Anyone got the job they wanted?

The Northern Monkey

Get your violin's ready for this one...

Found myself at my desk today thinking, "what the F am I doing here".
My job is dull, boring, has no variation, the people are proper cnuts and I'm really not enjoying it. However after many years experience in the field, the money is good.... too good to walk away from easily.
I'd love to quit though (or get fired, I'd happily punch a few people to get the sack) and do something I actually want to do.
/rant

Any of you actually doing something that you really really enjoy as a job and how did you get into it?

VWsurfbum

I'm doing exactly what i didnt want to do, A manager who sits behind a desk too much of the time.
I was a car technician, loved it! But that was a long time ago now. thought many a time about going back to working on cars but there is no way i could earn what i earn now even if my body did allow it.
The worst thing about it is, my job is so specialised, i can even jump ship that easily and even if i did, there's no company's that pay what my company pays.
I think there will be more company shake ups in the new year so you never know, my hand maybe forced?

russyh

To me there are two choices in life. Do what you want and enjoy life. But 9/10 be pot less. Or do something that wouldn't be your first choice and enjoy the weekend with the arguably better fruits of your labour.

I am quite lucky, I enjoy my job. But it's not something I would of chosen to do! But it pays for me to have a nice life, so I am happy with the compromise!

Colinthecop

My job is great - as long as you don't read the Daily Mail.

Been doing it 24 years now and would do it all over again. I still get a buzz out of going to work.

gt-arrowhead

I hate how what you do with your life these days as a teen determines how the rest of your life goes...

The Northern Monkey

Well annoyingly, the job I'm in I have no formal qualification for.
When I was in Uni, I landed a part time summer job, got offered the full time job when I left Uni and now I'm doing the same job down in South Wales.
It was only supposed to be a stop-gap for more beer money!

Never did anything with my degree and its probably to late to do so now anyway.

gt-arrowhead

The Northern Monkey wrote:

Well annoyingly, the job I'm in I have no formal qualification for.
When I was in Uni, I landed a part time summer job, got offered the full time job when I left Uni and now I'm doing the same job down in South Wales.
It was only supposed to be a stop-gap for more beer money!

Never did anything with my degree and its probably to late to do so now anyway.

Thats quite interesting. How comes you didnt go on to do whatever you were studying to do?

I could have done a similar thing. I worked at a garage for work experience, they liked me so they called me back in while i was off school. Eventually they offered me a full time apprenticeship but i turned it down, cause obviously i wont be able to do it because of school.

arran77

Not really, I sort of fell into what I do now after deciding early on in my career that what I was doing definitely wasn't what I wanted to do in life, unfortunately what I do now isn't really either!

You get to point though where what you're doing isn't that tricky, it pays you well and you have too many commitments if life to make a big change :roll:

The Northern Monkey

arran77 wrote:

You get to point though where what you're doing isn't that tricky, it pays you well and you have too many commitments if life to make a big change :roll:

Pretty much sums it up lol.

lawman

I almost ended up not going to uni, had my job through out my gap year, not particularly fun and Coventry is a right sh!t hole but I got used to the steady flow of money and it paid for shiny bikes and copious amounts of alcohol so it didn't seem too bad, plus I had the opportunity to progress within the firm to facilities manager, and given the current chap that does it drives a Porsche, it seemed like it might have been worth sticking around. So glad I didn't though!! Since being at uni I've made some amazing contacts, got down to the final 9 candidates for a job as product tester for Bikeradar and recently had my first piece of Mtb related work published on the website people like to blame everything on, so I'm getting closer to my goal of becoming mtb journo, which I've wanted to do since I was like 12 The lure of shiny bikes, trade shows and product launches is very appealing! Hopefully in a few years once I graduate that's what I'll be doing

supersonic

I pretty much always worked in the cycle trade. Which is nice.

pesky_jones

Yup - I'm now pepperjacks best hoe

welshkev

Nope, my job has the potential to be good. But where I work now is a compromise on enjoyment vs life.

But I do wish I'd had more guidance as a kid with regards to education, jobs etc. because like you, I sit at my desk and wonder wtf I'm doing with my life!

RevellRider

supersonic wrote:

I pretty much always worked in the cycle trade. Which is nice.

Ditto. I get paid to play with the new bikes at work, drink tea and talk to people about bikes.

gt-arrowhead

RevellRider wrote:

supersonic wrote:

I pretty much always worked in the cycle trade. Which is nice.

Ditto. I get paid to play with the new bikes at work, drink tea and talk to people about bikes.

Now that sounds like a good job.

nicklouse

Done a bit of this and a bit of that. Worked here worked there. Worked for people worked for myself. Doing stuff now that people think I am good at and pay me to do it.

It all comes down to what you want out of it. Or in your case what your lass wants out of it.


Work hard have fun. Sort the lass out and then to what you want in 20 years when the kids can be told to fark off.

Colinthecop

welshkev wrote:

But I do wish I'd had more guidance as a kid with regards to education, jobs etc. because like you, I sit at my desk and wonder wtf I'm doing with my life!

I think that's a generation thing. Certainly nobody explained to me the link between well paid jobs and lifestyle. I never made the same mistake.

My daughter is planning on being an architect and my lad wants to be a dentist.

I reckon my retirement is sorted. 8)

welshkev

Colinthecop wrote:

welshkev wrote:

But I do wish I'd had more guidance as a kid with regards to education, jobs etc. because like you, I sit at my desk and wonder wtf I'm doing with my life!

I think that's a generation thing. Certainly nobody explained to me the link between well paid jobs and lifestyle. I never made the same mistake.

My daughter is planning on being an architect and my lad wants to be a dentist.

I reckon my retirement is sorted. 8)

I know what you mean, my son said he wants to come to work with me and make aeroplanes - I just work at Airbus, nothing to do with the actual planes

But now he wants to be an aerospace engineer "cos he's good at numbers and drawing" he's only 4

cat_with_no_tail

I enjoy what I do too.

It's a very specialist industry and I consider myself incredibly lucky that whilst I am suitably qualified for what I do, I just happened to be in the right place at the right time to be able to accept the job offer when it came to me.

The company looks after us better than any I have ever known (there is so much more to benefits than just financial rewards), the people I work with are fantastic and we all have a great laugh, we have incredible job security at a time I see people getting canned left right and centre, and I'm fortunate enough to be paid pretty reasonably for what I do too. What's not to like?

[/boast]

angry_bird

Bahahaha I'm a student! I do nothing!

Actually that's a lie, I work very hard. At the moment I'm putting in 80+ hours a week as exams are coming up, even in normal term time I spend around 50 hours a week studying, come February it'll be even more as I'll be working in the hospitals.

I guess at the end of it I should probably get a job working as a vet, whether it's with the species I want is another matter, but being a bloke helps me a lot apparently

Sometimes I wish I'd gone and done something easier though, like medicine.

El Capitano

My job's awesome.

stubs

Done the stressful but well paid thing and got out with my sanity mostly intact. Luckily now I have a mortgage free house, dont owe anyone any money, have enough for my toys and I am not in the least bit interested in promotion or any of that crud. My job is modestly interesting, not very well paid but I only do 30 hours a week and it takes me 10 minutes to walk to work.

As far as work life balance goes it is good for me.

benpinnick

I jacked in the day job running one company to err... run another. This one makes bikes though. Much better.

Stevo_666

Yep, I probably do.

I've got minions, the work's demanding but interesting, it's not all pointless pap (I shaft the Inland Revenue for a living ), pay is good and more importantly there's potential to go further. The people I work with are not all cnuts and some are quite good looking Get to work in London where there's loads going on. And I can pedal to work when I want.

Like most good decisions in life it was an accident after I got sick of wasting 4 years of my life in the wrong job after graduating and took a punt on a career that a few mates were doing. Had to work hard to get here though, including some b@stard hard exams.

I'd say if you're under 30 you can 'start again' - it's a ferkin long time till you retire so do something you like, or something that pays well - but preferably both.

Richie63

All I ever wanted to do from early teens was to climb rocks. Stuck it out through Uni then moved to Sheffield to follow my dream and did that through the latter half of the 80's till I mashed a hand up. That forced me to look for work.
Got involved in rope access and was fairly good at it. Through contacts knowing me I have been asked to do some fantastic work projects ending up where I am now sitting comfortably in the latest job for a Dutch company looking to expand in the offshore field.
I never went out to look for jobs to get up the career ladder but always put in 100% and this has been rewarded, while the degree I did hasn't always been directly applicable but very useful as back ground to my job.
Love the job what's not to like about helicopters and only working 2 weeks in the month.

coulddobetter

I started nursing as a part time auxiliary , was meant to be a stop gap . However I loved the work . There's huge variety . Money is never going to be brilliant but it really isn't my motivation . I actually turned down a charge nurse post because all I would have been doing is managing budgets and attending meetings . Nursing to me is at the bedside . ( my bike first aid kit is comprehensive and doesn't cost much )

rgliniany

Love my job..... i get to build big stuff every day.....(or instruct people to build the big stuff)
lots of variety and i get to work with an awesome team of people at the moment.... i have avenues i can go down to spread my workbase out and learn loads of new techniques and methods of construction..

winner winner chicken dinner!!

and the pay aint bad either

welshkev

Richie63 wrote:

All I ever wanted to do from early teens was to climb rocks. Stuck it out through Uni then moved to Sheffield to follow my dream and did that through the latter half of the 80's till I mashed a hand up. That forced me to look for work.
Got involved in rope access and was fairly good at it. Through contacts knowing me I have been asked to do some fantastic work projects ending up where I am now sitting comfortably in the latest job for a Dutch company looking to expand in the offshore field.
I never went out to look for jobs to get up the career ladder but always put in 100% and this has been rewarded, while the degree I did hasn't always been directly applicable but very useful as back ground to my job.
Love the job what's not to like about helicopters and only working 2 weeks in the month.

my cousin always said to me when I was in my late teens, "always do something you enjoy doing and become the best you can be at it, that way someone somewhere will want to employ your skills."

sounds like that has happened to you 8)

thekickingmule

I would love to leave this place, but the problem is that my job is very specialised, and not many jobs similar to it come on the market. When they do (as they did in the summer), usually an inside candidate has already been offered it :evil:

To be honest, I'd love to just leave the industry I'm in completely. I can't really expect any more money. I started as a lesser-minion, became a minion, and now I have my own minions and lesser-minions, but I can't climb any higher, and the pay isn't great for what I do.

I wanted to join the army a couple of years ago, however my eczema stopped that. I've been considering joining the police force, but they never seem to be recruiting. Sad times.

Thewaylander

Well I often think this and I'm currently being made redundent as they have moved the office to central London, and there is no way on earth i'm going there.

So at the moment I'm trying to figure out what to do, but i have a fairly deep skill set in what i do now though i hate it so it pays for me to live where i want next to my hills and valleys. so whats next i have no idea maybe i could be an uplift driver at BPW

Willrideforcake

After thirteen years in journalism, I'm being made redundant. Before the violins come out though, I'm currently applying to retrain for a much more rewarding job. I've loved (and hated) the last thirteen years, but it was originally only going to be for two or three years.
I'm quite excited about the future now, and looking forward to really making a difference (hopefully!)