never ending Multi-careering

[Anonymous]

Is it just me? I’m now 32 and in the past 12 years of my life I have had so many jobs and career goals… so much so that I was confused and depressed about it. wanting to be a flight attendant, nope.. teacher… quit teaching. took prereqs for dental school. flunked. tried optometry school, physical therapy school, considered being a writer, nope… dental hygiene school before flunking out again. phew. I’m one of those generalists–someone interested in many things but dislike going way into depth on one subject. 50 K in student loan debt while deciding what I wanted to do. People picked up on it and always “joked” about me–the girl who couldn’t decide on a job, the “jackie of all trades” when everyone else “my age” had jobs, knew what they wanted to do, never got fired. argh! It’s cute I guess when you’re 18 but when you’re a certain age, it becomes funny I guess.

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[billd]

I’m 53, 3 careers (at least) and 10 jobs. Only “let go” from one, and they called it downsizing when they let over 70 of us go at the same time.

Wanted to be an electrician or go into electronics

ended up a mechanic because I’m a natural troubleshooter and problem solver and LOVE cars

Boss sold shop, I quit and went into……….. farming

Divorced, moved off farm, moved across state, got a job as electrician/networking

Left that job, got a job as properties and building manager, maintenance manager and communications manager (was called facilities and systems manager on my business cards)

Left that job, went into IT – network administration, computer repair, troubleshooting and antivirus/security administration

Left there, went into IT design, planning, antivirus and security administration.

Was downsized, went back into IT in a different job, as network administrator and security/antivirus administrator

Bored………….

want to be a mechanic again, started side buisness repairing auto electric items – alternators, etc. for classic and antique cars.

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[Anonymous]

Hi there,

I can relate. I am 37 years old and still don’t know what I want to do when I grow up… I too have had many different types of jobs over the years. I would usually get bored with them after a while then move on to something else. I have been to college twice and never finished. That is a huge regret for me, even though I really struggled and failed some courses. At the time, I did not know I had ADD. I wasn’t diagnosed until I was 31 years old.

Anyway, I am in a career now that pays well and has job security (it’s an essential service type job). The problem is, I am bored with it. I pretty much have to stick it out, since I have a huge mortgage and a family to take care of. I feel guilty talking about “not feeling fulfilled” in my career, being that so many people are unemployed where I live.

I would love to be self employed but I haven’t quite figured out what I am good at? I would love to get up in the morning and feel excited about going to work.

I don’t know if any of this helps? The career things seems to be a common thing with all us ADD’ers as I am finding out. The unsupportive non-ADD people in my life just don’t get it.

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[billd]

frankly, I hope you never grow up.

How sad that must be……………..

I can relate to the “unfulfilled” bit – and needing to work to eat and pay bills. I’d rather have my own business again – but I’d need a partner to keep me on the straight and narrow, keep me moving.

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[Anonymous]

Oh my Ghaawd! I have found my people!…reading your posts sounds like you wrote them about me…I think i MAY have adult add…problem is ive been sick for years and struggled with [mood disorders] ever since i got Thrown out of the marines for [depression]…(the military doesn’t like it when you’re not paying attention)..i can STAND at attention no problem…had somewhere between umpty-nine and eleventy-nine jobs/career since then…chef…Sales…TSA Screener[dont get me started]…vehicular emissions inspector…licensed insurance agent…pizza delivery…the list goes on…bottom line I always lose my job because I either have anxiety before going in or i embarrass the living $hit out of myself and cant face my co-workers, or both…

I wonder am i nuts or have you felt this way, too?

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[billd]

I feel that way a lot………… so I guess we’re ALL nuts!

Maybe it’s a blessing you didn’t stay in the marines. Some of us tend to be, well, accident prone. There, it could lead to death – not only yours, but others as well………

You’d need to be sharp, on your best, on your guard, alert at all times and be able to pay attention like a cat staring down a bird for 10 minutes without blinking.

Bet neither of us can do that.

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[trashman]

bigjimmy and billd we could be family. this is funny I have spent my life being told to just pick something. I think if they could come up with a pill for boredom this would be a big seller. ha ha . I can’t count how many jobs I ve had. the sad thing that I know enough of a lot of stuff and not enough of alot to say I am a pro at any thing. so I can relate . so now what do we do next.

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[billd]

Man how many times have I heard “just pick something” or seen folks get a bit upset when I’m in the line at a buffet, unable to make up my mind on what sort of potato I want!

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[Anonymous]

Its killing my marriage, once a month like clockwork [wonder why] my wife gets fed up and threatyens to kick me out if I dont just “man up” and turn into Ward Cleaver… i dont have any idea what I want to do in life, but i feel like ive already burned too mant bridges to start anew anywhere else…although… I’ve always had a pipe dream about making movies… my wife says it’s just that and that I should be more realistic. I say to her Somebody has to do it why not me? she says youre too unreliable for me to get behind you on any wacky sche,es you need stability…its like having a second mom when what i need is a wife. I’m growing frustrated with myself though because i just end up piddling around spinning my wheels while my life circles the drain…where do i get help?

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[Anonymous]

@trashman- I did once see an herb book that had a list for “Boredom.” Cracked me up. They were all herbs that would be illegal if someone got wind of them, if you know what I mean.

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[Anonymous]

i shop for trash bags at Aldi’s because there is almost no choice involved

i’ve been an archeologist, newpaper layout person, live (educational) tv camera person, photographer (weddings, 2 different portrait studio chains, newpaper stringer), historical re-enactor (viking), teacher at a summer program for gifted kids – taught about 25 different subjects, user consultant in college computer labs (2 different universites), instructional designer, administrative assistant, graphic designer, data management for sales staff, and i’m thinking of trying to get a doctorate studying the effects of using 3D virtual worlds in second language learning. i think that qualifies me to be a college professor – if i’m not too old by then.

i’ve spent a LONG time in university, and have listened to years of “just do it” and “just pick something” but the whole world is out there! how do people do the same job day after day, year after year, without going completely insane??? i was in the admin assistant job for slightly over a year and there were days where i sat in the parking lot in my car and just COULD NOT force myself to go in that door. and other people just didn’t understand how boredom could be that annoying. they just said it’s what you have to do. just do it. it about drove me nuts. i was very glad when circumstances outside of work made it easy for me to walk away from that job…. *shiver*

i don’t know what i’m going to do next, but i find myself looking for jobs that might provide me with a very varied environment. or are high level but temporary. i’m not sure i could stay more than a year in a job….

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[trashman]

kim lol, if you are thinking of them going up in smoke then I’ll have to pass. they all tell me Iam a big kid now . but sum days it might be nice to sit back spark up and forget for a bit,well they say you can’t go back. went there in my mid to late teens. tempting but no thanks. lol

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[Orion]

Switching jobs and not going too deep into any of them is textbook ADD. I’ve done so many things, I can’t even remember them all. Army, Navy, EMT, Electrician, Telephone tech, casket factory, furniture mover, pizza maker, movie theatre, and on and on…..and those are only some of the jobs. There are countless other things I’ve done as a volunteer or for recreation. I love to learn new things but hate to devote too much time to it. Uuhhggggg.

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[Anonymous]

I’m 49 and am in the process of finding the 15th company in my career of 28 years. After one particularily painful firing, I started on medication and at the next company won the company innovator award. Sadly, the medication caused heart problems and I had to change medication and have not had similar results for controlling ADD.

Change has been the only constant in my career. The good thing is that the one thing I’ve had 25 years of success with is my marriage. That is due my wife’s support.

Also, finding a doctor that actually wanted to help me has been key. Each time she went on maternity leave her r

replacements “messed” me up by wanting to take me off the meds. When she came back, things would get straightened out.

Boredom at work has been a problem and one medication caused hallucinations when the boredom level was quite high. The best solution I had was working out at lunch time. The energy requirements seem to calm me for the afternoon, when boredom was the worst.

All in all, it has been a journey. I’ve made tons of friends at all those companies. The key is to remember that you are an awesome person.

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[Anonymous]

Boy, reading all these posts really makes me feel that I’m not alone! I’ve gone through too many jobs to list here, but I’d like to tell about my last job. It started in 2006, I was working as a flexible endoscope builder and repair technician, which took me the better part of six months to learn to do, thanks to my ADD. The nice thing about the job was that it was a five-minute walk from home, so my travelling expenses consisted of a good pair of shoes. But in the summer of 2007 they moved to a nearby town, so now I had a commute, ten miles one way, which wasn’t too bad. In the fall of 2008 the recession hit, so the demand for endoscopes fell, so they reassigned me to the machine shop. I wound up spending close to a year working on a milling machine, tapping threads onto a small piece, and there was close to a million of them to do! The boredom was killing me, but I had no choice but to continue. In late spring of ’09 I returned to the endoscope lab, only this time I had to test those little pieces for leaks, which had me dunking them in a beaker of water and pumping them with a hand pump. I was so bored that I was seriously contemplating suicide. Last January 8 deliverence finally came in the form of a layoff. I was never so relieved or happy to lose my job. Since then I’ve been collecting unemployment, making just a token effort to look for work, and resting and licking my wounds. At the age of 56 I feel like I never want to do any kind of boring work ever again, my last job just about sucked the life out of me.

Next job I get I’ll just be putting in time. I can’t wait to retire, I don’t even care if I’m living on bread and water! Just ten more years to go!

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[Author]

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