Thoughts on jobs, careers, and intentions...

[alfreda89]

Back in my city days, the people I knew had their lives and they had their jobs, which they undertook purely in exchange for money, and the two were distinct and incompatible, as if each person spent his days as two people. Around here, jobs and lives seem to be one and the same. Money must matter -- surely money always matters? -- but it doesn't seem to pay for spending your days doing something you don't want to spend your days doing."

-- Barbara Holland, from bingo night at the fire hall

I'm thinking more and more about managing my portfolio for serious investing, and training for a job that may not make me high dollars, but that I enjoy. I did that with massage therapy, and until illness interfered and screwed up my hands, that worked well. Now, I'm thinking about other careers. I was toying with creating a specialty recipe book, but I begin to lean toward counseling for chronic disease. Unfortunately, I am gaining a lot of experience at chronic disease. And I've had to admit that barring a small miracle, my remission will not improve my hands enough to continue being an LMT. So, I muse . . ..

Comments

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

I work in a place where job=life if you want to get ahead. We're officially told we should seek balance, but folks above a certain grade level get laptops instead of desktops so they can take the things home. You're told it's for travel reasons, but it's because you're expected to take the thing home with you at night and, well, work.

If I leave at 50, which I really want to do, I will be taking a hit. I will definitely have to work parttime unless the writing really picks up, but as much as I hate to say it, I don't want to have to rely on writing money. It's too iffy.

I should stay until 55, but I don't want to lose the writing time. Unless my job transmutes into something I really like, boy, do I want to leave. because there are other things out there.

[alfreda89.livejournal.com]

I sympathize. Although my life has held a lot more risk, I think I've enjoyed the work part of it more. I'm on track for retiring at 70 (it was going to be 55-60, but then the dot.com crash and 9/11 killed the momentum for five years. If my parents pass, there might be inheritance, but I won't trade years with them for early retirement.)

I definitely can't rely on the writing, and you know you should not. I trust you are looking hard at other things in the company where you could find fresh interest for five-ten years. And . . . you might think about finding an HR person to hire to review your resume, have you do a couple of tests, and perhaps figure out places where most or all your previous experience would be useful. After all, bio-tech is very sexy right now. If you want to work over the internet, I can give you the name of the guy who helped me. Not sure if he can come up with an idea you haven't already had, but it's a thought.