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?
My former job - scientific researcher in molecular biology - was fairly ideal for me, a lot of problem solving and practical work with the hands, plus designing experiments and writing papers was creative. The problem for me was that the created product was intellectual, rather than physical. Most of my ancestors were craftsmen, creating physical objects, iron founders, engineers, gunsmiths, potters, stone masons, watch makers etc. and because of this I think that I always really wanted to make things. In an ideal world I would have liked to have been either a sculptor or a blacksmith. I am artistic and the small amount of forge-work I did at school I enjoyed - hitting red-hot iron is great fun.
have you considered taking up hobby electronics? Soldering isn't quite as dramatic as forging metal but you do get a physical product at the end. And its a lot cheaper to get into.
I want my own shed! I have the unit in the garage, but there's there's certain junosequois (not good at French) about sheds...
I'd definitely agree.
Ive looked at welding courses, but decided against it in the end as I don't have the safe space to weld in post a course. Got a garage, but it's a little bit cramped.
In the end I bought myself a basic soldering iron of amazon (<£20) as I hadn't had one since secondary... note for anyone considering this, the batteries get hot, the casing melts, and toxic goo comes out... i learnt this as a DT Prefect doing a display at parents evening... lol but
There are tons of projects you can do, just need to think what interests you. Above was an issue raised caused by trying to wire an led light into the mains via a remote switch.
The remote switch turned out to be a godsend as I could 'flick the switch' via my phone from a distance...
You can get a wireless switch reasonably cheaply. I think 1 gangs are ~£15. I had a sonoff 3 gang, which I used for my hydroponic "desk farm" project, to allow me to control the lights, heat and water remotely but also on timer via the sonoff app.
So build yet another shed.
Build another shed
There might be no point as one has to take control of ones space rather than build another space for others to take over.
I have items that take years to come into full usage. Empty your ASC space of one item daily to reclaim it.
EDIT: Actually that is how I work. If I'm unmotivated I'll do one thing to feel better about it, then I'm free to do more or none as I please and usually end up doing more haha.
I have a shed, but it is full of 'family crap' - old bicycles etc. When it was new I thought great! I can have some space set up a workbench and suchlike, but my family are hoarders. The same thing happened with the conservatory, everywhere fills with 'sacred rubbish' that cannot be thrown out for some reason, drives me up the wall.
First you need to build a shed...
I do have a soldering iron, but my memory of A-level physics has tainted my attitude to electronics, I'm afraid. I have made scale models in the past, but having both adult daughters at home at present there is no room for me to pursue this. It is necessary to have desk or table space that is not disturbed for weeks on end.