OK, long story short. I made some bad life decisions, am now in a place in my life where I don’t want to be. I’ve got the brains to do practically anything that I want. I can’t imagine a not physically demanding job that I wouldn’t be able to master if I found it interesting and put my mind to it.
I’ve always loved writing, for as long as I can remember. Breaking through as a novelist these days is really tough (especially since my native language isn’t English). I thought studying journalism would be the answer (many writers started out as journalists, learning the nuts and bolts of the craft there) and applied for a university course. I’m waiting for the answer, but I have since investigated further and the job market for journalists around here is so utterly dreadful. People work week to week or day to day. We’re talking several years of temp jobs at local papers until you maybe get a steady job. That doesn’t tickle my funny-bone at all.
So what to do? Pricegal mentioned that she was thinking about becoming a marine biologist. Cool, thinks I. Maybe I should? I’m slowly realising that the world is full of interesting occupations that I haven’t even thought about.
Dopers, I trust you. You’ve designed a sea-going civilization for me. You’ve told me who falls for spam. You’ve told me how all that ice ended up at the Poles in the first place. You’ve even explained (as far as it’s possible) the 2002 Bush/Gore election debacle. You rock.
Here’s the deal: I have a steady job now. I can get any requirements while still working (for most jobs, I’ll need to study some mathematics and the like to meet the requirements for the courses). Unfortunately, I cannot afford to become a doctor or anything else that requires a really long education. I’m interested in and fascinated by almost everything that moves, lives or works in this fantastic Universe of ours. Just throw suggestions at me. Save my life, Dopers.
What Color is Your Parachute by Richard Nelson Bolles would be a good place to start.
I think that once you’ve found the right thing, those years of paying your dues as a beginner (temp jobs & sub-par pay), that are an inevitable part of most occupations, won’t be such an obstacle.
Fessie gives a great recommendation…and the assertion that it all comes together is very true. I bartended after my masters, then all of a sudden the college I teach at had an opening. I started as an adjunct instructor until I became a fully pledged instructor. Now aprez PhD I’m making a decent wage along with my wife and when I look back I see it all just kind of fell into place… I think a fair bit of good Karma helps as well. And a healthy outlook on life can’t hurt either.
Don’t take this the wrong way Priceguy, but I think you need to apply some serious and disciplined additional thought as to what your personal life goals are, and what you can realistically bring to the table to achieve them before dopers can provide you with useful occupational suggestions. Regardless of your mental acuity most desirable jobs, professional or otherwise, take a significant amount of gruntwork to get credentialed in.
Based on your OP I would guess (perhaps incorrectly) that you need to narrow your focus to a line of work that:
1: Will provide a reasonable living
2: Can be affordably pursued
3: Getting credentialed is not long term process
4: Is not tedious
5: Is not physically demanding
These requirements will eliminate 90% of all professional and academic jobs. You might want to think a bit harder about what is going to hold your interest over time. Well paying jobs for highly intelligent but highly distractable people are often found in technical sales or being a representative of of some kind.
Oh, I understand that. That’s not the problem with the job market for journalists; the problem is the utter insecurity of working years at the whim of your boss, never knowing how much work you’ll get to do that week, never knowing if you’ll be able to pay the rent. That I cannot handle.
Starting low-level and working my way up is not a problem at all. I’ve already done that once, but this job was never intended to be my lifelong occupation. It’s something I do until I find out what I want to do.
Yes. I need to pay the rent, eat, and maybe one day have children. But I do not need any more than that. I’m not looking to become a brain surgeon or top lawyer.
I suppose. In Sweden, this isn’t the big problem it sounds like. As long as the education isn’t too long, I can be anything.
Depends on what you mean both by “credentialed” and “long term process”. I’ll happily study for a few years, and expect to. I just can’t study for five years.
Well yeah. We all want this, don’t we?
I am looking for a brain job, yes. I’m not all that distractable, though. I can concentrate quite intensely.
As for my life goals… I may be alone in this, but my life goals aren’t really my career. I have to have a job to survive, and since I’m going to spend a lot of time doing it I want it to be interesting, but that’s it.
What I want are suggestions. Many of them. What job do you have? What do you do? Suggest it. I just want to find one thing I can be.
Hmm. I would think having a profession you like would make it easier to stream line it into your life. That job usually falls into place eventually. I remember a part of my life where I was living paycheck to paycheck, everything was bad, I had debt up to my eyeballs and my wife was ready to leave me because I was financially retarded.
Then it seemed like overnight when I started making much more money than I ever had, I started a side business consulting for urban planners and architects, (I’m an environmental psychologist) and my job at the college was paying the bills and then some. I began to build equity in my house and everything fell together. The money I get from consulting goes towards other things… Look around on the boards you’ll see various projects I’m doing. Treehouse, boatng, hobbit hole, medieval long bows. Calculated risk, some elbow grease, and a support structure for when you fall down is all the foundation you need.
It’s about taking risks Priceguy. Planned calculated risk.
You want to find one thing you can be. Well what do you do now? Can you go to night school? What about a school loan. How old are you? Can you apply as a returning student? you have to have been out of school longer than 5 years at most institutions.
Since you like to write, consider an area that requires writing skills but has more commercial promise than journalism.
Get training in ISO procedures and specifications. Although a lot of their indoctrination is a bit of bafflegab, they are poised to provide an important cross-communication vehicle for world manufacturers and commercial enterprises. Gaining some technical knowledge and combining that with your writing skills could yield a paying career that would use your brain and not require another decade of your life to achieve.
And a healthy outlook on life can’t hurt either.