If You Don’t Love Your Job…

Today we’re talking about something that people don’t often talk about. What do to…

I’m a firm believer in “if you don’t love it, change it.” Obviously, you can’t change EVERYTHING in your life, but your job is something that you have a lot of control over changing. Now, you’re not going to love everything about your job, but if most days leaving you feeling satisfied, then you’re in the right place. If most days leave you feeling drained and unhappy, then consider that you might need a change.

I do speak from some experience here. This is my 9th year as an SLP, and I’ve held 4 different jobs in 3 different states. I’ve lasted the longest in my current position as a school-based SLP in Virginia (this is my 6th year with my district). Let’s back up. I did my CF through EBS Healthcare in a rural part of Maryland. Then I relocated to rural Pennsylvania for a year. When I first moved to VA, I worked in a nonprofit private practice. Some of the times that I moved was due to the location not being where I wanted. Other times, it was because I didn’t feel like it was a good fit.

You can make little changes if you don’t want to leave your position altogether. Maybe change to middle or high school if you’ve been in elementary in awhile. I can only speak from the standpoint of pediatric private practice and schools (not medical), but I do know people make the jump from one side to the other. I did do a hospital externship in grad school and actually really loved it, but it’s definitely a whole other skill set. For right now, with having a young child, the schools provide the kind of schedule that works best for our family. In the future, we’ll see.

Moral of my story is: life is too short to be unhappy at your job everyday. If you don’t love it, change it. Only you have that power!