choosing the right career

bargaindoctor

i'm currently doing a job considered a highly respectable one after getting a graduate degree, involves helping people and easily places me into a high social class with a good reputation. it's intellectually stimulating, challenging hard honest work, long hours, lots of beauracracy and administration and highly regulated and therefore extremely competitive. however pay wise it is not what i consider to be good pay for the hours one has to put into it. it is also a job that once you choose a particular path you should stick to doing that for the next 40 years of your life until you retire with a pension, and will leave me with very little life to live, working alot of hours.

i am not sure if this job is for me, because i am not sure i really enjoy the nature of this job. i also feel that my true talents lie elsewhere... in something very different and not directly transferrable from the education i have obtained thus far. i always felt that i belong to doing something else and i look at the lifestyle vs rewards of the job and except for a good reputation and respect and perhaps a career ladder to climb, financially and lifestyle wise i think if i keep doing this 10 years from now i am a bit worried if i went down the right path.

so should i stick to it for a little longer because i have spent many years of my life getting to what i am doing right now, but again i am at the bottom of a long ladder to climb. someone said to me that you should always climb to the top but before you do, make sure you're climbing the right ladder otherwise it's a long way to fall! so true.

i look at my friends who are living much more enviable lifestyles, making alot more money... the general advice seems to be to stick to what i'm doin for a few more years, because i'm still young and have alot of time and to explore these other options in my free time.

perhaps need to learn to be more content with what i have, but i do have difficulty at times with this when alot of my friends seem to be doing more of what i think is what i'd like to do.

leftieM

I have a pal who is a life coach and she says that you need to sort out what your goals are and what your values are and try to marry the two. You seem to be torn between the status of your present job and the desire to be rich by means that aren't necessarily as high status.
There are loads of life coaching books out there that you can use to get the right questions to ask yourself about what your real goals are and what you really want to achieve from life. You only have one life. If you have doubts about it now then it's worth exploring them and making a decision or it'll keep coming into your mind.

Oldernotwiser

I would pay for an appointment with a professional careers consultant. You've invested a great deal in your current career and need qualified guidance to help you make what could be the most important decision of your life. Would you advise someone with a medical problem to see a doctor or to ask for help from a site like this? Go to a professional; that's what they're there for.

CFC

It's a bit hard to give any kind of opinion or personal experience without knowing what you currently do, and what the friends whose lifestyle you are looking at also do.

leftieM

I presumed from the username and job description (s)he's a medic.

merlinormartin

hmmm what is your job role ? ... can we have a "clue"

If you have a degree ... how about teaching ?

http://www.tda.gov.uk/Recruit.aspx

good pay/rewarding/respectable .... il leave heavywork load off the list ..lol

CFC

leftieM wrote: »

I presumed from the username and job description (s)he's a medic.

Maybe, maybe not. I prefer not to guess.

As the old saw has it ASSUME makes an !!! out of you and me LOL

Nenen

merlinormartin wrote: »

hmmm what is your job role ? ... can we have a "clue"

If you have a degree ... how about teaching ?

http://www.tda.gov.uk/Recruit.aspx

good pay/rewarding/respectable .... il leave heavywork load off the list ..lol

If the OP thinks that being a doctor (assumption from nickname I know) is bureaucratic and badly paid considering the number of hours worked, s/he certainly won't be impressed by the administration involved in teaching or a teacher's salary!

OP I wish I had had the courage to make a career change when I was younger. If you feel frustrated by relatively low earnings now, I can only say that in my experience these feelings are likely to increase as you get older.

Conor_3

Long hours? Doctors don't know the meaning of the word. It really got my goat when junior doctors were bleating on about being badly done to because they had to work 74hrs a week for a few years.

There are lorry drivers who've been working more than that for decades for a bloody sight less money and you didn't see them banging on about it.

bargaindoctor

Thanks everyone for your input. I should perhaps realign my values and be more content with what I got. But I'm afraid my personality doesn't allow me to settle.

I can compare the poster above's analogy of comparing wages with lorry drivers. I do not deny that lorry drivers do hard work and drive lorries for long hours. I do not deny that I am already in a much more fortunate position than others. However, I am not someone who will settle for driving a lorry for the rest of my life. I'm afraid that the process nor the outcomes would make me happy by doing that but if poster above finds that the comparison helps, then so be it.

Deep down I think I'm a businessman at heart and want to be an entrepeneur. I've also dabbled in businesses myself... used to work 100 hours a week in wage jobs but since I started my own businesses I have never lost money but never stuck through either...

As for medicine - most of the doctors are not complaining right now because of working 70 odd hours a week. Doctors used to work over 120 hours a week in this country (and still do in the USA), a weekend oncall means working from Friday 7 am until Monday 9 am without going home.

It is only when the EU state decided that it is to the detriment of people's health that they reduced the hours. of the problems that the government have created with the system. There is also alot more managereal !!!!!!!! that doctors have to put up with these days because of the changes in the new NHS. I won't go into all that. If you followed the news (which is still very political) then maybe you get an idea... and this for most doctors is more problems than otherwise.

Anyway my point is - 10 years from now, I could either settle into mediocracy doing exams and a career which like I spent a good number of years achieving, or I can walk away and startup my own business which I have always want to do.

The quesiton is, when is the time to walk away. All my mates seem to suggest to stick around for just a couple more years so that I can really know if I like it or not, and always have it as a backup plan in case I need something to fall back on...

Conor_3

THey reckon the mid 30's is the time people start doing it nowadays.

Personally, I think the time to walk away and go it alone is when you've got a good few years behind you, a bit of money in the bank and house/kids sorted.

It gives you a good solid foundation to start from and no need to worry about money for a while. For example, I invoice monthly and it's 60 day payment terms that my clients work on (bloody blue chip companies) meaning it's 100 days from the first day of that month to getting paid for it. You need enough money to cover your lifestyle for at least that.

Having a good few years in a career behind you means that if the self employed goes belly up, you can always drop back into your old career for a few years if needs be or do agency work as required.

If you've never stuck at something you've tried and are scared of going it alone, it's not for you. It needs dedication and perserverance and your post is showing neither. And if you think the pay is bad now, it's far better than you're going to end up with for a good few years, self employed. You don't just start up a business and end up making £100k p.a profit from year one.