Job Satisfaction Guaranteed?

CNN.com had a piece from CareerBuilder.com about the top 10 job prospects for Non-Profits. The growth numbers they cite apply to “advocacy, grantmaking and civic organizations field and administration is still the place to be salary wise.

I was rather amused at the opening lines of the piece-

“Do you feel your contributions in the workplace are overlooked? Are you consistently swamped with work at the office, but still feel empty when the week ends? At the end of the day, are you ashamed of what you’ve accomplished and how you reached the end result?”

Except for the bit about how you reached the end result, I think I am safe in saying that even non-profit people feel this way about their jobs. Though for non-profit people, the shame at the end of the day is more over how little you have accomplished in relation to what needs to be done.

Working in non-profits bestows no special grace that eliminates these feelings but they certainly may be offset with a greater feeling of satisfaction than you had in your for-profit job.

Just in case you are curious to compare some salaries, CareerBuilder also did a list of the top jobs in 10 industries back in February.

About Joe Patti

I have been writing Butts in the Seats (BitS) on topics of arts and cultural administration since 2004 (yikes!). Given the ever evolving concerns facing the sector, I have yet to exhaust the available subject matter. In addition to BitS, I am a founding contributor to the ArtsHacker (artshacker.com) website where I focus on topics related to boards, law, governance, policy and practice.

I am also an evangelist for the effort to Build Public Will For Arts and Culture being helmed by Arts Midwest and the Metropolitan Group. (http://www.creatingconnection.org/about/)

My most recent role was as Executive Director of the Grand Opera House in Macon, GA.

Among the things I am most proud are having produced an opera in the Hawaiian language and a dance drama about Hawaii's snow goddess Poli'ahu while working as a Theater Manager in Hawaii. Though there are many more highlights than there is space here to list.

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2 thoughts on “Job Satisfaction Guaranteed?”

  1. I saw this piece, too, and it made me laugh. Reminds me of a column by a business writer some years ago that advised moving into the nonprofit sector if you wanted a “kinder, gentler” career with less stress and reasonable hours!

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  2. Here there be burnout

    Two days, two depressing posts. First Butts in the Seats quoted an article about job prospects in non-profit organisations, which began:Do you feel your contributions in the workplace are overlooked? Are you consistently swamped with work at the office…

    Reply

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