Being a stay a home dad is a 9/10 job most of the time. Even when I had babies and diapers and bottles and a stunning lack of sleep it was still better than any job I ever got paid for. I never did find a grown up job I liked very much. Houston isn't my ideal location but a slightly sub par location allows my wife to work a real job that is above 8/10 for her as well.
9 of 10.
More money is always nice, but I'm fairly compensated. I have metallographic lab experience, I'm a tool maker and certified in NDT (mag, dye pen, ultrasonics and x-ray) My boss is a 34 year old blonde with two Masters' degrees and thinks I'm some kind of magician. Go figure. Hours are OK, 9 hour days = every other Friday off. Some travel is involved in failure analysis, but not usually more than a week at a time. I'm retiring this summer if you want to apply. 
I recently started my dream job (Director of IT of a medical lab) and I couldn't be happier. The only real down side is the commute - 29 miles one way. I'll say 8/10 to give me room to grow. My last job? 1/10 on the best days.
Sense of accomplishment: 3/10
Location: 8/10
Working conditions: 5/10
Challenge: 5/10
Advancement: 1/10
Prestige: 0/10
The people: 5/10
Security: 9/10
Wages: 8/10
Bennies: 8/10
Hours: 1/10
I started with this department in the hospital last March. I knew what I was getting into as I worked there as an apprentice.
So the low scores are mainly because I am the low man seniority-wise, and it sucks. I'm wondering if it's worth it to stick it out until I move up or move on to something different. So I get the crappy shift, the crappy work and have to be on call when no one else wants to.
As an example I had to work on a garbage disposal today- in the morgue.
Our workload is never ending- as soon as you complete one lengthy set of tasks, there's another list to be done.
Unless I join management, this is where I will be for a long time. And management makes as much as we do- so why bother?
As has been stated before, much of our work is never seen by others.
My hours are Sun through Thurs, 4am to 12:30pm.
Sense of accomplishment: 4/10
Always have always will take pride in my work, quality doesn't matter here though. Band-Aids are standard fare. Don't try to work above the standard.... OK, we'll do it your way.
Location: 8/10
15 mile commute. Better than my old 40 miler.
Working conditions: 3/10
Challenge: 3/10
Advancement: 0/10
Union shop, seniority rules, w/ enough time you get your shift preference.
Prestige: 0/10
No respect... period.
The people: 5/10
Great group of small town folks. Good/ bad, mediocrity rules. All too often it falls to LCDs tho.
Security: 9/10
Product is in demand. No matter that they're running this place into the ground it'll probably be here for a good while yet. You have to berkeley up pretty bad to get fired but it has happened.
Wages: 7/10
Pretty darn good for around here ($22+/ hr.) and a 15 mile commute. Bigger money ($25-32/ hr.) is 40-50 miles away.
Bennies: 8/10
Better than most these days.
Hours: 2/10
2-3 weeks in a row w/ some 12 hr. shifts thrown in is running me into the ground. At one point 4 out of 6 of our gang was on sick leave... see a pattern here?
So, my average would be close to 5/10, pretty acceptable, huh? Well, no.
Two years on this job after a thirty year career in industrial maintenance. Run the motherberkeleyer into the ground is not sound maintenance policy, but hey... it's your sandbox. People are numbers, run them into the ground too. Only in it for the money now, there's nothing left for me here... nothing.
When you beat your head against the wall, the wall always wins.
2/10
9/10..
People are great, place is great, jobs are great, commute is 10 minutes.
Money is fine but could be better (No matter how much you make, a little more would be better). I've never met anyone who would say "No way, I don't want any more money".
Check us out: www.vintagerodshop.com
Usually, I just tell people I'm retired.
I'm happy.....I am finally in a job that I wanted to do for a long time.
Bad berkeleying news today, as it sits at this moment I give it a -10 on all counts.
I'd have to say 7/10 overall. Money's not bad (but could always be better), co workers are for the most part really great, the two who are dickheads are moving on soon, security is as good as can be expected of the bidness. Hours are about normal, I work every 3rd Saturday, my boss is great about time off for the kid and if I want to go racing for a weekend. Worst part is (as always) there are some real azzhole customers. Oh, well; can't have everything.
nicksta43 wrote: Bad berkeleying news today, as it sits at this moment I give it a -10 on all counts.
misery loves company... what happened?
In reply to mad_machine:
Started a new thread about it.
Sense of accomplishment: 5/10 - it has some moments but most days, not so much
Location: 3/10 - 70 mile commute each way, wouldn't want to move closer
Working conditions: 9/10 - they take good care of us, new building, lots of amenities, no real complaints
Challenge: 5/10 - severely under challenged most days
Advancement: 3/10 - not many opportunities although I don't know that I care to advance into management, BTDT didn't care for it.
Prestige: never thought about it, never a factor in my career decisions
The people: 7/10 - most that I work with directly are good people, we have our share of bad ones too I suppose. New north american president is off on the wrong foot but he'll course correct or be gone.
Security: 9/10 - I could probably die here if I choose.
Wages: 10/10 - I'm the most overpaid high school graduate I know
Bennies: 9/10 - seriously good benefits, 16% annual bonus with ability to double based on performance, amazing medical, dental, etc, personal concierge service at the office to run errands if you dont have time, dry cleaning in house, all kinds of little perks that really rock.
Hours: 9/10 - 40 hours or less a week, I don't punch a clock and I only work overtime if I'm interested in the project and feel like putting in the time.
JoeyM wrote: I'm happy.....I am finally in a job that I wanted to do for a long time.
So you're retired now?
GameboyRMH wrote:JoeyM wrote: I'm happy.....I am finally in a job that I wanted to do for a long time.So you're retired now?
Nope. PM sent
Since all the kids are doing this (and I really have been reading this thread closely);
Sense of accomplishment: 6/10; some days I'm really proud of what I do, some days it just seems like I'm trying to keep the 1% entertained while they enjoy using products I would normally never touch if I wasn't working as an engineer on them.
Location: 5/10; I'm okay with the city I live in currently, I am not wild about it but I can think of a number of worse locations.
Working conditions: 4/10; my last ex-girlfriend saw my office and said it seemed "soul crushing". It's cubes and florescent lights and no windows, and there doesn't seem to be a lot of effort it making it seem nice, but it's also not dirty or badly run-down. And right now I should be sitting in a cube with three other guys that I really can't stand to be around (so I sort of relo'd myself temporarily to an empty cubical).
Challenge: 6/10; some days I get to tackle interesting problems or projects and it feels pretty good. But most of the time the challenge in my job seems to come from how much minutia I can remember or how some certification authority likes to see things spelled out to them. Detail stuff that doesn't impact design or anything that seems useful. And I'm not always so great with details...
Advancement: 2/10; I came back to a company that laid me off and it's really been rough. I went to the same group and area manager and I've see guys with less time/experience promoted ahead of me. I did find a different role to get myself into that starts in a couple weeks, but it's a lateral move, and I felt like I had to beg to make the move.
Prestige: 2/10; I'm an engineer.
The people: 2/10; I'm surrounded by engineers. I'm not kidding, I think this is the worst part of the job, I can't relate to 90% of the people I work around.
Security: 2/10; I haven't been laid off a second time yet.
Wages: 6/10; it's weird, I'm pretty frugal and it's really hard to save for retirement and live on my own and all that stuff, and I live in a cheap part of the world. But I don't think of myself as underpaid per se.
Bennies: 4/10; Our health insurance is kind of expensive garbage, but my department pays for not very good complimentary coffee! And there's that florescent lighting I mentioned, they don't charge us when bulbs burn out. I'm salary but there can be paid O/T.
Hours: 8/10; sometimes we get stuck working random late hours, usually at the end of a quarter, when there's product to deliver and bugs are being worked out. I do hate it when I've been stuck there until 10 PM or later and I should have left at 5 PM and I can't find anything to eat.
That's an overall average of 4.3/10. I'm really hoping my change of departments, which will unfortunately put me in even worse offices but with different and hopefully better people, will change my mood about where I'm at.
Thanks guys, this is great.
It started off w/ wondering how my own job satisfaction compared in demographics, not that we're all in the same field but there's a better sense of it w/ who's who and where w/ GRMers.
I'm learning a lot from this. Keep posting.
Fasted58 nailed what I was getting at. I'm in the exact same boat it sounds like.
Us 'tricians in my grade make $37 per hour, but this area costs a fortune to live in.
My overall score is a 2/10 as well since I didn't post it before.
fasted58 wrote: Sense of accomplishment: 4/10 Always have always will take pride in my work, quality doesn't matter here though. Band-Aids are standard fare. Don't try to work above the standard.... OK, we'll do it your way. Location: 8/10 15 mile commute. Better than my old 40 miler. Working conditions: 3/10 Challenge: 3/10 Advancement: 0/10 Union shop, seniority rules, w/ enough time you get your shift preference. Prestige: 0/10 No respect... period. The people: 5/10 Great group of small town folks. Good/ bad, mediocrity rules. All too often it falls to LCDs tho. Security: 9/10 Product is in demand. No matter that they're running this place into the ground it'll probably be here for a good while yet. You have to berkeley up pretty bad to get fired but it has happened. Wages: 7/10 Pretty darn good for around here ($22+/ hr.) and a 15 mile commute. Bigger money ($25-32/ hr.) is 40-50 miles away. Bennies: 8/10 Better than most these days. Hours: 2/10 2-3 weeks in a row w/ some 12 hr. shifts thrown in is running me into the ground. At one point 4 out of 6 of our gang was on sick leave... see a pattern here? So, my average would be close to 5/10, pretty acceptable, huh? Well, no. Two years on this job after a thirty year career in industrial maintenance. Run the motherberkeleyer into the ground is not sound maintenance policy, but hey... it's your sandbox. People are numbers, run them into the ground too. Only in it for the money now, there's nothing left for me here... nothing. When you beat your head against the wall, the wall always wins. 2/10
Today will be day 3 of my new job, so I think I'll do this as kind of a walk through of why I decided to move on, and any insights I've had so far on the new place.
Sense of accomplishment: 6/10 - I've been able to take a lot of pride in the things I was able to do at my old job. Some days, the work I did felt really important; other days not so much. I think the new job is going to be about the same in this regard, but it's way too soon to rate the new job here.
Location: 9/10 - I love my home town. Lots of great things to do here, good schools, great place to have a family. If I want a big city experience, it's about 2 hours away. If I want to go up to the mountains, that's also about 2 hours away, and on the way is one of the best up-and-coming wine regions in the world. I haven't moved for the new job, so this rating is unchanged.
Working conditions: 2/10 - my old building was like walking into the 70s. Cubicles were big, but lots of fluorescent lights and castle-style slit windows. Co-workers and I always joked about needing to bring crossbows to work to repel invaders. Also, I bike commute to work, and the old building didn't have any provisions for freshening up once I got there (I improvised by carrying baby wipes and deodorant with me, and showering before I left for work). At the new job, the company I am working for is expanding aggressively, and my temporary workspace is shared with two other people. Not ideal, but I'm being told it's temporary. On the bright side (literally), there's a nice big window there, and I also have access to a shower so I can clean up more effectively after my bike commute. Provisional rating at the new job is 4/10, with an improvement after I get my own space.
Challenge: 5/10; some days were really interesting, and part of the challenge was figuring out how to do what I did with rocks and sticks - call it the MacGyver factor. Other days were consumed with the minutiae of IT project management, and it sucked. New job rates an 9/10 provisionally, as I am learning a completely new industry, and I'll be client-facing for the first time (moving from doing technology stuff in the mortgage industry to doing technology stuff in the healthcare industry).
Advancement: 3/10- I was totally stuck where I was at the old job. Every time I tried to post out to a new gig, I was told I was too critical to be allowed to go. Meanwhile, I'd see people hired for some of the jobs that I wanted that were completely not ready for the gig. This is one of the big reasons I ended up leaving.
Prestige: 5/10. I am an IT business analyst - not really far up the totem pole, but I was very well-liked and respected by the line of business folks I worked with.
The people: 6/10; My old team was super friendly, and I felt like I connected well with them. My manager was pretty okay too, and so were the people I'd built relationships with over the years. Once we get outside of that group...there were some senior managers brought in over the last couple of years that are just really hard to work with. They ground my gears a lot.
Security: 8/10 - being Chinese, the analogy of "iron rice bowl" comes to mind. This is the flip side of being told you're too critical to be moved on to another role.
Wages: 5/10; I was 15k/yr underpaid for my role; my move pretty much fixed that in one fell swoop. I didn't feel like I was being compensated in a way that matched up with what I was told about how I was valued. I also saw people hired that were just unmitigated disasters at higher salaries than me, and that got me a bit frustrated too.
Bennies: 9/10 - I will miss this part of my old employer the most. The "HDHP" I would have been on this year was one of the most generous health insurance plans I've seen. The staffing firm I'm with right now has a plan that's not quite as good...for 5x the monthly premiums. 4 weeks paid vacation, paternity leave, sick time that doesn't come from your vacation...this is the biggest step backwards I'm taking.
Hours: 8/10 - Most of the time I was working 9-5's...but when you're bored during that 9-5 sane hours don't help so much.
So that's about a 5.5 out of 10. So far, I think I've taken a couple of steps backwards with the new gig, but the challenge and advancement factors, along with wages, matter a lot more than the rest for me. Long-term, I knew that I didn't want to be stuck in the mortgage industry for the rest of my life, so I knew I had to move while I was still underpaid enough to not take a pay cut and still make a case to a potential employer that I'm cheap enough to take a chance on. Right now, I am really glad I made the move that I did, and I don't see anything yet that makes me want to think otherwise.
I would say 7 or 8 out 10. The politics suck and the sometimes the direction from above can be very frustrating but the company offers great insurance, the raises have been decent, the location is good, I like my co-workers for the most part and the job generally isn't boring in that I am not doing the same thing repeatedly. I am a mechanical engineer.
In reply to szeis4cookie:
When I got slid into supporting existing and out of production products about 16 months ago I asked a supervisor about a move to some other area. I got the whole "You're worth your weight in gold, we can't move you, your function is hard to train people in". When I asked why I couldn't get a salary worth it's weight in gold, and if he thought it might be a problem to lock people into roles like this, he didn't really have an answer.
Being told you're "too good to allow for moves" or anything like that was, for me, really demotivating. I don't blame you for moving on at that point.
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