Fed up with work

Speedway

Hey everyone, wasn't sure if this should go in the job section really but i'm just looking for some advice or some suggestions really.

I graduated from college this summer just passed with a 1h1 IT/Business Degree. Really loved college, worked very hard and was really happy there.

I'm from Cork and I started work with a large company in Dublin about 2 months ago. It started well with a month of great training and travel and the money is great.

but i'm now working for a client and I'm bored stiff. My boss has no real work for me to do and I'm sitting idle a lot of the time. I'm trying hard to not let it get me down but after a month of it now I'm really getting fed up.
my boss apologised to me last week for finding it hard to keep me fed with work.

I'm just really feeling like this type of work isn't for me. I did a 6 month internship in Boston with a large IT company and I hated it, and thats whats worrying me about this position i'm in, it feels the exact same all over again. There's no atmosphere in the office, no bit of a laugh at all and the fact that i've no work to do makes the days drag so badly.

I don't know is it just bad luck again or is it just that I'm not cut out for this kind of environment. Like what I'm thinking is that I would love to work somewhere with a small team of people that are really passionate about their work and that I am interested in what I am doing. (like my dream job would be working for someone like Alienware working with a load of new IT technology etc but I know thats pretty pie in the sky)

I know work is work and its never really enjoyable but i'm only 23 and I don't want to be dreading work this much at this early stage of my life.
I'm just really worried that there might not be something out there for me to do with my interests and experience/education, I love computers (mainly hardware more than software) but I don't want to sit in an office for the rest of my life and be handed crappy boring programming work to do every once in a while)

I would love to be doing something more creative and more interesting and I'm just feeling a big fed up with it all.

echosound

You've only been there a month, stick it out a bit longer and see if your boss can give you more work in the future, it may be that just at the moment there's not much to offer you. Gain a bit more experience and your boss may feel comfortable about handing more work over to you when you're very au fait with the particular ins and outs of their business, might be they just don't want to pile on work you might not have enough experience for just yet, but will give you that work in the future.

While you have down time in work, could you work on brushing up on more skills? reading books/manuals relating to your field of expertise? Offer to help out someone else with their work to gain more experience in various fields? That might also be a solution to your problem with the lack of atmosphere if you're interacting with colleagues?

the problem with wanting to do something a bit more creative could be that you need to gain more experience in doing the gruntwork, we all have to do that, start at the bottom and work our way up to a more responsible/creative position. If you really can't stand it, start looking for another role and go for interviews while you're still working away in this role, and take the jump if something comes your way that you like the sound of. Easier to hold off for the right opportunity to come along if you're able to pay the bills and not be in a position where you have to take the first job offer that comes along.

I know you might not want to hear this either, but most work involves a little bit of boredom and not liking the work you're doing/preferring to do something a little more creative, no matter what industry you're in. Unfortunately this boring gruntwork has to get done, but this can be balanced with stuff you enjoy more too. You say you've just graduated, and you had a 6 month internship previously, so perhaps until now you've only been around enthusiastic people fired up about the work (ie other enthusiastic students, lecturers etc who are passionate about their interests) and now you're out in the workplace you are finding it's not all fun and roses. I don't mean to sound dismissive by that, but I've been through what you are going through now - you come out from college full of dreams and enthusiasm, aiming high and thinking you'll fall into a dream job immediately, but the regular day to day running of businesses can be boring and dreary in comparison, and no matter how good your degree you have to start at the bottom and gain experience doing the less fun jobs that others have already done, and moved up from to more creative positions with experience gained. Don't lose hope, you may get there in the end, but don't expect your first job out of college to be fantastic and exactly what you love, that will come in time to you.

Speedway

cheers echosound,really good post,thanks for taking the time to reply.

ya i think you're right in all you've said,and i think i know all those things already but its just very frustrating and hard to accept them.

i think its just a case of struggling through really.

echosound

Ah I know, work sucks when you're bored off your trolley It does get a bit better though, keep plugging away and you might get more work put your way that you enjoy, your boss is probably impressed with your initiative, and will give you more work as you progress. And as I said, no harm keeping an eye out for roles that you think you would like better and applying for them while you quietly gain your experience in the place you are now, it'll all count when you move on to bigger and better things!