What was the Thing I Said?

I'm pretty sure it was yesterday or maybe the day before that I mentioned in my Comments that I have no intention of writing about work here. I mean, people have been fired for that sort of thing, right?

So today I decided that I would write a bit about work. But allow me to clarify. What I really would like to write about is my "career", not really my particular job at this moment. That's better, I think. I can draw a distinction there. In fact, my career is all about parsing words and finding distinctions. So this blog will do nothing more than prove to the world what a great lawyer I am. If any of my bosses are reading, maybe I deserve a raise?

I am an associate at a big law firm. I practice finance law. In particular, I draft and negotiate loan documents of various types. Fascinating stuff. You must want to know more. Don't worry - this blog is not intended to be a primer in finance law and I promise there won't be a test on any of this.

The problem is that I don't find the work all that interesting. Some people might think that no one would find that type of work particularly interesting. Those people are wrong. I know people and have worked with people who find this work interesting. People who can sit around on their lunch hours and discuss various permutations of contract provisions with actual excitement in their voices. I'm just not one of those people. There are times that something seems kind of new or different to me, and I enjoy learning new things, but the day-to-day work that I do really doesn't do anything for me. And I think that is a problem.

I wonder what percentage of people have found jobs or careers that actually excite and interest them. I know some of those people. Heck, Mike is even one of those people. He may not love every aspect of his job, and that is not what I would ever expect of any job anyway, but he believes in the company that he works for and he has found a job that actually blends his legal expertise with his interest in music and all things music-gear-related. That is pretty cool.

My other problem is that I don't have the sort of passion that Mike has for music for pretty much anything. At least not for anything that seems likely to lead to an alternative career for me. I mean, let's see here...

Things I like to do: play poker (mainly online out of necessity) and other games of all sorts, watch reality tv, paint (though I've done very little of that recently and I'm not a big art aficionado so most careers in the arts are out without some sort of additional education), socialize with friends, ...

[I'd go on, but really I'm not going to suddenly blurt out "and create and analyze financial models" or anything else that is going to lend itself in any way to my area of expertise. I've thought about this quite a bit.]

So what is the answer? And will I see it if I happen across it? Sometimes I think I should just quit what I'm doing. That out of necessity I'll figure out something else to do with myself. But will the something else be any more fulfilling to me? And is ennui a good enough reason to give up a reasonably lucrative career? Especially for something that most likely will pay substantially less. Unless I can become a reasonably successful drug or arms dealer, I guess. Or maybe an actress or a supermodel? (This was a joke. Maybe that was obvious, but I feel I must include the disclaimer because half of the population of LA has this sort of career aspiration.)

Please let me know if you have the answer for me. I have more to say on this subject. Heck, I haven't even had a chance to describe the joy that is the billable hour model. Though most of my readers at this point (other disillusioned (or maybe not-so-disillusioned) attorneys) have no need for a discussion of the various reasons why billing by the hour really, truly sucks.