I was listening to a show on the radio a little while ago that was talking about what's most important to people in terms of their job, whether it's how hard their boss drives them, how cool their co-workers are, or something else.  A former boss told me that the best jobs he's ever had have been when he's working for a boss that he really enjoys working for.  His belief was that the boss made all the difference.  I don't know if I agree with that idea.  I guess it depends on who I consider my boss to be.  In any given job, I usually have 3 or 4 levels of bosses, all of which have varying degrees of involvement in and impact on my daily working life.  If the boss in question is the person directly involved with giving me work to do on a daily basis, I would say it's extremely important that I like and/or get along with this person.  If there's a bad vibe there, I'll try to avoid this person or attempt to get a job with someone else.  But if the boss in question is one of the other levels of bosses, it hardly makes a difference to me if I like them or not.  My interaction with them usually consists of corporate formalities created to give each of us raises.  These bosses need to "rate" me on my "performance" (which they haven't directly observed so can only give a second-hand opinion), and they need me to "rate" their "performance" as "managers" (were all those quotes necessary?).  It's all just a stupid little game created by some dudes in a Lean Six Sigma blah blah MBA class. 

My relationships with co-workers aren't usually very important to me either.  I think that's based on two things:  (1) I don't go to work to make friends, and (2) I've never had a terrible relationship with a co-worker.  It seems like it would be a cool thing to get a job where I'm working with some good friends.  I've had jobs like that in the past, and it's mostly just fun and games, interspersed here and there with some "work".  The obvious disadvantage of a job like that is that productivity goes down (not that it's "up" to begin with), and it might get a little old working with the same people you hang out with socially.  It's like working with your spouse.  How about a little alone time every now and then? 

For me, the most important part about a job is ... ya know ... the job.  I need to be doing something that interests me or at least provides me some amount of satisfaction.  For different people, this means different things.  Certain people simply want to cross things off their to-do list.  The more tasks accomplished, the better, whether that means writing a document or designing a spaceship.  This doesn't fly with me [pun].  I need to be doing some sort of math, science, or engineering to get satisfaction from a job.  I need to be solving equations.  I need to be using Excel, Matlab, or Solidworks to solve problems or model things.  It makes no difference to me how big or small these tasks are.  It could be a single equation for a single screw in a single part of an enormous system.  It makes no difference, as long as I'm using some of the nonsense I learned in 17 years of school. 

Another important thing for me is the big picture:  What the company or group does as a whole.  I like jobs that have a cool description.  For example, if I worked on little tiny equations that helped a rocket get to the moon, I could say I work for a company that sends rockets to the moon.  Even if my daily activities have nothing to do with rockets or sending them to the moon, it sounds cool to work for that type of company.  On the other hand, if I did really important things for a pharmaceutical company, it wouldn't be quite as cool to talk about my job because let's face it, pharmaceuticals aren't that exciting.  I take some pills when I have a headache.  That's all I really need to know. 

But in the end, work doesn't really matter to me.  I don't try to find satisfaction through work.  I don't base my worth or my happiness on what I do for 8-10 hours a day.  Although that sounds slightly stupid (since 8-10 hours is the majority of my daily life), I find satisfaction through other things.  I like to fix my house.  I like to watch football.  I like to snowboard.  I like to swim in the Caribbean.  Work is just the thing I do when I'm not doing the things I like.  It's really just the means with which I pay for the things I want.  A means to an end. #business