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Poll

Votes: 6

Impending Career Change

Author:

chloedancer

Topic:

Diaries

Posted:

Oct 29, 2001

Comments:

My belief structure holds this to be true: heaven and hell are right here, right now -- both exist simultaneously and both are immediately accessible in any given moment.

I believe also that there are certain activities or occupations that can suck the life force from your soul in a manner which is irrevocable (one will never earn back what one loses in these exchanges). It used to be that doing my laundry was the ultimate expression of this purgatory; I've slowly come to realize that working in IT is far more detrimental (if only for the sheer difference in the number of hours it takes from my life when compared to the amount of time I spend doing laundry each month).

More diaries by chloedancer

	State of mind
	It delights yet dishevels me...
	Your possible pasts
	A troll worthy of muse status, believe it or not...
	Hating the idiocy that is my job today...
	Paradigm Shift
	State of Mind Redux
	Divination al? Peanuts
	Relational Dissonance
	The universe is speaking to me...
	Hard Truths
	Got my escape route planned...
	El Dia de Los Muertos
	I am so completely enamored
	Home for the holidays? No! Send my body home!
	Harrison's Last Laugh
	Dare ya, osm! Here's your chance to prove your devotion!
	My little brother, Jem
	A Beautiful Mind is a Terrible Thing to Waste
	Anthem
	Reality Check
	Why I enjoy being a girl

So what's next on the agenda?

Instead of continuing the IT certification boondoggle, I've decided to get certified as an American Sign Language interpreter. The qualifications are as follows:

A strong interest in people
Intuitive/Interpretive Capability
Flexibility
Reliability and Integrity
High Motivation to Achieve
Fluency in English

And if I'm lucky enough, I'll never have to answer another tech support phone call in this lifetime... It's the perfect answer!

If you could be doing something else for a living, what would it be?

	Ski instructor or even ski lift attendant (none / 0) (#1)
	by dmg on Tue Oct 30th, 2001 at 04:43:32 AM PST

	The mountain air, the breathtaking scenery, the endless supply of nubile young women who worship your 31337 5\|<11\|\\|g skills.<p> Having said that, just about any job is probably better than working in IT time to give a Newtonian demonstration - of a bullet, its mass and its acceleration. -- MC Hawking

	coo (none / 0) (#2)
	by bc on Tue Oct 30th, 2001 at 04:53:47 AM PST

	I'd like to work in a whisky distillery, tending the mash amid the blowing cold wind next to a roaring furnace, heady on the smell of whisky everywhere. It would be soothing. ♥, bc.

	The only bad thing (none / 0) (#3)
	by hauntedattics on Tue Oct 30th, 2001 at 06:46:13 AM PST

	about being a sign language interpreter vs. working in IT would seem to be the pay differential. However, if that giant sucking sound you hear each day is that of one more piece of your soul being forcibly extricated from your body, then by all means, go for it. I think I would like to be a goddess. Young, virile men would stand around fanning me and feeding me grapes. People would paint me looking fabulous as I change some ungrateful wretch into a sea bass. The possibilities are endless.

	You know (none / 0) (#4)
	by TheReverand on Tue Oct 30th, 2001 at 07:39:22 AM PST

	You could get osm to do that right now, just start quoting The Professional or Episode I, and he'll be yours.

	I've discovered that the money doesn't matter. (none / 0) (#8)
	by chloedancer on Wed Oct 31st, 2001 at 01:42:21 AM PST

	I've spent most of my life working jobs that either don't pay enough for the work I'm doing or, quite simply, can't pay enough for what's getting accomplished -- most of my working life to date can be described by the conundrum of "What's the difference between priceless and free?". Jumping my salary by two-and-a-half times in as many years has sort of deglamorized the lucrative career thing for me, truth be known. Since I don't plan on getting wedlocked again or producing offspring, what's the point in working too many hours to simply pad a bank account? Time is more valuable to me these days. Fantasy jobs... Professional fishing tour guide. Oracle (as in Delphi). Sun-and-fun surf bunny. Music festival attendee. Eclectic furniture refinisher (it's art, dammit!). I could go on with that list forever.

	money matters. (none / 0) (#9)
	by nathan on Wed Oct 31st, 2001 at 09:17:34 AM PST

	Try not having any. I've been living on $5000/year for four years now, and I'll be doing it for two more. Actually, things wouldn't be so bad, if only my friends weren't into their careers and having actual lives. It sucks when I'm thrilled to find a $300/month rent, and chums from my CS days spend twice that on cars alone. Trust me, the romance of being a starving artist wears awfully thin after a while. Nathan -- Li'l Sis: Yo, that's a real grey area. Even by my lax standards.

	(Bad) advice (none / 0) (#10)
	by hauntedattics on Wed Oct 31st, 2001 at 09:45:37 AM PST

	Take a deep breath, sign the papers and sell your little starving self to a large consultancy for a few years. Worked for me. And be glad you're not living in Boston, since $300/month here would get you hysterical laughter from real estate agents. Or maybe someone's shed out in Worcester.

	advice (none / 0) (#11)
	by nathan on Wed Oct 31st, 2001 at 11:39:54 AM PST

	Is their consultancy work for a masters' candidate in violin performance? I'm not being sarcastic. I'd love to put bread on my table for a change. $300 a month doesn't get me an apartment. It gets me a converted front-room in a house that somebody bought to improve and resell. No windows, no closet, no shower, no stove, a bar fridge, not much heat, and about 70 square feet of floorspace. I mean, it beats eg. rotting in some third world death pit somewhere, and at least in Canada I have government health insurance. It's not the end of the world. But it sure sucks. Thanks for the tip, and I hope there's something to it for me. Nathan -- Li'l Sis: Yo, that's a real grey area. Even by my lax standards.

	Wow... (none / 0) (#12)
	by hauntedattics on Wed Oct 31st, 2001 at 11:50:28 AM PST

	You are a masters student in violin? That is wicked pissah cool, as my fellow Bostonians say. And I take it from past posts that your favorite concerto is Bartok's. Mine are Prokofiev 1, Sibelius and Glass. All preferably played by Kremer. I actually know someone who went to Juilliard, got his degree in piano and french horn, and is now a VP at a tech company here in Boston at age 29. Of course, he DID go to Wharton for his MBA... You could always do what my spousal unit did when he was getting his violin masters at grad school...teach private lessons.

	good to know there's hope. (none / 0) (#13)
	by nathan on Wed Oct 31st, 2001 at 12:11:58 PM PST

	and Kremer is something else, that's for sure. Gitlis at his prime was a revelation (his Mendelssohn is a head-trip,) and I'm personally a big fan of Michael Rabin. His Paganini Caprices are probably the best out there. Welp, I have my shingle out, so maybe I'll bag some lucrative students. Or maybe I'll meet someone in the consulting field... Nathan -- Li'l Sis: Yo, that's a real grey area. Even by my lax standards.

	Let's see... (none / 0) (#14)
	by tkatchev on Wed Oct 31st, 2001 at 12:48:45 PM PST

	300 * 12 = 3600 5000 - 3600 = 1400 1400 / 12 = 116 116 / 30 = 3.87 So, that means that you survive on $3.87 a day? How do you do it? (While managing to still pay for Internet access, no less...) No ill-will here, just genuinely interested. I wish I could do that... -- Peace and much love...

	how I survive (none / 0) (#15)
	by nathan on Wed Oct 31st, 2001 at 01:55:08 PM PST

	I have a fellowship for my tuition, and my internet access is a perk of being a student. As far as surviving on $100/month, approx, I eat very simple food. Rice, cheap pasta, beans, vegetables and fruit when I can get em on sale, milk, and pita (I know a bakery where I can get 12/$1, day-old.) I only need to buy oil maybe once every four months, and I get my protein mostly from legumes. I also managed to put my hand on a small job that covers my transportation expenses (at $300/mo., you don't live downtown,) so it should really be more like $6500/year. During my undergrad degree, though, I lived within walking distance of my school, and as a foreign national in the USA, I couldn't work, so it balanced out. Nathan -- Li'l Sis: Yo, that's a real grey area. Even by my lax standards.

	porn (none / 0) (#5)
	by alprazolam on Tue Oct 30th, 2001 at 12:23:11 PM PST

	or possible some job testing new benzodiazipines and/or opiates.

	My dream job... (none / 0) (#6)
	by elby on Tue Oct 30th, 2001 at 12:36:34 PM PST

	I was laid off about a week and a half ago. I have determined that my dream job is receiving unemployment insurance. I haven't had as much fun as I've had in the last two weeks in years. Except for that whole "twisting the fuck out of my ankle" thing it's been perfect. -lb

	Ideal Careers (none / 0) (#7)
	by RobotSlave on Tue Oct 30th, 2001 at 07:09:29 PM PST

	Crane operator at major port facility. Container Crane! Whirly Crane! Crane Crane! Foreman, paper bag factory. Bags! Some sort of vague eccentric millionaire beachcomber thing. Exotic drugs farmer/chemist. Barfly Barkeep Barback Member of the Bar Barker Barbarella Barnum and Bailey costumes designer Barbituates examiner Proprieter, together with hypothetical future spouse, of Clean, Healthy Tavern. I have a friend, less than twenty-five years of age, who just started a job as a teacher of mathematics at an all-girls Catholic high school. I don't know why he hasn't exploded yet. © 2002, RobotSlave. You may not reproduce this material, in whole or in part, without written permission of the owner.

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