The right job

[greencreeper]

How do you know that you're in the right job, or do you just settle on a particular career and spend your life convincing yourself that you like it?

A colleague remarked that I was in the wrong job, and I know I am - trouble is, I'm not certain what the right job is :erm: I figured I would do the current job, which is frankly rubbish, for around a year, then move on, taking my skills somewhere where they're valued. I've got about 7 months to go. At the moment, my job is customer facing but I don't like them - customers that is. Awful people. I'm not that forceful neither - I can't decide if it's my lack of confidence, or my niceness. Possibly both. When a customer isn't working with me, I just get them off the phone and get someone else to call back. I'm hoping to move away from customer facing work into a more behind the scenes role, though I can see myself trapped in 1st line support simply because employers will see that as my career choice.

Are you in the right job?

[Macca371]

There is a useful piece of software at my college called 'Kudos', you are surveyed for like 10 minutes and you are asked questions like 'Do you like working with people?', 'Do you like to travel?', 'Do you like working with technology'? and loads of other such questions and it asks qualifications and gives you job suggestions at the end. Really useful, it gave me an translator/interpreter for my main suggestion, which is what I've always wanted to be all along :) I don't know whether it's available online or anything, just did a quick google and unfortunately didn't find anything. Anyone looking for a career path should use it.

[bopdude]

Well I've decided today that I don't want a ' staus quo ' job, so I'm gonna become a ciggy baron, or whatever they're called, return flight or ferry crossing, there back and make +/- 300 quid a time ... fingers crossed.

[homealone]

Well I've decided today that I don't want a ' staus quo ' job, so I'm gonna become a ciggy baron, or whatever they're called, return flight or ferry crossing, there back and make +/- 300 quid a time ... fingers crossed.

I thought you just got back to being a sparks ?

don't do it, is my opinion :angel:

[bopdude]

Well I've decided today that I don't want a ' staus quo ' job, so I'm gonna become a ciggy baron, or whatever they're called, return flight or ferry crossing, there back and make +/- 300 quid a time ... fingers crossed.

I thought you just got back to being a sparks ?

don't do it, is my opinion :angel:

I did, had a bit of a conflict of personality, I was being told I could not speak my mind and to watch what I was saying, even though there was nothing to what I was saying, I told them, thanks but no thanks .................

[homealone]

I did, had a bit of a conflict of personality, I was being told I could not speak my mind and to watch what I was saying, even though there was nothing to what I was saying, I told them, thanks but no thanks .................

I wish I could say I don't understand - be careful, my friend ;) :cool:

[Stuart]

I was doing some bookkeeping work for our local hospital, and absolutely hated it, so I thought, "bugger this", quit, went to Uni to study computer science. I ended up doing computer support (by accident) and found I thoroughly enjoy it. I enjoy it so much that I used to be a member of a site called "nowonder.com" (now it's apparently called epeople.com), which is a sort of forum where people who have computer problems get together with people who solve them (sort of like this one, but more rigidly structured). I was a support person. I only left that site because they started charging, and while it would have earned me money, they wanted my bank details, and I didn't know enough about the company that ran the site to trust them with my bank details. They wouldn't pay to Paypal.

Still try and fulfill the same role here.

[bopdude]

I did, had a bit of a conflict of personality, I was being told I could not speak my mind and to watch what I was saying, even though there was nothing to what I was saying, I told them, thanks but no thanks .................

I wish I could say I don't understand - be careful, my friend ;) :cool:

I'm just going with the flow mate, I can't / won't be told to do whats beyond my job description ... censor ...me :dozey: :rolleyes: :p:

Thanks anyway mate, I'll be ok :tu:

[greencreeper]

Diamond - you know what you want to be and the software confirmed that. I've used similiar software and the jobs are never right for me. I think it's because, as I've said, I've never had a clear idea of what I want for a career.

I did, had a bit of a conflict of personality, I was being told I could not speak my mind and to watch what I was saying, even though there was nothing to what I was saying, I told them, thanks but no thanks .................
I do get myself in trouble for being honest and direct, and questioning everything. It's just my nature - how I've been brought up. My boss, being female, has issues - fights her corner even when fighting isn't necessary. I only have to talk to her and bang - "DON'T ARGUE WITH ME" [thumps hand on desk] :rolleyes: We're not really employees - we're workers in the Russian mine sense of the word :D I'd much prefer a job where I can say, "I don't think that's right", and people would be fine with that even if I were wrong. But I have doubt that such jobs exist. I do like working with, and helping, people, but I don't have the skills to deal with the difficult ones.

[nffc]

There is a useful piece of software at my college called 'Kudos', you are surveyed for like 10 minutes and you are asked questions like 'Do you like working with people?', 'Do you like to travel?', 'Do you like working with technology'? and loads of other such questions and it asks qualifications and gives you job suggestions at the end. Really useful, it gave me an translator/interpreter for my main suggestion, which is what I've always wanted to be all along :) I don't know whether it's available online or anything, just did a quick google and unfortunately didn't find anything. Anyone looking for a career path should use it.
Yeah but we all ended up as gardeners and **** things like that when we did one of those at school... and the bulk of us went off to uni... we just dismissed it as rubbish...

[Paul K]

There is a useful piece of software at my college called 'Kudos', you are surveyed for like 10 minutes and you are asked questions like 'Do you like working with people?', 'Do you like to travel?', 'Do you like working with technology'? and loads of other such questions and it asks qualifications and gives you job suggestions at the end. Really useful, it gave me an translator/interpreter for my main suggestion, which is what I've always wanted to be all along :) I don't know whether it's available online or anything, just did a quick google and unfortunately didn't find anything. Anyone looking for a career path should use it.
Kudos
http://www.careers-scotland.org.uk/careersscotland/web/site/LearningandGuidance/Education/kudosscotland.asp
Kudos in Scotland
Aimed at 14-18 year olds. You are asked to answer 39 questions (more if you wish). The programme will then list jobs you could consider, it also gives you information on each of those jobs. Young personsââ‚à ‚¬Ã¢â€žÂ¢ version of Adult Directions.

http://www.careers-scotland.org.uk/careersscotland/web/site/LearningandGuidance/Education/adultdir.asp

[Scarlett]

What sort of job _do_ you want to do then ? I assume that your looking for a second line job (which will still involve talking to customers probably but a better class of customers) or maybe even third line (which is likely to involve code fixing.)

I thought that I wanted to be a code monkey and I'm very glad that I didn't go that route now. I started doing call centre and then some first line tech support. then I got a job as second line support for a company. Finally after nearly 3 years of that I took redundancy and went contracting. Best decision I ever made.

Basically, I'd have a think about what you want to do first and then make sure that you have, on paper at least, most if not all of what would be required to do that job (can be found out from looking at the job ad boards) and then start applying for jobs. The good thing that you'll have behind you is 6 months of tech support. (Relevent experience is a BIG plus.)

Don't be surprised if you don't get those early jobs, but always ask for interview feedback and keep at it.

As for the am I in the right job. Yes and no.

My opinions are respected within the company and I know that I am abundantly qualified for the role but I don't really find it much of a challenge at the moment so we'll see what the next 6 months bring.

[Chimaera]

Yeah but we all ended up as gardeners and **** things like that when we did one of those at school... and the bulk of us went off to uni... we just dismissed it as rubbish...
Nothing wrong with being a gardener - you want to ring some up and see what they charge - and look at al the lovely 4X4 vehicles they drive (round here anyway).
I've been doing my current job for 8 years - I answered an ad in the local paper (I was doing 2 part time jobs and desperately needed to be in one place for work, and the money was a bit better!) So I applied, got turned down, then got offered it after the graduate they wanted to appoint turned it down (she wanted to start at the top of the salary grade!) It's quite a good job (Road Safety Officer for the local council), no two days are the same, I'm out and about in schools atm doing cycling proficiency :rolleyes: but we attend publicity events, I go out to clinics/hospitals doing talks about car seats (and check they are properly fitted too), go out to Brownie/Cub packs to talk to them, take part in the Government campaigns - basically anything in the cause of Road Safety!
The Kudos thing - my eldest daughter tried that when she was doing her GCSE's - the careers teacher got quite carried away when her ideal job came up as.......a Road Safety Officer! She turned it down, saying that one in the house was enough! :)

[punky]

How do you know that you're in the right job, or do you just settle on a particular career and spend your life convincing yourself that you like it?

Don't fret about it. You can never be sure. For me, I thought the choice was easy. When I was really young, my old man got in me into programming. I was good at it, found it really easy and blitzed my way through programming and a software engineering degree. Now though, I am not too thrilled by it, and I am thinking like you, of a career change.

So even when you think you've got the perfect job, you haven't. People always get restless and move around. Ask an average 40 or 50 year old what they have done. You'd probably find they bounced around several completely unconnected jobs. Example: my dad. He started off as grease monkey. Then he became an engineer at Royal Small Arms Factory, got laid off, became a sales rep. Got laid off, and built dashboards for Ford. Got laid off again, and went into the Police. Now he quit and started his own property management company, and he sells homes in Florida. His schooling was engineering based and probably accounted for 1/5 of his career so far. Its very rare that anyone will stick with a career for 50 odd years.

[Chris]

I have always just done the next thing that I thought would be interesting. I studied Archaeology at University (no obvious career path there!), then trained as a journalist and worked in regional Press for three years, then crossed over into PR and then employee communications where I spent another enjoyable three years running the internal mag for a very large international company pretty much by myself. Latterly I have been involved in our intranet system and our corporate website, ensuring the systems are designed and operated according to business needs and not the convenience of the techies! Again, I made that move because it seemed interesting, and it is. When it stops being interesting and challenging, I'll find something else to do.

GC, never be afraid to admit that something isn't working out, and go looking for something else. Change completely if you have to, even if you have to save your cash like mad for 12 months in order to pay for re-training. Most of all, pick something you're interested in, not something convention says you should do.

[Escapee]

I find it difficult to apply for jobs that involve too much of a career change, I probably do my self no favours by thinking "why would they choose me, I would probably be one of the weaker candidates"

However I have known of a butcher who becasme chief engineer for a TV broadcast company, a furniture salesman who became head of operations for a large communication company, and numerous squaddies end up in well paid defence or communication jobs when they were not in a technical position in the forces. One ex forces guy said to me, the radio bit in my cv means I was the poor sod who had to carry the damn thing.

I take my hat off to anyone who can pull off a good career change, just wish I knew how its done.

[Scarlett]

However I have known of a butcher who becasme chief engineer for a TV broadcast company, a furniture salesman who became head of operations for a large communication company, and numerous squaddies end up in well paid defence or communication jobs when they were not in a technical position in the forces. One ex forces guy said to me, the radio bit in my cv means I was the poor sod who had to carry the damn thing.

I know that for the same company that I worked in the call centre for, they had a paint mixer from Dulux working on configuring their billing system. So it must be possible. (Although we are talking about the same company that refused me a job in the IT department because I didn't know visual basic (something I had been very up front about) so my computer science GCSE, A-level and degree means nothing then ?)

Just get your head down and learn to interview well and you will move to that better job.

[greencreeper]

What sort of job _do_ you want to do then ? I assume that your looking for a second line job (which will still involve talking to customers probably but a better class of customers) or maybe even third line (which is likely to involve code fixing.)
I don't know what sort of job I want to do :(

The definitions of first, second and third line vary greatly from company to company. Internal customers are usually better than external customers though. I'm happy to be left to do my own thing, and prefer hands-on work with computers rather than remote work with people.

GC, never be afraid to admit that something isn't working out, and go looking for something else. Change completely if you have to, even if you have to save your cash like mad for 12 months in order to pay for re-training. Most of all, pick something you're interested in, not something convention says you should do.
Picking something I'm interested in is the problem - I'm not really interested in anything. I've never been a passionate guy, and I tire of things easily. I only got into computing because of a teacher at school - I didn't have anything else in mind, so why not computing :shrug: At first, I thought I'd be a programmer - I liked the idea of being creative and solving problems. Then I discovered that programming is, in reality, re-writing old code so it's less buggy and more efficient.

I take my hat off to anyone who can pull off a good career change, just wish I knew how its done.
Yes. My uncle's been a butcher, social worker and now fireman. I worry that my CV says "IT support guy" so I'll automatically be discounted for anything else. I think it is a danger.

[Ramrod]

Are you in the right job?I'm good at it and it pays the bills nicely but I'd rather be an author (fiction)

[Escapee]

I don't know what sort of job I want to do :(

Yes. My uncle's been a butcher, social worker and now fireman. I worry that my CV says "IT support guy" so I'll automatically be discounted for anything else. I think it is a danger.

Thats exactly how I feel, I have become too specialised in one area again. I said to myself after leaving ntl I would try to make my career broader, but when you get to a certain level you tend to specialise all ove again.
The company I work for is a very small scale manufacturer of specialised comms equipment, so send my CV to a larger company and I haven't got all the bulls**t TLA's on there they are looking for. I may be just as goos or better than people they already employ........But if you aint got the right buzzwords youv'e had it!

Now you have made me feel real bad :(

[Gareth]

Are you in the right job?erm... right at the moment, probably not. Although it's undoubtedly my own fault for not picking-up on certain aspects when I took the job. However, I'm not doing a job where I dread having to go in to work. Been there... done that, and swore I'd never do it again. Some things do my head in with my current job on a fairly regularly basis, but it's not all that bad. However, things should hopefully be changing soon career-wise for me.

GC, after reading a post (http://dwarfinleopardskin.blogspot.com/2005/01/support-conflict.html)on your blog, is it the job that you want to change, or just the employer? Would you be happy doing the same/a similar job but for a different (better ;) ) employer?

[greencreeper]

GC, after reading a post (http://dwarfinleopardskin.blogspot.com/2005/01/support-conflict.html)on your blog, is it the job that you want to change, or just the employer? Would you be happy doing the same/a similar job but for a different (better ;) ) employer?
Haven't updated the blog in a long while. Something for the weekend methinks.

The way in which I feel about my current job could be summed up as "frustrated". The managers, or team leaders as they're called, though they don't lead a team, have one goal - to keep the abandoned call rate down. This translates into pressure on us, the grunts, to answer calls and fix the problem ASAP. What it effectively means is that, though we exist to provide customer service, we can't actually do that effectively - we have to rush customers off the phone. Everything about the company annoys the hell out of me - the inability to understand the needs of customers even if the managers cared about the customers, the numerous draconian rules, the treatment of employees (low wages, no benefits, little chance of promotion, no personal or professional development), and most of all, the complete inability by anyone to analyse anything in any depth. Everything is black and white. Some days I feel like screaming that it's just not that simple. The conflicting pressures I am under are stressful - customers what me to listen to them and fix their problem, but the bosses want me to fix problems within 10 minutes. I have to achieve my Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), but I also get criticised for dodging the lengthy problems. In fact, I don't get praise, just criticism.

Would I be happy doing the same job for a different company? I doubt that there are different companies - it's just how it is. I've long thought that private sector work isn't for me - the shaping and driving forces of any company will conflict with my own forces and belief system. You can't care and be profitable. Look at the NHS. If I could move into the public sector, I think that would be a move in the right direction, but generally I just don't think I'm cut out for front line work. My current job is my first "proper" job since leaving Uni and at the time that I took the job, I didn't have much choice. I'd been unemployed a year and had done a few months of contract work, which was sheer hell. It was either this job or the possibility of another lengthy period of unemployment.


Now you have made me feel real bad :(
:hugs: Life is tough. We just don't control our destiny - that's in the hands of others. I envy the very few that do have control.