I [30M] am well educated with masters in business administration and consider myself quite competent at doing medium-to-difficult tasks. Before this, i ran my business where I made good money but it didn’t last long and i had to quit and find another job.
A few months ago i got a role in insurance. It’s a decent career, very stable (or atleast what everyone i meet here say) and career projection is quite predictable. Salaries aren’t the best early-on but similar to banking jobs and grow rapidly as you gain experience in the industry. But my role doesn’t require a lot of thinking. 3 months into training i think i know enough to hadle almost anything, there’s no useless meeting, no unreal expectations; just formatted role where you are supposed to meet some people, call some numbers, advice on insurance coverages and stuff, crunch some numbers here and there and maintain good paperwork.
I like it to so far. This is polar opposite of what i did before when i ran my business. I was always on toes, always pushing myself more, much more stress and longer hours of work.
But a lingering thought in my mind is that i’m probably becoming complacent and selling myself short. I can achieve more, push myself further in a more stressful role. I’m not sure how valid these thoughts are. Is anybody here that can give me a different perspective? Would you switch your more “thinking” job for a less thinking job?
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I used to be an insurance claims adjuster, chef, teacher, and so on. I’m smart enough for many good jobs. I build wind turbine blades now. It’s stress free and takes minimal intellectual power. Pay is decent and benefits are awesome. I work on my passions in my free time. It works for me. Sometimes a job is just a job. It doesn’t need to be your dream.
I’m “not paid to think,” and it’s grand.
I’m super productive because I’ve been doing the same thing for over a decade, and I’m considered an SME by just about everyone, but I just make the keyboard noises and get paid.
It’s WAY better than driving a trash truck downtown in August or having 5 useless meetings a day.
As a master electrician I recently took a self choice demotion. I was working way too hard for way too little and no room to move up and honestly zero interest on taking on more responsibility for a small pay bump.
I work 40 hours a week. In and out. I still run crews but on the field level. Ain’t nobody got time for bullshit meetings and ego stroking competitions. I get to do my work as best as I can and leave at the end of the day without worrying about a hundred other things for the next day.
I actually feel like I get paid more because of the time I’ve gained back in my personal life.
Use your brain power for something you enjoy, like reading complicated and complex books.
That what i do 🤷
I don’t understand why, and it is usually Americans, anyone would attach so much self worth to their jobs. The answer to this is really quite simple, if you enjoy the job and it pays you enough then great – use that pay to spend on things that make you happy. If the answer is no, then seek a different job or more money. But this middle ground of I enjoy it but feel like I should be doing more for.. reasons, nah – forget that.
You should see work as being for the purpose of funding the things you enjoy and your lifestyle, nothing more, nothing less. You won’t be remembered for what you worked as when you’re gone, but you might well be for the life that you led.
Use that recovered brain power for Self improvement. What parts of You have been neglected due to the mental energy you used to give your employer?
“Push myself further”
It’s work to live not live to work. You’re looking at the wrong place for purpose.
If it allows you to live and doesn’t make you miserable, it’s ok to settle for a job below your abilities.
If my job was more menial labour instead of thinking more, then I would probably take the time to pursue thinking things outside of work. Like joining a RPG group where I can utilize my skills there.
Min maxing a character build, help with inventory management of loot, maybe even starting my own group where I can do more to character develop NPCs, etc.
You could always keep the role and apply your intellect more in other endeavors that interest you.
I have a job that makes me think day in and day out on how to solve what are mostly new problems (as in, at my company, not like interesting frontier work). I’ve had periods where I deeply deeply resented it. In a job where you’ve mastered things and it becomes more routine, your mind is free to do whatever you want. You can think about the ideas that interest you. This isn’t the case in a job where you’re constantly being posed new problems to solve that demand your full attention. I can feel a bit like intellectual enslavement.
If you’re got your career and finance situation sorted, that leaves you free to extend yourself to find your edge in other domains. You could dive into fitness or sport (get involved in club membership and coaching), learn a language with the intent of taking a year to live in some foreign place, challenge yourself socially by going to random social events every night, volunteer, start paying closer attention to local body politics and get more involved.