10 years ago I was a bit bored in my contract business. As I'm starting yet another new project, I'm talking with the main contact person who happens to be an a

10 years ago I was a bit bored in my contract business. As I'm starting yet another new project, I'm talking with the main contact person who happens to be an attorney, and he said something rather interesting. He's been doing what he's been doing for a long time and he's very good at his job, but it's also a bit bland. I think he called it bread and butter work. He doesn't hate it at all, it's just not that interesting, but it pays the bills and, again, he's very good at it. Yet he thinks about retiring. But every once in a while, every 2-3 years, an interesting project (case) comes along that gets him excited and keeps him in the game. My take away was: it sounds very romantic to be in love with your job, always, but isn't very realistic. Being good at your job is realistic, but many people aren't good at their job. If you are, you stand out and can command a good salary, working hours, benefits, whatever is important to you. And every once in a while you should try to get an interesting project to keep things fresh. So who's responsibility is it to get that occasional interesting project? I'd loosely say that's 50/50 split between employee and employer. You can't just expect to get spoon fed interesting projects. You have to look for them, and the company has to be in a relevant position to support that. If you like research, if you good at ramping up and learning new skills, that can be a good way of acquiring the occasional interesting project, while getting better paid for it.