From: Adam Davis <    >

>I'm slightly afraid that if I pursue electronics as a career, I will no
longer
>enjoy it as a hobby...  I'm likewise afraid I'd get stuck doing electrical
work
>where there is no change.  I feel like I have to keep learning new things
to
>enjoy it...


Adam,

If you enjoy electronics enough this will not be a problem.

I have heard a number of people bemoan that what was a hobby is no longer
enjoyable since it became their job - this applies in all sorts of jobs.
BUT, if you tend to eat/dream/breathe electronics or whatever then, as
someone else noted here recently, and as many very successful people have
noted, "Imagine being paid to do what I would do for free if I could." I
met one man who was fascinated by bumble-bees from his earlisest child-hood
and he now has a PhD in a bumble-bee related topic and SELLS bumble bees
for a living :-)   - way to go! "Passion" is probably the driver. "Just
sort of interested" may not be enough. Certainly, being able to direct
which things you do and not just doing the same task over and over is to me
a necessary part of the job's interest.

While I'm not sold out on electronics (hardware & software) per se as the
reason for existence I enjoy it immensely as a tool to achieve things. What
this really means is that I greatly enjoy achieving things which can be
achieved this way. An eg lawyer (shudder :-)) may say the same things about
what he/she does but neither of us would be more than passingly interested
in what the other is passionately consumed by. I am self employed with
offices and workshop behind and under my home. I find that work and play
merge into a seamless blur. The main problems are having time for other
things (family, food, sleep, ...) and having time for the electronics
related things I want to do as opposed to have to do. ie all are fun but
the priority list may sometimes be ordered by clients. Working for yourself
or as part of a small team who profit directly from the work done probably
helps the enthusiasm level.

I would have passed the "how many things did he look at in 1 minute"
pre-employment test at any stage in my career to date.




regrads


                Russell McMahon

PS - I like what you all have done with my MAXIM small order thread :-)