GetDotted Domains

Viewing Thread:
"Thoughts"

The "Freeola Customer Forum" forum, which includes Retro Game Reviews, has been archived and is now read-only. You cannot post here or create a new thread or review on this forum.

Sat 07/08/04 at 22:37
Regular
Posts: 8,220
I figure it's about time I get myself a career.
Or at least a decent-paying stable job.

I'm getting on a bit, finished my degree, taken a year out, and in a year I'll have finished my masters (to kill time).
I need to get my own place, get some money together, settle down. And a career, or something with a decent wage, is central to doing that. Really it has to be fairly long term too.

And that's my gripe - 'long term'.
I've never had a job which I've held for more than a couple of weeks, without hating it, going to work, being unhappy, going home, finding I'd wasted a whole day of my life doing nothing that made the day worth living.
Time is the essence of life and all that, when time slips away, wasted, it's your life that you're wasting. Another day closer to the grave, and another day you might as well not have been alive.


I admit I've never had particularly good jobs, but I've done office work, shop work, manual work, it all quickly becomes boring, uninteresting and unenjoyable. And then you're wasting your life again.

I guess I have a vey short attention span, things become samey fast, and then it's hard to care about what you're doing.
I can't see a job where that wouldn't be a problem.
I can't imagine a job where it wouldn't be a problem.
So I can't imagine a job where, long term, I could be anything but unhappy.


I'm qualified for nothing.
I have a law degree, but that's not a qualification to practice law.
Everything else, I'm unqualified for.
I guess there's graduate stuff, but I've never seen anything that doesn't suck.
After the masters I'll be (moderately) qualified to work in forensics, but I don't want to. To be honest, if I hadn't already signed my rent contract I doubt I'd still be going at all.

I have one job in mind to apply to after the masters, but even that will probably decay into miserable toil. No worse than anything else at least. But that's only if I get the job.

I think I'd quite like to train dolphins for scientific research - see how far I could take them in developing communication. I've seen some impressive stuff in that field, but all the people working there seem to lack the vision to take things forward a level.
But that's a pipe dream, something I'll never get the opportunity to do.


Being condemned to a life of miserable toil scares the crap out of me.


I don't know if I'm looking for advice, or just trying to get it off my chest. I think a bit of both.
Ah well, I'm out of stuff to say. Thanks for reading, if you did.
Sun 08/08/04 at 09:59
Regular
"Gundammmmm!"
Posts: 2,339
Grix Thraves wrote:
> Why's it a pipe dream? Why's it more difficult than carpentry,
> plumbing, or anything like that? That's far from a pipe dream, that's
> an awesome dream.
>
> I say go for it. Train, research, learn, see what you can do. If it
> bores you, if you find out it wasn't what you wanted, sod it, start
> again, find something else. That is NO pipe dream and to tell
> yourself that is ridiculous and I'd bet anything it's more down to
> fear than anything else.

Which is a nice attitude to have, but once you get into actually looking for work it soon comes crashing down to what people call "reality". Yep, it's something for Duck to aim for but unfortunately, here in the real world, it's going to be massively difficult for him to get to do that.

Y'see, using your own examples above, there is actually a demand everyday for carpenters and plumbers because to most people it's not a "sexy" job, unlike messing (excuse my simplification) around with Dolphins - a job which probably appeals to anyone who like the animals in the first place.

I think the best thing to aim for is a job you can get that you will be happy with 90% of the time, because being realistic (there's that word again) no job on earth is going to be fun, interesting or entertaining all the time.

The most important thing is to make sure you know your chosen career well, and that you know about everything it involves, not just what appeals to you. Journalism, like Paradox is talking about, is okay, but again there is a small legion of graduates every year, and A Level students, all after those few job openings with people who will actually take a risk on someone just starting out. And that's virtually the same for every career ba a few such as medicine and the armed forces. Once any of you start looking for a real job the phrases like "experience required" will become the bane of your life becuase it excludes so much, and they're not talking about experience such as work experience etc, they mean experience as in someone paid you to do a real job".

Right now I have seen tons of adverts for trainee managers where you have to have experience. Ezsqueeze me, but if someone had management experience then why would they want to be busted down to a trainee???

Oh well, right now I'm in the lukcy(?) position of waiting to hear about whether I get offered a job with one of two places, made it all the way through the recruitment stages, and the assessment days, and the interviews, so it's just a matter of waiting.
Sun 08/08/04 at 12:22
Regular
"Excommunicated"
Posts: 23,284
So what are you doing then?
Sun 08/08/04 at 17:47
Regular
"Gundammmmm!"
Posts: 2,339
Currently waiting to hear about 2 jobs - obviously I only need 1, plus some interviews and stuff.

Packed in the PC place job because it was clearly for retards - first day of training was a moron trainer trying to get people to realise that the way they solved problems was essentially the 5 W's (what, why, when, where, who) - I realised this within about 30 seconds and said so, but instead the guy says "well we're going to work through it and see if you are right".

Working through it took from 10AM until 4PM. The next day started with a group exercise which was rearranging the sentences on card to make up the story of this urban legend....which would have been interesting had it not been for the fact that it's a common internet one (guy goes to kill himself, jump, gets shot on the way down, thus who killed him?). Said I knew it, so guy says to sit this one out and I was left watching the others spend over an hour until they got it... Got home that afternoon and there was an offer of an interview at two seperate places later that week and early the next week, so I rang them back, siad I'd be there, and quit the next day.
Sun 08/08/04 at 17:50
Regular
Posts: 20,776
I'm in the same predicament as you really (minus the masters).

I'm trying to land me a job currently, and am fully aware of the perils of getting a job you hate. who knows where I'll be working or what I'll be doing come the end of this year.
Sun 08/08/04 at 18:00
Regular
Posts: 2,849
Stranger In Paradise wrote:

> Packed in the PC place job because it was clearly for retards - first
> day of training was a moron trainer trying to get people to realise
> that the way they solved problems was essentially the 5 W's (what,
> why, when, where, who)

See, told you you could do better with a first.
Sun 08/08/04 at 18:46
Regular
"Laughingstock"
Posts: 3,522
Every job I've had has turned by brain to puddings. I have no enthusiasm for anything anymore. Can't stand the thought of any job whatsoever. Everything will equal tedium in the end.

Hence I'm considering becoming a vagrant - answerable only to the laws of nature, or committing suicide in one final defiant nihilistic act against the mouse-on-wheel system.

Hm, positive post.
Sun 08/08/04 at 19:13
Regular
"Gundammmmm!"
Posts: 2,339
Icarus mk2 wrote:
> See, told you you could do better with a first.

Probably won't surprise you to hear you're not the only one who has said that lol.

I think the trainer guy at the PC place was probably quite depressed, because on the Tuesday another woman left, and last Friday I was at a graduate recruitment agency assessment day and two other people from the place were there as well, and they'd both left on the the Friday after me. Which means that 4 of the 10 of us had left within a week.
Mon 09/08/04 at 15:03
Regular
Posts: 8,220
Stranger In Paradise wrote:
> I think the trainer guy at the PC place was probably quite depressed,
> because on the Tuesday another woman left, and last Friday I was at a
> graduate recruitment agency assessment day and two other people from
> the place were there as well, and they'd both left on the the Friday
> after me. Which means that 4 of the 10 of us had left within a week.

Heh. Seperating the wheat from the chaff early on huh? Sounds like he's keeping the wrong bits though :^)


Was this the job you had a forum for, deciding whether to go to the interview or keep with the training?
Or have you been leaving everybody's training schemes? ;^)



The dolphin thing.. I had a look at a web site, realised that virtually (or absolutely) everything in the field involves training them for stupid stunts and performing shows for tourists. Which isn't even remotely close to what I wanted to be doing.
Research into evaluating and developing their intelligence and means of communication. I don't think there's a job like that in the world.

Bah, if it was back in the cold war I could have bugged someone to fund me to train the dolphins to deliver a nuclear payload, undetected, to enemy subs / harbours / whatever. They just done whatever I wanted.


Hmm, maybe I should take this to a careers advisor - "I want a job in international relations, so I can provoke a new cold war, and pressure one side into funding me to train dolphins into organic nuclear missiles.
How many a-levels would I need?"



Hmm, maybe if I could promise to train the dolphins to spot terrorist paedophiles...


I have actually thought about the plumbing / electrician thing. I have a friend whose currently qualifying as an electrician, I've been meaning to have a chat about it.
I know someone else who works as a freelance builder, who might be able to point me in the right direction with plumbing too...

I'm not convinced I'd be totally happy in either, but there should be at least a little variety in the work, going to different jobs on different sites. And we were talking about being realistic.
Seems like a waste of a degree in a way, but then again no point throwing good time after bad just to keep on the same wrong track..
Mon 09/08/04 at 19:15
Regular
Posts: 2,849
There's only one way to get variety in this ultra organised society these days. That is to get a degree, go on until your're bored of the profession, and repeat with a different area.

Unless at one stage of your life you want to be a bin man, or caretaker. No degrees for that.
Mon 09/08/04 at 19:22
Regular
"Gundammmmm!"
Posts: 2,339
Mumbai Duck wrote:
> Was this the job you had a forum for, deciding whether to go to the
> interview or keep with the training?
> Or have you been leaving everybody's training schemes? ;^)

Yup, that's the one, trying for something along the lines of what I originally wanted to begin with.

> Bah, if it was back in the cold war I could have bugged someone to
> fund me to train the dolphins to deliver a nuclear payload,
> undetected, to enemy subs / harbours / whatever. They just done
> whatever I wanted.

You've missed out already I'm afraid!

Following the attack on the USS Cole in 2001 the US Navy asked for funding to develop a new unit comprised of Dolphin's and handlers which would be deployed in harbour protection where US Navy ships were berthed, and also during operations. After 9/11 the funding was given and there are now supposed to be a fair few units used by the Navy and Homeland Security, which uses them for domestic ports during elevated alert status. Obviously there isn't much detail on how/what research is going, training etc, but the US Navy has experience of using Dolphins in combat roles - it trained them to find mines, to attack enemy divers, plant mines on the hulls of ships and submarines etc Never read about them actually being used for those missions in any capacity but the training was real, and is now.

Freeola & GetDotted are rated 5 Stars

Check out some of our customer reviews below:

Continue this excellent work...
Brilliant! As usual the careful and intuitive production that Freeola puts into everything it sets out to do, I am delighted.
Best Provider
The best provider I know of, never a problem, recommend highly
Paul

View More Reviews

Need some help? Give us a call on 01376 55 60 60

Go to Support Centre
Feedback Close Feedback

It appears you are using an old browser, as such, some parts of the Freeola and Getdotted site will not work as intended. Using the latest version of your browser, or another browser such as Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, or Opera will provide a better, safer browsing experience for you.