Published on 12, July, 2020
I understand that many of us do not have jobs, and I know that those who do (myself included here) struggle a lot with them. This got me wondering about what dream job(s) we can think of, or even hope to do one day. It may be inspiring and help some of us find something that allows forum users to get a job or get a better-suited job.
I will put down some thoughts to get the ball rolling. My main priority is to be away from an office or busy environment.
1) work from home permanently doing some kind of PAYE employment for salary certainty. this would ideally just be for 2-3 days a week. if money was not a constraint then I would not do this work at all, and I would do something more fun like a gardening job in the summer, maybe become a landscape garden designer, write novels and short stories professionally.
2) design board games 1-2 days a week.
3) volunteer at a charity in a non customer-facing role 1 day a week.
4) maybe a part-time bike mechanic and/or frame builder 1 day a week. i can't afford the training costs and time needed to get the qualifications to do these things now but maybe in the future.
A 'portfolio' career is my ideal because I can get bored doing the same thing and this also allows me to think in terms of escapes - when things get too much doing job X I can flee to safety with job Y. I think this mental trick would be very beneficial for me.
How about you?
I currently 'work' as an artist and tattooist, and have done so for many years now. It does give me a lot of freedom and variety, but also comes with financial insecurity, social interaction difficulties, and self-motivation issues.
I'd often thought that regular salary would be nice, but I don't really want the expectations and schedules that come with it.
List of alternatives that I've considered over the years:
- bike/frame builder
- boatbuilder
- dry stone waller
- park ranger
- mountain rescue
- health and safety officer (weird)
- prosthetist or prosthetics technician
- art fabrication technician
- set builder
Some of the above require training I don't have the funds or time to endure, others are very niche with demanding entry points. And a lot of them have hit and miss financial rewards.
But I do like the idea of a versatile portfolio career.
bike/frame builder
we could go into business together! :)
Mearcstapa said:I've tried a lot of different things
Me too! This is jobs and hobbies.....
Yes, it can definitely be difficult to stay focused, and solvent, with so many interests, haha.
And, there's something really nice about a well built steelie
I do a similar thing, haha! And also with hobbies/special interests too! I'm not sure it's a great personality trait, but it does mean I've tried a lot of different things and I do really enjoy starting and learning something new!
well I predict that style will come back into fashion, but also because of how bad carbon fibre is for the environment I also foresee a comeback for steel bike frames, which is great for (aspiring) frame builders!
Along with numerous boat building books, unless I've already got rid of them.
Shows how long it's been since I checked. I have a habit of getting my next great idea for a new career path, spending money on it, to then immediately find something else, hahaha.
Haha, I actually have an old book on frames and framesets somewhere, but it's all the classic style geometry.
I also used to be a dab hand at welding and brazing, but that was a very long time ago.