frustrated with figuring out what i want to do for work...

[Psion]

warning: long post warning. you have been warned!

OK, after yet another terrible job where i'm already disliking everything about it, i'm pretty much fed up and wanting to scream, and hoping some outside perspective will help. My issues seem to be there are a lot of things i suck at, very few things i'm good at, and almost none of which seem to be things i enjoy as well.

So i'm hoping maybe BG can help me brainstorm up some jobs i might actually enjoy doing. as far as education, i've qualified for an associates in social sciences (actual degree pending since i registered it too late when i met the requirements... oops.) as far as work experiences go, well, ill just spoiler them to make it easier on the eyes and so only people who care to read all that can do so:

bagger boy, age 14ish?-

Spoiler: show

yeah, bagging groceries at food lion...so exciting. right. <_<; needless to say, i didn't enjoy doing this, as it was tedious and boring, but i didn't hate hate it. the main thing that ground me was doing the same old tired greetings for customer after customer, and i'm not a big people person to begin with. stayed here quite a while though, cause it was north carolina and i was a kid so not many jobs i could work at that age anyways.

ice cream scooper, baskin robbins, age 18ish -

Spoiler: show

meh. still sucked, hated when people ordered pistachio nut and the damn ice cream was as hard as a rock, but whatever... it wasn't terribly bad. plus free samples. :P main issues were the horrid noise when a bunch of customers came in. later on i got promoted to:

cake decorater, baskin robbins, age 19ish-

Spoiler: show

this was actually kind of fun in a way, which might be partly why i worked here for almost 3 years. i took down customer orders for cakes, helped them pick designs, and built them. main cons were the fact i was often having to rush rush rush because i was the only semicompetent person in the store, due to there never being any store managers and everyone else was lazy ass teens who refused to help me with cleaning the floors or anything. this resulted in me having to literally do the job of a janiter, store manager, and cake decorator in one. also i now despise the scent of buttercream to this day. (i have a sensitive nose.) and speaking of that sensitivity, the jacket i had to use while putting away ice cream tubs hadn't been washed in years, and oh yeah, i was having to do weekly inventories and closing out the cash register/deposit money in the bank because the store owner had no one else she could trust and she was busy trying to run her other store because there was no store manager to help her. <_<;

main pros were being able to be artistic, and not having to interact with people too much, but what interactions there were, were all the fun kind where you make small talk and such. did i mention the free samples?

sales rep, armstrong garden center, age 21ish-

Spoiler: show

this is probably the job i enjoyed most of all, and the only one i can say i somewhat liked overall. i talked to people, helped them solve their garden issues in a relaxed manner, go to show off my knowledge of plants, and when not helping customers i was taking care of the plants, dodging maneating spiders first thing in the morning, and keeping the place tidy. cons to this job was the store manager (who was always telling me to move faster, faster), the afformentioned maneating spiders (WHY DOES A SPIDER NEED A WEB 12 FEET ACROSS OVER A PATHWAY? although said manager did wind up walking facefirst into one and freaking out which was hilarious to watch.), and being designated the keeper of the roses, which means i had to keep them pruned and tidy, especially during the later winter and early fall months. did i mention armstrong specialized in rose bushes? and that there is a rose variety called mr burnes after the simpsons charactor, with radioactive yellow and red spash color, and whos stem is literally nothing but thorn? seriously, you cannot see the stem, its just thorn. anyways, i don't think i could've donated blood since it was all feeding the rose bushes.

major pros were working outdoors, not having to stand or sit in one place all day, and the work wasn't repetitive, but also not often fast paced. (eventually i got transferred to a closer branch, with a relaxed manager who was fun to work with and even bought his employees soda/hot chocolate on occasion.) i also got to work with plants and learn more about different species, then apply that knowledge. overall the job was pretty enjoyable, and i didn't wake up dreading every day.

customer service/cashier, petsmart, age 23ish-

Spoiler: show

oh gods. nothing good about this one. noisy, smelled of wet dog, and never any spare time to actually pet the cats. also, the manager was racist and a sadist, and eventually led to me quitting in disgust. literally, i left the job and told the other store managers why, after hearing her using racial slurs yet again and belittling everyone for slacking off.

barrista/cashier, barnes and noble, age -24ish -

Spoiler: show

got this job soon after petsmart somehow (i neglected to mention it in my resume :D) and ironically it was nextdoor to it. a month after starting the job, a former coworker came in and told me the store manager that caused me to leave, was caught dancing in front of the security cams at night, making lewd gestures and dancing while using racial slurs in a singsong tone). needless to say, she got fired, lol. cons in this job.... having to handle rush hours, THE SMELL OF COFFEE ARRRGH IT CLINGS, a massive type A personality supervisor who discouraged even minor talking between employees, and probably the worst was having them often assigning me to a night shift where we got out at 11 pm only really it was closer to 12 because they made us baristas help the booksellers sort the store after closing, then assigned me to the 7 am shift the next day. yeah, 6 hours of sleep. not cool.

pros were dishes needed to be washed and everyone was too lazy to do them so i wound up eventually just chilling in the back listening to music while cleaning everything most of the day, so not much having to deal with customers or coffee. :D also the store was fairly quiet even during rush hour.

cashier, CVS, age 25ish-

Spoiler: show

another cashier job, another minimum wage job, hurray. major cons were the bosses never allowed you to stand still even for a minute, even during slow times, and no talking between employees. if there were no customers they'd make you clean, sort shelves, or something, then get mad at you for not being at the cash register already when customers came because you were sorting shelves. <.< I don't think i had any pros for this job. it just sucked, and eventually i had it terminated when my parents decided to move on black friday, were upset that i couldn't get the day off (wtf?), made me help them move despite having stood on my feet all day and having not eaten yet right after work, doing so until 3 am still without food, then when i had to work the next morning i naturally
started feeling faint and unable to stand after a few hours, asked the bosses if i could go home early while explaining the situation. they said no, i said i needed to anyways, and yeah. >.>

then my parents screamed at me for getting fired despite it being their damn fault, made me help them move some more immediately, and didn't let up until my legs gave out while carrying a box down the stairs and wound up taking the gravity route along with it, while somehow miraculously avoiding breaking my neck. after this, i avoid CVS like the plague due to trauma.

glassware wash technician (aka dishwasher for a lab), eurofins calscience, age 29ish-

Spoiler: show

this was pretty boring and the lead supervisor was a horribly grumpy woman who frightened small children and whos gaze would turn employees to stone. fortunately, we didn't see her much, and she didn't have any quarrel with me so i was mostly safe from her ire. the job itself was mostly glorified dishwashing, only with beakers and flasks and chemical soap instead of dish detergent. major cons involved the fact that the lab tested all sorts of substances, which sometimes involved heating things up, which sometimes involved dead flesh of animals or cow manure. >:( needless to say, having the entire building smell like burning cow shit or rotten fish isn't terribly pleasant, though thankfully this was rare. most samples were various water sources, ::most:: of which weren't raw sewage or fracking waste. other cons were well, washing dishes all day and standing in one spot, as well as having to occasionally handle sulfuric acid to clean some glassware, and methaline cloride for a lot, which is a carcinogen and also the stuff evaporates faster than alcohol and WILL give you a minor frostbite through two layers of gloves just from evaporating. not enough to lose fingers over, but having your fingers feel like they're on fire from room temperature water for several minutes isn't fun. :(

major pros were the people... everyone in the lab was friendly and relaxed, and the supervisor was the most so of all. people would sometimes come help wash dishes with me when they were bored and waiting on their experiments to run, mostly as an excuse for them to chat. this included the supervisor, haha. he actually encouraged talking between employees so long as work wasnt disturbed, and kept everyone smiling. i was also allowed to use earbuds and listen to music while working too, so even though the work itself was tedious and boring, it was something i could do while daydreaming so it wasn't so bad, other than having a sore back from bending over all day.

data entry clerk, medical records copy service, age 31-

Spoiler: show

which leads me to my current job... it kinda sucks. ok, it really sucks. its far away, it only pays 11$ an hour, and it's both tedious and requires concentration, AND you can't listen to music, AND you don't really get to talk to coworkers. so basically, no daydreaming, no music, its silent as a crypt, and you're on your ass all day. it's easy in that im a fast typer and familiar with computers, but the days crawl by and its both far away and low paying. it's only been three weeks and i already want out.

major pros include being able to eat stacks while at the desk and the fact that i probably will never misspell the word "received" again in my lifetime.

in summary, the things i dont seem to like for sure involve hectic pace, doing the same thing over and over (tedious), doing things that require concentration (can't relax and daydream while doing it to pass the time), or worse, ones that require both. repeating the same old tired lines to a customer doesn't appeal to me at all, nor does extensive involvement with people. i don't mind talking to people, but i'm a bit more introverted by nature, so i need some time to myself to recover.

i definitely do not enjoy office jobs. i HATE office clothes, i don't enjoy being cooped up all day, and i hate office politics and backstabbing. i don't give a rats ass about how employee #24 is so rude like omg canyoubelieveit? i definitely do not like bosses who micromanage and freak out over employees who work and talk at the same time. (conversely, relaxed and cheerful bosses actually make me want to work harder because i like them.) i cant say i enjoy retail jobs either, which makes me kinda screwed.

i do enjoy working with plants and even after over a decade i remember a lot of plants, their scientific names, and growth habits, but i don't have a higher degree in such so i don't think i can get any jobs related to it, especially in california where you need a bachelors to work at trader joes. ;; i'm a fast typer at about 70-90 wpm depending on how accurate i need to be, but typing all day doesn't really appeal to me. i am somewhat skilled at crafting, but i don't have any real formal knowledge of power tools or the like other than an electric drill or screwdriver. :P that said, i do tend to pick up such things rather quickly, and IKEA manuals on constructing a chair do not faze me in the least despite being completely wrong. (this actually happened at the garden center, the lady who usually constructed such things gave up in disgust on the thing and i managed to puzzle it out.... after that i wound up being the person who assembled display wares like mailboxes, chairs, and decorative items lol)

i also am not terribly fazed by manual labor, though i'm not very strong seeing as how i never exercise. i do put on muscle surprisingly quickly though, as the armstrong garden job had me lifting somewhat heavy plants all day, and after a couple months i was handling 60-90 lb terra cotta pots and fountains by myself.

So now that i've written out my life's story (sorry >< ), my main issues are this: i don't have much education, i still have no real career goal, and on top of that i'm moving out on december 1st on my own, which since im in southern california, means i'll have to somehow afford rent and survive on 11$ an hour. oh, and the hours might not always be entirely full time, because on occasion it seems people go home early due to a lack of things to do. <.< so whatever i decide on, it not only has to be something that i enjoy, but pays decent (hopefully 15$ish an hour at least), is reliable full time, and doesn't require a bachelors degree or a lot of education investment, because i simply won't have the time or resources to afford such a thing.

I know it's asking a lot, but after thinking this out over half my life, i still can't come up with a career i'd enjoy that doesn't violate the laws of physics. (adventurer/mage <yes, please>) until i figure out a way to do that, i need something to survive in the meantime without going insane. ;;

[thetruepandagod]

I expected pictures of you in your work outfits, I was left disappointed.

[Fiye]

For some reason I'm thinking Bartending as a job. (Probably because of your barista thing at Starbucks). Though in your history I see nothing but customer services jobs.

I can't offer anything concrete, since I was lucky enough to just enlist into the Navy and score well enough to get into their Nuclear stuff. (And survive the 2 years of hell they call school and a deployment on a Carrier that I'm slowly watching get torn apart).

But considering you doesn't like an office job. Don't want to deal with job politics. And have some experience in the service industry you could try that? I have no idea how good the pay is and honestly I'm just throwing that out there.

[Psion]

afraid bartendering is probably out, for several reasons. one, i have no experience with alcohol. the stuff smells vile to me, tastes worse, and i want nothing to do with it. on top of that, bartender is a very hectic job, in noisy enviornments, and nonstop talking to people. on top of that you're standing on your feet all night, not moving around, which murders your legs by the end of the day. basically it's a job i'd assign to myself if i wanted to experience hell. i may have experience in the service industry but i'm not trying to find a career that i'm good at, but one that i enjoy. constantly dealing with customers all day isn't really something i enjoy much. the thought of talking on the phone all day or pushing sales makes me shudder.

That said, i AM nocturnal by nature, so a night shift job doesn't bother me. i thought maybe security job would work but it requires training and generally pays terribly too.

[myreality]

Work you're way to become a botanist.

[Psion]

that i could possibly see, but can't even figure out how to start in such a career that doesn't require a bachelors degree. working out in nature appeals to me despite me usually being a shut in, (which might be because california is a hot desert hell and the majority of plant life plays dead until the winter rains...oh wait, what rain?) but i need something that pays the bills NOW, and pays a decent wage. unless i can find something that enables me to actually save up some money, i can forget about getting a bachelors degree when im struggling to even pay the bills. im hoping i can at least save up enough money to move out of california and to some place more reasonable.

mainly though, i have no idea if there's a path to botanist that doesn't require higher education to start and is still enjoyable.

[FNH]

Florist or Landscaping maybe?

Generally, a lot of jobs are repetitive and have some sort of workplace politics.

[Psion]

not much of an artist, unfortunately. you know those people in minecraft who are building those amazing structures and turning every tiny hut into a quaint cottage? yeah, i'm not one of those guys. im the one building a gigantic megabox structure that curdles said artistic players blood, and is filled inside with redstone mechanics that automate everything. i'm a lot better at mimicking what other people do, then taking components of those things and putting them together. an innovator rather than an inventor, i guess. i know for a fact my structures are so ugly in minecraft that i literally have people jumping at a chance to redecorate my buildings to something pretty like they're some kind of Glinda bestowing her amazing talents upon my poor Elphabaic structures.

so that probably rules out florist, which is heavily artistic, and landscaping... well, id probably be better off actually installing said landscape instead of designing it, but this is southern california, so we kind of have a massive workforce already doing landscape installations for low wages. <.<;

[FNH]

Department of Transportation doing road work? City/County/State public works? Railroad?

Real talk, you are 31 and you still live at home? If I am reading that right it screams lack of drive.

Without a solid work history, experience, skills, or education, idk if you should be dead set on finding something that fits everything you want. To get what you want, you should probably help yourself be able to command that.

[killerx]

I expected pictures of you in your work outfits, I was left disappointed.

that's exactly what I thought saw a wall of text and didn't even bother reading the spoilers now I'm just disappointed.

also for a soul sucking easy 17+ an hour job look for a target distribution center near you

[thetruepandagod]

Real talk, you are 31 and you still live at home? If I am reading that right it screams lack of drive.

I'd argue California is a different beast in regards to people moving out at the proper age. Houses where I live are 2M+ so it's either at home with parents or spending insane rent prices to share a room with people.

[Psion]

already tried looking at road work, but things like surveyman require... you guessed it, a bloody bachelors degree. and/or 4 years experience <.< this is basically the norm in socal, everyone has minimum recs of bachelor degrees or several years experience for bloody entry positions, that pay minimum wage. likewise for a railroad conductor. ive been searching on USAJOBS and orange county jobs for months yet only a few jobs i actually could even apply for, and they were things like store clerk. granted, it paid 15$ an hour, but i didn't get those jobs. ;;

and thanks for the insult, captain obvious. this whole thread is me trying to help myself find something that gives me a drive. but thanks for the words of encouragement. (the whole staying at home till 31 was me trying to get a degree in college, getting kicked out of the house for being gay in a highly religious home, struggling to make ends meet while using up the college fund my great grandpa left me so i could, you know, eat, then my parents finally mellowing out and letting me stay with them so i could go back to college to finish a degree when i couldn't even figure out what i wanted to do. i wound up with social sciences because thats what i wound up meeting the qualifications for eventually on accident, because i still hadn't figured it out.) so yeah, id say its a lack of drive seeing as how i've been a little busy with other shit like being rejected by my own family for years. they still barely tolerate me, and ill be glad when i move out again in a couple months.

at any rate, i need to head to bed, and won't be able to respond till tommorrow evening due to work, but im looking forward to more constructive input in the meantime.

I'd argue California is a different beast in regards to people moving out at the proper age. Houses where I live are 2M+ so it's either at home with parents or spending insane rent prices to share a room with people.

and yes, this is quite true. my parents are paying almost 3 grand a month for the apartment here, and its only 2 bedrooms. unlike me, they're rich-ish. i honestly don't care about being rich, i just care about making enough money to live with a bit of spending money and work i can enjoy.

[AoE]

Sounds like you've lived relatively comfortably most of your adult life and now that that's being threatened you want to achieve the same level of comfort without having any employable worth. Unfortunately shit doesn't work that way. You need to get over yourself dude and worry about surviving until you can figure out an end game for yourself to work towards. Also you need to build a network. I still have 2 and a half years in the Navy and I already have job prospects for when I get out and I'll be the first to tell you I don't particularly enjoy my job but it's all part of the bigger picture of what I want in life.

Your house is only truly yours when you build it yourself.

[Psion]

did you miss the part where i was kicked out of the house for years simply for being gay? cause that totally happened. and my parents have never EVER made life comfortable for me. my allowance as a kid was 5 dollars a week. i had to do a bunch of chorse every day for that 5 dollars. they didn't treat us out to dinner often except on birthdays. despite them being rich i've been surviving on about 35$ a week in groceries the last few years. which is pretty shitty in california when a gallon of milk costs 3$ and eggs cost 3-4$ a dozen.

and i've already got a job, it pays 11$ an hour and it sucks. i've already got the survival income down, now i'm trying to find something better to work toward.

anyways, bedtime for reals. already only going to get 7 hours of sleep >.>

[TheDirtyHobo]

You got kicked out but lived through it on money that was given to you for free seemingly well after the age of 18 where your parents had any obligation to continue supporting you. No offense, but everything you've said doesn't seem like it's terrible. It's not perfect, but honestly, take a step back and realize that, all things considered, you've had life pretty easy, comparatively.

If you want to work that you don't hate, then ask yourself what you enjoy doing, then figure out ways to make that skill marketable. It sounds patronizing, but it's really the only way to go about it. But don't just think of actions you like doing, think of settings. Do you like talking to new people? Consider sales/marketing. Do you prefer to be outdoors? Look at being a park ranger. Do you just want to be left alone? Think about overnight security. etc.

[AoE]

did you miss the part where i was kicked out of the house for years simply for being gay? cause that totally happened. and my parents have never EVER made life comfortable for me. my allowance as a kid was 5 dollars a week. i had to do a bunch of chorse every day for that 5 dollars. they didn't treat us out to dinner often except on birthdays. despite them being rich i've been surviving on about 35$ a week in groceries the last few years. which is pretty shitty in california when a gallon of milk costs 3$ and eggs cost 3-4$ a dozen.

and i've already got a job, it pays 11$ an hour and it sucks. i've already got the survival income down, now i'm trying to find something better to work toward.

anyways, bedtime for reals. already only going to get 7 hours of sleep >.>

I did miss that first part which is irrelevant to me because I wrote what I wrote looking at your employment history. I feel like my later points still stand if you want to see a significant shift in your life. Or at least enough of a shift to achieve that level of comfort you're looking for. At the very least be willing to momentarily step out of your comfort zone to find what you like.

[arus2001]

Not really helpful, but I've done the whole, "Try myriad jobs hoping something sticks!" thing, too. End result is I don't really feel any closer to "what I want to be" and no real mix of epiphany or opportunity has presented itself despite personal scouring and putting out feelers. The stance some people are taking that you have to hit rock bottom/suffer tends to reek more of their own annoyances in life choices and/or bad luck. Which is fair enough, but not everyone is wired that way, nor should we really be encouraging it.

Overall, the job market isn't in too hot a shape. You touched on the absurd requirements for even entry level positions, which is ultimately reflective of just how many people are looking or have even given up entirely. Things get further complicated whether something's union or not, how likely something is to replaced by tech or an overseas worker, and then some. It's not really an enviable position for anyone who doesn't have their dream job in mind to be in, as it's totally possible to get in the survival loop of working just to make ends meet and not really having enough time or money to do much else.

Anyway, I wouldn't be so quick to rule out some flower-related work. Call around to local greenhouses/shops and see if they have any positions specifically for people who only want to grow/care for things without handling the actual assembly of arrangements. I'd even entertain the possibility of doing delivery if it's something they do. It'll get you out of the "office" from time to time, some personal space to recharge, not being on your feet 24/7, and a generally changing landscape depending on just how broad their delivery area is. Odds are they'll have their own vehicle for it, too, unlike, say, pizza delivery drivers tend to face. Which further means less wear on your own ride if you even have one. Of course, this hinges on you being both comfortable with driving and being safe about it, both for the well-being of yourself/others and the potential employer's reputation.

[Silenka]

You sound almost exactly like me. Maybe my experiences with the same struggles will help you somehow. I don't know how, but somehow. Another long post.

I don't have much actual ambition to do anything. As long as I can live a comfortable life I'm happy, and I don't feel the need to make my name go down in history. That said, you might assume that I have no real drive towards doing anything specific with my life, and you would be correct in that assumption. People say "go for your dreams", but if you don't have a concrete dream, you can't go for it. That tends to leave a lot of people like you and me spinning our wheels in a rut for years.

When I was a kid, I was convinced I wanted to be a dolphin trainer. Then it was a horse trainer. Then I got into anime and Japanese culture in my early teens and I ended up going to community college for 3 years (of BAD Japanese classes, what a waste of time) because I was finally convinced I had a real dream that I could go for! I was going to be a translator, and go to Japan and become fluent and it was going to be all kinds of awesome. Well, after I graduated with an Associate's Degree in liberal arts I thought okay cool, I'll just get a job in the meantime while I think of my next step.

That led me to getting my first job as a cashier at JCPenney at a much later age than most people start working. I worked there for around 3 years and aside from a cool supervisor who kept me sane, I hated every minute of it. Customer service is a fucking drag, you plaster an empty fake smile on and put up with people's utter bullshit for 8 hours a day and get paid almost nothing to do so. It is a wretched, soul-sucking business and I am still not convinced that anyone in upper management didn't fucking hate themselves to the core while pretending that serving customers was the best thing ever. So at least I learned from that experience what I didn't want to do.

After I couldn't take it anymore, I decided to enroll at Ohio State University and get a bachelor's in Japanese. This was still during the time when a bachelor's felt like a magic ticket to getting a real job. How naive of anyone to think that. I was convinced that going there (which does have a FANTASTIC Japanese program) was going to open up endless opportunities for me and I would achieve my dreams. Guess again. I never did get to travel to Japan, and after getting my BA I still wasn't fluent enough in Japanese to feel confident making a career out of translating. I could have enrolled in a master's program, but my experience writing an undergrad thesis for fun taught me that academia, at least when it comes to studying Japanese, is poison. Grad students are basically a Mean Girls clique, the professors are FAR too wrapped up in protocol and proper respect being shown to them, it felt like I was literally never allowed to relax around a single person in that atmosphere. It might be different at another school, but at the time I wasn't in a position to move across the country or finance a master's without a full fellowship anyway.

So while I stewed over that, gotta make ends meet somehow, I got a job at a grocery store. I worked in many different departments, produce and dairy and deli/bakery, also the natural foods section that I became the "head" (not really) of when I applied for it while it was a new position. The people were okay and it was a small store but again, it was partly customer service, partly very rough dock work. The thing that sucked the most besides cutting my hands up every day and freezing in all the refrigerators was that I spent most of my grocery career quite abused in my position as natural foods head. It was a new position and the company and store manager didn't understand the hours they were giving me to do all the work myself were not enough. The pay didn't change for all the extra work I was doing. I talked to the manager about it time and again, outlined the problems with the hours and the workload, and he pretty much decided it was my fault and eventually moved me off the position. It still wasn't as bad as working in a mall JCPenney, but it was another thing I never want to do again.

The problem with these menial labor jobs, I've come to realize, is in the name. Menial. It is ingrained into people's minds in our society that you are not doing something meaningful with your life if you're working at one of these unskilled labor jobs, shift jobs, retail jobs, paid by the hour jobs. I felt that keenly, that I was only doing "menial" work that was beneath me, even though working those jobs gave me actual life experience. I have a college degree and I went to college to AVOID doing jobs like that. I was taught my entire life that I am better than stocking shelves or bagging groceries, but the reality is that someone has to do those jobs. Lots of someones throughout the entire country. There are going to be hundreds of thousands of people who never have what we consider a career, that never even land in middle class territory. I come from a middle class family and they expect me to have a middle class job as well. The mentality about work and jobs in this country is insane, I'll tell you that. But as you've probably figured out already, it's not what you're doing but how it makes you feel. I resolved to find a job that I would actually be happy with.

Here's another lesson I learned: dreams can change. I've given up on going to Japan, finishing my education in the language, and being a translator. Maybe it will still happen someday, who knows. But I'm not actively working towards it...I really never have felt strongly enough about it, I realized, to really go for it and work my ass off for it. But I'm also not disappointed that that isn't my reality right now. Maybe I would hate being a translator, squinting at squiggles for hours every day. I know I like doing it as a hobby, when I can turn it on and off at will, but I have a feeling if it was my job, I would start to hate it.

Instead, I seriously lucked out and after some major life changes, landed in a situation where I have time to really consider what I want to do and how to get there. Problem is, all the time in the world still hadn't given me an answer. I tried a few things - online work with Amazon MTurk and other things, studying programming and web design, going to career fairs in the area, even tossed around the idea of writing porn for Amazon cause that shit sells - all relatively fruitless and bringing me no closer to finding out what I really want to do with my life. Then I made the HORRIBLE decision to apply for a work from home job as (what ended up being) a Comcast customer support technician. I cashed in the 2 weeks of training, quit during the mentoring stage and never looked back. The two or three days I spent taking actual calls from customers made me quite literally want to kill myself, and I figured if I dreaded waking up every day to the extent I did, I was not going to last long. Wouldn't recommend it to anyone even if they were starving.

My thoughts at this point boil down to one thing: I HAVE to put myself in a position to start a career that I won't outright hate. I need the money and I'm getting old to be starting a new career - I'm already 31. The pressure is on. So I thought about what are some of the things I can get my foot in the door on? I like video games. I like the library. I always thought it would be cool to work with either of those, so I applied for 2k Games as a QA tester here in Vegas and also at the Vegas library district. Knowing I didn't have any practical experience with either of these things, and only a piddly 2 jobs and a BA on my resume, I didn't have high hopes but at least I was putting myself out there.

I did get an interview with the library a couple weeks after I applied, but got a call a couple days afterward saying I wasn't chosen for the position but they'd keep me on file. Months passed while I whiled away the time doing basically nothing, hoping some spark of inspiration would hit me about a job, but of course none came. And that's when I got 2 calls on the same day from both of those places. The first, the library, offered me the job I applied for outright. Of course I accepted. I was stoked! A foot in the door position, even if it was only 12 hours a week, is better than nothing, and I could certainly eventually move up if I played my cards right.

Not half an hour later, I got another call, this time from 2k, asking me if I wanted to come in for a physical interview for a QA position. Oh shit! This job offered more money and more hours, but I already took the library job. Then I had to do some real thinking. QA could keep me on indefinitely, or I might get kicked out in a month or two. They might not even hire me after an interview, really. I wasn't being given the job outright. And it was a much farther drive every day. On the other hand, I have some Japanese experience, and I love games, and with QA experience and meeting people in the industry, who knows where I could go with it eventually? I had actually never had to face a decision like this - start a potential career in gaming or a potential career at the library? I couldn't do both - I tried checking out that possibility. In the end, I chose the library, mostly for the reasons I listed against the QA job, but it was a truly tough decision. I went from having nothing I wanted to do to having one too many in the span of a single day. Surreal. You never know what is going to happen to you - that is one thing I've felt keenly several times in my life. That goes double if you start trying stuff out, even if you think it's a total long shot and it would never work or never happen.

I'm now working happily (although with short hours) at the library and I've never had a job I didn't hate so it's a new sensation.

I know this was long and if you managed to read through the whole thing then holy crap, what is wrong with you :D
But seriously I hope this slice of my life helps someone, anyone. I've talked about this stuff a few times on BG but I don't know if it's really something people can glean wisdom from. I don't know how to distill it down to a few nuggets of wisdom, I kinda feel like you have to know the whole story to understand the point. The point is that if you're not focusing on a specific goal, you don't know where the hell life is going to take you and you just have to accept that you're swept up in its current, existing without an aim. You might never find your aim, or a goal line might congeal in your brain at some point, but for people like us who don't know what the hell we want to do and what will make us happy, we just have to throw a bunch of shit at the wall and see what sticks.

No one can tell you what you might like doing but yourself. There are too many nuances and factors to consider. You can look around for guidance and inspiration and ask people about their work stories, but in the end it's something you probably have to discover for yourself. Case in point, I thought I would like working from home, even if I was fixing people's dumb router problems. The reality turned out to be so much different. In your shoes, I just tried to think of a few things I might like doing, regardless of how qualified I was to do them, and apply to get my foot in the door. I really wish master/apprentice programs were a thing outside of stuff you have to go to tech school for. It would be so much easier to try out a lot of different jobs before settling on the right one for you, but that's not the society we live in so I guess you have to try to recreate that experience for yourself the best you can.

[edit] you might try working at the library as a page too. I don't know if it's much different in California, but the requirements to get in are generally low (they take high schoolers), but the hours start low for usually a set period of time. Not enough to live off of for months, so it could be a 2nd job for a while. You don't have to dress fancy, and you usually don't have to talk to customers. And they definitely don't give you a script to deal with customers. But a lot of people tend to apply so maybe you have to luck out to get in. Right now I work away from people sorting books from bins onto carts and it's a dream lol. But I think you're shooting yourself in the foot when you don't apply to places just because you don't have a degree. Work experience counts for something too and you have a lot of it already. Just apply for whatever you want to try out. Seriously.

[Draylo]

Entry level hell is HORRID, as are the wage and general stigma towards people working it (especially above 30.) I would suggest trying to stretch your resume out if you're looking for something entry level. They love to see all kinds of shit on the resumes but every job I've applied for (in NYC at least) has never even checked up on my resume, so you could reasonably stretch it out. Otherwise I would say find whatever slop you can get to pay rent and try to somehow get back into school. It's such a hopeless and demoralizing position working slave labour while people look down their nose at you, but hopefully you make it.

[arus2001]

Yeah, the issues with the system are pretty palpable just watching some get antsy about other wanting the minimum wage increased. The fact it's only scaled with inflation to about 1/3rd the value it should be is further exacerbated by those who did jump through the collegiate hoops, only to be stuck with jobs paying less than $20/hr. So, in their mind, they've already been programmed to resent the unskilled labor force creeping up to $12-15/hr, as they didn't have to spend the time or plunge into the same level of debt.

And as noted, the menial jobs aren't exactly going away. The old myth that such work is just for teenagers is that, myth. And since we all grow up eventually, there's no magical alchemy formula that dictates there will now be a suitable job for the Adult You. Having done both retail and food service, there are facets in both I'm 100% comfortable in telling people I'm not good at, be it mentally or physically.

Ironically, I had a dream the other night about the worst job I'd probably ever held: bussing tables at Bob Evans. It was pretty much 8 hour shifts pushing a too-large cart through too-small aisles cleaning up after people as one might expect. However, my issue wasn't with the customers (aside from some messes left in the bathroom...), but with my co-workers. The guy in charge of me seemed to know how to do everything to make a shit job all the more insufferable. This place wasn't exactly a prime restaurant, either, with rushes still usually seeing half the place empty. Ultimately, he emphasized speed where it wasn't needed, where on the other hand, I was actually more thorough and occasionally picked up on mistakes he or others made. For the customer's sake, I also wasn't there rudely and loudly clanking/scraping plates, which is something I know I hate hearing when I'm eating out. Nonetheless, after a few weeks of his shit, I bailed.

Few years prior to that, there was another job I had bussing at a nearby dog track. Comparatively, this one was much more fun, both with fellow employees and customers. I don't miss the 18 hour Saturdays, but that's also something I'd mitigated in working toward the bar area (far fewer steps) and establishing rapport with the regular servers, who actually shared tips since I helped them out with drinks and such, too. Only reason this job actually fell through was because of a scheduling mistake my boss made and being a no show just shy of my 3 month probation coming to an end. Their union being what it was, they technically couldn't call me and be like, "Hey man, where are you?" as I would've been there ASAP had it happened. Despite that, I got a couple good references out of that helped me for a bit.

Otherwise, I've had a few other "fun" jobs here and there, but too often they either wind up being seasonal or something changes in the environment to make them not-so-fun, like a new manager or some soul sucking policy change. It's still experience, though, and has cultivated a sense of more what to avoid and try to observe if scouting out somewhere I might want to apply to. Like, if I learn somewhere is basically a revolving door of employees, odds are there's something I'd find off-putting, and not in the "it's work" kind of way. Most recent observation of that was in the Kroger pharmacy division near here. Saw they were looking for fresh meat so applied, interviewed, all that. Didn't get it, which is fine, but then see them looking again. Then find out the head quit. From that point, it's pretty much been perpetual in and out for people. Workload? Co-workers? Customers? Various policy? Just leaves me thinking I probably dodged a bullet, even though my family may argue otherwise.

Unfortunately, even now as I check local ads, it's the same old shit. The occasional CDL driver, some nurse for old people, go-nowhere-retail, and even scams that just want to try and get your personal info so they can try to sell you shit or whatever. I know Ohio sucks, especially for a nerd, but this just tends to make it seem even more grim than I'd like to believe. Conversely, I do feel like California would have a bit more variety, but on the other hand, there's probably way more competition from citizens and illegals alike. Put another way, there are certainly better places to be "stuck" in.