Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Do Gifted Love Their Job?

I'm surfing the net and came across this article by Mercury News Most Workers Hate Their Jobs or Have "Checked Out", Gallup Says

The poll states that those with a college degree are more likely to be running on "auto-pilot" at work.

Perhaps this is just that particular generation?

I know polls only take a snapshot (fuzzy one at that), but thought this would be a good way to start a conversation about how happy in general gifted people are in their chosen field of work.

This is timely, only last night I was wondering out loud if I would ever be satisfied working for someone else (my husband said yes, if I could find someone inspirational, smart, kind, courageous, capable, highly self aware and highly ethical - we agreed that such people no doubt exist but are likely few and far between ... so possibly not!)

I've had a relatively successful career, was a senior executive in the public service by the time I was in my late 20s, have consulted at a senior level for some years etc. I've worked with lots of smart people. But ... It is my intellectual and emotional OEs that get me into trouble. Even among my smart colleagues I rarely find people who are truly curious about the world, who are driven to make difficult choices and have uncomfortable conversations to orchestrate the best possible outcomes. I'm not talking about being an a@&hole, just the opposite, but being morally courageous, kind, speaking up in the face of obviously flawed consensus and so on.

I recently moved sectors and have gone from consulting to 9-5, to work with NGOs where at least my values are often shared. But I find the same thing - some people just as caught up in their egos (resulting a refusal to budge even in the face of sound evidence, refusing to hear those around them and working for them, loosing out on the chance to be better, avoid problems etc) - but this time with the sanction of doing good deeds. People who are brilliant advocates but who can't see that they also need to be good strategists, good leaders and managers if they want to create the best possible outcomes and stretch their limited resources as far as they can. People stuck ideologically rather than being willing to question, to investigate, to call out their own side's hypocrisy.

So yeah ... People being messily, imperfectly human has always been a stumbling block for me in my enjoyment of work!

I don't love mine, but to stick me in a box labeled "disengaged" would be silly. My level of engagement varies from day to day, and even moment to moment, depending on what I'm working on, and/or who I'm working with.

I feel the most engaged when the world is falling apart around me, but if I'm doing a good job those situations are few and far between, so there's a tension there where the better I'm performing, the less fun I'm having. Ho hum.

Also, the organization has a tendency to stop me from working on things I'd really like to. Once I was basically forbidden to start any new projects because I was going to be needed for a hot and heavy one coming down the pike... which didn't arrive for another 6 months.

Oh well. Engaged or bored, they both pay the same.

You're a fire fighter, Dude. Perhaps that is your real calling? (Hypothetically speaking, of course...consulting in your future?)

My career is tolerable. I'm relatively disengaged, although that might have more to do with a complete absence of goals in life at this point.

I picked law out of the "career vending machine" after spending five years in college doing pretty much nothing (technically, I played lots of computer games, read a lot of books, ate a lot of pizza, and slept a lot). I didn't really want to be in college, and I had no interest in engineering, but it was free.

Once I realized that there was no good outcome for me in engineering (particularly since it involved industrial chemicals) I spent three years in law school doing nothing, too (well, I again played a lot of computer games, including in Amy Chua's class), so there's pretty much a black hole in my life from 18 to 25, where I just kind of sat there disengaged from what I was doing.

I doubt that my approach to life is very common though.

In hindsight, I should have taken an active approach to college rather than a passive, "I'll just wait this out until I get a degree", approach.

No, because my top priority in life is my family, and work is just something I do to enable what I do with my family. Consulting requires flipping those priorities.

They're also my main motivator for keeping things boring at work, because usually when the world starts falling apart, it starts at 1:00am on Saturday.

I have some funding to lead a new small organization. I'm pretty happy right now. It's small but we like to think we do meaningful work.


Most of your post describes me very well. I choke on organizational politics. I. am. not. capable. in. that. regard.

I've discovered that I do best when I'm either on my own or working with a small number of other bright, intense people who also get stuff done.

I had a high-paying job from 2008 to 2011. The money was great, but the ossification of my brain was not. I used to dread going to work. I liked my coworkers and was quite happy in that regard. My boss was riding high on his ego and that was a problem, though. So was a large part of the work. By the last few months, I had to force myself to focus on one (large) segment of my work. IMO, employees (and especially gifties) need stimulation to stay happy and productive. It's a tragedy that many or most employers don't see that. It's a double tragedy when employers don't see that very bright people can thrive on problem-solving and on learning something new regularly, and that these traits can really boost an organization. My performance was best when I was spending around a quarter of my time doing new things or solving problems.

I would have been happy to plug away at the dull stuff if I'd been able to continue that way. But stuff got in the way.

This is very generalized, but it gives the basic idea.

I understand that. Family fulfillment vs. professional fulfillment. It's a call to be made individually.

My own husband has given up opportunities for advancement because he knew it would take time away from us. Time he wasn't willing to trade for money or personal interests.

It's true what they say: You can't have everything all the time.

Maybe family first, then personal pursuit, is really the definition of "having it all".

I worked as an economic researcher at a major think tank before a switching into management (strategy) consulting. I'm now a stay-at-home parent pursuing a different grad degree for fun.

The think tank was wonderful when I was allowed to chase down growth opportunities, but the drudgery of my day-to-day work necessitated a change. The structure was flat and there was little opportunity for advancement over the next 5-10 years. When I left, I had automated what was once a full work day into 20 minutes of effort. I met some wonderful, brilliant people there and have remained friends with about a dozen of my former colleagues. I would consider starting a competing organization. Average satisfaction: 7/10.

Management consulting is a fast-paced career, and I felt excited to work because every day involved about 50% learning. However, politics trumps expertise with clients, and often (almost always) our mandate is to be a mouthpiece for management. What is billed as a creative role is really white collar gofering. I also don't relish the aggressive travel schedule, which is quite incompatible with actually knowing your children. It's great for singles or divorcees, of which there are ultimately many. Average satisfaction: 6/10.

My current project is exploring the viability of founding a gifted elementary school for my son. Our gifted programming doesn't begin until 4th grade locally, which is unacceptable. With only 3 years to go until kindergarten, I'm climbing the learning curve. Although it's financially risky and obviously pays considerably below what I'd otherwise earn, it's a short-term project and exciting to think that this work could potentially directly benefit DS! Average satisfaction: 8.5/10.

Work has just as many problems as schools for the gifted in general. Start a job blow people's socks off by mastering it in short order and find out it's drudgery. Work to get great ideas into the company and end up spending all your time on managing the implementation. Take a mid level semi-creative job but can't keep the big picture contained and find you own too much. Politics? I've always just acted like it doesn't exist, and tada it has no effect on me.

And there is research supporting the premise http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.23...83&uid=63&uid=3739256&sid=21102338898471

Then the chicken and the egg aspect, is the very thing of looking for new things and improving things a key driver to intelligence in the first place?

Let's not even get introversion into the mix.