If you could change your career

[Michael7]

[No message]

 

[Noel]

"syndic4,

First for the mods...this is not a personal attack on syndic4 its a reasoned and thought out repins to his post.

My reaction to this is that I want to help syndic4 from the bottom of my heart, with respect and empathy but I need to say this:- "

Looks like a personal attack to me. A reasoned and thought out personal attack. Respect? No. Empathy? No. Support? No.
I'm going to leave your post intact at the moment and perhaps subsequent opinion may convince you that you made a severe error of judgement in posting such nonsense. The fact that you attach your business details to the post gives your views even less credibility.

 

[woodbloke]

Lee - the post from beech was entirely uncalled for, agree with others in their condemnation. My change of career from teaching to civil servant (via numerous other routes) was not voluntary though I am very happy with what I do now, even though the money isn't as good.....however the total lack of stress in my new job more than compensates for this. For me this is the most important spin off from a career change. In teaching I (and all other teachers without exception that I knew) were under a huge stress load, which for me had a damaging effect on my health. Health, in my view, comes before everything else and if you ain't got that.......well. Best of luck with a career change - Rob

 

[Jake]

Lee - the post from beech was entirely uncalled for, agree with others in their condemnation. ..... Best of luck with a career change - Rob

The problem is that Syntec says he can't change jobs, so maybe he does need to rethink his attitude to his current job as Beech suggested. Sympathy is nice in the short term, but it doesn't change anything.

FWIW, I think that aside from some of the top and tail lines which might have been omitted or reworded, the post was actually more potentially helpful than a 'there there' post.

Of course, the approach might not work for Syntec, and if so that suggests that he really needs to look at whether he is as stuck in the job as he thinks he is. But, I don't think it such a bad thing to suggest that he might reflect on why he thinks he hates the job so much, and see if actually he can get past those reasons if he is stuck in it.

 

[Alf]

Despite what you might think of a posting, and even though apparently one moderator at least doesn't deem it worthy of comment, could we avoid name-calling in retaliation? Please?

Cheers, Alf

 

[ByronBlack]

Jake, I agree to a small extent that Beech's post was there to try and help Syntec4 re-evaluate things and to try and work out the real reasons for his feelings, this is something i've been trying to do for a few months, and although difficult and not always clear, it does help bring some things into the clear. In my particular situation, its made me realise just how much I do dislike my job and just how much I do feel undervalued, hence my quest for a job that fulfills my requirements.

However, I think beech was unnesacarily harsh, and included far too much opinion. The sign of a good coach is one that doesn't colour his work with personal opinion, instead aks questions of the coachee that allows him/her to realise there own answers and solutions.

Beech, if you used that tone and approach when coaching me and my colleagues, I believe you would probably get a slap or at the very least a very demoralised and angry coachee.

But back onto the subject of change.

I personally think one of the hardest challanges, is to realise what it is that you enjoy doing, and what you can feel that you could do succesfully. So far in my short working life, i've been:

- A graphic designer
- A photographer
- An optical assistant
- A lab technician
- A lab manager
- A business owner
- A website developer
- IT support
- A trainer
- An office assistant

And throughout each of those (many of them were very short) I couldn't find what it was that I enjoyed about those roles, and quickly grew bored and unfuliflled.

So, how do you go about 'finding' that elusive job in the first place? Is it pot-luck, or are there methods of evaluation we can use?

My current train of thought, is leaning towards journalism/writing, but when looking into it, I only hear negative things back about it's difficult to make a living, blah blah blah, but isn't that the case with ever job?

 

[woodbloke]

Jake wrote:

he can't change jobs

Jake - Lee, I feel is unable to change careers for various reasons which are apparent from his post. If push came to shove and he was forced out (as I was and then had a breakdown) then 'can't' doesn't apply. I then had to rapidly re-evaluate just about everything I was doing at the time. Fortunately, my other half was fantastically supportive and everything has worked out well in the years since I left the profession. One awful repercussion tho' was at the time all this happened, we both neglected to pay enough attention to the kids, with the result that my daughter began to seriously self-harm, was bulimic, started to smoke etc. Again, she has come through this dark patch and is great now (apart from the ciggies, which I detest) - Rob

 

[promhandicam]

: . . Alf - I agree, possibly a PM would have been more appropriate. Although I now know that I wont post anything like that again Thanks everyone Lee.

Lee, I, and I'm sure others, appreciate your honesty and hope that you will feel free to post your feelings in the future.

As to the post from Beech, I find it surprising that someone would comment, in a professional capacity, on the basis of someone giving their twopenneth worth on a woodworkingdiscussion forum. I personally wouldn't like to jump to the conclusions you have done on the basis of the few lines that Lee wrote.

In closing I hope Byron (who incidentaly started this thread), Lee and anyone else stuggling with career decisions, that you end up finding a job that you enjoy doing. I realise once again how fortunate I am that I have a rewarding job that I enjoy.

Steve

 

[Gill]

Hmmmm..... although it might make unpleasant reading to some, there's wisdom in what Beech is saying. If you were making a table and it turned out with wonky legs, next time you'd do something different. It might be that you'd learn a new woodworking technique, or you might make a different piece of furniture altogether. Heck, you might even learn to appreciate what you've made despite its shortcomings, enjoying the lovely joints and wonderful finish whilst you ignore the uneven length of the legs.

I get the impression that all Beech is saying is "if what you are doing isn't working, do something else". That doesn't necessarily mean changing your activities; it can mean changing your perspective.

There's a school of thought that we only do something because it brings us pleasure. That's even true of things that we don't like doing! For example, a lot of us don't like going to work but perhaps we like the social status it gives us, or the money, or getting out the house and away from the missus . Sometimes we can't bring ourselves to stop doing something we don't like because it would mean we'd have to stop doing something we do like. It helps you endure the unpleasantness if you can connect it to the pleasure it brings. I suppose it's a way of saying 'count your blessings'.

I remember all the good advice and sympathy you guys gave when His Lordship was made redundant from MG Rover a couple of years ago. In the eyes of others, he took a huge gamble, a huge salary cut and changed his career totally. However, he hadn't enjoyed working in factories for the past 30 years and he'd only tolerated it because of the money. He knew he wouldn't get the same wages doing that sort of work anywhere else, so the change of career was much easier for him to undertake. He's now a (very) mature student who has part-time work that he'd do on a voluntary basis if he wasn't being paid to do it anyway. Even if MG Rover was to offer him his old job back at an increased wage, he wouldn't go back.

Gill

 

[Noel]

I daresay Beech's post may have been simply a suggestion to "try something else or change your attitude etc" but my objection and my view that it was nonsense and insulting was based simply on the manner it was written in - patronising and totally without knowledge of Lee's personal circumstances etc. Other comments such as suggesting to go to the pub if you don't like my post, don't post again if you can't take my opinion and needing to mention the sum of £6m as if trying to validate his opinion. Similar to somebody ringing the Samaritans with their head in a gas oven and the person answering the call simply said "catch a grip of yourself..?"
Beech, if he had to comment, really could've written and used a more friendly, polite and more sensible approach.

 

[Anonymous]

I agree with everything you've just said, Noel.

I'm sorry I called him a 'sanctamonious git' in an earlier post - you should have picked me up on it.

I can only assume that Beech is touting for business when he lists his professional titles at the end of his post. If this is representative of his standard of sales pitch then it would appear that he is not quite as good a salesman as he thinks he is!

Cheers
Brad

 

[beech1948]

Hi,
Interesting. Sanctimonious git ...eh! :roll:

Sales pitch..touting for business...eh! :twisted:

Harsh...eh! :shock:

There is no evidence of any of that. 8-[

Just as well I can take it as well as dish it out. :lol:

 

[WoodStoat]

Perhaps 'dishing it out' isn't the best way to offer advice. My doctor girlfriend used to know a shrink who would tell people to pull themselves together and stop wasting his time, worse things happen at sea etc. But then he was struck off and ended up selling quack remedies for impotence out of adverts in smutty magazines, from a bedsit in Harrogate.

 

[Anonymous]

What's wrong with Harrogate?

 

[WoodStoat]

Nothng wrong with Harrogate, it was more the bedsit I thought carried the moral of the tale. At least he could go for a cup of tea and a sticky bun at Betty's after he'd counted up his haul of postal orders and stained fivers at the end of another day hard at it.

 

[Noel]

Ok everybody, including me goodself, Lee, Brad, Alan et al, let's get back to business.

I was in Harrogate once.

Rgds

Noel

 

[JFC]

Bryon , do you think its working for someone else thats getting you down or do you really hate gorgeous women sat in front of you every 10 mins asking you to look into their eyes :lol:
The reason i'm asking is even as self employed you have to do things you don't like doing .

 

[ByronBlack]

JFC

I think you misunderstand - i'm not an optician, i'm the guy who actually makes the glasses! And trust me, there aren't that many beautifull women who come into shop, our usualy clientele is usually your slightly too old to be wearing a mini-skirt grandmother, or your nuckle-head thug.

It's the actual job I dislike, and partly working for someone else. I was a freelance webdeverloper for three years and quite enjoyed the freedom that I had with that, so I would like to go back to something that was partly freelance.

 

[RogerS]

a mini-skirt grandmother

The French have a very succinct phrase 16-64. 16 from the back, 64 from the front :wink:

 

[JFC]

Byron
A friend of mine has just take on a 33year old that is putting himself through collage to become a carpenter and joiner . He wants to learn and having worked with him he is picking it up very fast . I think you are past the picking it up stage so you may find you will get paid a larger sum than you think with the right person.
I can put you in touch with the CITB if you like as i am on their list of employers but i'm afraid i wont be able to employ you , but they don't need to know that eh :wink: