Becoming a careers advisor

Yes, but

DavidF said
"Pay is usually comensuate with responsibility. responsibility usually equates to stress. AS i skirted raound previously , people react differently to stress to others. In extreme cases , stress can and does ....kill."

Obviously too much stress can be bad for you, but so can too little responsibility. "Role underload" is well known as a cuase of stress in some people. The trick is to find something that is stimulating rather than being boring or too demanding. Trouble is no one can say what that means for you.

I don't want to strike a really depressing note, but despite DavidF's (valid) observations above, there is a fairly strong correlation between longevity and a number of factors including income (see for example "Status Syndrome" by Michael Marmot, Bloomsbury, 2004, ISBN 0 7475 7409 1)*. Just in case anone jumps on the apparently obvious explanation, the conclusion is that not that "lack of money leads to deprivation which leads to ill-health"; it's more subtle than that.

I'd have no idea how to advise people on careers. Even now, fairly near retirement, I can't even think how to advise my own son, except to say find something you enjoy doing, because you will be doing it for a long time. So much for the accumulation of wisdom through experience!


(* nb this is not a sensationalist airport book, M Marmot is Professor of Epidemiology and Public Health, and Director of the International Centre for Health and Society, at University College, London and Adjunct Professor of Health and Social Behaviour at Harvard.)

 

No, neither can my own Dad. except that he wouldn't advise any one to take he route he took.

His (ex) boss, incidently, left two teenage daughters. He was making £70K a year ( back in '89).

Just go and ask them if it was worth it.

 

Thats the snag.

 

Well sort of; people do swap around a lot these days, which is great, and it's generally regarded as acceptable to an extent. Obviously too much swapping may eventually look a bit iffy on your c.v., but I don't think you need to be looking at 'now 'til retirement'!

 

No you don't but its best (IMO) not to swap around too much, as you say it looks iffy on your cv, like you can't stick at anything.

I am happy that I've been working for an agency (supplying labour to local factories in Shropshire) for 4 years now...thats no bad thing.

Then again soem one once said to me ...don't stay at any one thing for more than 5 years...you become part of the furniture. I could certainly have doen with bearing that in mind at one time but then retospect is a wonderfiul thing.

 

I would suggest that too much stress is rather more common than too little....

....I stand to be corrected though.

 

Sorry, I suspect from some of the responses that my post may have been interpreted as being patronising; it certainly was not intended to be.

I agree that too much stress is now the norm, but suggest the source of stress may vary from one person to another. I also agree that too much stress can be damaging. Some people seem to thrive on it, however..at least for a while.

I was also not trying to be a boring old fart who suggests you can find a job for life these days. I realise that those days have gone and, in any case, only a few years ago I walked away from a high paying job, because I was not enjoying it anymore and, more importantly, thought it was a waste of my time . Financially it was stupid thing to do, but it is far more important to feel fulfilled than to have a big pay cheque.

I don't think we are disagreeing, but I just wanted to warn that you can aim too low and that stress may still be a result.

 

no,no.

Not knowingly anyway.

Will write alittle mor eeffctively in 8 hours time

 

My problem is money dosn't do anything to be but I need it to move out etc I suppose I am reaching 25 and realise I can't stay at home much longer.

 

Kind of like you, my brother studied Computer Science at Warwick and came away with a 1st Masters. But he decided he didn't really want to just go right in to a job doing IT.

So he taught himself Japanese (well, he had started in his last year at uni) and did an intensive course on teaching English as a foreign language. He then signed up to a program (JET) that takes young English speaking people to Japan and places them in secondary schools to help teach English to the Japanese kids. You stay with a family for a while when you first get there but after that you move in to your own accommodation, which the people running the scheme help you find. The work as a teacher is of course fully paid.

Now I'm not suggesting you do the same thing, but there are some interesting alternatives to doing a 'standard' job out there. Though if you are any good at a foreign language maybe its one to consider?! It gets you with young people, seeing the world, your own place and looks good on your CV!

 

Yes, and I probably do.

For me though there is a very fine line between too much and too little. So I would prefer to be doing soem thing I know I can do, and do well. I know also that I do not react well tostress/prssure. The down sid eof htis is of course a cr*p income, as AT is experinceing.

There are more aspects to my situation than that but in many ways thats my situation.

Beleive me I ahve treid to find a better answer to this but have to admit that if my present position is acceptable, thats as much as most people acheive.

 

AT We have all said this so many times, stop being a bloody whinger and start being a doer.

Life doesn't owe you a bloody thing, if you want to shuffle around kicking the dirt because you feel hard done by then nothing will ever happen for you, because trust me nothing ever just 'happens'

There is no hard and fast rule to what you should be earning at 25, so one more time without trying to sound like a stuck record, go and do a bit of traveling or a ski season or something, clear your head and cut the emotional ties to living at home, its the only way you are going to do it mate. Don't become one of them virginal male gimps.

 

sounds good AT!?

fancy that?

why not do some thing like that whist you have not got a mortgage (like I have) and can pretty much do whatever you like?

sounds a bl**dy good experince actuallly. If you want to meet people........

 

Just thought I'd add a boring point for clarity.

Having a very basic understanding of how stress works can help.

It's important to think of things as not in themselves stressful. What's important is how you react to things that stress you as an individual.

Being hungry is a stress that comes and goes. So some stress is normal.

It's how you balance it out. It goes into the 'fight or flight' reaction we have going back to living in caves etc.

People in this thread have made choices on their reactions, just as I know, I don't react too well to situations I find stressful either.

But there are ways of coping with it, and having an awareness of how you react is the beginning.

It's a sometimes useful tool to draw your adult life as a journey on paper. Follow the turns in the road and just look back at the positives and the changes that have taken place.

You may find yourself moving in a different direction to what you expected. What I've found is that a lot of the changes seem to happen, rather than your choosing them.

Just give it a whirl and reflect, but ultimately if you look at your peers and find it frustrating that they seem to have more, you may feel motivated to move in the direction you pointed out.

Good luck whatever your choice.

 

sounds great - but knowing at from this forum - he won't act upon any advice given by us...

 

Yes, I know.

Exercise is th ebig (ish) thing, to burn off the adrenalin.....when our predecessors would be fighting!

There other stuff goign on for me apart from work...so its not all bad. Even my work is not totally bad.

YOu ahve some interesting points here though. Thanks

 

To me I sometimes think its history repeating itself.

I'm said to take after esp my mums Dad.

Grandpa had little time for money; breifly, after my grandparents split up (just after the war) he worked as a post man all most of lafe, lived in a terraced cottage in southampton and tended his back garden with a passion.

He never remarried and always refused promotion (possbly partly because he felt the same way as I do) although he was offered it frequently. He new he wasn't a high flyer....I remember him telling me.

I think of Grandpa often, even 27 years after his death; and feel we were probably very simlar.

Yes, my peers do frequently overtake me. My exceedingly bright young nephew will be next.....par for the course!

 

Being idealistic is fine at 25 but may not be the way to go at 50 or 75 just remember that ever pound placed in a pension will pay dividends in 25 or 50 years time.

An old saying "one hand for the ship and one hand for yourself" says it all, so suck it up, toughen up and think about the your future (which may or may not be with you existing girlfriend) and don't put too many others first because in the long run you are the only person you can rely upon to look after yourself.

 

I was advised at 25 to get a pension plan sorted (by an older colleague) .

It is a good idea.

To do that really you need a solid regular income coming in or at least soome plan of action. Doesn't have to be carved in stone......mine changed .

 

Have you decided any thing on this AT?

BTW, just thinking around this the last week or so I remember my Dad saying to me once......

......one way way of settling the income /job issue is to decide what amount you are going to be happy living on....then find out what you need to do to earn that.

Its always seemeds a pretty analytical approach to me (My Dads an analytical sort of person...an accountant) and the method ahs never really apppealed to me......but you can't deny...its one way.

YOu've probably already thought around this!