However, I've had jobs that were really great and were very fulfilling for stretches of a few years at a time. Mostly because they were a stretch / challenging for me at the time, and allowed me to move to new cities and better my lifestyle, meet new people, etc - so it's not completely stupid to expect fulfillment from a job.
The problem is that whether a job is fulfilling or not isn't under your control, it only takes one bad reorg or boss or layoff to mess it up for the next few years.
However, I've had jobs that were really great and were very fulfilling for stretches of a few years at a time. Mostly because they were a stretch / challenging for me at the time, and allowed me to move to new cities and better my lifestyle, meet new people, etc - so it's not completely stupid to expect fulfillment from a job.
The problem is that whether a job is fulfilling or not isn't under your control, it only takes one bad reorg or boss or layoff to mess it up for the next few years.