what do you do ?

[Dr Rock]

Ask yourself what you wanted to be when you were a kid. The answer may be more telling than you would think.

that's certainly true - i'm damn sure that at no point in my life have i EVER wanted to work for a living :biggrin1:

 

[Gisella]

Have small construction and renovation business and invest in real state to flip.

I want to retired from what i do to travel around the world and hope it will be soon too.

I wish to buy a cozy restaurant in a nice exotic place for a while and live there until get bored (or not) and move again...

To my taste im already toooo long in the same place for a while...well...i must keep moving to feel real alive...but have to have enough reserves to live my dream life...

I would love to involve myself with social stuff to help communities all over the 3rd world and this ideia is the only one that do not get me feeling bored...and in the end i will embrace it for life - im almost sure of that.

Dont know if i still have enough neuronios to go back to school or patience to learn in academics structured envirionments...dont have good attention spam for that...but wish to learn many different things, enough to satysfied my particular thristy for learning the subject.

If i feel pressured i will not function good...than i just have to respect that in me..i cant be suffocated by to much imposition of structure. I only fuction in a group as voluntary because i have to express freely and do not like bosses or managers.

Its a miracle that i acomplished what i did until now...because many all over the world work sooo hard as i did and still are feeling and are "stucked"... i'm very lucky.

 

[Steve26]

The only problem with revisiting what you wanted to do as a kid is that even the brightest kids have a very narrow field of vision: They might know about doctors, lawyers, teachers, nurses, engineers, architects, veterinarians, astronauts, scientists, actors, writers, politicians, and a few other similarly "obvious" positions. I think public schools should offer a course just on all the career options out there, to open students' eyes to the many possibilities beyond the ones like these.

At any rate, I agree with curiouscat: Taking a career or personality test might point you in some new directions you had never considered. Ultimately your best bet is to weigh your skills, strengths, personality, and what you enjoy and try to find a profession that's a reasonable match. You can find considerable success in unlikely places ... I work in a field I never really considered before graduating from college, but which has turned out to be a very good match for me.

Good luck!

Steve :smile:

 

[D_Melburn Pudmuncher]

You guys are awsome! I'm so encouraged and glad I asked for your input. Wow...so many interesting fields you are all in. My main goal is never to be tied up with set hours or having to say "please sir may I have a day off?" I want to have a life and a say in how my day is structured. The only way I can see to do this is to work for myself. I think. I want a simple life, one not encombered with material things but rich with time enough to feel like a person not a prisioner shackeled with the golden handcuffs of fearing the loss of benefits that sometimes are provided to employees. I have taken those assesment tests and Its as though I'm eight people trapped in one body as they always result in a wide range of vague areas that I might possibly consider becoming interested in or fit into. Anyway...onward I go. But again thanks to you all.

 

[SpeedoGuy]

My main goal is never to be tied up with set hours or having to say "please sir may I have a day off?" I want to have a life and a say in how my day is structured.

Man, I want that too. :smile: If you figure out a way, please let me know!

 

[rhino_horn]

My main goal is never to be tied up with set hours or having to say "please sir may I have a day off?" I want to have a life and a say in how my day is structured. The only way I can see to do this is to work for myself. I think. I want a simple life, one not encombered with material things but rich with time enough to feel like a person not a prisioner shackeled with the golden handcuffs of fearing the loss of benefits that sometimes are provided to employees. I have taken those assesment tests and Its as though I'm eight people trapped in one body as they always result in a wide range of vague areas that I might possibly consider becoming interested in or fit into. Anyway...onward I go. But again thanks to you all.

u cud do late-night infomercials selling booklets containing nothing but motivational content on how u have what it takes to be ur own boss, for $39.95.

*its either that or u cud travel the country selling porn at computer shows...

 

[DC_DEEP]

Man, I want that too. :smile: If you figure out a way, please let me know!

Heheh, well, it's not that hard to figure out. The discouraging part of that is that most of the time, you have to choose between being your own boss and making more money. A very very few can have both, but not many.

Sounds fascinating, Stronzo. I love old/ancient architecture, too, although I include some more recent styles in my appreciation. I do love the good Victorian buildings, and well-done art deco is pretty cool, too. I don't even mind some preservations, if done well. It makes me crazy, though, to see a beautiful old building which has, over the years, suffered from careless renovations, or none at all.

 

[BigPoppaFury]

No qualifications? You're bright and well-endowed. You have lots of qualifications, just need to develop them!

Thanks, but I'm not sure where being well endowed would get me anywhere!

As for the tests that we did at school, it bought back a memory of when I got my results back from my test and sat down with a careers advisor to discuss them. She told me to look up and down the list of suggested jobs that I should be working towards based on my predicted grades and interests (keep in mind that in England we leave school at 16 and being the youngest in my year I was barely 15 at this point) and tell her the ones I was interested in. I remember the suggestions ranged from Dustman (garbage man) to plumber all the way past groundsman. It's only now as I think back that I wonder if that test was the reason I gave up trying! I'm not taking anything away from those jobs or the people that do them (I could well find myself in those jobs in the future) but what a way to be told that all those aspirations you have of doing something special or cool are pipe dreams. I think pretty much everyone at my school got the same or worse, I don't think anyone expected anything different- where I come from those are the jobs you do. I told her it was a waste of time and I had no interest in any of it, but I'm a little sad that so far she's pretty much been proven right!

Still, I have faith in life and myself that much better things await me.

 

[D_Elijah_MorganWood]

I worked in restaurants for years in everything from pizza joints to a top-5 fine dining establishment. I managed an alarm and telecommunications company at 19. I've worked banquets, private parties and tended bar. I did some modeling and a little acting. I went back to school and went into social work. I burned out and opened an antique store. After I went broke, I got into real estate investment and I've done well. My goal is to get enough income producing properties to retire at 45.

 

[yhtang]

My main goal is never to be tied up with set hours or having to say "please sir may I have a day off?" I want to have a life and a say in how my day is structured. The only way I can see to do this is to work for myself. I think. I want a simple life, one not encombered with material things but rich with time enough to feel like a person not a prisioner shackeled with the golden handcuffs of fearing the loss of benefits that sometimes are provided to employees.

I am on my own now, and yes, I do not have to ask anyone for a day off. However, the work left undone on my day off would still have to be completed, which could mean working into the wee hours of the night.

Then there is the problem of cash flow. Unlike an employee, my work is seasonal, and I therefore have to be mindful to retain a part of my income to tide over my lean months.

I don't have to kiss my boss's ass - unless I feel like kissing my own, but I still have to appease my clients. So it appears I have swapped one category of ass for another.

I believe it was the French philospher, Voltaire, who said, "We are born free, but everywhere we go, we are bound by chains." Well, somethink like that anyway, and definitely in French, not English. The point remains - whether we work for ourselves or we are employees, there are still asses to kiss. Freedom comes at a price. For myself, I am willing to pay the price. May it be so for you too.

 

[GoneA]

Systems Analyst/Programmer

It's a great profession if you can get into it ... but I think in this day and age Tech Support is really the way to go.

 

[Shelby]

Systems Analyst/Programmer

It's a great profession if you can get into it ... but I think in this day and age Tech Support is really the way to go.

This is my job. I am probably older than you and I was able to get into this gig while the getting was good.

Tech support is a good job which I respect and admire. They oftentimes endure more pressure than I do. But ultimately they come to me when problems arise.

You seem to doubt my credentials. Oh well.

 

[GoneA]

This is my job. I am probably older than you and I was able to get into this gig while the getting was good.

That's good actually, programming/developing were all the rage in the early to late 90s. I've been doing it now for a few years.

Tech support is a good job which I respect and admire. They oftentimes endure more pressure than I do. But ultimately they come to me when problems arise.

I actually got my start in Tech support - Help Desk, Level 1. After a few months I then made the drastic leap to developing. Only thing I regret about that is having to learn Shell scripting.

Yeah, when the support techs are at their wits end, they usually call in the programmers. That's one of the parts I like about working as a Consultant for a software vendor - that, and the traveling.

You seem to doubt my credentials. Oh well.

 

[ABCB11]

I'm not sure I ever wanted to be a Ranch Manager when I was younger, but I have to say it offers one of the most varied jobs I could ever ask for. I oversee literally millions of acres of crops and thousands of head of cattle (and quite a few horses besides). I have hundreds of people working under me and I get to spend my life doing things as varied as:

- spending a day on horseback out touring remote parts of the ranch
- flying to meetings 300 miles away and flying home again by lunchtime
- sitting at my desk doing paperwork so that newly hired cowboys will get paid
- etc etc etc.

It is the most varied job I could imagine and a lot of it is in the great out of doors (although when it's -40 in the midst of winter it isn't always the "great" out of doors haha).