Dream jobs

totally agree! saves you money and does less damage to the planet. I just wish I was better at it!

i love fixing things. It's the ultimate way of recycling

We've got a repair club in our town. Bunch of guys with different skills offering, well, you get the idea... I think it's charity contributions they ask for, for the local Cancer hospice. Didn't apple say they'd let i-phones be repaired recently, although I seem to think they reneged after a week or two.

absolute I am a big advocate (within my own house)

Have you heard of the right to repair? Recent law: CBP-9302.pdf (parliament.uk). Might create more demand for this pursuit! Good luck :)

I find a huge amount of satisfaction in microelectronics, soldering problem solving etc.  My dream job would be to work in electronics restoration and repairs (not the client facing bit obviously).

V helpful and the quality over quantity part is what I would aim for if I can identify a niche, as you say! Thanks.

Not a lot I can say really. I've no experience of trade/freelancer websites. But I've known a few web designers, graphic designers, and interior designers, and it does sound like clients can be a real pain.

Clients can be a pain for me, but it's always been my way or the highway, I'm the one steering the ship, I don't have the patience otherwise. I don't mind if a client can get what they want elsewhere and chooses someone else (especially if I don't have to deal with it). Best person for the job and all that.

Having said that, I'm not a businessman. I'm just a guy doing stuff I like doing, and trying to get paid for it.

But, I've always viewed things from the point of view of quality over quantity. Produce something of quality, make it expensive and exclusive. It naturally filters out certain clients, and creates an air of exclusivity and desire.

It also means I can earn more money while doing 'less' work. But that takes a long time to sort out, and it depends on the industry.

Hope you find something that fits

The "client" is always my issue. I've tried very basic website building. But I've struggled because quite frankly clients engaged too early without their content. Building websites, albeit I used WordPress and plugins which is ultra simple, is the easy bit. Design wise I can go away, knock up a live design, and run it past then for any corrections or modifications.

As cb says though, if your on a website like people per hour, someone might post a job for a simple 5 page website with target price of say £150. It's easily doable, but you've got a 1:50 (or worse) chance, I.e. 50 people submit a proposal for the work. Even if you send 50 proposals a week, and there's not even 50 jobs being sought every week. You might get one on the law of probability. At which point you build the site, but then have the time value trade off of a client who doesn't know what to put on it. I've never taken more than half up front either, often less, so your then stuck in a completion issue.

Perhaps it's my issue of being too polite, or not formal enough, with clients. I did a website for a French pigeon race being run by British expats... this rumbled on for 5 years in total, including 3x trips out to France in order to give handover training as she pleaded lack of knowledge. Every excuse under the sun was given on each trip, she just couldn't be arsed.... it took me a long time to say "NO MORE!"

Totally agree on skill/craft. Like you I prefer to have artistic freedom to an extent. I like processes/numbers/analysis, but the formality of accounting principles doesn't allow much room. I might consider experimental science, but seems a bit late for the.

Hence I've looked at crafts, post the distillery. The distillery was perfect, I could experiment with combinations and I get you've got to keep yourself motivated, but for me at least, enjoying your work can definitely help with that!!

My issue with processing a food or beverage again would be the paperwork/licensing/red tape. The process itself is fun. I do have a big love for food and drink, having previously looked at micro-brewery, and vineyard before distillery. I could perhaps see myself go into viticulture, I.e. just the grape growing aspect? The legals tend to be tied with processing.

I like the idea of split cane rods, mainly as you can make a reasonable sum, from just a few commissions each year. It's calming, process driven and you doesn't have to be boring. You can get some quite arty designs. :-)

Is an example of stolen from google for this post... my own skills perhaps need a little more practice... here's an attempt I made December 2020 to do a trout under some reeds... 

Above comment is also directed to Chris...

I get where you're coming from. It's tough.

I often think having a job would be great, but, meh.

Self-employment is great if you have discipline and motivation. I suffer from a lack of both, haha. I do people-centric work, and would like to work with people more, but I don't like being around people that much. Unfortunately, most things require some form of interaction with people.

Some technical / analytical /scientific work appeals to a certain extent, I tried in my youth, but it just didn't fit with my make up. Free spirit artist suited me much better, and allowed me to experience failure more quickly and more often, hahaha.

My issue is I tend to be process driven, but without an end goal most processes are somewhat redundant. If I think about it too much, which I am wont to do, many goals are also somewhat redundant.

What I would suggest, and it looks like you're already on that path, is find a niche craft / skill / product etc. Make it good, be good at doing it, specialise.

The downside of specialism is it's only valuable if people actually want it, but if people do want it the rewards can be pretty great.

Then the tough thing is finding that audience, marketing/branding, and so on and so forth, and motivation, ugh motivation...

But there is something satisfying about actually creating something.

Couple of links that may be of interest to anyone generally:

Crafts Red List (list of dying out skills):

https://heritagecrafts.org.uk/redlist/

Alison (Catalogur of freebie courses I was pointed to by DWP):

https://alison.com/

Last link, you have to pay if you want a proper certificate. But that's a pay on completion issue and I seem to recall it's like £15 for an e-copy but may vary.

Thanks everyone for joining in the discussion, some really interesting thoughts. I've made a bit of progress in identifying things that I like doing, and hopefully this helps others. Bit of a random list below, basically a brain fart so sorry for lack of structure!

I like repetitive tasks. Always like modelling, coding. Software programmer may be a good one but I don't have a portfolio of work. I could I suppose start doing some in my spare time and record it on GitHub but it seems daunting to go for this at the moment.

Being a maker, self-employed, seems v attractive so long as I don't have to get work through one of those per hour freelance websites. The intense competition and regular submission of CVs etc. would destroy me. Small number of high quality jobs would be ideal for me, where I can be left alone to concentrate on the task. Maybe cap number of jobs per year and have that public on my own business website, updated regularly. Haven't figured out what I would make yet, but bear with me hahahahahah!

I very much like the idea of writing stories for the Black Library, part of the Games Workshop / Warhammer company. I could put together a catalogue of work there and submit it and see what happens?

I need to find a job where there aren't formal barriers to entry, as in a specific degree or work experience, because I can't meet that at this stage of life. Software programming, web design, writing seem good for this!

In all seriousness though, I've been very torn over this subject. Pre-diagnosis I had a reasonable career, if chequered after I decided to leave mod. Its been p45s all the way since... I've found offices difficult spaces due to the politics aspect. 

I also had difficulty with authority... management don't like that...

The one piece of advice that really stuck... My mum had been an admin and receptionist throughout her career, and she'd pointed out right at the start of my career that its admin staff you need to keep on side, not so much management, as you never know when you'll need a favour and you don't tend to ask that of management.

Every Friday I'd actually buy the admin team a chocolate bar each. Just as a gift to "bank" me some brownie points. This helped smooth issues for me on many an occasion, if I needed admin support for instance, and helps the willingness to free up meeting slots in diaries...

Since MOD I've had jobs in a few areas, but predominantly in accounting/bookkeeping type roles, which you'd think would be an ideal fit on paper... I don't find them very challenging though and also find them a bit rigid. There's not the freedom to think for oneself.

I was starting to lose hope a bit, settling for warehouse work at £9/hr, for a 4hr shift... with a 1.5hr round trip to get there by bus at a cost of about £9... it just felt pointless.

I like this thread, especially for the array of ideas. I have run my (licensed) distillery, and am quite keen on the self employment route, but you obvs need a product or service to offer. I did find, the distillery at least, was a lot of red tape and licensing paperwork, and have since discounted a return to food/beverage products as a result.

I notice that a lot of the comments relate to jobs/interests that are hands on or reference skills. Knew thing I'm looking at if building split cane fly rods. A custom bamboo fly rod can, in the mid range, be between £1,000 and £1,500. I also consider it to be fairly recession proof. The rich who ten to buy them also dont tend to be as affected by a recession... perhaps a misguided view?

I have started contemplating professional style jobs again, but I get dragged back to the self employment aspect as you're accountable to yourself, which seems far less stress than being accountable to someone else. It remove the need for mindreading as it were. I definitely think in my case, I'm looking for a job that takes a passion/interest/hobby, as well as a level of skill, and somehow I add value. My search continues though...

I would love to be a blacksmith.

Nice one! 

I got a job I wanted it's a cleaning position now but it's somewhere where I want to work at butlins so. Ilcwork my way up from there

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.