Easier to be OS in the olden days?

meritaten

how can you say you hate math - then say you could explore computer language? or stats? both based on maths? you would hate that.

You sound like a creative person - your field isn't math or computers.
it is either food or arts - and the fact you can balance budgets leads me to think ..................restaurant manager or theatre/tv production. think outside the box hun - and do what YOU find exciting.

kboss2010

meritaten wrote: »

how can you say you hate math - then say you could explore computer language? or stats? both based on maths? you would hate that.

You sound like a creative person - your field isn't math or computers.
it is either food or arts - and the fact you can balance budgets leads me to think ..................restaurant manager or theatre/tv production. think outside the box hun - and do what YOU find exciting.

I'm a biologist and I love learning about the environment, ways to improve processes and technology, learning about how the bigger picture is influenced. Unfortunately in research fields you have to do a lot of stats and, often, computer modelling. Almost all biologists will tell you they hate statistics but they're an unavoidable part of the job.

My flatmate works in theatre and loves it but I've done the irregular working hours and working with the public thing for 6 years and it's partly the reason I left banking to get away from that. I'd rather work a 60 hour week Mon-Fri tearing my hair out building a computer model than work a 37 hour week but with no 2 days off in a row and have to deal with rude, aggressive and hostile members of the public again. Working with people made me hate working with people, as often people in retail will tell you

lessonlearned

kboss2010 wrote: »

To me, it seems as though all employers want now is someone with 5 years min of experience of the exact job you're applying for otherwise you have no chance. All of the detailed feedback I've had from interviews is 'interview was great, CV was good there was just someone with more experience'. I'd almost rather be told my interview technique was rubbish because at least then I'd have something I could work on improving

It's maybe just the fields I'm applying in but they don't care about the extra-curricular section of my CV. I taught myself to cook and sew, I worked as a banker for years so I'm really good at balancing budgets, I'm also a dancer in a team who performs at festivals and corporate events. I've never once been asked about any of it.

I'm thinking of teaching myself some programming languages to see if that helps. I'd also really like to do a stats course. I HATE maths with a passion but it's a necessary evil in the skill set of a scientist. Professional biologists particularly tend not to do their own stats, they seem to hand their data off to statisticians a lot of the time so that could help.

At this point I really have no clue.

There's something niggling me here and I think meritaten has picked up on it too.

You say you hate maths and yet all your choices that you have discussed, your work in finance etc are all prededicated in some way on maths.........

I feel meritaten is right, you Perhaps need to rethink.

You say you interview well but then you are not chosen because you don't have any experience. Do you think that the employers are picking up this anomaly too.

I have been an interviewer, so was my OH and so too in His turn ihas my eldest son. We have all managed teams and have had the final say in whether to hire or fire.

And wve all said the same thing about interviewees. We always chose people who were the right fit for the job, irrespective of their lack of experience.

The fit is more important than experience, experience can be gained, a poor fit will never be improved. By fit we meant personality, character, can this person gel with his or her colleagues, is he or she going to be easy or difficult, is this person really suited to the task in hand, are they enthusiastic enough. In short are they really right for the role, will they stay or will they jump ship if they found something more up their street.

It could be that your employers are spotting a certain ambivalence on your part ........That you seem a bit hesitant or reticent ie the maths thing ...... That they just don't see you fitting in. They won't tell you this to your face so they trot out the lack of experience line rather than hurt your feelings.

People rarely give truly accurate feedback, they are generally too kind and polite.

Meritaten is right you need to focus on what really excites you. You are going to be working for at least 40 years, you need to enjoy what you do.

I eventually found my niche, working as a new homes sales negotiator. I took a break and went to uni when I was 40 to study art and design. I then went back to,selling houses. Why?? Because it was what I loved doing - it paid well too but that was just the icing on the cake.

It paid really well because I was good at it, I was good because I loved the job so much. It wasn't work it was fun. Just like my son I would probably have worked for free.:rotfl:

lessonlearned

kboss2010 wrote: »

I'm a biologist and I love learning about the environment, ways to improve processes and technology, learning about how the bigger picture is influenced. Unfortunately in research fields you have to do a lot of stats and, often, computer modelling. Almost all biologists will tell you they hate statistics but they're an unavoidable part of the job.

My flatmate works in theatre and loves it but I've done the irregular working hours and working with the public thing for 6 years and it's partly the reason I left banking to get away from that. I'd rather work a 60 hour week Mon-Fri tearing my hair out building a computer model than work a 37 hour week but with no 2 days off in a row and have to deal with rude, aggressive and hostile members of the public again. Working with people made me hate working with people, as often people in retail will tell you

Aha I think I now see your problem.

You hate working with people. Your interviewers will most certainly have picked up on this, unless you are a consummate actor.;)

Unfortunately there is no escaping fellow members of the human race.:rotfl:

kboss2010

They never ask about stats, it's just assumed you can do the basics, kind of like how restaurants assume their chefs can use a set of knives properly.

I also knew several of the people giving me the interviews so they gave me really constructive feedback on minor points like needing to know a bit more specific info about regulations etc. but it did ultimately boil down to the people they gave the jobs to were older with more experience in UKAS accredited labs, something you can't get unless you've worked in a UKAS accredited lab. Catch-22. It's not a qualification you can pay for, your company does when you work for them if they require it, it's kind of like an MOT check on a car.

Most frustrating!

Worst part is, every job I've been given up to now is apparently because "I'm good with people" - quoting several of my previous bosses, not just my ego lol. Apparently they confuse my extreme politeness and not wanting to seem rude with liking the public. Colleagues I'm good with, the public I can't stand but in a lab in a basement somewhere it's not really a priority.

lessonlearned

I understand that lab work is one of the areas that is increasingly under pressure, lack of funding for research being a major factor.

My SIL is an industrial chemist, excellent degree and very experienced in pharmaceuticals. She's in her early sixties and winding down towards retirement.

As well as cutting back on research, the big UK drug companies are merging or being taken over and therefore shedding staff. This is also an area where those very same professional White collar jobs are threatened by technological advances.

On the other hand My son is an engineer, specialising in alternative energy. Now there is an industry with huge potential for growth. Business in that sector is booming. The race for sustainable, renewal able energy is on.

Are you looking in the right sectors.

kboss2010

lessonlearned wrote: »

I understand that lab work is one of the areas that is increasingly under pressure, lack of funding for research being a major factor.

My SIL is an industrial chemist, excellent degree and very experienced in pharmaceuticals. She's in her early sixties and winding down towards retirement.

As well as cutting back on research, the big UK drug companies are merging or being taken over and therefore shedding staff. This is also an area where those very same professional White collar jobs are threatened by technological advances.

On the other hand My son is an engineer, specialising in alternative energy. Now there is an industry with huge potential for growth. Business in that sector is booming. The race for sustainable, renewal able energy is on.

Are you looking in the right sectors.

Ooh boy, yep! I live in Aberdeen, believe me if I could get a slice of that pie I'd be one happy camper!

Unfortunately I'm not an engineer, I'd have to go back and do another undergrad. My OH and I seriously considered it for a while but economically it's not an option for us... unless we get jobs in oil and earn a huge salary which we can't get just now because of the recruitment freeze due to the falling oil prices. Our contacts in oil are bricking it for lack of a better term because Norway is already facing huge job losses and Aberdeen looks like it's going to be next.

So close to all of that potential earning and yet we'll likely never get anywhere close because we're biologists not engineers. Wrong science. Doh! I *knew* I should have stuck with my original plan to do astrophysics as a teen. I'd be in a much better position if I had but I went for the one I preferred rather than the useful one. Not making that mistake again hence biting the bullet and doing the necessary stuff I don't like to get a job.

lessonlearned

My sons PhD is in maths, not engineering. Engineer is just his title.

Anyway I've just realised how far off topic we are:o

The thing is you have choices and decisions that most of us "old uns" couldn't have even dreamed of.

In spite of passing my 11 plus and attending a very prestigious all girls grammar school, I like many girls from my background and era had no chance of going into tertiary education.

It was leave school at 15' get the best paid job you could find and contribute to the family,s coffers.

It didn't matter about my dreams or ambitions I had no say in the matter. And I'm not alone in this, in the 50's and 60's girls from council houses did not go to university or go into the professions.

Was it easier to be OS in the olden days. It's hard to say, we had no choice in the matter, everyone was OS out of necessity.

Today being OS is often a lifestyle choice, along with vintage and make do and mend. For so many in days gone by it was simply what you did to survive.

Yes we can look back and smile and reminisce but be under no illusions times were hard, resources were scarce and life was not easy.

The good old days??? You can keep them.:rotfl:

kboss2010

You're right, OS was just the way people lived when my grandparents were young. I loved my Gran's bedtime stories when I was young about 'the olden days' when she would grow veg in their back yard above the air raid shelter and take an empty jam jar to the cinema instead of money. Or the time she got evacuated to a big house in the country with a nasty old rich couple who made their lives hell as children. Not sure I'd want to go back there though.

I'm guessing the consumer culture started in the 60s along with Beatles, Twiggy and hippies smoking pot? Or did it not get big until the 80s when every yuppie was swigging champagne and talking on breeze block-sized mobiles? Somewhere in the middle we lost OS which might be partly why we have so many problems now.

Wonder if we can get our corrupt, money-grabbing politicians to take up the OS mantle? After all, it's cool to be retro these days!

lessonlearned

Don't worry we had greedy corrupt politicians in the 60's :rotfl:

I don't know if anyone has been watching it but there has been an excellent documentary series on the 60's - not sure which channel. BBC 4 maybe. It's often repeated a couple of times each week, so lots of chances to watch it.

It covers everything, the way we lived, music, fashions, politics, Vietnam, civil rights, women's and gay rights, the green movement.

As L P Hartley said in his book "the Go Between". - "The past is a foreign country, they do things differently there".

It was a different world....;)