How did you know which job you would go on to do?

[Mr Allen]

Sounds like Generation X question. As a Baby Boomer I went into a completely dysfunctional job market in the late 70s. So much for any aspirations of getting the job I wanted right out of college.

For all the specific government agencies I applied to, it wasn't until four years later one of them contacted me. I went through a series of interviews, but the work they envisioned me doing was something very different than that which I had contemplated many years before. Besides, I was already moving up the ladder in insurance. So much for what I wanted to do as opposed to the work I actually found. A definite sign of the times back then, even if one was technically "qualified".

Work is work mate, it might not be exactly what's on your agenda but it pays the bills.

 

[AO1501]

A teacher at school once told me that when I needed to think about what I wanted to do, I should remember that I would be good at what I liked, and that I would like what I would be good at.

So I focussed on what I really enjoyed doing. Ever since, even if and when my focus and interests have changed, I have stuck to work in those areas. That has included acoustic engineering, computer programming and IT development and systems management, to employment and contract law - in recent years, U.S. immigration casework.

I have tended to find employers I can stick with for the duration of my interests - except for acoustics, which was my own business.

I haven't followed in anyone's footprints - my mother was a civil servant working in an unemployment office, and my father had been a pilot, then mechanic. The only guidance he ever offered was not to be a pilot or a mechanic. My mother on the other hand thought the civil service was 'nice and safe'.

 

[On the Inside]

All of the things I wanted to do turned out to be much too difficult for me to acheive.

What I have wound up doing is working in fields related to my interests, bicycles specifically, art more generally, and then from there using the skills I developed to maintain gainful employment.

I would be no where without the specific skills I have gained through school, training, and my own curiosity and experimentation. I am a worker bee, not a manager, intellectual, or executive.

I am very grateful that 22 years ago, despite having major phobias around computers, that I had the nerve to take a series of CAD courses. I might not be employable without that skill, as my other skills are much less marketable, and at my age, I'm grateful for a job that is easier on my body.

 

[Rich Gray]

My current job was random. My wife showed me the position, and I applied. The lady from the agency asked me over and over again if I thought that I could pass the insurance exams. It was interesting. I stressed over the tests, but passed. They only tell you if you pass or fail, so I have no clue on how well I did. I am not the best, but I am up there. I ended up winning a trip.

Often the best part of luck is seeing the opportunity and taking it.

 

[Tom]

It seemed to almost be encoded. It was my lifelong special interest #1. For a time I drifted uncertainly as a teenager, but by age 21 it seemed the logical thing to do.

 

[Mr Allen]

Mum did shop work most of her working life, =so that's kind of where I'm hopefully headed, OK it's only been Charity shops working for free so far, but contrary to the opinions of a few, work is work.

 

[Sid Delicious]

I didn't really 'know', but other people figured I would end up working with computers at some point. I was fascinated with gadgets from a very young age and started hacking and building little projects with code from about 11/12, when we got a computer at home. I took IT in highschool and then college, but took a different route and worked in finance in my 20s as I was good with numbers too and was pushed in that direction instead (plus my brother went into IT and I thought I should do something different). I got stuck in that for several years, due to the recession. But I always loved writing code and building/working on the finance software more than the accounting side, so I eventually ended up back in IT (where I should have been all along) and love it! My favourite subjects at school were IT, maths and art, and now I use all three in my work. So in hindsight it was obvious, but maybe not to me.

 

[hiraeth]

I fell into it on the way to pursuing a special interest. Once that interest ended I spent the next few years being wildly confused about what I was doing and why I was still doing it. Eventually I discovered the reason that was there all along, but that I was never able to see because the essence of how and why this career makes the most sense for me to do is directly challenging many assumptions I (and we all) have been raised to think is true about the world, the natural order, etc.

I stumbled across an old book lying on a friend's bookshelf, took it home, and a lifetime of confusion about not just my career but my experiences moving about in the world, suddenly made sense. The logic was always there, but the dots never connected until I saw someone else put words to it - gave permission for it to exist as a valid experience of being human.

I owe the writer a lot; maybe the whole second half of my life in some ways. I think of him as my idol in a sense. One day I hope to be able to see him speak (or speak to him) in person.

 

[TheFreeCat]

I did what everyone said I would. They said I would never get better, never amount to much, never be able to live a normal life. I exceeded all their expectations -----in their thinking.

But to me, I did great things and things no one EVER thought I would, things I am happy about.

So now I feel happy about laying in the sun all day, licking my fur, and watching my humans, the ones who do care about me, and love me.

I don't feel I wasted my life, but most people shudder when they think of me. It makes me upset when people like my Drs often ask me in a surreptitious way,"How on earth do you find meaning in your life?"

And I have to laugh.
"Because I did not listen to you telling me that I am a waste."
"Because I find joy in things you overlook."
"Because I see the end, and it's close for all of us....."
"Because I am not a human like you are...."

The list is endless.

 

[LadyBird84]

Looking back on it, I studied the very topics I struggled with in my daily life. Social interaction, people. While this helped me in my personal life it meant that I had been educated in the very field I struggled in the most. So I hold a lower level job there because the level I have been trained for I cannot do.

I know that my job is not good for me. I've come to realize more and more that it costs me a lot more energy than it does my coworkers. I struggle to accept this fact. I want to be able to work a job I enjoy and support myself. But I think if I'm completely honest with myself a different job would be better for my health.

If I had been diagnosed earlier I would have gone for a more suitable field.

But as Baz Luhrmann puts it:
Don’t feel guilty if you don’t know what you want to do with your life
the most interesting people I know didn’t know at 22
what they wanted to do with their lives,
some of the most interesting 40 year olds I know still don’t

Most people I know just ended up somewhere, like me. Very few had a plan.

 

[Otenba]

I've never known what I wanted to do, and still don't. I have been in admin roles for most of my working life and have learnt I suffer in public facing roles so I will avoid them now. Unfortunately the world is trying to combine so many roles with customer service, I'm at a point where I wonder how long until my employer tells me they're letting me go because I'm not a jill of all trades. Hopefully the fact I've been with them a very long time protects me, but yeah, I still worry.

My father wanted me to be self employed and run a comic book shop (as in, live his dream on his behalf). Did business studies and what not after his guidance and hated it. Running a shop sounds like hell on earth to me, especially now. I get laughed at for struggling to be a good customer service person. People take their communication skills for granted. I wish I'd realised my limitations sooner so I knew listening to my father was a bad idea. He seemed to think that just because I had a time of being really keen at drawing in my early teens would mean I would make a great comic shop person or comic artist. We were not pre-Marvel or DC then or even now; new ideas and successes are harder to achieve and most people fail when they go self employed... and you have to be all the roles within that self run business too anyway.

Still searching for a new and suitable job; have been for years. Happy to hear suggestions for work paths I could consider. I think I need to move away from admin because of the customer service being added problem. Interested in design work but finding an employer who wants to train you at my age is next to impossible. Rejected for apprenticeships! Looking at self funded training like CAD or something. I can't just quit current job because have responsibilities to look after, and careers advisor said it would be very bad idea too as work is scarce locally as well as mostly unsuitable for me.

 

[tlc]

Before I could read, I was tearing things apart and pretty sure I could understand blueprint basics. They just seem natural and straightforward to me, much more than written stories. I was destined to become some sort of engineer or fabricator. My whole family and their buddies (the guys anyway) worked in engineering or fabrication too. I was teaching the drafting teacher things in high school. I got my college degree in design engineering and immediately went to work in the field. Last week was my 20 year anniversary at my current job. I can also fabricate, which helps a lot. And can fix cars and all sorts of other things on the side, which is what I figure I'll do if the engineering jobs all get shipped overseas or whatever.