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Re: I need a job.
Posted By: Brunnen-G, on host 203.96.111.202
Date: Saturday, March 30, 2002, at 21:57:07
In Reply To: I need a job. posted by uselessness on Saturday, March 30, 2002, at 14:11:58:

I don't know. When I need a job I just spend every day looking through the situations vacant and applying to all the ones that seem like they would be interesting.

Most people don't spend their whole life in one career anymore, so you can't really look at a list of a person's interests and skills and say "OK, this all adds up to meaning you should be a [whatever]." That's the way they did it at school. They told me I liked to read so I should be a library assistant. Blam, there you go, my entire life path sorted out for me when I was 15, for goodness sake. If anyone tells you something like this, you should be allowed to hit them with something heavy.

I'm 30 and I've been in full time employment for (gosh) nine years. So far I've been a writer, an editor, a graphic designer, a music teacher, a proofreader, Coastguard search & rescue crew on boats and planes, a bartender, a deckhand, an accountant, a receptionist, a curtain and upholstery fitter, an English-as-a-second-language tutor, and (yes) a library assistant. I was a very bad library assistant. There was a time when all I wanted to do was work in a museum, but there weren't enough vacancies for me to get into a job there -- it's the sort of thing I'd still apply for, though, if it came along.

Every single job I've had has been a complete change of career to an unrelated field. Right now I'm working on getting a nautical qualification so I can start a charter boat company. I like it this way; other people might not. However, in case you're similar to me, the advice I wish someone had given me as a kid was "it's OK, you don't HAVE to just pick one career forever."

Just stop worrying about what career you can do, and concentrate on finding a *job* you enjoy. Careers are shorter term things now than they were in our parents' and grandparents' time, and thinking that the job you choose is going to nail you there for the rest of your life is a fallacy. It seems like you have a wide range of interests, so look through the job listings and see what's available. Then you can find out a bit more about what you need to work in that field, and if it's still for you, go and do it until you change your mind. Then do something else. Pathways always open up for people who are willing to take them.

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