A lifer

I'm a Lifer!

To you, a job is what pays the bills. You put in your hours, follow the rules, and then go home. Occasionally, you consider quitting, but then you think of how bad the job market is and you reconsider. Whatever happiness you get, you get from your life outside the workplace. Relationships, family, hobbies, and outside creative pursuits are what really matter to you. You're probably taking this test at work because you don't have anything better to do.

Talent: 33%
Lifer: 56%
Mandarin: 46%

Take the Talent, Lifer, or Mandarin quiz.

So, I took the quiz that Shell blogged about a few days ago. Looks like I'm a lifer and I can't strongly dispute the assessment. While I do enjoy my job and the people I work with, I can definitely agree that I work to provide me a means to do the other things I want in life. A friend at work and I were talking about changing careers to things that better matched our hobbies. We came to the realization that, if we did so, they would go from being hobbies that we enjoyed doing to be work that had to be done. I enjoy my (very) amateur photography as a hobby and I improve my skills as I can. I don't think I would enjoy it nearly as much if I was forced to meet deadlines for projects or try to self market for work. I'm sure it probably also has to do with my main job, while involving lots of creative thinking, is strongly technically focused and art. At the end of the day, I'm an engineer, not an artist. And I work as an engineer so that I can afford to go on trips with my family, take my kids to the pool, and soccer, and the park, and to insure that they will have a good education and the opportunities for a good life for themselves. Well, except for my son - with his arm, he's going to have to be a professional baseball pitcher so he can support Momma and Me in our golden days :-)