old Booties that were on here.

I took the permanent job - they gave me a nice salary bump, the benefits, etc. They promoted me in March too! Which was another nice salary bump. Darn golden handcuffs.

Around that time, I was assigned a major/huge project - or, rather, I kind of fell into the project and have been running with it constantly since then. Working crazy hours, but launching something that had never been seen by this organization before and that is making a direct impact on the Canadian economy and saving thousands of people's jobs. The job satisfaction component I had been missing? Found it.

This program is going to die off in early April 2010... and I just negotiated a month and a half off (likely mostly paid) starting in mid to late April 2010 which I will likely use to head off to the middle east! It's also great because my name went from not really being known in the organization to suddenly tons of people know me - which will be good for future networking!