ardy

that guys and gals is a huge Woot woot.. hugs and prayers from wisconsin

thomas11

You majored in philosophy. Even its "nothing" that qualifies as "something"....correct?

TorchedGrave

Hmm, a bit ambiguous, sorry. I don't know whether by "something/nothing" you're referring to my not having anything to update, or instead referring to my sobriety as mentally being nothing? I don't know if that made sense, but I think you meant the former (i.e., even an update about "nothing" is still something.)

You're right though, I do update regularly in my own personal log that I keep, but figure since this is a sobriety forum I should probably tailor my posts more towards that.

But yes, I do have something to update.

Those who've kept up with my journal would know that I mentioned on a few different occasions that I find my job utterly boring and not challenging. I also mentioned that I'm currently waiting on this other job, which has started to pick up in pace and now the process is actually moving along. Long story short, I'm now confronted with essentially two different career paths. Let's call where I'm at (A), and the other job that I'm waiting for (B). I'm generally not big on pros/cons lists - I generally just go with my gut - but I figure I'll make one for this.

(A)

Pros

- Quite a clear and linear career trajectory. One can easily climb the "corporate ladder." (Just today, in fact, about half of my team was promoted. Promotions seem to be a fairly regular annual thing.)

- Pay is quite good (don't know about other benefits since, as being a temp, I'm not privy to that information)

- I like my team. I don't want to undervalue the importance of getting along with one's coworkers.

- The cultural climate itself is very relaxed and laidback. (To me this is good).

Cons

- It isn't mentally stimulating enough. I swear a trained monkey could probably do my job. Granted, however, I have slowly been getting more novel work and that's kept me at least a bit more interested. I'm afraid though that learning simply isn't enough.

- The work is quite repetitive and can get mundane.


(B)

Pros

- I'm genuinely excited for it and looking forward to it. But this should be taken with a grain of salt because this says more about my (perhaps unfounded) expectations than about the job per se.

- The nature of the job and its duties is pretty much exactly in line with what I enjoy doing (i.e., reading, writing, analysis). Again, this is just an expectation, but if true, then I think there is definitely a higher likelihood of being intellectually challenged here.

- Opportunities for travel (This could be both a pro and con, since traveling is more dictated than willed.)

- The work has potentially significant outcomes.

Cons

- Although there exists a corporate ladder, climbing it takes significantly longer relative to the other job. For example, one can advance at roughly 2-3x the rate at job (A). (At (A), you get large annual bumps, at (B) you get teeny tiny annual bumps).

- The culture (I expect) is much more formal, quite the antithesis of (A).

- My general colleagues (I expect) will be less my "peers" than are my colleagues at (A). If that sounds arrogant/snobby, it's because it is. I don't have a very high opinion/expectation of the quality of the people, and am quite sure that I'm closer to my intellectual peers at (A) than at (B), which might sound ironic given what I said about the nature of the work.


~~~~~

In short, I'm still leaning towards (B). If I had to choose, I'd say the single most important factor is the feeling of being challenged and enjoying the work. (Again, though, one needs to discount some of what I say because I'm still new and so haven't been exposed to everything yet.)

This is just some of what's been on my mind lately. Sorry if that made your head hurt, I mostly wrote that to clarify it for myself as well.

thomas11

I like the fact that you are weighing out more things than just compensation. Many people are motivated purely by money so job A would be the easy pick. Others need satisfaction that goes beyond financial and thus B would make more sense.
Personally I like a high paying job that satisfies my intellectual needs and when I find one, I'll let you know. haha.

TorchedGrave

I wish that were the case for everyone, but my cynicism gets the best of me and I know that it isn't the case. I don't fault people though - personally, if I had 250k in debt, I'd suck it up for a few years and slave away at a high paying ******** job, then jump ship, as I believe a lot of people do.

thomas11

If one is 250K in debt, I'd hope they have a few letters behind their good name. Like PhD, or MD. Or in England, names like Sir and Lord.

fred59

welcome, I admitted to myself and another AA old timer when I was 21 that I was alcoholic it took me another 10 years to get sober no regrets but I caused a lot of damage those last 10 years. It might be hard to quit at 22 but it could be the best choice you ever make, good luck we are here for you.

TorchedGrave

Ah just three weeks left...

You might recall that I've mentioned in the past that I always look forward to the idea of living alone, but then get bored of it pretty quickly. This time is different, primarily because it might be the longest I'll be alone. And, frankly, the stress is definitely starting to get to me. You know it's like, I thought the monotony of my ******** cycle (work, home, etc.) was bad enough, but what made it worse was the monotony of the stress as well. I already knew what I'd be coming home to. Same ******** day in, day out. To be fair, some days are better than others, but in the scheme of things it doesn't much matter when the average is pretty ******.

So what happens in three weeks? Everyone will leave. Yay! It's so funny how I remember so vividly the last time I was alone like it was yesterday, but turns out that was over four months ago! Time flies. It's really insane.

TorchedGrave

I seriously can't take this **** anymore. This guy is just killing himself. I'm surprised he's made it this long.

Literally ******* drinks like 12+ cups of tea/coffee everyday, at all hours of the day, and smokes like 20-30 cigarettes to go along with them. He has absolutely no sense of time. Day/night, who ******* cares. I hear him wake up at 10-11 at night and proceed to go make himself more tea/coffee. How can he not hate his life? The ironic **** is that he's always bitching at my brother for "throwing his life away," yet he's doing exactly the same thing. What a ******* hypocrite.

Oh did I mention he's usually got the TV on blast pretty much 24/7?

TorchedGrave

EDIT - Now that I'm re-reading this, I kind of, on the one hand, feel bad for him because I know he's under a lot of pressure (from a lot of personal ****, but who isn't?), and because I was just venting. And also largely because I myself, not too long ago, was in pretty much the same scenario (i.e., not doing **** except for drinking my life away). So I shouldn't really be getting all high and mighty. I know this. Just needed to remind myself.

Soberpotamus

Is this a family member, TorchedGrave? I guess I don't know the backstory.

TorchedGrave

Hah, completely left that part out. Yep, my dad.

Soberpotamus

Sounds like you're pretty angry with him. I guess that's an understatement.

Do you enjoy living at home or would you rather move out?

TorchedGrave

Funny you ask. I've mentioned on this thread before how much I *hate* living here. But the reason I'm looking forward to 2-3 weeks from now is because everyone will be gone and I'll be living alone here. So to answer your question, I prefer living alone. Or more accurately, I prefer having this place to myself, but if that isn't possible I would like to move out (as to whether I would actually do it is another thing altogether, for financial reasons, etc.). But because now (or soon rather) I'll be living here alone, there's reason to be cheerful.

TorchedGrave

Just my luck... I go to take out my bike for the first time in weeks, and I go no more than a few blocks and my chain pops right off the gear. Going to take it to the shop, hoping it's really as simple as that and not a damaged chain/gear. We'll see. I don't really like the new guy at the shop though. The guy I liked apparently left to another shop; ever since then the quality has been declining. I've found a much nicer spot, but since this seems to be a relatively minor issue, I figured I'd take it to this d-bag instead of lugging around my 40lb bike for several miles.

TorchedGrave

UPDATE: It seems that my bad habits were going to get the best of me eventually. I read a long while ago that "cross-chaining" one's gears was bad, and yet I knowingly continued to do so. Turns out I've been using the wrong "gear ratio" this whole time, which I surmise was the cause of my chain/gear problem this morning. Gave the guy ten bucks for a job that took literally no more than a minute. Lesson learned? I hope so.

thomas11

If that's the worst thing that happens to you today, you've had a pretty good day. 10 bucks for a long term fix is pretty good. Even though it only took 50 seconds!

TorchedGrave

Putting things in perspective. I like that.

Dee74

As this has now reached 500 posts, more or less, it's time to start part 2 in the Daily Support forum - please follow there:

http://www.soberrecovery.com/forums/...years-old.html

D