Is it Important to Love Your Job?

In an ideal world you would be doing a job you love, but this is not the experience of many people. Although there are some people who enjoy their job because it is challenging and gives them a sense of satisfaction; for other people a job is just a way of earning some cash so that they can afford to do what they want. For these individuals, it is the prospect of being able to enjoy themselves at the weekend that keeps them going. Everyone is different, though, and so there are those for whom money is not of primary concern.

It therefore depends on what kind of job you have and whether or not money alone is what keeps you turning up on time every day of the working week. Clearly, if you have invested quite a lot of time and money into gaining qualifications that will enable you to pursue a particular career, you want to end up with a job you love, rather than stuck in a factory packing goods into boxes. Likewise, if you have had an apprenticeship and developed specialist skills, you obviously want to be able to put these skills to good use, rather than being stuck in a dead-end job.

If you want to build a decent career, it definitely helps to love your job, because this will keep you focused on getting what you want out of it. If you hate your job with a passion, it is going to be a struggle to stay focused on doing everything necessary to achieve career success. If you loathe the work that is involved in your job, as well as the people you work alongside, it is obviously going to be a challenge to forge useful connections and to give your job 100 per cent of your effort. Thus, you may struggle with the pressure and the weight off expectation and discover that higher rates of pay are just not enough to keep you going.

However, at the other end of the spectrum, there are individuals doing unskilled, low-paid work who are content doing their job. They may be involved in providing a service and helping individuals, which makes them feel good about themselves. If you work with elderly or disabled individuals, you might not be paid very much and it can be stressful, but this may not bother you as much when you get a feeling of job satisfaction. Not all low-paid jobs come with job satisfaction, and many people just do these jobs because they don't require qualifications or experience.

At the end of the day, though, a job is a job and, whatever you do, it helps you to pay the bills and provides you with money to enjoy other things in life. Obviously, it is better to love your job than to hate it, especially since you probably won't get as stressed or depressed about your situation, but even if you don't like your job, there are people in a much worse position. You might hate your job, but at least you have a job and can still afford the essentials in life. Not everyone is that lucky, unfortunately, which is worth bearing in mind.

Why You Are More Likely to Procrastinate if You Have a Job You Hate

Procrastination can be a problem in the workplace, as it means workers are not doing as much work as they should be. When you're working alongside other people who are not doing their share of the work, it can be extremely frustrating, especially if you end up doing more than your fair share just to ensure a job gets done. However, most people have an inclination to procrastinate now and again, so that you could quite easily be the person guilty of this 'crime', particularly when you hate your job. If you hate your job, it is almost understandable why you would choose not to make any effort.

If you despise the people you work alongside, you may see no reason to go to trouble of completing the tasks that have been assigned to you on time and to a reasonable standard. As far as you're concerned, it isn't your problem if other people have to pick up the slack, because you'd rather be doing your own thing. The only problem with such an attitude is that you could soon found yourself without a job at all and you could struggle to get another one when you have to explain that you were fired from your previous job and are unable to provide a reference.

Even if you don't hate the people you work with and actually worry about not doing as much work as you should, sometimes it is just more fun to mess about. Indeed, there may be occasions when it is your workmates that actually instigate such procrastination. Instead of working, you may find yourself sitting around gossiping or sending each other silly messages, so that your mind is distracted from the work you should be doing. You don't necessarily need other people to help you procrastinate, though, when there are plenty of opportunities for procrastination that you can do all by yourself.

The Internet has a lot to answer for, because there are so many ways to waste your time without getting caught. When you're sat in front of a computer it probably looks to everyone else as though you're doing what you should be doing – working – which is why you can get away with procrastinating so easily. You can play games online, chat with friends on social networking sites, go shopping, read news headlines and generally search for useless information that you're never going to need to know. When the alternative is to get your head down and work, however, using your time in such a way might just seem preferable.

You can't procrastinate forever, though, because when you fail to turn in an assignment on time or you do not achieve what was expected of you, questions will be asked of your commitment to the job as well as of your competency. You may hate your job, but so do many people, and when there aren't many jobs around you don't always have the luxury of being able to choose. It is therefore important to learn to control any inclination you may have to procrastinate, so that you can actually get enough work done not to draw attention to yourself.

How to Land the Job You Deserve

You may believe that you deserve a high-flying, prestigious, lucrative job, but so does everyone else! You are never going to land the job you deserve if you're not prepared to work for it. Of course, it helps to have the right connections as well, but if you are talented and have skills that are very much in demand you should be able to get ahead in your career. It helps to devise a career plan early on and work out exactly what you want to achieve, so that you can stay completely focused on achieving your career objectives.

Indeed, to get closer to landing the job you deserve, you have to be prepared to knuckle down at school and take courses where you will obtain qualifications that will improve your employability. It makes sense to take courses which will enable you to pursue your chosen career, so that if you intend to become a surgeon, for instance, you will obviously have to study medicine for quite a number of years. However, even if you are not entirely certain what you want to do with your life, furthering your education by going to college or university will help.

By going to university not only will you have an opportunity to come away with a degree; you will also find that you can extend your network of associates who may be able to help you in your career later down the line. You can join lots of societies and associations where you will be able to develop your interests and meet like-minded individuals, gaining valuable experience in the process that will look good on your CV. You may decide to volunteer or take a part-time job so that potential employers will look upon you more favourably.

You're obviously not going to reach the heights of your profession right away, but then everyone has to start somewhere. At first you may have to be prepared to settle for something that is not quite what you want just so that you can keep gaining experience whilst earning some money. It is worth creating an error-free CV that you can send it to a host of different employers who will then decide whether to ask you for an interview. It is then up to you to make a positive impression on the people interviewing you until someone decides to hire you.

Once you have got your foot in the door you are then in a position to build relationships with the people you work with and take advantage of opportunities as they present themselves. This could lead to promotion and better pay and conditions. You have to be realistic, though, as you are unlikely to achieve success over night, especially if you are not prepared to work hard for it. Although you may believe that you deserve a high-status job that pays well, you have to recognise that if you do not have the necessary skills and experience to do the job you want, you will probably fail.