Is this the way life is supposed to be? I studied hard in school and always thought CS was extremely interesting, but it turns out I very rarely use anything I learned.
Do you guys have any advice on identifying the parts that you like or dislike about jobs?
Much thanks!
Particularly of interest might be his discussion of Self-Determination theory [3]. According to SDT, motivation requires autonomy, competence, and relatedness. In the workplace, this translates to have control over your work, being good at your work, and being connected to co-workers.
[1] http://www.amazon.com/Good-They-Cant-Ignore-You-ebook/dp/B00...
My advice to you: be a journeyman instead of a factory worker. It's a long process and has a lot to do with luck but I think if you are really after doing work that you love, then that’s the way to go
You can't possibly expect that you fall in love with your first job but most likely you will find something interesting about it, use that as a clue to switch to different things until you find something you like. During this search you yourself change and the things you thought are interesting would not be interesting anymore.
Working on a side projects is another way but until you start doing them as a full time jobs you can't say whether that’s what you like to do.
Like most good things in life, this also comes with a combination of effort, experimentation, and luck.
One question. What did you mean by "be a journeyman instead of a factory worker"?
(At least, I assume that's what he means.)
I worked as an employee for 20+ years, and almost always worked only 32 hours (getting full benefits). I took Mondays off. Four day work weeks were worth a 20% salary cut.
For the last 15 years I have mostly been an independent consultant. I am basically retired now, working a max of 8 or 9 hours a week, but when I was not retired I still tried to limit my average work week to about 25 hours.
I don't think that I could enjoy any job if I had to work 50 or 60 hours a week.
As to your question: if you view work as helping people, when you do get work tasks that are less fun, just concentrate on the fact that you are helping people.
But, as a software architect, I absolutely love every day. I never wake up in the morning going "oh man, I have to work today". Sometimes I don't like how loud my office is (Open Office floorplan), and some of the people I work with.
Otherwise, for the past 5 years or so, I've loved almost every minute. I would do what I'm doing for free, and I get paid relatively well to do it, how could I complain?
That being said, I really try to separate the work from the workplace. I kind of take pride in being able to use what I learned in school and on the job to develop better systems. Design & Architecture are project agnostic, meaning even the stupidest web interface can have a thoughtful design and meaningful architecture.
So yeah, I might not like the environment, or the product itself, but I love the actual work that I do. I'm proud of it, and I work hard to do well, and that gives me meaning.
I can't say leave your job if you don't like it, because in all honesty not everyone gets to do what they love for a living. But what I would recommend is to find an aspect of your job that you do enjoy, and focus on doing that part more. For instance, if you prefer working on your company's SDLC instead of writing code, I know at a certain big name company we had 'Process Engineers' who's whole job it was to create a good process.
I've met very, very few people who like their first job. It's called "work" for a reason. People are paying you to do it because no one likes it enough to do it for free[2].
If you can get a job that fits you better, go for it. If not, make the best of it. Make time for something you love to do every day. Find interesting people at your company to learn from.
You said yourself that you rarely use your CS degree. Guess what? Programming for corporations is rarely a lofty, scientific endeavor. It's quick, dirty, and has far more to do with people than it does with technology.
Eventually you'll be experienced and respected enough that you can move more toward what you want to do. There are more scientific/tech-focused startups that would be closer to what you studied in college. For now, you just need to "pay your dues" -- show people you excel at things even when you don't want to do them and that you can do it with a smile on your face.
1. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/on-leadership/wp/2013/10...
2. The FOSS movement could be described as "people who like programming enough to do it for free" but few people at corporations are doing what they do. They're applying generic technology to specific applications.
I left a prestigious PhD program in math after 4 years in part due to disinterest (and the other part being complicated personal issues), and enlisted in the Marine Corps Reserve - life in the military gives you appreciation for just about anything else. It was hard finding regular work, but after spending some time teaching myself how to code & build websites, I lucked into the field. I was just thankful enough for finding a job with a career track.
For me, dialing back my personal expectations of doing a high cloud in the sky accomplishment helped me become happy with my life.
Perhaps this is what is causing you to not like your job, although only you can answer this question.
I had a couple of jobs before this though & I didn't feel this way about them. I agree with others that I believe you have to trial different things before you find what it is that you truly want to do.
And for what it's worth, I don't really know that I use a whole tonne of my CS degree either, particularly in my day-to-day. Are you working as a developer now? I mean, not everyone that does CS, ends up as a dev, so I wouldn't be scared to try other roles. Having a technical background is a valuable foundation for any role really.
All that doesn't matter if the company is not a good fit for you and that's what I get from your post. You and the company (or at least what you're tasked with doing) don't mesh well.
No, its not the way life should be. Life is too short for you to be miserable at work. Most people don't actually enjoy their jobs, but it shouldn't be a chore either.