What would you do if you didn't do what you do?

[zebedee]

I have to admit I like the job I'm doing (working with distressed teenagers) but my overall dream is to have enough land to keep a few chickens, some goats and pigs, grow me own veggies, and have a part time job.
Sigh!!!

[snohare]

I think I'd like to be a cat

What, you'd like to eat mouse heads as a vocation ??

[mothhawk]

I think my ideal job would be Rocket Scientist. They seem to be very highly thought of

But would they know how to plant seeds? (It's not rocket science, you know...)

[Bagpuss]

Right now I'd love to be a mummy more than anything in the world. A job I never thought I would want. I blame Mr BP entirely.

[Two_Sheds]

Mr TS mucked around at school and failed his exams ~ he just wanted to be on the dole. His older brother had other ideas, and was already working in the local oil & gas industry and got his foot in the door there. He knuckled down to his college work/apprenticeship, did 20 years on rigs and is now higher up and office based. He's well paid for what he does (which most days is buying stuff on amazon and playing Mob Wars), but his job isn't secure. His team has already gone from 5 men to 2, and his hours have been halved. He now only has 10 days work a month, but we're managing.

The only career advice I was given at school was "taxi driver" - completely leftfield, bonkers for a 16 year old who had no interest in cars! I was good at art & English, but uni was never an option for us council house kids, it was for the posh kids. The rest of us went to the chicken factory (can you imagine?)
I left home and went into retail management until redundancy in '94. Then got cancer big time (age 25) which has left me with permanent nerve damage, fatigue & pain. I can't do much without getting exhausted.
I tried mind-over-matter for a few years, getting shorthand quals at evening school & became a legal sec, but I really couldn't do full time work, even loaded up on painkillers and voddy. I went part time but the job just wasn't suitable with my injuries.

With no job, no clear direction & no help from anywhere I went to uni, for something to do, and got an art degree. There were no industry jobs then (2004) and even fewer now. It's fairly pointless but keeps college staff in a job I suppose, and 1000s of kids off the streets for a couple of years.

I'm now an unpaid part-time teaching assistant, a job (I treat it like a job, to get me up and out of bed every day) I've done for the last 5 years hoping to get into paid work, but a suitable position has never come up, and with harder public sector cuts is now even less likely to.
I teach under-achievers (autistic, ADHD etc) trying to get them some basic skills such as reading, simple maths. These children need one-to-one ideally, but there simply isn't the funding, so I do it for free (and get labelled economically inactive for my trouble )
I have many skills and a good attitude to work, but I just can't do much. I would love to write a book, or paint, or make couture clothing but I simply don't have the energy. I take strong painkillers just to get through a do-nothing day and go to bed at 8pm most nights, in pain, and I wake up in pain again.

Be grateful for your health, when it's gone you are less than a person, you are a drain on society

I've adjusted to this life now, but it makes me very cross when people accuse me of being a scrounger/faker/layabout.

[Two_Sheds]

Gosh, that was long. Here's a résumé

- paper round, shop work (age 13-18 I had 3 jobs on top of school)
- retail manager (books)
- legal secretary
- PA to a director
- teaching assistant

[chris]

You hardly come across as a layabout, TS... bloody hell!

[Seahorse]

Interesting that quite a few of us simply want to be a housewife or househusband. I went to university and then got a professional qualification, mainly because I felt I ought to (or my mum did!). I'm glad I have that background and the options it gave me but I suspect I could have been equally happy if I'd married one of the farm boys from school.

I've been at home doing mummy/cook/gardener/craft stuff for nearly ten years now. At the moment, the thought of getting a 'proper job' horrifies me but I think when mine start flying the nest I'd like to train as a TA for kids with special needs.

[FionaH]

TS the last thing I would call you is lazy!

[Glutton4...]

TS the last thing I would call you is lazy!

Yeah - troublemaker, maybe!

Now, I'm lazy - I could've earned a degree in it, but I couldn't be arrised!

I think my ideal place in life is Lotto Winner. Yeah, that'll do!

[buzzingtalk]

That's awful TS, and shame on anyone who would think of you as a scrounger.

I was riddled with health problems from birth and still am (I'm only 25!!)...I've had a kidney removed, I've got arthritis coming on, asthma and allergic to bloody everything. So plans for the future weren't really as high on my agenda as sleeping, more sleeping and then alcohol abuse.

I flirted with the standard things young girls aspire to; vet, nurse etc. But nothing stuck. When I went to 'careers advice' (as it likes to call itself), I said 'I don't know.' The adviser looked perplexed, as if I was some strange being to not know what I wanted to do. She told me to look into childcare (yuck! I don't care much for children).

Aged 25, I'm currently in care work and as much as I (mostly) love my job, its hard work and you are mostly overworked, underpaid and under appreciated. I hope to not be in this field of work in a few years time. As for what to do afterwards, realistically, I have no particular desire - but I am not sure weither this is lack of inspiration or if
I am destined to 'float' in life from rubbish job to rubbish job....

If I could do whatever I wanted, I would be a freelance gardener and photographer, as well as carrying on with my music projects. Possibly doing some youth work along the way. But that is totally out of the question and I feel destined to float about doing jobs here or there. It is a shame really, that young people feel there is no space for them in society unless you don a suit and sell your soul to corperate misery. I know a lot of people in the same spot, and we will never get a shot at the more creative jobs as there are so many people out there unemployed that are much more qualified and experienced...

[Jeanied]

When I grow up I think I'd like to take up making pots again.
I did this ages ago as a hobby when I was teaching for a living. Due to local government cuts I am now retired early and finding it hard to get that spark back - but I have my fingers crossed.

[Alison]

I wouldn't do anything significantly different, most of the time I love my job. I liked problem solving as a kid so engineering is perfect for me. I go to work to make things and use my brain, perfect. I have other things I like doing more as hobbies but if they were my job I'd almost certainly end up resenting them in some way. The grass isn't always greener and I'm more than happy with my life. Never set stupid targets but have taken opportunities as they've been offered and have been fortunate enough to have done OK by it Suppose I'm just contented with my lot and don't have burning ambitions to rule the world or make name for myself so don't get frustrated that way either. Helps that I'm reasonably good at what I do too I suppose . However if I'd gone into something less practical or just dealing with money then I'd be bored rigid so it's good I spotted what I like at an early enough age to make the right decision.

[StephenH]

Having messed around for years after leaving school in 1970 in jobs which are wonderful if you're cut out for them, but I spectacularly wasn't - Library assistant, student male nurse, residential social worker - followed by some years unemployed under that bloody woman, I became a postman in 1985, aged 33, and, apart from four years out in the early 90s, have done that ever since, though not on deliveries any more. Now heading towards retirement in five years' time.
If I had my time again, I'd either become a postie straight away, or become an apprentice gardener.