I, INTP

Recently, being dissatisfied with my job, I used the Google to see if there might be something that would make me happier.  It is annoying to me to read these people saying ‘Just do what you love and the money will follow!’, because no one is going to pay me for eating potato chips while watching SportsCenter.  But could I find something tolerable?  Something that would at least get me out of bed in the morning?(1)
I used to be a Theatrical Sound Designer©, which had its good and bad points:

GOOD:

• Mostly flexible schedules.  Tech week, when the dress and final rehearsals happen, was always *very* inflexible, but otherwise as long as I showed up with the tapes, I could work when and where I wanted.
• Interesting people.  Theatre people are the best, particularly the tech people; I met a lot of great actors as well.  Intelligent (for the most part), culturally in touch, quick-witted, creative.
• Autonomy.  I was in charge of my own space, schedule (see above), and work methods.  Again, as long as I showed up with the tapes…
• For the most part, working alone.  I liked this.  I could always go and chat with the costumers or the box office folks if I wanted some company, but very rarely did anyone bother me.

BAD:

• Exceedingly low pay.  It’s definitely a profession for younger folks who don’t know much better, and are not paying a mortgage.
• Some very long hours.  Tech weeks could be over twenty hours each day, for more than a week.  Again, not something I would easily survive today.
• Personalities.  I ran into my share of folks who were God’s Own Gift To American Theatre; little did they realize how much everyone despised them, no matter how talented they were.  Get over yourself.

So, when I got married (first wife), I decided that I needed something more stable, more lucrative - after all, someday I want a family (maybe) and a house, and so on.  Since I have always been good around computers, I began with that, and found a startup company willing to give me a shot as a Software Tester.  Fourteen-plus years later, here I am, having learned a few things, tried out being a manager(2), bounced around as startup companies were shot out from underneath me(3).

The job I am in now is, well….
Yes.  It is very well.  A stable company, good people, no drama, and the highest salary I have ever made.  Yet, it has nothing to turn me on.  The project is ERP (business and financials), for which I have zero zero zero interest; the people seem to have grown up in a different culture than I did, because I am constantly having to explain my references (except for baseball ones); I am interested in learning something more technical, using those skills I picked up in those (expensive) classes, and yet I am mostly doing manual test.  Plus, since they have never used testers before, I am sometimes left out of the communications loop, and then feel like an idiot in meetings.  I hate feeling like an idiot.

So it is paying the mortgage certainly, there is almost no external stress, but I am not very happy.  Hence, the job search.  And with a small amount of Google, I ran into the Meyers-Briggs several times, so, I thought I would go ahead and try it out.



(1) I am not a ‘morning’ person, and never have been, even in childhood.  I have noticed, however, that it is much easier to get up on a weekend morning, even if I was up late (or drinking heavily) the night before.  My body seems to know what a drag a workday is going to be.

(2) Not going to be a manager again.  At least, not unless I had more control over it.  If I had my own company maybe… but there is just so much *human* crap that a manager has to deal with (e.g., asking an employee to start bathing, because there has been complaints).  There is probably another blog entry about this.

(3) Am I some kind of dotcom Jonah?  Four startups, all of them now distant memories in the annals of American business.  Each was a great solution looking for a problem.  Again, would probably make a good blog entry some day.