What is your job?
 

I am currently an unhappily unemployed administrative assistant for the past 3 months, after the company that I worked for downsized. Being unemployed has me asking myself a lot of questions about what I want to do with the rest of my career.

So here's the question. What type of work do you do? Is it your dream job and if not, what is your dream job?

My dream job is photography. I am not currently pursuing it as a career, as I have no formal training. I have photographed a few family weddings, but wouldn't know the first thing about how to pursue it full time.

Cross your fingers that I'll find a job soon. I am about to pull out my hair living on the small amount provided my unemployment. :?:

Have you tried finding employment with a photography studio to start out? Now is the best time, since you aren't doing anything you like anyway? I'm a medical transcriptionist and stay at home with my kids but I am looking forward to going back to work when my little one goes to school. But I worked in politics and that is just too time consuming, so I'll need a new career too. Good luck.

I am currently a stay-at-home mom and housewife. This is a very rewarding job and I love it! My dream job is also Photography!!! I've done some childrens portraits and weddings as well. I am in Photography school. It's a photography school that you can do via correspondance (from home). I LOVE it!! They send you audio cassettes, books and DVD's and with the cassettes they guide you through each book. You have tests and photo projects. You send in your photo project and they send you back a cassette with your advisors critiques. I've only completed the first Unit and I already feel like I know SO much more about Photography. They also have a Unit devoted to the business aspect. There are 6 units total. People can complete it in less than 6 months, but most take from 1-3 years!! (I've been working on it since September...so 4 months and I've just started Unit 2).

Anyway - I have a passion for Photography and I know I could be happy doing that for the rest of my life.

Hi losingme, I love photography too. I did digital for sometime and now I am mainly into Medium format film...(cant beat those grains in the film). I do it as a hobby and my main job is clinical research.
My husband is also into medicine and also loves photography. We do plan to have a gallery presentation of our work soon and working on scanning and printing our stuff currently. We do mainly seascapes (long exposures) and highspeed drop as well as plenty of travel and portraits...I would love to know more abt your photography interests.

Once I get into a residency, he plans to take a short break from work and do some professional photography. I am trying to convince him to sell his stuff to get atleast some tax rebate on the expensive gear :)
Our dream is to own a hassy with a digi back one day :)

As far as my work goes, I love what I am doing...but would like to get into a residency program here in southern california by next year and I am working hard for it!

I am a truck driver, and no it was never my dream job. Life circumstances sort of put me here!

BUT - I love it!
I am not stuck in an office all day, I don't have a boss down my back all the time, I am very much in control of how my day goes - even to the point of what time I want to start & be done (so long as my drops or pick-ups are taken care of)

I am not an OTR driver, I am home every day before my elementary school age daughter gets off the bus & off on weekends 95% of the time (but I start the day REALLY early!) & the pay is pretty darn good for my area, and includes health insurance, sick days, as well as paid vacation & holidays.

I have no desire to leave or do anything else for now. :)

im a nurse... and i split my time between working in a Burn ICU and doing Pediatric Hospice case management....

i love what im doing now, but its def. not a career for the rest of my life. im just still trying to see what i want to go back to school for!

I'm the assistant to the vice president of a medium size corporation....he's a great boss--out more than he's in, and basically he leaves me alone to do my job.

My DREAM job, however....is to be a singer/actress.....guess I'll have to stick to community theatre to get those urges fulfilled.

I guess I'm the oddball in that photography does nothing for me :p

As for me, I went to school and graduated with a BA in Business Administration, Marketing concentration, but my true love was my minor, which was Music Industry. I would love to work in the music field in a scouting- or marketing-related position, but I'm realizing I don't have quite the personality for it--I'm just too shy when dealing with people I don't know well.

So anyway, I've had an interesting career path so far (I'm only 24, though, so it's been short but twisty). Like I said, I finished school with a marketing concentration (plus only 1 class shy of an Advertising minor), so my first job was as a Marketing Assistant. I worked directly with our national sales team (about 20 reps across the country) and worked our booth at trade shows and stuff--it was really fun. Then I met a boy (isn't that always the case?). I moved about 200 miles from where I was to be closer to said boy, so I got a new job (after holding the Marketing Assistant position for about a year).

The new job began as a technical editing position (and had a slight increase in pay since I was moving to a more expensive area). Quite the change from my marketing job, but it paid a little more and was with a huge corporation in the area, so I figured there would be some room for growth and whatnot. Well, as it turned out, I was quite good at the editing thing, and I quickly transitioned to technical writing and researching in addition to the editing (and got a raise--cha-ching!). I was doing absolutely nothing marketing-related, though, and while I was good at my job, I wasn't happy with that, so I moved on after a little over a year and a half.

And so, on to job #3 (with another increase in pay). I started working for another government contractor (that's pretty much all there is here in the DC area), but this time as a proposal writer. At least writing proposals was a little more marketing-related in that you're writing to sell your services to a client. That job, however, quickly became a disaster as someone unqualified got promoted above me and made my life a living ****. And so, I moved on again (after only 3 months this time :o ).

I'm much happier now. I joke with my boss that it's the first full-time job I've had that I worked at for 6 months without putting my resume back up on Monster :p I am now a Proposal Coordinator for yet another government contractor. I do a little wordsmithing and a lot of document formatting as well as creating some charts/graphs for proposals. Despite my title, I also do a lot of non-proposal work. I track our financial standing with current clients to ensure we have enough funding, I estimate contractor end dates based on funding available, and I do a lot of flow charting for business processes. On the marketing end, I also create some marketing materials (capabilities statements, business presentations, etc.), and I coordinate our exhibit participation in conferences.

When I was in college and asked where I would be in 5 years, my current situation would have been waaaaaaay down on my list of possibilities. And yet, I am doing pretty well. I'm most proud of the fact that from my first job out of college almost exactly 3 years ago(started working January 2004) to my current position, I have well more than doubled my annual salary. Not that money is the most important factor in a job, but it sure doesn't hurt!

I would love to think I could afford to stay at home when I have children, but it just ain't in the cards. I make more than my boyfriend (assuming he will become husband and father to my children), and there is not even the slightest chance we could ever survive on just one of our salaries in this area (we're trying to buy a townhouse next fall--yeah, you know, a place where you still share walls with your neighbors--and we're having difficulty finding one with 2+ bedrooms and 1.5+ baths for less than $300k in an area where we won't need steel bars on the windows). Maybe things will be different in 4-5 years when we have kids, though...

I used to be an engineer (photolithography - so I used to print pictures of itty bitty microscopic things over and over using a 5 million dollar "camera" and a 2 million dollar "developer".)

Quit and got my MBA, worked in venture capital for about 6 months when I realized they were treating me as a secretary.

Started going back to school again, got pg with #1 and have been a SAHM since. Although dh is starting his own company soon, so I will be a part time work-at-home mom as I'll be doing AR/AP/HR/books, etc.

Have no idea what my dream job would be...

I currently work as a Medical Transcriptionist for a Paramedic Company. I sit at the computer in an office for 8 hours.

My dream job is photography! I am now taking classes to be able to do this in college.

I have a degree in organizational communication (the study of how information travels within an organization). I got the degree before email became the standard. Obviously it's not working for me!!! LOL
I worked for 14.5 years in a hospital business office. Stress filled days. I quit a little over 1.5 years ago and now I work with my husband in our construction business (I do the bookkeeping).

I oversee a membership association that provides education and networking opportunities for people that work in an HR/benefits-related area. I oversee all aspects of our organization, including sales and marketing, website and newsletter content, our annual conference and other educational events, data collection and research, industry involvement, 30 local chapters, member inquiries, and probably lots of other stuff that I'm forgetting at the moment. I also do a lot of writing and public speaking on technical issues related to the industry. I wear a lot of hats but I work from home and have a very flexible schedule.

My dream job would be to be independently wealthy, but this is a pretty close second. I was an English major in college and just fell into this profession completely by accident. I never would have dreamed this is what I would end up doing (or that I would end up enjoying it).

I'm currently an SAHM, but I too am an administrative assistant with some background in network admin. I don't know that I have a dream job as in "type" of work, but there are dream jobs out there, even in the field you may currently be in. I found it...once. And I actually gave it up (kicked myself for years) to be with my hubby. LOL I was an admin. asst. there as well, for 5 years, but it was the best danged admin. asst. position I ever had. NEVER boring. I enjoyed working for that company, and enjoyed my co-workers immensely.

Oh well yeah...there's THAT. :D Ok, so that's my dream job too. LOL

I realize I didn't really say what job it was I did in that company. I was admin. asst. for a CPA society. I set up meetings that I was in charge of, spent days at the Civic Center setting up recruiting fairs and legislative receptions, traveled once or twice a year for training and overseeing new program implementation, ran the network, asst. editor of the newsletter, in charge of typesetting, financials, etc. Everyday was something new so there was no boredom in doing the same things over and over again. Plus I was pretty much on my own, which I love. Can't stand having a nosey supervisor who hires you because they trust you to do your job, but stands over you constantly because they're afraid you can't do it right....my last boss. LOL

I am a veterinarian...it was pretty much my dream job growing up since i was always doing stuff with horses, dogs, cats etc. I love my jobs MOST days. Some days it gets hard to be a vet. Hard to appease the owner without having them feeling like you're "taking all their money" but also hard to deal with giving proper medical care and is you don't offer the best there is being liable for lawsuit. Don't get me wrong...wouldn't change fields. Very rewarding. but trust me...none of my work clothes are expensive or dry clean only since you never know what you might get on them LOL

I'm a patient care tech on a cardiovascular interventional unit. I work on a small unit (11 beds) and most of our patients are just 1-2 day stays. It's very fast paced. I'm very over paid for what I do, and it's a wonderful learning experiance.

I'm in school for my dream job, which is nursing. I've worked in health care long enough to have a VERY realistic view of how demanding this job is. But, there is nothing else I would rather do. I love taking care of people and helping them through a really hard time in their lives. I also LOVE cardiac care, it's very interesting.


Shannon

i am a teacher's assitant in a Spec Ed class. NOT my dream job. I am studying to become a Doctor of Audiology.

but my secret dream since i was 4 years old is to be a sucessful dramatic stage actress. i've done acting in the past, but it doesn't feed my family.

I'm unemployed! And I love saying that! Well, I'll be unemployed as of next Friday...my job *was* working in Athletics, Events, and Recreation for a division I school. I recently quit to finish my education in Music Industry & Entertainment Studies (hi Jill!). Otherwise, I will be doing a few internships to figure out what *exactly* I want to do (which is much easier said than done in this field), starting with a local tour manager and continuing at BMI in Nashville (crossing fingers) this summer.

I work for Public Partnerships, LLC, LACIL, State of VA. I am a personal assistant to my Mother. She is in bad health, and I have had this job for almost two years. The pay is awful, but I do it to keep my Mom out of a nursing home. And that's all that matters to me.

Also, I work for Spencer Gifts, Inc. I work there whenever they need me. Floor moves, stock, inventory, holidays.

Im a sign maker and a t-shirt maker. Dh and I own our own business. No more working for someone else. After my last job I swore I would never work that hard for anyone else ever again.

This new gig is working wonderfully :lol:

Awesome website, Robin! I might have to get some vehicle graphix from you one of these days! :)

Thanks muzikjunky :) I love it, being able to use creativity, and then seeing it driving around town, or sitting on a store sign is pretty cool.

I'm a corporate lawyer. Luckily I have a lovely sweetheart of a boss who does not work me that hard at all. We have small but successful ($$) practice and its like a little family. Since I had my baby, I don't have to work on Fridays anymore (with the same pay) and I get to work from home often. I started there as the paralegal in 1995 after hearing about the firm from the attorneys at a law firm I worked at in Bermuda for about 1 year. After working as the paralegal for a year I went to law school and worked part time at my job while going to school. When I graduated I was offered a job at my firm and have been there ever since. My days are quite stress free, which is highly unusual for a NYC corporate lawyer! Funny thing is, had I not moved to Bermuda, I would never have landed my wonderful job nor would my sister have followed me down, stayed an extra 10 years, met her British husband, had a lovely little boy, and moved to the UK (and now back to the US). Funny how life goes :)

Wow!
 

Wow! I've never had a thread that I started go to 2 pages before. I'm lucky to get two responses.

The correspondence photography school sounds very interested. I may have to look into that.

We sure are a diverse bunch of ladies. It's great! I've had a couple admin jobs which I've loved, but I'm definately stuck in the "It's my job, not my life" stages right now. I had one job where I worked for a half day but paid for the whole day, was well over paid for someone who finished all the work before lunch and it had nice, nice perks. Concert tickets, football tickets, computers, etc. Unfortunately, it couldn't last. See, it was a non-profit that I still don't believe is on the up-and-up. They closed my office. Being over paid is sooooo nice while it lasts, but it makes it so hard to find a comparable paying job.

Keeping your mom out of a nursing home is a VERY honorable thing to do. If it ever comes to that for me, I will make the same choice. My mom had knee replacement in October. The hospital didn't have the room in their therapy wing for her to continue her therapy on-site so she had to go to what they called a rehabilition center. NOT! It was an awful nursing home. We checked her out against doctors orders, she couldn't take it anymore. Caring for someone that you love is a very demanding job and you should be applauded. :cp:

The music business stuff fascinates me as well. I'm a huge music fan and it sounds like such a great industry to work in.

Well here's to all of our dream jobs coming true some day. :)

I'm a nurse too. I work in a very small rural hospital so I get to do LOTS of things. I have worked part-time for 27 years and it's been great. I was able to be the primary giver for my children (and husband) but I got to go out to work a few days a week too. And here, nurses are very well paid. A nice little bundle for someone who is mostly a mom.
Mind you, I just got home and everyone here is sleeping but ... there aren't many downsides.

Losingme;

Hmmmmm, I understand all to well of being out of a job with no control over it whatsoever. I was a firefighter for almost 10 years, until the fire truck accident. Then, 60 lbs later, three years of surgury and rehab and the doc said "no more firefighter" I was devastated. Now I am looking for another restaurant manager job. I used to work for a large chain restaurant . . . can you say soup, salad and breadsticks. Good company, but no room for creativity. Today I finished my 3rd and 4th inteview for a company, MUCH smaller (30 restaurants) where in the restaurant you have a set menu, but they do catering, weddings etc and you can develop your own menu for these affairs, they actually encourage you to experiment in the kitchen . . . which I am sooooo excited about . . . I'll know by Monday . . . but dream job was a firefighter . . . nothing better.

I love photography too, I don't know if I could do it for a living . . . but that correspondence school definitely sounds like a good idea

Thanks, losingme. I appreciate your comments. I have been told that it's very honorable, and other people are saying that I should go to college & do this, and do that. I am putting my dreams on hold for a BIG reason right now, and I am glad that someone supports me other than a good handful of my friends & my partner. My Mother has had 6 surgeries on one knee. She had a knee replacement also, and it failed 2 or 3 times. The Quad Tendon kept rolling up, and her kneecap would go to the side & sink in. She recently (Nov 28th) had a transplant surgery. She got a 20 year olds kneecap, ligaments, muscle & cartlidge (sp?). My partner & I have been living over here with her since her surgery, and probably won't be able to move back to our house until Mid to End Feb. She also broke her hip in mid 2005, and she had a total hip replacement. It's a rough job, yes. And the pay is crap, but...I love it. heh.

Right now, I'm the Chief Deputy Appraiser for the Appraisal District of the County we live in. Basically, I'm head honcho #2 here, which is pretty good considering I had no experience when I started 11 months ago. I really love my job, but I wouldn't say that it's my dream job. I definitely feel like it's my last job, though. I'm content here and feel challenged every day. I see myself retiring from here. I know that I make a salary that not many in my position would make without the wonderful opportunities I've been given. I live in a small, secluded town (nearest "city" is 2 1/2 hours away) with a pop. of about 5800 and a very small job market. I'm halfway to a degree in teaching. I was fully expecting I'd be working at McDonald's when we moved here for DH's job. Not so, and I love it.

My dream job is to be a housewife and mother.

I'm a geek... I went to school to become a geek and I am..

I work in Information security for a large corporation. My job is varied which I like. I didn't go to school for this initially, I went to school for Computer Science with an emphasis in artificial intelligence. I wasn't sure what I wanted to do then, maybe be a programmer? I don't know. I do like writing computer programs which I actually get to do occassionally in my job but it is a small portion. A large portion is working with people, figuring out how to solve problems that we have and doing a lot of other varied things. I started out working as a network administrator and then becoming a network security administrator. I liked both jobs but I wanted to do something where I could be a bit independant and I am. DH would like to start his own information security based company so we may do that sometime in the future but who knows?

Also, I doubt we will have kids because DH already told me that if we did, he'd like one of us to stay home with them and I'm not sure he met himself. So I guess my dream job is to be working, to be working with people and to do various things. I like to do things that involve critical thinking and problem solving. I do all of those in my current job but I'm not sure I'd describe it as my dream job. Currently, I am going to school for information security which is pretty fun.

I'm the most dreaded and hated person here...I'm a debt collector. But really, I'm nice and good and my job is to help people make their payments or make arrangements when they can't. I absolutely love it. I have the benefit of helping people who need it and want it, without the stress of dealing with anybody face to face. And honestly, for those people out there who are mean and generally unpleasant... it's kind of nice to NOT be helpful to them. *LOL*

Maybe that's because of all the years of retail I've had to endure. I feel vindicated in being less nice to someone who is mean to me over the phone. Is that wrong?! :)

My dream job would be either teaching English and creative writing... or to be independently wealthly due to the success of my best selling novel. :)

My job title is Coordinator of Automation and Technical Services for our regional library system. My technical services department orders, processes and catalogs material for 21 public libraries. The automation part of my job is to implement and maintain all computer systems in our branches and at our headquarters. I enjoy it, the work is very varied and there are always challenges. My employer is very understanding, and allows me to put my children and family first, which is why I stay there, even though I could make a little more money in private industry. Great benefits and no nights or weekends required.

My degree is in foreign languages with a concentration in international business, although I've spent more time in my adult life not working in that field than working in it.

It was really interesting to hear what everyone did! I'm now a Social Worker and I love it. I was a Technical Writer for 6 years, lost my job... worked as a contractor and finally decided that I wanted to do something for ME and not just money. So I went back to school, twice.

I don't make much, but I love my job. I work with teens who are getting ready to age out of the foster care system. It can be both rewarding and frustrating. I've never worked so hard for so little pay! I would like to work with incarcerated mothers, but haven't gotten a job offer yet. ;)

Another lawyer here. Dream job is a toss up between Liziness' dream job and being a potter. I can at least read and write so the former is the more likely of the two fantastical scenarios! :)

I'm a college professor and I love my job (except for the grading). I learn something new all the time and love to pass that on to my students. Not only do I love teaching, but part a of the job is being a formal or informal advisor to undergraduates, and we have lots of conversations about what they want to do with their lives.

It's interesting to hear a lot of you talk about how you "fell" into your present positions -- I think that happens often, and for a lot of reasons. For one, I think that most of us just don't know how many different types of jobs there are out there anyway... and then, we don't realize how people we know can help us find those jobs... it's not all through monster or the classifieds...

Just thought I would post a follow up. I had an interview earlier this week with a large credit card company in their customer service department. I'm not crazy about working a call center. I've done that before and I hate talking on the phone, but hey, when you need a job anything will do right? Anyway, they have a 24/7 fitness center on site. It costs $15 a month. That would certainly help me out if I were to get the job.

I'd like to throw my hat in the ring as 'most hated.' I am the dreaded telephone surveyist. It's alright if you hate me. Sometimes I hate me too. I can't even claim I'm doing a worthy service. Well, sometimes, but largely we just survey on tobacco, which I can't say I feel too good about.

I get hung up on, lied to, and told to f*ck off on a regular basis. Lizziness is right. There's something satisfying in being less nice to people who are unabashedly rude to you.

Still, it works around school and the pay is good because no one else wants to do it. I suppose my dream job, well realistic dream job anyway, is to finish up my sociology degree and become a victim-offender mediator or somehow work within the growing restorative justice system.

fyi: being rude to telesurveyists/telemarketers only makes us put you on the callback list. if you want to get rid of us, and i feel i speak for my 'people' here (lol) politely say that you appreciate we have a hard job but unfortunately your household does not take phone solicitations and would they please take you off their list and wish them better luck on their next call. this is the most likely way to not recieve callbacks. and believe me, it just makes our day when someone is polite and shows us even a modicum of respect. be sure to take down the name of the company.

if you ask them not to call you back, remove your number from their system, etc, they are required BY LAW to do so. if they are jerks (which makes all of us look bad) and continue to call, you are within your legal rights to sue.

heh. some guy started screaming at me F you F you F you today until I had to hang up. He was a crazy though.. .definitely not one of the usual people I talk to. In all the time I've worked there that is the first person I have ever had to hang up on. It was a momentous occasion. :D

You know, Losingme, call center work isn't too bad really. Once you get used to it. I really enjoy not having to be around people - I mean if I had "f you f you" guy in my face I would have lost it. Over the phone, I can just hang up and make fun of him for being crazy. :) Much easier to deal with people... but with the call center, you are going to deal mostly with either people who have a problem, or repetitive and stupid questions.

I'm the corporate dominatrix.

I want your job, cbmare. :D

What is a corporate dominatrix?

I worked in customer service for a software company once (it was the beginning of the ten-year journey that landed me my current job) and I LOVED IT! I loved how task-oriented it was: people called, you solved their problem, you moved on to the next call. There were no long-term projects and no take-home work. Some of the problems were easy to solve, some of them were more challenging and required research. Some people were really frustrated and rude when they called but most were nice and they were often really grateful when you solved their problem. I learned a lot; I couldn't do the job I have today without the core knowledge I developed in that job. Unfortunately my manager was the spawn of Satan and I had to take a different position that I didn't like as much to get away from her. (This has nothing to do with her management skills but she did lose at least 30 pounds and maintained that weight loss the entire time I knew her--and for all I know is still maintaining it--I have to respect her for that. I remember being amazed that she ate pizza without cheese on it.) Eventually the new job worked out, but I did miss doing customer support for a long time.

Some days, when my current job is really stressful, I fantasize about being a receptionist. "Thank you for calling; how may I direct your call?" I could totally do that. Not to devalue receptionists; I know that job can be challenging as well; it's just my little fantasy.