One of my friend works at a major consulting firm, he knows they just grind new accounting grads until they burn out every. year. They just hire new ones the next year.

Banking analysts, actually pretty much everyone in banking is in what sounds like an unending grind. The exception I've heard is if you can somehow push through as an IB and make it into being a VP you can calm down.

So, yeah. Meetings are boring, the work is sometimes uninspired but things are pretty cushy for us right now.

You can safely dismiss almost every problem in the world with your approach.

"Our jobs aren't that bad – do you hear what they do to software engineers?"

I earn a decent chunk but I'd still have to earn my current wage for about a million years and pay 0% taxes to have as much as Jeff Bezos does.

But we have, by far, the most intellectually stimulating and flexible careers in the world. And nowadays, get paid ridiculous to boot.

So why is everyone complaining? What is everyone aspiring for?

I can only speak for myself here, but I know it's a valid point for many that followed the same path I did. The work I come about to do requires constant and intense mental activity on non-repetitive tasks. That takes a lot of energy. Twenty years ago, the computer engineering university faculty I've been through saw constantly the highest rate of dropout in its freshman and sophomore years, compared to any other kind of school out there. The touted reasons were mostly that there was simply too much work, that it was too grueling, too hard. The ones that prevailed weren't necessarily the smartest or the most diligent of all. They were, however, the most passioned about the computer engineering field. One had to have it to fuel the energy demand of the work necessary both in school years and after. The money is good, but that alone didn't seem to cut it. The work conditions in office are nice, but those weren't nor aren't what kept me in the game. (There were times when the space I worked in had no heating in the winter and was often smoked in, with me as non-smoker.) What I see in my peers' complaints nowadays is something that hits on the root of what made me wake up and continue every day. And the worst part is that the decision makers don't seem to be aware or caring. The mood is more like "I pay them, therefore I saddle them with whatever I see fit". So to answer you, what I aspire for? I aspire for a better fit, for both myself as someone good at something, which (from a self-development investment prospective) it makes sense to strive to do as much of it every day, as well as for the client benefiting my work/skills. I also think it's just ethical to rise awareness (even by complaints, if it has to be) when I see (my) resources misused and degrading of performance/potential in general.

Dan Pink - Drive: The surprising truth about what motivates us