No I've never had a job, because I've never wanted one...

Dockery and Son

New Member
Apologies for being self indulgent, but...

I've recently graduated with an english degree and have therefore been plunged unwillingly into the cess-pit we all collectively know as the 'world of work'. The trouble is I've no idea what to do with my life and am beginning to panic. I did some work experience in the advertising industry and found it to be full of pretentious wankers, and the corporate world as a whole now fills me with dread. I've thought about becoming a teacher,like my mum, but 'when your profession is humiliation' etc etc, and I think I'd probably be too shy to be honest. I'm not lazy - I've had loads of temp jobs, just disillusioned.

My problem is this - I hate what work does to 75% of the human race. Bankers walking round looking as if they think they're celebrities, idiots having phone calls on trains about 'management realignment' and snobs who treat their jobs so seriously. I've got respect for the emergency services, public sector workers, and decent people who do the jobs that keep everything going, but everyone else is a mystery to me. Why do most people turn into complete bastards?!!!

To be honest I think I'd be happier doing my old saturday job at WHSmith than I would working in London for some publisher with a boss called 'Tamara'. I've mentioned becoming a librarian to my Mum, but she's not too impressed. I think I'd like it though. I just want a job I can enjoy and I don't care if I don't take home the profits of a hedge fund as long as i can afford to buy a few albums a month, read the paper and make the odd trip to the seaside. I mean, Larkin was a librarian, and he went to Oxford for God's sake!

I've bored you all long enough. Just wondered if any of the older Moz solo users could offer advice (and the one's my age some empathy!)

Cheers. See you at the roundhouse on saturday!
 
Hi. Welcome. I have no practical advice for you, because I am in my thirties and still have no idea what I am supposed to do with my life.

I think you should work at a bookstore as long as you can make enough to live on. In fact, I've applied to work at one myself. That way you will be around books all the time and you will get them at a discount. Little tip: apply somewhere that also sells CDs, and you will never want.

Also, just to warn you, this thread will be moved to the Off-Topic board as soon as a moderator sees it. Don't be offended. General Discussion topics usually relate quite specifically to Morrissey.

Have fun at the show- I saw him a few (!) times here in the US this year and it was wonderful.
 
Grad School is an option if you think you have something to contribute to the literatti, but they're all as pretentious as 'Tamara.' My friend once met Jorge Luis Borges who was surprised at the question he asked him. My friend said it wasn't the question that stunned him but the fact that it came from a non academic, who Borges found to be tiresome.

Bookstore work is very rewarding. Take the advice I heard from my JC Ethics teacher, find a job where you can be yourself. Many people have said this before but it is something to think about.
 
" I was looking for a job and then I found a job, and Heaven knows I'm miserable now..." If only I were kidding!

Good luck with the job search. I know how awful that is. I have had many jobs in my life. After college I didn't know what to do. I worked as a stocker at a toy store during the day, interned at a TV station, and at night I worked as a DJ. In the meantime I was sending out resumes and trying to figure out what would making me happy. Along the way I worked as administrative assistant for a few places and at a Mattel Toys call center. Some days I am still trying to figure out what would make me happy. I have been an elementary school teacher for the past eight years. It was the last thing on my list. Like you, my Mom taught. I never had the desire and it was unexpected that this is what I'd be doing with my life. I actually love the teaching part, it is the rest of the BS that goes along with it that I can do without. I wish you luck on your journey. Don't compromise who you are!
 
Lookit: you don't want to end up like me. Every mistake I've ever made in life has been the result of letting other people talk me out of things. I'm not easily led, but easily dissuaded. When I got my BA I thought like you do about work and was set to pursue a PhD in a field I love and in which I might actually have achieved something meaningful, however I let my bloody mother (boooooo! hissssssssssssssss!) dissuade me from doing it. Now it's probably too late. Do not let this happen to you.
 
Apologies for being self indulgent, but...

....

To be honest I think I'd be happier doing my old saturday job at WHSmith than I would working in London for some publisher with a boss called 'Tamara'. I've mentioned becoming a librarian to my Mum, but she's not too impressed. I think I'd like it though. I just want a job I can enjoy and I don't care if I don't take home the profits of a hedge fund as long as i can afford to buy a few albums a month, read the paper and make the odd trip to the seaside. I mean, Larkin was a librarian, and he went to Oxford for God's sake!

I've bored you all long enough. Just wondered if any of the older Moz solo users could offer advice (and the one's my age some empathy!)

Cheers. See you at the roundhouse on saturday!

Oh my. I kind of understand your point, not because I feel like you, but because someone very close to me does. I have a career, I've achieved a lot in my job, but that's because I enjoy it and I'm bloody good at it. BUT! I never let my job dominate my life and I most certainly wouldn't be doing it if I didn't enjoy it as much as I do. So: my advice is that if working in a bookstore is what you enjoy doing and you can earn enough money to have a decent living, then do it and just ignore what everybody else says. (And feel free to ignore me too.) :) Good luck with it, and have fun at the Roundhouse! :guitar:
 
I'm in my forties now and have had loads of jobs and quite frankly hated them all. I wanted to go to agricultural college but my parents wouldn't let me so I've ended up wasting half my life doing jobs I don't like. My advice, a job is an end to a means, if you find something you half like, stick to it. Life is too short to be miserable at work all the time and I should know!
 
Apologies for being self indulgent, but...

I've recently graduated with an english degree and have therefore been plunged unwillingly into the cess-pit we all collectively know as the 'world of work'. The trouble is I've no idea what to do with my life and am beginning to panic. I did some work experience in the advertising industry and found it to be full of pretentious wankers, and the corporate world as a whole now fills me with dread. I've thought about becoming a teacher,like my mum, but 'when your profession is humiliation' etc etc, and I think I'd probably be too shy to be honest. I'm not lazy - I've had loads of temp jobs, just disillusioned.

My problem is this - I hate what work does to 75% of the human race. Bankers walking round looking as if they think they're celebrities, idiots having phone calls on trains about 'management realignment' and snobs who treat their jobs so seriously. I've got respect for the emergency services, public sector workers, and decent people who do the jobs that keep everything going, but everyone else is a mystery to me. Why do most people turn into complete bastards?!!!

To be honest I think I'd be happier doing my old saturday job at WHSmith than I would working in London for some publisher with a boss called 'Tamara'. I've mentioned becoming a librarian to my Mum, but she's not too impressed. I think I'd like it though. I just want a job I can enjoy and I don't care if I don't take home the profits of a hedge fund as long as i can afford to buy a few albums a month, read the paper and make the odd trip to the seaside. I mean, Larkin was a librarian, and he went to Oxford for God's sake!

I've bored you all long enough. Just wondered if any of the older Moz solo users could offer advice (and the one's my age some empathy!)

Cheers. See you at the roundhouse on saturday!
well, when i finshed my degree, I applied for any job I quite liked the sound of, none of which had anything to do with my degree! I took a retail job, which was't well paid but did pay the bills, just about, while I worked out what the hell I did want to do, pissed about, made friends, and just enjoyed having a life. After 3 years I'd figured out what I wanted to do, researched it, and secured a place at uni (again) to train to be a teacher, which I qualified in in July and am really enjoying. :) whatever you do, enjoy! Don't feel pressure to do anything to do with your degree either, I never have and it hasn't done me any harm!
 
Apologies for being self indulgent, but...

I've recently graduated with an english degree and have therefore been plunged unwillingly into the cess-pit we all collectively know as the 'world of work'. The trouble is I've no idea what to do with my life and am beginning to panic. I did some work experience in the advertising industry and found it to be full of pretentious wankers, and the corporate world as a whole now fills me with dread. I've thought about becoming a teacher,like my mum, but 'when your profession is humiliation' etc etc, and I think I'd probably be too shy to be honest. I'm not lazy - I've had loads of temp jobs, just disillusioned.

My problem is this - I hate what work does to 75% of the human race. Bankers walking round looking as if they think they're celebrities, idiots having phone calls on trains about 'management realignment' and snobs who treat their jobs so seriously. I've got respect for the emergency services, public sector workers, and decent people who do the jobs that keep everything going, but everyone else is a mystery to me. Why do most people turn into complete bastards?!!!

To be honest I think I'd be happier doing my old saturday job at WHSmith than I would working in London for some publisher with a boss called 'Tamara'. I've mentioned becoming a librarian to my Mum, but she's not too impressed. I think I'd like it though. I just want a job I can enjoy and I don't care if I don't take home the profits of a hedge fund as long as i can afford to buy a few albums a month, read the paper and make the odd trip to the seaside. I mean, Larkin was a librarian, and he went to Oxford for God's sake!

I've bored you all long enough. Just wondered if any of the older Moz solo users could offer advice (and the one's my age some empathy!)

Cheers. See you at the roundhouse on saturday!

Just a word of advice from a 40ish Lit. major/romantic troublemaker - it doesn't have to end badly. Take the most interesting job you can find for a bit of cash while you figure it out. Things don't only happen because you plan for them, thay happen mostly by chance encounters with the right people.

I worked at a rare book auction house for a while. I got into a conversation with one of the buyers, who turned out to be an eccentric loner with the keys to Edith Wharton's ancestral Gothic mansion on the Hudson River - one of America's great early estates. After a week or so of conversations about Byron, Gothic architecture and American belles lettres, he told me I could live there - I became the mistress of Wyndcliffe! All because I took a silly job where I knew eccentric aesthetes like myself would congregate.

One thing led to another. Wyndcliffe eventually fell into ruin and was sold. I work for myself now, have done for 15 years - it's all on my own terms, because I have always refused to let anyone ever tell me what to do.

Network, and stick close to your passions - they will never let you down.
 
When i finished uni i got stuck in didn`t know what to do my parents kept trying to push me of into big jobs wanted me to be a solicitor i didn`t want that i just wanted to enjoy life so one day my mate got offered a job in ibiza in a club as a barman then i went all over spain did this for about 4 years everyday having the time of my life. my family hated it they wanted me to be a big solicitor in a office big houise car they kept trying to say you can do better with your life.Just do what makes you happy in life life your life for you
 
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Apologies for being self indulgent, but...

I've recently graduated with an english degree and have therefore been plunged unwillingly into the cess-pit we all collectively know as the 'world of work'. The trouble is I've no idea what to do with my life and am beginning to panic. I did some work experience in the advertising industry and found it to be full of pretentious wankers, and the corporate world as a whole now fills me with dread. I've thought about becoming a teacher,like my mum, but 'when your profession is humiliation' etc etc, and I think I'd probably be too shy to be honest. I'm not lazy - I've had loads of temp jobs, just disillusioned.

My problem is this - I hate what work does to 75% of the human race. Bankers walking round looking as if they think they're celebrities, idiots having phone calls on trains about 'management realignment' and snobs who treat their jobs so seriously. I've got respect for the emergency services, public sector workers, and decent people who do the jobs that keep everything going, but everyone else is a mystery to me. Why do most people turn into complete bastards?!!!

To be honest I think I'd be happier doing my old saturday job at WHSmith than I would working in London for some publisher with a boss called 'Tamara'. I've mentioned becoming a librarian to my Mum, but she's not too impressed. I think I'd like it though. I just want a job I can enjoy and I don't care if I don't take home the profits of a hedge fund as long as i can afford to buy a few albums a month, read the paper and make the odd trip to the seaside. I mean, Larkin was a librarian, and he went to Oxford for God's sake!

I've bored you all long enough. Just wondered if any of the older Moz solo users could offer advice (and the one's my age some empathy!)

Cheers. See you at the roundhouse on saturday!


There are loads of jobs available for people with good degrees in English, but it publishing etc isn't your thing, maybe you could try journalism? I am hoping to become a journalist myself, but I haven't even started University yet so I have a long way to go. Just thought it might be an option in case you hadn't considered it.
 
Thanks for all your messages, has been a great help. The Edith Wharton story in particular was brilliant! I'm actually re-reading The House of Mirth at the moment...

I think I will just get a job to pay the bills and give myself a little time to think about the future (when all, hopefully, is well).

I'm sure you're all desperate to know what happens in the end, so this thread is very much 'to be continued'!
 
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