Your favourite job?

[punkrockcaveman]

Weird question I guess. But I'm feeling quite unsatisfied with work recently. The challenge has gone from it, and monotony has kicked in. I need Something new but don't know where to turn or what to look at. What jobs or careers have you had in the past or currently do that have satisfied you? I feel I need a fresh challenge. Feeling quite deflated about it currently.

Thanks for any input.

 

[gra_farmer]

Weird question I guess. But I'm feeling quite unsatisfied with work recently. The challenge has gone from it, and monotony has kicked in. I need Something new but don't know where to turn or what to look at. What jobs or careers have you had in the past or currently do that have satisfied you? I feel I need a fresh challenge. Feeling quite deflated about it currently.

Thanks for any input.

I loved being a university lecturer (pure sciences), I wanted to stay, but dead man's shoes kind of job.....and everyone was too healthy

 

[Scots_Charles_River]

I teach CDT/Tech in Scotland, apart from recent COVID hassles/nightmares/PIA, it's been a good 21 years !
I got a promoted post 3 years ago (will help me boost my last ten years pension) shortage of teachers in Scotland at the moment.
I used to do lots of Outdoor learning eg camping, DofE, Bushcraft, Canoe club, Canoe camping, rock climbing club but in my new job not done any of that except assess a DofE expedition.

In 2018 July - that hot dry summer - I did two private school Gold DofE expeditions. One across the Rhinogs from Barmouth inland and across the Rhinogs. Another one in the Lakes, all great to be paid to asses them !

I did think about starting a DofE/Expedition/Outdoor Learning mobile provider business but got the promoted post.

So a shortage and lots of opportunities for Outdoor Learning at the moment, if you have a degree, you can do the one year PGDE course and you are guaranteed a 1 year job after qualifying. We work 195 days out of 365 days, so plenty long hols.

Routes into teaching | Become a teacher | Teach In Scotland

There are different routes into teaching and teachers come from a range of backgrounds and industries. Read more about the routes into teaching.

teachinscotland.scot

 

[oldtimer]

I've found being retired beats everything else I've ever done!

 

[demographic]

Most times I'm pretty happy with my job as a carpenter, the money isn't huge but I'm at the point where people give me the more interesting jobs so its getting better on the satisfaction front.
Having said that, sometimes I just help out the labourers barrowing concrete and for some reason I love doing it, go nuts for half a day then go home.

Makes a nice change.

I've been asked many times why I have no interest in gaffering and my reply is that I'd have to deal with far more management tossers if I did that and the amount of extra moneys not even close to being worth it.

 

[John Fenna]

OK - first career - computer programmer ... hated it so quit after a year
2nd - Outdoor skills Instructor ... loved it, every day was different (and so was the weather!) got bored working for centers went to Coll and qualified in Fashion Design
3rd - Clothing designer for (amongst others) Craghoppers, Snowdon Clothing and Climbing 4 ... industry changed to having more "In House" rather than Freelance Designers so I went back to
4th Outdoor Pursuits specialising in Open Canoe and Expedition Leadership.
All this while a second string income from writing for Outdoor Mags - gear reviews, walks articles etc - and writing books on walks and cycle routes in West Wales and doing the odd bit of Craft Work and even odder TV extra work. All great fun and varied so never bored.
5th - got into working at a Care Farm looking after Adults with Learning Issues... loved it but burned out it is emotionally draining!
6th - Iron Age Warrior at Castell Henllys Iron Age Fort for Pembrokeshire National Parc - mad fun - part actor, part re-enactor, part historian ... all the good stuff! Backed up with work as a Bushcraft Instructor when I feel like it (both for the Nat Park and Freelance)
I never have been bored - but neither have I ever earned enough to pay Income Tax.
I have always been paid to have fun rather than have a "job"

 

[Erbswurst]

Should you speak French and have a driving licence you could try out hanging posters for classical concerts in shops and restaurants, together with me. Seriously!

We would travel along the complete French coast line and a bit inside, mainly living on camping grounds.

I don't earn so horribly much money, but am pretty glad about that my usually non ending holidays are financed.

I walk a lot every day. Not in the woods but in the most interesting old towns.
There are of course some intermissions and then one could go for hiking in the woods, here or there in Europe.

Afterwards you could hang up posters for our agency in Skandinavia and probably also in Britain and Ireland. You could drive around and live in a camping van if you like.

You also could organise such concerts from your home office or out of the camping van.

We mainly organise concerts for a chamber music ensemble and a Kosak choir, top quality of course.

 

[oldtimer]

J'ai un permit de conduire, un camping car, mais malhereusment, brexit pose des problem s!

 

[Erbswurst]

Would you really like to do that, we surely would find solutions...

 

[oldtimer]

Je suis en retraite!

 

[Erbswurst]

Mais tu ne connais pas encore chaque caillou en France!

 

[Broch]

Et, il est marié!!

 

[Erbswurst]

C'est pas grave, ça peut arriver!

 

[Billy-o]

I fixed TVs straight out of school but then went and trained as a nurse and then went into social services. After that I went to University kind of paying my way through as nurse. Then started to get work teaching in universities which is what I am doing now. It's rewarding enough.

Our dad was a remarkably able aviation engineer and we three kids were brought up handy. As a result, by a mile, my favourite job was as a studio tech at Leeds University. Pay was terrible, but I so loved doing that.

My only regret is that no one pointed out to me early on that there were profitable careers to be had blowing things up and making loud noises for the film industry. I did a bit of lucrative set-building for a while, but I think a job as a sound tech with a side-line in pyrotechnics would have kept me entirely happy until retirement

 

[Damascus]

I've found being retired beats everything else I've ever done!

I’ll second that, never been so busy!

 

[punkrockcaveman]

Thanks for all the replies guys. Food for thought for sure.

I don't want to say too much detail bout what I do but it's food production. I have really enjoyed it in the past and the learning curve has been great, I felt like I've achieved a lot but the last couple of years has just been stale and stuck. As we have become busier my job has become less and less varied.

 

[Paul_B]

Welcome to my world. 22 years in effectively the same company but with company changes I won't bore you with. Only meant to do 2 years to get experience! Learnt a lot over the years but it's stale and nothing is new or interesting anymore. I'm going through the motions to retirement or death it feels like.

Ended in a niche too specialised to be of use to anyone. Then company folded and I got taken on by part of my old company that... well too long a story. Let's just say I'm on little more than minimum pay, supposedly management and the extra shoot that comes with it. Waste of two degrees! Redundancy, poor decisions, etc, etc, etc.

Not whinging because I have nothing to complain about in the greater scheme of things. Whilst I've struggled financially I've got on the housing market before things got stupid with house prices. I liquidated my assets, sold my house for asking and moved into a nice house twice as expensive in a nice village on a busy branch line. I am saving money moving further from work and cut my carbon emissions too. I've got money in the bank. A wonderful 9 year old son to keep my nearly 50 year old carcass in reasonable shape and a partner who takes in the slack from my traits. I live less than 2 miles from relatively fit parents for child minding duties and my partner works mostly from home, solar panels help with that in summer. I have outdoor space in the form of country and big garden. I have the gadgets in the house I want. I might feel unfulfilled with work but I work to live not live to work. I do a 7 to 4 in the week and 7 to. 11:45am Fridays. My job doesn't really demand much from me really just very very rare unpaid overtime and being a small company I jump in and help getting big orders out. Often the directors/ owners do that too. I get backed up by the owners when needed too. When I have to go for family crisis or illness it's a "let us know what's happening when you know" not "well when will you be back? " Also the attitude is more about concern about the issue not about me not being at work.

So as a quality engineer for an automotive and other sectors company I might not have any prospects but there's benefits that have no monetary value but mean something nonetheless.

But I do need to work out what I can do. No idea. Absolutely blank. Can't get my head around it. Nada! Nothing! It's not good when you know you have skills, knowledge and experience that are useful but no idea where to apply to. I'm tied to the area I live to some degree and there's not much going. I possibly could work anywhere from Manchester to Barrow as I'm on that train line if I can afford the time and money for the commute and a train ticket

 

[punkrockcaveman]

Bloomin eck Paul, you sound just like me! I think that's a good way of putting it, specialised, with no specific quals to go with it. No degree unfortunately either, although I did attempt to get one and failed miserably.

With a mortgage and bills, and the rest, it's a trapping feeling.

 

[Mesquite]

Started off as a trainee greenskeeper straight from school and stayed a groundsman for 23 years. Really loved it and still miss sitting on a mower just cutting grass.

I then did a complete career change and worked in the Probation Service as a manager responsible for sourcing community service projects that offenders would work on. Got made redundant after 13 years and spent almost a year out of work before getting a job with a company specialising in getting people on welfare into work. That was honestly the worst job I've ever had, awful manager and ridiculous expectations. I was glad to be made redundant after 2 years.

Did another complete career change and I'm now approaching 5 years with the Environment Agency working in the Regulated Waste industry. This job is honestly the best I've had with an employer who has staff welfare as one of its top core values, colleagues who are caring, supportive and fun to work with and an interesting job to do without being constantly micromanaged. You're trusted to get on with your work and support is there when needed. Best way to sum up how they treat staff individually is you're a person, not an asset and I'm planning to stay there until I retire in 10 years.

 

[Robson Valley]

What about opening a "ghost kitchen?" Take away foods and gourmet meals with no staff and a single door. Hundreds of chef/cooks on lists to get in. Populate a warehouse space with pro chef kitchen gear and collect the rent.

Me? I had to hit the ground running with pre-Medical Biochemistry and other bioscience things. Everybody else was willing to leave all the biochem to me. Once I understood the thermodynamics, the molecular part was a joke to me. I could rattle on and think my own thought some days. Kept my attention for 30 years then I wanted to disentangle my self from the place. That took 2 years! I believed that I had to suck it up and look good, perform well, those last 2 years.

I can still (15+ years) remember putting my lecture notes in my briefcase, closing the top and saying to the class: " I quit."