I don't have a vocation... what is your vocation?

[troubled]

For a few years now i've gone without any direction. I would say this is the main reason for all my problems.. it just leaves me standing, and somewhat embarassed since i dont want people to know i have 'no life' I guess.

I was at uni for a year then quit since I didn't enjoy that subject.

What do you all do for a job? I need some inspiration...

 

[oarivan]

Freelance web development and design @ www.keyboardkitteh.com

Doesn't make me a lot of money but its something I can do while going to uni. Also, I've dropped out twice before and considering how the workforce is these days, I figure I might as well go back and finish up my degree. You've done a year. At the some point, consider finishing it up, maybe once you've worked a bit and have an idea of what field you'd like to join.

 

[Badjedidude]

I do a crapload of things. I run a small internet business, I work as janitor/maintenance guy for a local church, I make and sell chainmail, I do oddjobs for people (construction, etc)...lots of things. That's how I stay afloat through college. Obviously it can get difficult to find a "normal" job with about 6,000 other students in the same area looking for work.

----Steve

 

[h i]

i work at a store moving boxes and counting stuff. ive done it for awhile. i realized, i dont like people... i dont want a lot of friends. i dont want to talk, greet, or know people. i dont want to be employed. my goal is to own my own small business in a small town and avoid people. ive repaired furniture and appliances before and i know how to weld. ill come up with something.

 

[RebeccaSarah33]

I currently work in a bakery as a service clerk. I help customers, take orders, answer phones, do the dishes, make orders, check in orders, label products, bake, top and package fresh bakery products, write on cakes, mostly... I stock my products and shelves. Its a physical job and I really enjoy that it is, I'm always doing something, it entertains me. I like my coworkers alot. It doesn't pay much but I'm happy.

 

[Brian]

I work as a firefighter/EMT with a small rural district, working on finding somewhere bigger. I'm also a part-time custodian for the local school district; I fill in as a substitute when their full-timers call in sick or take vacation.

Emergency Services is a decent field. You have a lot of opportunities to learn new stuff and branch in to doing different things; for instance last month I went and took a class to learn the International Fire Code and be an inspector, this week I'm going to learn about radiological/biological emergencies, and next month I'll be advancing my Hazmat cert to Operations. After that I'm off to a 3 day class to learn how to cut cars apart, and later this summer I'll be roadtripping a bit south to go to the live burn trailer the state does every year. So it's always something new. The costs are minimal (only the fire trailer will cost me) and it's actually kind of a hobby and a great way to meet new people.

The people are enjoyable. You find a lot of Type A personalities and they tend to be fun if you realize that people in this industry only pick on you because they like you (if they're treating you nice and not joking with you, there's a problem). You acquire a sense of professionalism and perfectionism over time. Or at least I did. You also become bitter and frustrated about certain things. Very frustrated.

The pay isn't excellent a lot of the time, and the hours can be long and sleepless. But the benefits are typically very good, and you can retire with a traditional, genuine pension in your 50s if you start in your 20s or 30s and depending on the state you live in. The off days usually come in chunks of 2-4, which I like, since you have time to go do something with your off hours instead of coming home and having to go right back to it the next day.

Jobs are hard to come by though. There is a lot of competition for Fire and EMS jobs, more so for the fire. If all you want is just an ambulance job it's not so hard to find work.


The janitor work is ok too. I do it for extra dough and to have something incase I end up getting laid off like we probably are soon. It's actually not a bad job for a guy to do full time and not have to go to school to do it; the full timers get good benefits, paid vacation and comp. time, and in Idaho since they're public employees they have the same pension program that I do. It's not a bad deal for a small town job.

 

[Remedy]

I currently don't have a job so I feel the same way as you man but I'm currently trying to go through a place that helps you get employed and I'm optimistic it will work. I live in Oregon and the unemployment rate is like 10% I think but I'm not too sure so it sucks. I'm trying my hardest though to get a job and I think you should try and do the same to make yourself feel content about a part of your life.

 

[Zackarydoo]

I currently work in a bakery as a service clerk. I help customers, take orders, answer phones, do the dishes, make orders, check in orders, label products, bake, top and package fresh bakery products, write on cakes, mostly... I stock my products and shelves. Its a physical job and I really enjoy that it is, I'm always doing something, it entertains me. I like my coworkers alot. It doesn't pay much but I'm happy.

You forgot to mention that you deal with stockbacks, sneak eaters and fake shoppers. How could you miss those?!

 

[PoWer2tHePeOpLE]

i wouldn't exactly call it a vocation, its more of a job as defined as a collection of tasks any well trained monkey could do given some time.

i throw newspapers from a speeding van in the wee hours of the night. the shifts are short, the money good, it's the least regimented job i have ever had, the people are pretty chilled and multicultural (to an extent), the work is easy and the air fresh

i am satisfied.

 

[Badjedidude]

Haha, PoWer2tHePeOpLE...I used to work the overnight shift for a newspaper. I was the guy who had to operate the machinery to stuff the advertisments into the papers. HOLY FSM, that was a boring, long, tiring job. I would look out the doorway and envy the delivery guys.

We had to stuff about 8-11,000 papers every day, sometimes up to 8 ads per paper. Lol we didn't even have very good machinery...it was just a belt-driven assembly-line style ad inserter machine built sometime in the late 70s. A typical shift ran from 6pm-3am....but if the machine broke down (and it often did) the shift could go from 6pm-7am!!! XD lol and all for minimum wage of $5.40/hr!

Just thought I'd share that particular part of my life with everyone.

----Steve

 

[PoWer2tHePeOpLE]

that sounds like a different kind of operation than mine and pretty nasty. or maybe that's what happens at the headquarters, which to be honest i haven't really taken an interest in. i join the parade when the truck arrives at a suburban shed with everything packed in bulks that are then unpackaged and rolled in plastic on our (also late 70's, rarely maintained bar the bare minimum) rolling machines. on the weekends i load vans for about 40mins and then deliver for about an hour forty and then go home. on the weekdays i roll my own (about 400) which takes 30mins and throw.

all this for $80 a night. so i average $32/hr (US $27) and very rarely work more than 3hrs

with the hours and at the payrate you describe i think i would prefer to learn how to enjoy eating cockroaches.

from memory, even 16yr old shelf stackers in australia get paid 9-10 US dollars/hr. eye-opener.

 

[Badjedidude]

Well, I guess it's not so horrible anymore. They raised the minimum wage in the U.S. to like $7.30 now, but that happened after I quit the job! lol dammit, that always happens to me.

WHAAAT?? $27/hr??? Holy crap, man >.< I'm moving to Australia. That IS an eye-opener. It shows ya how bad things are getting in my country. -_-

----Steve

 

[PoWer2tHePeOpLE]

WHAAAT?? $27/hr??? Holy crap, man >.< I'm moving to Australia.

----Steve

LOL come on down! we have three indian dudes working with us at the moment, and all of them are studying, soon they will find jobs in their chosen fields and we'll need people

we have golden beaches (with discarded beer bottles) kissing sparkling blue oceans (chocked with seaweed and infested with man eating sharks and killer jelly fish), and beautiful wildlife, like the koala that gets high on eucalyptus leaves and spends its days trying not to fall out of a tree, and the wonderous redback spider that can take a man down quicker than a quarterback..

LOL, nah its a chilled place

 

[roundasapenguin]

we have golden beaches (with discarded beer bottles) kissing sparkling blue oceans (chocked with seaweed and infested with man eating sharks and killer jelly fish), and beautiful wildlife, like the koala that gets high on eucalyptus leaves and spends its days trying not to fall out of a tree...

LOL! *falls off chair with laughter*
Koala bears high on eucalyptus leaves...now that's something!

 

[Badjedidude]

Koala bears scare the beejesus outta me. @_@ They're freaking violent. Everyone thinks they're these sweet little pleasant fuzzy creatures that can be petted...

NO WAY. They're freaking crazy animals, man. When you see them on Animal Planet or something, they only appear calm because they're flying the friendly skies. Give em a few minutes to come down and they'll bite your fingers off.

Lol ok, I'm done.

----Steve

 

[roundasapenguin]

*gasp* you mean they're not cute and cuddly and everything nice? *blinks in dissappointment*

oh dear.

 

[cheaptrickfan]

we have golden beaches (with discarded beer bottles) kissing sparkling blue oceans (chocked with seaweed and infested with man eating sharks and killer jelly fish), and beautiful wildlife, like the koala that gets high on eucalyptus leaves and spends its days trying not to fall out of a tree, and the wonderous redback spider that can take a man down quicker than a quarterback..

Sharks, spiders and jellies? Fun. Plus don't you have like one of the most venomous snakes in the world too? The Taipan?

The nice thing about living in a colder climate like I do is that there aren't as many venomous nasties. Wolf spiders may make me scream until I rupture something in my throat, but they're not going to kill me.

---

Oh, back to the topic: By vocation I used to be a teacher, then I became a mom (that may sound hokey as a vocation, but there ya go). Now I am indulging in doing what I love - writing and drawing - and hoping that I can get this book published and make a go of it.

 

[SophiaGrace]

We have copperhead snaks & diamond-back rattlers where I live in Pennsylvania when I'm not at college. So, got to be careful

 

[cheaptrickfan]

We have copperhead snaks & diamond-back rattlers where I live in Pennsylvania when I'm not at college. So, got to be careful

I remember seeing a copperhead when I was a kid. That was the only time I ever saw a venomous snake in the wild except for one time when were were out in New Mexico when I saw a whole bunch of rattlesnakes.

I did see a spider last summer in my yard that looks a hell of a lot like a Brown recluse, but everyone assured me that they're not supposed to be up here. I don't know, man. That ******* looked exactly like the images I found on Google.

But thank god we have no Black Widow spiders here. I have a friend who was bitten by one once, and his description of the bite was horrifying.

Crap. Now my skin is crawling.

 

[PoWer2tHePeOpLE]

Sharks, spiders and jellies? Fun. Plus don't you have like one of the most venomous snakes in the world too? The Taipan?

well well, so we do.. now i can fully justify never setting foot outside again..