Maybe I just had a different career path, but so far it seems that my job is learning, and the work is a byproduct of that.
I spent a bunch of years in the USAR doing basic computer stuff, both in training, and then learning from others as I went along. I was the US Army version of a general purpose "IT" fellow. Once I got out of the military and I interviewed at a few private sector jobs I realized I was not overly well equipped for IT, but if I could show I wanted to learn they would usually bring me on-board. I did desktop support for ~2 years before I landed a veryyyy basic SysAdmin job. I did that for a year, and rolled it into a real SysAdmin job. Did that for a year and turned it into a Server Engineer job (Super sysadmin?) I did that for ~2 years....you can kind of see where this is going.
I've been out of the military for ~10 years now, and every job I've had has been about learning, (and then learning that my current job wasn't going to pay me what I was actually worth) while trying something new. I got paid to "learn" every step of the way. It just wasn't a direct "learn X and you get Y" process, but even then, most companies offered some level of college reimbursement (I never really did that college thing) or will pay for certifications/training, and really, IT is one of the few fields I can think of where all of the knowledge needed to do it is open, accessible, and available to everyone.
This is how I approach it too and I think it's a healthy approach. I get into a job mainly for the learning opportunities it provides. I'll happily take a pay cut if it means I get to grow in a direction I need. Once I feel like the opportunities become fewer and farther between, and management cannot change that, I'll find a new job that can provide me with the right learning opportunities again.
Of course, I'm not even in my thirties, so I can afford to optimise for learning now to have the compound interest pay off for it when I'm older.
I spent a bunch of years in the USAR doing basic computer stuff, both in training, and then learning from others as I went along. I was the US Army version of a general purpose "IT" fellow. Once I got out of the military and I interviewed at a few private sector jobs I realized I was not overly well equipped for IT, but if I could show I wanted to learn they would usually bring me on-board. I did desktop support for ~2 years before I landed a veryyyy basic SysAdmin job. I did that for a year, and rolled it into a real SysAdmin job. Did that for a year and turned it into a Server Engineer job (Super sysadmin?) I did that for ~2 years....you can kind of see where this is going.
I've been out of the military for ~10 years now, and every job I've had has been about learning, (and then learning that my current job wasn't going to pay me what I was actually worth) while trying something new. I got paid to "learn" every step of the way. It just wasn't a direct "learn X and you get Y" process, but even then, most companies offered some level of college reimbursement (I never really did that college thing) or will pay for certifications/training, and really, IT is one of the few fields I can think of where all of the knowledge needed to do it is open, accessible, and available to everyone.