I think about my current job at USC and, to be honest, I’m not miserable, which is really good. I think about what work is really supposed to do for the average person, and it’s not really that much, actually. For most people, it’s just a means to support a livelihood. However, for those who aspire toward something more, it takes a certain level of rebelliousness to actually enter a profession where you’re actually getting enjoyment out of: people don’t pay you to have fun. That’s for sure.
Yet, I think about my current postdoc at USC, and I actually genuinely like my coworkers. All of them are international students in the engineering field and aspire to become doctors, so they are highly intellectual to a certain extent. Another thing I really like about this job is its creative component: the work is highly flexible. I can sort of take a break whenever I want, so long as there’s no meeting that I’m missing in the middle. This way, it’s a very unstructured form of work in the sense that you are good as long as you get your work done. This type of employment is relatively rare, I would like to think. At most sites, I imagine people are being micromanaged. That’s certainly the case in healthcare, unless maybe you’re in private practice.
This got me thinking again about how appreciative I am that I was able to make the difficult decision to leave medicine. I don’t think I could ever do a job where the work is based on shifts, where you just have to be at work at a certain time. That’s just too much pressure on a day-to-day basis. I don’t care how much I am being paid for that. Maybe it is time to count my blessings.
The Ivory Tower 
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