What is it like to work at a professional white collar job?

What is it like to work at a professional white collar job? I'm about to graduate at the end of this year in the fall of 2008. I'll be receiving my Bachelor's of Business Administration in general business. Right now I work at a job that pays ok. The compensation helps me get by in life by paying the bills, rent, car payment, etc. I get paid $13.50 an hour and I work at UPS Supply Chain Solutions. The job isn't exactly a white collar job and it's not very professional. Anyone can do my job or anyone elses job for that matter. You can basically hire anyone off the street to work there. But after I graduate, I'm really looking forward to finding a good paying professional white collar job and establish a good career for myself, move ahead in life, and basically live a good healthy life. Maybe one day start a family. I would just like to know what is it like to work at a professional white collar job getting paid by salary? I'm curious to know what the experience is like.

Your business degree plus your work experience should give you a good foundation to start looking for a full time office job.

There are lots of environments that are considered white collar -- you could be a consultant or auditor who is on the road at clients most of the time. Or you could be a trader, working in a hectic environment with barely time to go to the bathroom. Or you could get a typical cubical job, where you come in at 9am, have a lunch hour, and leave at 5pm. Really depends on where you work.

My job is at a financial services firm on Wall St. My team is in derivatives operations. We arrive at work around 8am, and sit on trading style desks where we are all lined up close to our neighbors. The environment is crowded and a bit noisy, but very condusive for teamwork. Phones ring, people step out for coffee, and we hardly have time to look at the views out the window. Everyone has daily responsibilities, but we deal with issues that pop up throroughout the day. We work with traders, sales, clients, controllers, legal, credit, and other operations teams. We sometimes cannot predict when a day will be slow or busy. But if you like the challenge, it's very interesting. We go home anywhere from 6:30pm to 9pm, depending on the day.

Personally, I love getting a paycheck every 2 weeks and a year end bonus when the firm does well. We also get good health care, and nice maternity leave benefits. I wouldn't trade that for the world.

Hope that helps.