The road to nowhere

I found that working for myself was the best way to actually get through this life! If you can. It doesn’t mean you won’t burn out, if you are the workaholic-type, but hopefully, you’ll soon learn your limits, and start to manage your life better.

Hello mate,

Yes I can relate to what you’re saying about the work situation. I had the same problem. It’s very annoying, because it’s not that I didn’t want to work, my issue was, I was more worried about the people I’d be working with, rather than the job itself. I’ve had quite a few jobs over the years, and a lot of them I didn’t like. It definitely depends on the people you work with in my opinion. Maybe you will find something that suits you soon. 

There's always jobs for qualified engineers - where do you want to pitch yourself?    On the coal-face fixing/making things or software or do you see yourself project managing or would you prefer supervisory/man-managment?

I've always preferred hands-on.    My last job was running atomic particle accelerators - they kill themselves with neutron radiation every time they run so Monday mornings were always a surprise of sorting out whatever breaks over the weekend.

I hated managing people - the lies just peed me off.

Changing path completely will be difficult right now with lots of people out of work wanting whatever job they can find just to pay the bills - they won't be committed to the job so managing them will be a pain.

I'm not quite sure of my strengths; personally I would say my skills are .  I did a Masters degree in Engineering, but I don't have your passion when it comes to the subject; I've never felt what you have for the subject, and all it's brought me is pain.

I'm good at maths and physics, but my mind has stagnated from years in a dead end job.  I'm good with Solidworks software, good grasp of written English, Microsoft packages (Excel, Word, etc).  I have a good sense of empathy; I can get on well in teams and I work well with others.  I prefer to work alone; I can 'blend-in', but being around people for too long will wear me down, even if I like being around them.  The irony is that most people tend to like me, because I'm polite, I'm trustworthy and try to treat them with respect, and maybe get a laugh out of them. 

I can learn new tasks quickly once I've been shown what to do, and I have laser-like focus; once I've started a job, I can carry on working for hours with minimal distraction.  I don't deal well with stress though, my mind just grinds to a halt when I'm in an unfamiliar, fast-paced stressful situation, but I will do better if I have time to prepare.

All jobs suck in the end so I only see 2 choices - Money & stress or poverty & sanity.   Unless you fall into a well-paid vocational job.

Where are your strengths?    Can you work with people?   Part of a team?    Prefer to be on your own?     Can't deal with telephones?

I've always been able to pull out 'Super Mask' so I can go into hyper-drive for the acting-performance of an interview - make myself into the person they want.     I feel that allows me to interview them and see the location to decide if I would really want to work in that environment.      It puts the ball into my court and the decision will be mine.    I reckon you can pick up 80% of any job in the first week or so - and the NT workmates will only do 50% of their job anyway    So you'll be superior to them in 3 days.