Finding the Job that Suits You
- Milton Alexander
- Sep 24, 2016
- 5 min read
Introduction
Are you in a job that you don't enjoy? A job you don't understand or one that you know isn't for you but you stick it out anyway? Are you suffering with the frustration of not knowing what you want to do in life or, perhaps you have no job at all and you don't know what path to take?
The purpose of this blog is to tell you that these thoughts are normal, to give you an understanding on choosing career paths and to give you a story of mine to tell you how I came to the career I have now.
See...blogging isn't my full-time job, my career is in the software industry developing and maintaining business applications, I love what I do, I work with some inspiring people and I feel proud to be where I am, but the first job I had was a mechanic apprenticeship at Ford and I went through a rapid transformation of roles and responsibilities until I found the career path I wanted.
A Quick StorySo I left high school with not the greatest of grades, I mean...they didn't spell out FUDGE but I didn't exactly get all the A's and B's I wanted...
As I mentioned, the first job I ever had (after a paper-round) was a mechanic at Ford doing an apprenticeship, an NVQ program in my last year of High School. I was a big lover of cars and thought it was what I wanted as a career.
My mentor Steve was a senior mechanic, a great guy that taught me many things and I really enjoyed the experience, however I kept coming home with oil and dirt all over my hands and rest of my body, in my nails and all sorts and my only thought was that I wanted to look after my body. So when I say do what you love, I loved cars as a young teenager, but my thoughts were that my body was more important than wanting a career that would decay it. I also knew that I was quite young and the rest of my life was a very long time and if I had negative thoughts like that about a career path then clearly that career wasn't truly for me.
The next job I had was at Currys in sales, it was a fun time but to be honest it was just a convenient choice as it was close to where I was living, so I started the day after my high-school prom (needless to say I was late on my first day. Teenager’s eh!)
As I went on I grew a love for business and the professionalism involved, particularly because the manager there called Andrew (I believe it was, maybe Andy!) was a very on the ball man with a good sense of humor and I wanted to be just like him when I grew into a man, so for this reason I went on to do a Diploma in Business at the Worcester College of Technology.
I completed the Diploma but I still felt that something wasn't quite right.
During the Business Diploma I was using computers more and more and as I was doing so I was getting more and more intrigued by the way they work, so I then went on to do a National Diploma in IT, the first year focused on hardware and the second was focused on software.
It was when I dived into software during the second year of my ND that I found that I loved software development, the fact that I could build an application from scratch and for whatever purpose I wanted, this adapted creativity and knowing there was going to be a huge future in technology I realised that this was what I wanted to do.
I then went on and did a Higher National Certificate in IT and then a Bachelors Degree in University specialising in Software Development, of which I passed with a 2:1.
In between that first role as a mechanic and becoming an IT graduate, I worked at JD Sports, I worked behind the bar at the Worcester Racecourse and at JD Weatherspoons, I was a Deli Manager at COOP, a nightclub promoter for Walkabout and Liquid, a PPI negotiator, I was in tele-sales for Shop Direct, tele-marketing with Bamboo Marketing and a global sales representative for Hewlett Packard.
Continued…
If you have any questioning of your current career choice then it's most likely not truly the one for you; see this comes down to the good old phrase 'do what you love' and if you're not truly enjoying your job then it's clearly not what you love to do. That's not to say that all questioning of your career means you're not in the right one, because not only do we not always have happy times in what we love to do, but even when we are in the right career path we need this objective thought to keep reminding us of why we've chosen it. As for not knowing what you want to do, that's ok, some of the most interesting people I know are 40+ years of age and still have no clue what they want to do, it's normal, not a mental illness!
Take Action!
If there’s one thing I want you to take away from this blog it’s this; TRY IT! As you grow older your mind matures and your thoughts and feelings drive your intention based on past experiences. If you are one of those people questioning your career, you don’t have a career and / or don’t know what to do…just try different things.
Don’t be scared of wasting a year in college to only find out it’s not for you, that’s fine at least you then know the true answer to that question in your head, I did that with Mechanics and Sales!
After an NVQ in Car Mechanics, a Diploma in Business, National Diploma, Higher National Certificate and Bachelors Degree in IT with a truck-load of previous jobs I now know that I am doing what I want to do as a career and then-some, I also blog, volunteer with children and the disabled and I’m a commercial model – exploring things you both like and end up not liking can most likely be how you end up finding your career path.
Some people are lucky, some people discover their career path early on in their lives, but if it takes you 10 years of jobs and quallies like it did me then so be it! Would you rather not have tried different things and get to doing what you want to do rather than sticking out a job you don’t enjoy for the rest of your life?
SO DO IT NOW
Have a think about what you value, what is it that interests or intrigues you? Write these thoughts down and then associate jobs against those values and interests and then, spice up your CV if you haven’t already and get applying to jobs for what you’ve come up with; it doesn’t matter if you go crazy, apply to a job a day, a 1000 jobs a month! A bit excessive ok…but seriously get out there and start shaping your career, one that defines yourself.
If this blog has been any kind of eye opener to you then it’s done its job and I have done mine.Thanks for reading and good luck in your occupational adventures!
Craig Milton
