Viewing Thread:
"Thoughts"

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

So what are you doing then?

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.

The thought of spending 40 years in a job I don't enjoy, or where I am doing the same thing day-in, day-out scares the hell out of me. It would absolutely suffocate me. I thrive on change and also get bored of the same job fairly easily.

That is largely why I have opted to take journalism - it's full of change. You meet different people and write different things - it's a far shot from being a spreadsheet monkey for some crappy corporation. Also if you want that extra sense of adventure, be freelance. Ba-boom.

Or the dolphins thing, you know, that could be good too.

I was joking by the way, go nuts and enjoy an enjoying job.

Best wishes,

Love Sheepy xx

Mumbai Duck wrote:
> I saw ways to push them further, move into new areas of training and
> development, really push back the boundaries.

Heh, maybe it's best I never have kids :^D