are re's just career misfits

[lazygood4nothinbum]

or did i simply miss my calling? mom taught that i should find something i enjoy doing that would also make some money. so while sunning on the flybridge one day, anchored off lauderdale beach, i announced i would become a prostitute. i was 17 going for shock value or an increase in my allowance, maybe both. without missing a beat, mom told me she recently read happy hooker and xavier didn't think i should.

i must have had four majors in college. even though i've been around people who knew what they wanted to be, i never got the concept, never found a job i really wanted. my career was nothing more than building a resume. i'm retired 8 months now. cleaning out my desk at home, i just tossed my resume in the garbage, and i'm wondering: if i loved my job, would i still be working?

 

[Ed_The_Gypsy]

Yes. They definitely march to the beat of a different bagpiper.

...never found a job i really wanted....

At least you got out alive! Enjoy the rest of the trip, kid!

 

[Outtahere]

Lazy, don't feel bad, I had no clue what I wanted to do, still don't, I fell into this career and hopefully in a year or two I'll fall out of it into ER. I envy people that have a career they love. Maybe retirement IS my thing LOL

 

[riskadverse]

Don't feel bad.  If you ever found a job you loved, the company would be sold, reorganized or generaly screwed with by new management. 

 

[Outtahere]

You know, come to think of it you're right. I DID have a job I loved, working on a farm with race horses, the owner sold the farm and that was the end of that job. I decided not to pursue a position at another farm because it paid little to nothing, but isn't that usually the way it is?

 

[REWahoo]

My guess is there are a lot of people who never find "it" when it comes to their calling in life.

I recall a long ago discussion with a group of high school buddies during senior week. It was a rare moment of serious introspection, strongly influenced by being an 18 year old male in the era of the draft and the Vietnam war. I remember being more than a little envious that everyone but yours truly seemed to know what they wanted to do with their lives. Not that several of them didn't change their minds a time or two in the ensuing 40 years, but at least they had real goals.

After 35 years in the working world, I'm still trying to figure out what I want to do when I grow up. I gave up being frustrated about it long ago and decided to just try to enjoy the scenery along the way as I continued my search.

 

[brewer12345]

Hmmm, well, I am in a job a really like, but I still am eager to FIRE, although perhaps the pain is somewhat lessened.  I think its just that we don't need the structure of employment, so the psychological rewards of work are not enough to offset the PITA factor.

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

I liked a lot of my job(s) and the people I worked with, and enjoyed the challenges and learning. I think if I had never worked, or had quit earlier than I did, I might have felt like i missed something.

but I was a good corporate droid and wasnt really thinking about quitting until my compensation dropped by about 75%.

I didnt like the job THAT much.

Then I discovered I like being a bum.

 

[Eagle43]

My guess is there are a lot of people who never find "it" when it comes to their calling in life. 

I recall a long ago discussion with a group of high school buddies during senior week.  It was a rare moment of serious introspection, strongly influenced by being an 18 year old male in the era of the draft and the Vietnam war.  I remember being more than a little envious that everyone but yours truly seemed to know what they wanted to do with their lives.  Not that several of them didn't change their minds a time or two in the ensuing 40 years, but at least they had real goals.

After 35 years in the working world, I'm still trying to figure out what I want to do when I grow up.  I gave up being frustrated about it long ago and decided to just try to enjoy the scenery along the way as I continued my search.

Exactly my problem.  All my life I never knew what I wanted to be when I grow up.  While I was wondering, I grew up.  I read a book years ago, entitled "Are You Happy?"  One of the traits of happiness, the book said, was having a job you would do even if not paid.  Hmmmm, let's see.  Second baseman for the Red Sox might do, but it's filled.  Most corporate jobs do NOT fill this requirement.  Can you imagine a CEO (not to mention any cubicle rat)  agreeing to continue working after being told he/she would receive no compensation?   I don't mind working at all.  I do mind meaningless, mindless tasks assigned to me by empty suits.  So now I do know what I want to be when I grow up.  I want to be retired and to outlive the ba$tards. 

 

[Outtahere]

I'm actually thinking, once I retire, of doing some volunteer work at the local SPCA, it's in a farm setting and they have a barn full of horses that need attention. That's a job I would do for nothing, in fact now that I think about it there were several times at that previous job that we were told to "hold your check till Monday".

I guess I'm looking at retiring as the time to be able to do all those things I always wanted to do but didn't pay enough to make a living at.

 

[Jay_Gatsby]

Don't feel bad.  If you ever found a job you loved, the company would be sold, reorganized or generally screwed with by new management. 

This is more accurate than sarcastic. If you work in the private sector, you may love your job but your employer exists for one purpose -- to make money. Unless love for your job translates into increased productivity, revenues and ultimately profits, your job is subject to the whims of management.

 

[cube_rat]

This is a great thread. Untainted by boobs and squirrels.

Seriously though, I don't want to work in IT anymore! I've had it! What keeps me caged in my situation is my paycheck. I've taken extreme measures to ensure we live well below our means in the last two years, so when I do cross over into something that I'm passionate about, the income hit isn't such a blow. I'm way far from ER, so that's not an option, I just want to LOVE my work, and not be a paycheck whore anymore.

 

[setab]

Jay,

Don't look now, but the public sector isn't all that different, especially if you work for the military, where a new commander comes in every 18 months to two years.  They all have better ways to do something that will make what you are doing more efficient.  (Of course, they aren't at all concerned about punching their ticket for the next promotion.  It's purely patriotism on their part.)  Sooner or latter the endless waves of recycled, reorganized, regurgitated nonthink succeed in destroying the will of the organization.  Sometime I'll tell you what I really think. Anyway, I'm done with all that and if that makes me a misfit, I wear it proudly!

setab

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

This is a great thread. Untainted by boobs and squirrels.

Hey cube CAT

 

[REWahoo]

This is a great thread. Untainted by boobs and squirrels.

Guess you've been too busy changing your avatar to notice the one to the left of this post.

And I just have to ask since your avatar photo is too small to be able to tell, has it been shaved or is it still natual?

 

[cube_rat]

Guess you've been too busy changing your avatar to notice the one to the left of this post.

And I just have to ask since your avatar photo is too small to be able to tell, has it been shaved or is it still natual?

shaved

 

[REWahoo]

shaved

And people want to know why I spend so much time on this forum... :

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

So her camel has cold feet in the morning...?

 

[setab]

I keep coming back for all the pithy comments and pictures. Did I tell you I have a lisp?

setab

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Sthhhtop!

Anyone else see the sharon stone interview from the middle east where she talked about coming on faith...?

 

[setab]

No, but as you get older, that's about the only way you can. Iwas going to say if you could hum a few bars, I could fake it, but decided against it.

setab

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Made me wonder if she had a lisp, or who the heck 'faith' was...

 

[Andre1969]

I don't think I was ever intended to be a worker drone. I can still remember back as a little kid. There was a nice old lady who lived in a farmhouse at the top of the hill who used to watch me during the day, so this was pre-nursery school. Things just seemed so carefree back then, playing with tinker toys and reading Cat in the Hat and Curious George books, running around in the cornfields, playing hide-and-seek in the big pile of concrete culvert pipes that were dumped back at the edge of the woods, pretending I was driving the old Diamond-T tractor rig that was also dumped back there, etc. No worries, no cares, no responsibilities, no STRESS!

I remember my babysitter asking me what I wanted to be when I grew up. And I still remember saying that I didn't WANT to grow up. I just wanted to be a kid all my life! Uh-oh, I hope that isn't sounding too Michael-Jacksonish!

But I think that little kid has still been with me all these years. And I look forward to the day that I can just tell my company up-chuck on all of it, and be totally workplace-free.

But I'd have to find a different cornfield to play in now, because there's a school there now. And the culvert pipes are gone. The old Diamond-T either got smashed flat or hauled away years ago, and there's a soccer field roughly where it used to sit. And my babysitter's been dead for years. The farmhouse is still there though, but I guess it would be kinda weird if I went to the front door and ask the old guy who lives there to babysit me and read Curious George to me!

 

[setab]

[The farmhouse is still there though, but I guess it would be kinda weird if I went to the front door and ask the old guy who lives there to babysit me and read Curious George to me!

You never know until you knock on the door.

setab

 

[grumpy]

I don't think I was a career misfit. I always knew that I didn't want to work in private industry and be tied to the goal of making a profit for some corporation. I was drawn toward government service even though it was the height of the Viet Nam war and faith in our government was at an all time low (until the Katrina fiasco ). I entered gov't service in a internship program that let me try out various career paths for the first year. I found that I had real ability to figure out the reality behind budget and cost numbers. I also found that working for NASA gave me a sense of contributing to the success of something important. All of that not withstanding, at the earliest date I was eligible to retire, I did and have absolutely no regrets. My career was satisfying but I still prefer to completely set my own agenda, which I now do every day.

Grumpy