Forget that I ever existed

ushjr

Forget that I ever existed

missile

The world would be a very boring place if we all wanted the same thing

TELLIT01

I was never driven by a need/great desire to climb the career ladder.  As long as I was happy with the job I was in and felt I was adequately rewarded for it, I was happy.  As it happened I did climb the ladder in IT, ending up as an IT Manager with a multimillion pound budget.  I didn't seek it out but was in the place at the time that the opportunity was there and accepted the challenge.  I also refused to consider one job when I was head hunted as there was no way I would even consider working in London.  The person who contacted me initially assumed I was just holding out for more money and was shocked that money wasn't the reason.

AskAsk

i think everyone starts out with ambition and then you realise it aint happening.  i have done very well financially and i have a well paid job but to be honest, i think i have failed in my career as i had grand plans and i am not as senior as i believe i should be.  i am no where near and i won't ever get to where i had planned.

i no longer have ambition for my career.

Dakta

No it isn't that important unless it's important to you and your objective.

Not everyone wants a career and not everyone would benefit just from having one. For many a job is enough and there's nothing wrong with that.

ceremony

What's your definition of a career?

I've focused on work that I enjoy doing. Stuff that's far more than just a job to me. That work doesn't put me in the high earner category but I enjoy doing it and I worked really hard to get to the stage where I'm on a comfortable income. I have debts right now but they should be gone this year then I want to focus on planning for the future.

I'm well behind some of my peers financially (partly due to ill health, partly due to my job choices) but I'm happy with the choices I made. I'm sure others are happy they 'suffered now for luxury later'. It's all down to personal priorities.

elsien

I’m not seeing the appeal in doing 30 odd years in a job I don’t like. I’d rather do 30 odd years in a job I do like. It’s a long time to be unhappy at even if your mortgage is paid off early.
it’s not either/or, you can do a job you like and still achieve the other goals.

Marcon

Depends what else you've got in your life of value.

MalMonroe

You are 40. That is so young! If you wanted to you could put some of that cash you speak of into retraining for another career, there's absolutely nothing to stop you and the world is your oyster.

I am much older than you and retired but I'm about to launch my own online business now, after working as a servant (aka personal assistant) for many years. The difference for me between then and now is enthusiasm. I have it now. I was trained as a secretary with shorthand and touch-typing skills (no longer needed today) but I felt better once I'd managed to get a 2.1 BA Hons degree as a mature student. I also have qualifications but I never earned a load of money. Life's not about money. 

Don't start thinking things are over at the age of 40, please. Live your own life, don't try to emulate others. There are still so many things I'd like to do in life, too. Once coronavirus is over I can use the voucher my daughter gave me last year to pretend to fly a jumbo jet in one of those flight simulators. I wish it was a real plane but that'll have to do.

You have your one wild and precious life (paraphrasing Mary Oliver here) - you've come to a crossroads, don't waste the opportunity to do something you really want to do. Go for it! That's my advice, anyhoo, for what it's worth. It'd be such a shame not to.

Johntea

I've only ever had 2 jobs (I'm 33), 9 years in education IT and just over 4 years in NHS IT, as you can probably tell from those lengths of time both careers have been fantastic for me and I couldn't have asked for better people to work alongside either, we get the work done but have a laugh at the same time

I've met quite a few contractors along the way whilst working on projects, their life is 'right you're off to work with XYZ so you're in hotel 123 for the week', I imagine the novelty soon wears off whatever the money! (One guy we were recently working with was glad of our custom as he actually lives about 5 minutes away from our workplace so a nice steady contract for him where he could actually go home every night!), interesting how Covid has actually meant you now never meet a contractor for an entire project other than on a screen!

Over the years my roles and therefore salary have changed - I'm now at over double the salary I was on 13 years ago so pretty happy, anything more and I'm into management territory which personally I've tried and hated...the only time I've worn a suit is to the actual interviews I prefer to show off with my actual knowledge

At one point I had dreams of 'chasing the money' but my focus swiftly changed when in my first job my line manager had a heart attack (thankfully he survived but it does still affect him mentally) and a year later lightning struck twice, the boss of the department had a sudden heart attack one weekend and tragically that was that 'Have a good weekend, see you on Monday' and then for Monday to never actually come around for him haunts me to this day and I'm now much more focused on making the best out of life as I can

74jax

ushjr said:

I was having a conversation with a friend the other day. They're 51, have no qualifications and have always done unskilled jobs which they don't like. The light at the end of the tunnel is that their mortgage will be paid off soon and they're planning to work part time after that. Not a bad position to be in.

I was once young and ambitious, I wanted to be the international business traveler, I wanted to be the man who stops at a motorway service station for a coffee on my way to a meeting, I wanted to be the man with a laptop and mobile phone talking business with colleagues on a train, I wanted to be the man in a suit stood on the pavement in front of a city pub with a pint in my hand at 5pm on a Friday. I've done all the above at various points and its not what its cracked up to be.

Now I'm 40 and just want to get to the position my friend is in, I'm around half way there. Yet I could sell up and move back to the North West and buy a house in cash tomorrow, but I choose not to so maybe I'm more bothered about my career than I think I am.

There's nothing wrong in changing what you want. I've done it loads - changed jobs, homes, areas of the UK.

For the last 10years I was completely dedicated to my career, I enjoyed it, in fact I loved my job. Something happened last year, my views changed and I gave up work. In my mid 40s..... Was I mad? Probably at the time.... 😂

You very rarely have the same outlook as you did when you were 18, even a few years ago. 

It's great to stop, reassess, see what you can do to make you enjoy your short time on earth a little bit more, and act on it.