Do you have a passion for what you do and when did you know that your career was the right one for you?

I have a passion for most of what I do, but the job I have now is not what I want my career to be – I am good at what I do but I would rather be a college professor and it’s not something I always wanted to do but I realized somewhere along the line that I was always teaching.

It’s not so much a passion for my career as it is an aptitude. The software engineering industry has changed drastically in the 20+ years I have been in the game.

Fortunately, I do have a passion for the several out of the main stream hobbies I enjoy, so it all balances out.

I am a pre-IB student, I just started like 1 month ago, I enjoy it especially math and sports. Social Studies I think is a little too hard for me. But yeah I’ll let you know what my passion is later on in life when I have one and am doing it or doing something that has to do with it :P

I have a definite passion for what I do… Sadly the realities of my profession often overshadow that.
I knew as a young child that I’d be a politician, stand up comedian, or a teacher…which are all kinda the same, really.

I’m a student. I do have passion for being a student. I love getting straight A’s and enjoy being home schooled. I don’t know as far as jobs go what I want to do yet though.

I find that the “career” is not the task itself but how you navigate through life.
There is always something new and things change. Sometimes at a moments notice.

The passion is that of preparedness for what lies ahead.

I knew exactly what I wanted to do since 11th grade and I’ve never looked back; I’ve been happy with my choice and it’s been good to me.

@ChazMaz “The passion is that of preparedness for what lies ahead” – excellently put.

I have a passion for what I do. I thought about becoming a nurse when I was a teenager after seeing what the nurses did for my aunt and grandfather when they had cancer. Not only were the nurses great to them, they were great to us (their family) when visiting and when they would see us outside of the hospital. I didn’t go into nursing right away though because I went into the Army instead.

A few years after getting out of the Army, I decided to go to nursing school. I have always loved helping other people. Once I started my nursing clinicals, I was hooked.

The moment I knew 100% without a doubt that I was in the right career was after an incident with one of my patients shortly after I started working in the hospital. It’s really hard to describe how it felt. The patient was a doctor that was in for an infection. While I was caring for him one day he became disoriented and aggressive. Since it was completely unlike him, I checked everything I could (vitals, blood sugar, full assessment). His vitals were all abnormal and his temperature was up to 106. I immediately focused on cooling him down and got my charge nurse to get his doctor. We gave him some medicine and basically gave him an ice bath of sorts right in his bed to get his temperature down We ended up transferring him to another unit (a higher level of care than I was working at the time). I didn’t leave his side from the moment it started until I took him to the other unit. It turns out he had become septic. A few days later, he came back to our unit. I wasn’t his nurse that day, but I went in to say hi and see how he was doing. His son was in visiting. He introduced me to his son (also a doctor) as the nurse that saved his life. At the time, I wasn’t thinking about anything like that, I was just focused on doing what I had to do. It hadn’t really dawned on me that I was actually saving him at that moment. When he said it, I was speechless.

Moments like that are why I do what I do. It doesn’t even have to be that big of a moment. It could be the moment I see a patient walk for the first time after knee surgery or the moment a patient checks their blood sugar for the first time after a new diagnosis of diabetes. Those moments are wonderful and make all the bad sides of nursing completely worth it.

@Seaofclouds Wow. That is a very nice, very beautiful story. Kind of sums up a great definition of passion in a very small amount of space.

School has killed all the passion I had for my career.

@J0E That really sucks.

I like what I do. It was a natural choice, given my talents. If I had been more of a dreamer, I would have wanted a greater scope—architect or [possibly] filmmaker. Yes I work in the arts. I am a designer.

My uncle was a well-known newspaperman, and I adored him. When I was around 10 he told me I wrote excellent letters (he lived in another state) and that I should be a writer when I grew up. Thanks to his encouragement, I taught myself how to use a typewriter (and later the computer), took writing in school, got my first grown-up job at 19 working for a newspaper, then a magazine, then ad agencies, then technology compaines… always doing, at least as part of my job, what I wanted to from the beginning.

As a kid I always said that I would never forget what it was like to be a kid and would never be an old curmudgeon. I began babysitting (and worked at day care centers) when I was a teen and young adult, then went to college and got an undergrad in Education, specializing in Special Education. I learned quickly that I did not want to teach. Large groups of kids in a controlling, restrictive environment, not my thing…. But I was stuck, I had just graduated and was being set free in the big, bad world.

So I began working as a receptionist at a crisis center. That’s when the seas parted and I just knew. I had met a play therapist there are decided to go back to school. I love, love, love play therapy.

That’s not exactly what I do now- now I work in the homes and communities of youth who are considered to be “delinquent”. The passion is not there, because I often get pulled down in the bog. However, I have seen families turn around completely and that really does make it all worth while.

In the mean time I am working to get a private practice started and hope to get a different full time job. My personality has totally changed (I feel myself becoming quite curmudgeony) since doing the in-home work that I currently do (I often drive home in tears or just angry with the world-hubby has noticed too…) but my passion is still there enough for me to not give up on the field….just need to find a different route. I tried to quit, but retracted my resignation after I figured out health insurance would be on my own. I was all ready to take the private practice plunge….but didn’t work out. I am also counseling individuals, couples, kids, families, and groups part time in hopes of growing it into a full time job. Writing this all out has been quite therapeutic in itself, thanks!

I took a basic electronics course when I was about 10 and found my calling. I would rig up all kinds of control circuits from parts I salvaged. My grandmother was afraid to come into my room because doors and windows opened automatically but I didn’t pay too much attention to electrical safety. Since I lived 300 miles from the ocean, I was also fascinated by ships and the ocean. So I became an electronics technician in the Navy, the perfect job.

Of course my first computer was built from a kit, the I learned about control systems in engineering school.

I can truly say that for the last 50 years, I have done exactly what I wanted to do (with some brief periods with people shooting at me). I now work with industrial control systems and now my ocean trips are for pleasure although I would like to get my hands on the new control systems on the ocean liners.

I have enjoyed a varied work career, from a stage magician assistant, a tour guide, an accounting clerk, an event planner, child care worker and home schooler.

My favorite job is wife, mother, grandmother and homemaker.

@YARNLADY being a grandparent is a great job. We get to play with the kids, our children forgive us for making a mess, and we can give the grand kids back to their parents when they get too wound up. Fun with the kids and a little pay back, a win win situation.