I feel extremely lucky--I landed in a career I love right out of college. I repair wind instruments for a living, and it's satisfying in quite a few ways: >I constantly have to solve problems every day. I have decision trees that I run through, and am always refining them and establishing new ones. In the same vein, I encounter completely new problems on a regular basis, and have to solve them creatively. This is partially because I am still green (<5 years of experience), but even my mentors who have been doing this for 3-4 decades still see completely new problems fairly frequently. >I get to help people make music. Even though my own musicianship is covered in meters of rust, I am still meaningfully involved in making music happen. Perhaps most meaningfully, I help kids play (and hopefully learn to love) music. Even though kids are often little shits who bang up really nice instruments, I want them to have as few external barriers to success as possible. >I get to work with my hands. There's something satisfying about this that is difficult to describe. I get serious satisfaction from making something that can barely wheeze out a note into something that sings. There is definitely a fine degree of craftsmanship and aesthetic judgement that can be applied to the work, too. There are also tons of adjacent skills and bodies of knowledge that I can refine to make my work better--woodworking, metalworking, chemisty, toolmaking, the list goes on. Hell, I even plan to learn drafting and 3-D printing in the future. Plus, scheduling is flexible and I get to play with fire and acids all day. What's not to like?
Can I ask you something? I have a Selmar Mk VI Tenor that I want to sell. It's sat in a case for the more than a decade. I take it out and play it about once a year, the pads seem good, there is one spring that needs to be replaced. Should I get it reconditioned before I try to sell it? How much should that cost? Thanks if you have any thoughts.
Well, it's hard to say anything for sure without both seeing the horn in person and knowing the geographic area you are in--prices in the industry have no real standards, and fluctuate wildly depending on where you are. My first and most important recommendation is to take it to your local repairperson. If they are worth their salt, they will assess the instrument's condition honestly and for free. Not many of us are skilled at valuation for sales, but they should be able to tell you what it needs and how much it will cost. Try to get someone with at least a decade of experience in woodwind repair, if possible. The Mark VI is a quality horn, and will likely fetch a decent price even with a broken/missing spring (so long as you are up-front about it, of course). I personally would get it repaired before selling, though. If your assessment is pretty close and it only needs one spring replacement and some regulation work, it should cost very roughly between $45 and $85 (again depending on where you are). That said, horns sitting for a decade often need more than that, usually because of the age of the pads (or if they have been eaten by bugs). A full repad of a tenor (sometimes a necessity in these cases) will almost definitely run north of $350 and sometimes $600 or more. Again, an assesment by a trusted technician in person is the best way to understand what your horn needs. It should only take a few minutes for a good technician to make an accurate assesment. I hope this was helpful in some way, and good luck on the sale!
Very few, sadly. But I do appreciate that I've developed a reputation among my office as someone who knows what he's talking about, and I would say that I'm taken seriously (in a good way). I like the idea behind my job (I work for the federal disability system), but unfortunately have too much exposure to how the sausage is made to appreciate it much beyond that. Still, I recognize that, flawed though it is, it's still a net societal good.
It's almost certain that you've handled a package that meant something really special to someone, the kind of thing they'll never forget.
Generally speaking, I find meaning in doing what I’m good at on a problem that matters with an impact that’s significant. Recently, I’ve singlehandedly progressed some of my product development projects which I find both enthralling and meaningful. I also like it when I can jump in and save the day with some useful perspective, analysis or insight. This week for example I calculated the degree to which social housing is fragmented, which’ll be used for a national strategic policy document on sustainable social housing renovations. I think that’s pretty cool.
"Meaningful". Interesting. I write sales proposals for a living (right now). That means I am selling highly technical products to a non-technical audience, whose decisions are going to be publicly scrutinized and (possibly) questioned. So I need to help these people get their head around our technology, and I have to do it on 8.5x11-inch paper, in "book" form; pictures and text. And I have to be heard through the noise of the 30-odd other proposals they have gotten from other vendors, of lesser integrity and quality. So I need to gently educate them - without being condescending - about a technologically complex product line, with a lot of potential add-ons and features that can be combined in a multitude of ways. Once in a while, as I am writing, I hit on a turn of phrase that is going to really resonate with them. See, I have the Word doc open in my left monitor, and their original request document on my right monitor. So I can see their phrasing... read between the lines... glean what their issues are that they want our product to solve. And something will flow from my fingertips, and I'll think, "I hope they don't skim this page, because that sentence is really going to help them out..." --- Of course, I just interviewed for a new job today... and - holy shit - if I get this role, this job will answer this question in completely amazing and inspiring ways... fingers crossed...
It’s always nice to have a sense of purpose in your work. But francopoli‘s comment got me thinking: the value of the education you invested in shouldn’t be the job you have now. That value is only inherent to your experience being educated, and what you carry away from that experience. The job you got afterwards is usually a result of much more significant variables than your schooling. So when it comes to aligning your job with your passions, I think it’s more important to ask, “What aspects of your life outside of your jobs are meaningful?” When you get off work, what are you doing with the life-hours you haven’t already given to the company and your self-development? What are you spending that capital on and what is it worth to you? I can’t generalize on this but personally, a lot of my free time, aka my time to actually live my life outside of work, is wasted on unpacking, or preparing for the next day. That is not a meaningful way to live a life, I just happen to not be concerned because my circumstances are temporary.
You used "meaningful" in your question. Not "rewarding" or "valued" but "meaningful." What I find most meaningful is the productive interactions with colleagues and coworkers. Nothing successful at work comes in a vacuum. It takes input and action from a wide range of people with a wide range of backgrounds and wide range of lives outside of work. I'll have to remember this next time I interview for a job. It sounds like a great line, and I mean it. "Productive interactions" isn't just some specific work thing, either. It's the friendly chat around the water cooler. Working well together is more than just everybody doing their work task.