How important is money and your career to you?

[ringmastery]

Are you the type of person who will do anything to get ahead in your career and work those 70+ hour weeks and sell your soul to the corporate devil to get rich or are you content with putting in your 9-5, 40 hours a week, without caring too much about career advancement, as long as you have a stable income and time for other interests and a social life?

[La Lioness Priyanka]

1. i work 60 hours

trying to not loose a job in this economy!

[ihaveaquestion]

4. 8 to 5 every day!

I don't work overtime anymore. I tried it once, but got nowhere with the brass. They just seemed to expect more and more.

I still got a bonus and a raise (a small one) anyway.

[wryter2000]

2. Stable income

I don't ever want to live without enough money again. (Thank you, Ronald Reagan :mad:.) Other than that, I don't care about money. However, my writing "career" is important to me because I love it. It sure doesn't bring in the $$$.

[trotsky]

3. I work to live, I don't live to work.

Along those lines, it's been said that no one on their deathbed wishes they had spent more time at work. I try to let that guide my career decisions.

So I guess I fit more into the latter category.

[mopinko]

10. so they say, but

i bet a lot of moms, on their deathbeds, look around and regret their choices. giving up a career altogether is maybe not a part of the continuum here. and i am grateful to not want. but i think my family would be more balanced right now with the whole work thing more evenly distributed.

[trotsky]

11. That is true, too.

Guess it's best when people get to decide for themselves, period!

It would be nice, also, if society could truly respect those who view their job as just a job and don't want to sacrifice everything to get ahead. I don't know if I've ever been in a workplace where that's true. There is always pressure to come in early, stay late, and work on the weekends. Phooey.

[Blue-Jay]

5. I have a steady job that I don't-quite-hate and a ton of job security.

It pays the bills, and affords me the free time that I need to be a part-time musician. That said, I'd quit in a New York minute if a better gig showed up.

[grannylib]

6. Work to live...when I can get work, anyway *lol* I am loyal and dedicated

and will put in those long hours when they are truly essential, but so often they are just urgencies that are not truly important, and they stem from a fundamental misunderstanding of how to manage your time/business.

[TlalocW]

7. Very important

Of course, I'd love to be filthy rich, but a steady healthy income is more than enough. The career part is more important because I really enjoy my chosen profession (computer programming), and I'm not happy and oftentimes easily put to sleep when I'm not doing it - like right now, I'm in training for tech support at a company because the Bush economy has destroyed programming jobs (along with just about every other kind).

TlalocW

[MercutioATC]

8. 40 hours per week..I get overtime for more than that..

I occasionally accept overtime when it doesn't interfere with my schedule (midnight shifts).

It's not worth more than that to me....

[pagerbear]

9. Career--feh! Money--you betcha!

I don't need to live a glamorous lifestyle, but being able to pay my bills and eat out when I want to and go on vacations and donate to charities (OK, I should do much more of that) is a good thing. All the same, I wasn't any less happy (at least not about money) when I was a secretary and my income was less than half what it is now.

[Feanorcurufinwe]

12. I work so I can eat, feed my dogs and pay my mortgage.

Twenty hours a week and it's still too much if you ask me.

[Drifter]

13. Money means everything

to my new hobby ... Georging

http://www.WheresGeorge.com

This is my profile
http://www.wheresgeorge.com/user_profile_popup.php?ukey=7f0cf28c270ee2c05dc4af6de3d8a886

Oh, as for the topic of this post. I am not too concerned about career advancement. Steady income is what I m after. Right now I am lucky. I have a great job that I love.

Cheers
Drifter

[skippysmom]

14. Career -- important; money -- less so

I worked for several years in the museum field and absolutely loved what I did. However, the field isn't doing so well thanks to the Bush economy, so when a job offer in a museum was rescinded two weeks before I was supposed to start due to financial problems, I had to take a state job. The work is mind numbing, and I don't have nearly enough. So I'm really bored, and spend most of my time surfing the net or daydreaming about going back into museums.

As for money, sure, I'd love to make more. But doing something I like is much more important. Hubby and I are lucky to have no debt but our mortgage, so we have lived pretty well with our creative jobs.

[ZenLefty]

15. Money doesn't buy you happiness

But neither does poverty (believe me, I know). I have a pretty good work ethic and do what I can to make our company successful, but I don't kill myself over it.

[supernova]

16. Meaningful employment

is my goal. For me, meaninful work is part of the examined life that Emerson touted. The chance to stimulate my mind with work that is useful to the community at large is my goal. So you could say that's a "career."

As for money, I don't have to earn a lot, but enough to pay the bills, save a little for my old age and those that come after me, and pay for some amusements along the way is enough. I don't aspire to be Croesus.

Believe it or not, this was a poster I remember from one of my elementary school classes. It was part of a series of famous people talking about work. Even Marx said:

"I do not like to work. No man does. But I like what is in work: The chance to find oneself."

[NJCher]

17. ex-treeeeeeeem-ely important

I think work and money is very important. I only do the type of work that meets a certain criteria: it has to be socially useful (I think teaching college students to write qualifies) and it also has to be creative. My Web site design studio answers the latter but teaching can also be fun and creative.

I would never do just any type of work; it has to have some sort of "mission."

I find money is very important. It's essential to put my various creative projects into production. Like today, for example. I dreamed up two projects that will increase the value of my property by about $30 grand but the projects themselves will only cost me about $6 grand. If I couldn't scare up the money to do things like this, I think I'd die on the vine. Therefore, money is important--but just as important, there has to be a fun and interesting way to earn it.


Cher

[Nikia]

18. I want to advance in my career and pay

There is no where to go at my company for me until my boss retires in maybe 5-10 years, which I don't plan on staying around for. They'd probably hire someone else anyway because they are misogynistic dictators.
I haven't heard back from my psych exam interview for my potential better job. There were two other candidates. I really think I blew it. Thinking back on how it went, I think the psychologist will tell them that I won't be satisfied with the job and will want to leave in a few years because I will be bored and feel like I have nothing more to accomplish, that the company is too small and ordinary for a person like me. It doesn't matter that this potential job will be better than what I currently have. It sucks being ambitious, driven but with lousy job seeking skills and oppurtunities. For those job oppurtunities, I don't come off confident enough in the phone interview and there are usually candidates with more experience for a higher level job or willing to work for close to nothing for a lower level job with potential.
Maybe, I should think about graduate school again.