<p>I learned that lesson this summer. Right now, I’m interning at a company. And, I hate this job, I hate coming to work, I hate being in the building, I hate everything about it. I took this internship as a way to get my feet wet. I’m still in High School, so the money I’m making here is a lot for my age. The first week, I was happy since it was my first job. By the third week, I was saying to myself “this sucks, but I’m getting good money”, I used that to push myself. The job ends Aug. 20th, and I have no motivation anymore to stay here. Yes, I learned a lot of business skills, and met a lot of great people. But, the work I do and other people do really sucks. I have one week left, and I’m miserable. So, I learned a life lesson this summer. Never sell your happiness for money, cause your gonna be miserable. This job actually pushed me to want to be a surgeon since I love that career, and would do it even if the pay was little. </p>
<p>You parents always have great advice. What ways can I motivate myself for one more week? And have any of you been in the same predicament?</p>
Try looking at your workplace from a new angle, or think about something other than the direct object of the tasks at work. For example, if there is someone who has a bad habit that bothers you – make a bet with yourself over how many times they will do whatever it is that annoys you over the course of the day. Or imagine that you are the boss and you have to pick out 3 people to fire – think about which 3 you will choose and why. </p>
<p>I’m saying this because you are out of there in a week anyway, so you might as well play mind games to entertain yourself. Of course you should continue to do your work and act normally to everyone around you – they can’t read your mind and that’s part the joke you are playing to amuse yourself.</p>
<p>I’m not quite sure the pay for a surgeon is litte? 550K + a year? Anyways I couldn’t agree more. If your doing something you hate find something you like. Fortunatly I love my job :). But tbh I hated working for the first year, not because the job was so bad but because I was lazy. I wanted to go outside and play with my friends instead of work. But look now, I’ve got a 13k bank account all from working. :)</p>
<p>It is great to learn from experience. Sometimes what you learn is that there is no way you want to do a certain job for the rest of your life. </p>
<p>When I was in college, I wanted to be Phil Donahue (talk show host before Oprah). I worked in one of the two university owned commercial TV stations in the country. What did I learn? I did not want to spend my life working with the ultra-competitive personalities that fill TV stations. Hmmm. So try to figure out specifically what it is that you do not like about your job. Is it sitting at a desk? Is it repetitive? Are you working with the public? What specifically is wrong? Tuck what you have learned about yourself in the back of your mind to use when choosing future jobs. Knowing what you don’t like is almost more important than knowing what you do like. AND, you can stand on your head for a week. Hang in there and leave on good terms.</p>
<p>Be happy that you have the brains and other assets that allow you to select a career based on what makes you happy. Most people in the world – including many in this country – don’t have that option. They have to work any job that will put food on the table and to take care of their families. This includes highly educated people in the U.S. who – do to the economy – are working jobs that they hate.</p>
<p>One of my friends is an Ivy-educated surgeon who hated her job. Until she could find a new one – which took a couple of years – she was stuck going to work every day at a place that she loathed. </p>
<p>So, be thankful you’re getting good pay and have only one more week to have to endure working a job you don’t like.</p>
<p>I have never hated the place that pays me $$. I do not work for just $$, but $$ is big part of it. I do not want to ask government to support me or my family, I want to support myself. </p>
<p>It is good that you feel that way about something while still in HS. Now you can cross off this type of job from your future and try something diff. Always look positively, you discovered something with minimum efforts / expenses, you are actually were paid to make this personal discovery. Great experience!</p>
<p>MD Mom’s advice is good. The realities of jobs and occupations can differ quite a bit from what we perceive a job is like. I’ve worked a number of jobs that seem similar, but for different organizations, and truth is, it’s rare that you’ll find the perfect job. Sometimes it’s a matter of fit and environment - you have the skills, but for some reason are uncomfortable working with a particular group of people. Other times you may be uncomfortable because you’re out of your depth and finding your feet in the beginning, but you might find that after a while you learn and start to enjoy the job. </p>
<p>Even among similar jobs in the same industry, you might find some differences that make one job a dream job and another one a nightmare. It’s not enough to say “I hate this job, and this job means doing X, therefore I hate all jobs where I have to do X.” It makes a huge difference if you know what negative aspects of a job you can live with, and what negatives are deal-breakers.</p>
<p>Use this experience to become a more compassionate person. There are millions of people out there who are not working at their dream jobs; some people have simply horrible jobs. Many people have no other options.</p>
<p>In addition, there are many parents who are working jobs they hate because they want to pay for their kids’ college education. I know many parents who are doing this including parents who as a result of the stress are having health problems.</p>
<p>Adding that there also are many young people who are helping pay for their college education by working jobs they hate. Although I came from a middle class background, I did this, including cleaning a woman’s house, working in a factory, and working 60 hours a week (clerk in a noisy factory; cashier in a store) the summer before college.</p>
<p>My shy younger son just finished a summer of working at minimum wage as a customer service representative – being on the phone for hours each day. He hates being on the phone with strangers, but he needed the money for college. He knows he was lucky to get any summer job in our city.</p>
<p>Most high school students certainly aren’t able to work high paying internships anywhere – even at places that they don’t enjoy.</p>
<p>Most jobs are not fun, and I bet your job is better than any other job a teen would likely get. Think about this - would you rather be working at a McDonald’s or washing dishes at a restraunt?</p>
<p>I also bet that you got your job through connections. Most high school students don’t have the skills and experience to get paying internships of any kind. There probably were many other people with more skills and experience who would have been grateful to have the job, and may have desperately needed the money, but didn’t have the connections to get it. </p>
<p>With so many educated, experienced, people out of work, there probably would have been many far better qualified people for the internship that you got – if they had had the connections to obtain that job. Given the unemployment in this country, do you really think that a company’s best choice for a well paying internship would be a high school student?</p>
<p>I am right there with Northstarmom, missypie, curmudgeon, and others.</p>
<p>You are a young person who was in the enviable position to have a professional paid internship. I strongly suggest you humble yourself, be grateful for the position you were put in, and the opportunities it may afford you. If you were as miserable as you say, I might guess that your employer was aware of this and your reference may reflect as such. Adults in general, are a pretty savvy bunch.</p>
<p>There are a thousand of out of work, upper management executives with MBAs, that are trying to feed their families. I’m sure they would have gladly taken your job, worked double the hours, doing twice the work, and accepted half the pay. THAT’s the reality of todays job market.</p>
<p>Unless the job is something illegal or immoral, your attitude is not going to serve you well in the new economy. Do not expect it to change soon.</p>
<p>RE: What ways can I motivate myself for one more week. This is really quite easy. Spend the evening serving meals and helping at a homeless shelter. Listen to people, find the humanity. Realize these are hardworking people who have had a series of things happen, they are not lazy. They may have once stood in your shoes, young, eager, bright, perhaps arrogant. See what hunger looks like. THEN feel bad about your cushy job for another few days…</p>
<p>Even as professional engineers who own a firm, my husband and I are taking jobs that we would not have accepted in the past. We’re also not getting paid as much for our work.</p>
<p>My grandfather got a master’s degree back in 1920 or so. During the Depression, he went house to house, selling eggs. I try to remember that whenever I feel like complaining about my job.</p>
<p>From your previous posts, I’ve learned that you’re a high school student with about an 83 gpa who is interning at one of the world’s largest professional services firms. You even flunked a course earlier in high school.</p>
<p>Instead of complaining about your job, I strongly suggest that you count your blessings for having the connections and luck to get a well paying job that you obviously didn’t get because of your skills or academic background. I also suggest that you take this opportunity to learn as much as you can about the work world because given your attitude and your grades, you aren’t going to go through life having people hand you nice opportunities like this.</p>
<p>I also second blueiguana’s suggestion that you spend time helping disadvantaged people like the homeless. In fact, i think that regularly volunteering at something like a homeless shelter would open your eyes to many valuable things including how lucky you are and what you need to do to make it in this world.</p>
<p>I know a young woman who said that the turning point in her life was when she was a teen and her mother made her volunteer one day at a place that offered a free dinner. When she went to the place, there were people --including families with kids – lined up around the block to get a dinner that consisted of two hot dogs in buns and a scoop of potato salad. She got to serve people who were very grateful for the kind of food that she thought was no big deal.</p>
<p>After a while, she was told to give people only one hotdog and one bun because the food was running out. Finally, the food ran out. People were still waiting. She went to her supervisor and asked what to do. When she learned that there was nothing to do but send the people home without food, she burst into tears. Never before had she realized how lucky she was.</p>
<p>Maybe you can find some inspiration in this story about homeless college students:</p>
<p>here’s the very real lesson you learned this summer - how most grownups feel about the job they have to do in order to pay their own bills. “The first week, I was happy since it was my first job. By the third week, I was saying to myself “this sucks, but I’m getting good money”, I used that to push myself.” i think the happiest most people are at work is when they’ve given notice at their current job, but haven’t started the new one yet. there’s a very real limit to the amount of fun and fulfillment you can expect to have from most “jobs”. as for motivation, abraham maslow’s need hierarchy theories are very enlightening - google it.</p>
<p>I think of my grandfather. He came to this country as a teenager and worked in the same factory doing hard work for 30+ years. He got up early everyday to be to work on time so that he could make in a life in country where his daughter could get an education and not have to work in a factory. And I am his lucky grandaughter. </p>
<p>I think about those still working in factories, those who would give anything for a job in a factory, those who would do anything if it would mean food, safety, better for their children.</p>
<p>If you take those kinds of thougts and try to use them to guilt-trip yourself, they don’t work and I think it dishonors others. I take these thoughts and center myself. It gives me clarity, purpose, graditude and motivation. It forces me to stop outside of my self-inflicted sorrow and look at things with fresh eyes.</p>