Work

LostSoul

Just curious, what do you do for work? You know, to pay the bills. Do you enjoy it, or would you rather be doing something else?

I'm a computer programmer. I enjoy the work, but sometimes wish I had enough money/security to start my own business making applications, so I could work for myself. I plan on doing it in the future, but right now I have other priorities.

Thanks for your time.

compassionate_warrior

Self-employment isn't always as good as it sounds. It can be challenging to find customers, not to mention investors or seed money to start your enterprise. There are no company benefits, no insurance plan. Doing a start-up is a lot of hard work, pretty much 24-7 the first year or two. Think twice before you take that leap, and in the meantime, start saving as much money as you can to capitalize your venture and realize your dream. Also do a lot of research about start-ups. It's not all magic, like Bill Gates and others.

riverflow

I'm a supervisor in the ER for the registration department-- the main job being getting information from the patients and typing up their charts. Is a hectic job, usually 12 hour shifts. You are multi-tasking pretty much from start to finish, with a few lulls here and there (and this is in a SMALL town!). Of course the reason we are so busy is that we don't just get actual emergencies-- we get people with headaches, common colds, and things that aren't true emergencies-- because many of the people we treat don't have insurance-- they can't go to a doctor's office. It's a really tough job but I actually like it because at least I'm helping people to some small degree.

My non-paying job is as a musician. I record ambient music and sell music through CDBaby, iTunes, etc. I don't really push the marketing as much as I should though-- I do it more out of love rather than money.

riverflow

There are no company benefits, no insurance plan.

Well, this is true in the US anyway. Its a shame typing up patients that are self-employed, trying to get their own business started... and they have no insurance. That ER visit is going to cost them at least $400...

compassionate_warrior

I went to the ER once for a severe migraine. They charged me $1000 and sent me home without fixing the migraine. I later found out, the only hospital in town has no one on staff trained to administer the stronger vasoconstrictors needed for serious migraines! But I still had to pay the $1000!

Lost soul, some regions or states have a small-business insurance pool you can join. I'm not sure if you have to have an employee to qualify. Also, the new health-care legislation passed last winter/spring requires states to set up health insurance pools, and those can be a pretty good deal, depending on circumstances. You can look into it when you're ready. (By then the rules will probably have changed, anyway.) Well, and we're assuming you're in the US, which you may not be.

vixthenomad

I'm an English tutor and proofreader. I went self-employed because my job went t*** up a few months ago and I had very little choice. I'm not making a lot of money yet, but I love being my own boss. I get to set my own hours, charge what I believe is a reasonable rate for my services, and do work that I believe in and am very good at. And amazingly, people seem to actually want to pay me to do what I love! It's hard work, yes, but so totally worth it. I think that if you have a marketable skill you should go for it.

Mountains

I later found out, the only hospital in town has no one on staff trained to administer the stronger vasoconstrictors needed for serious migraines! But I still had to pay the $1000!

I don't know who told you that, but it's nonsense. Medical mumbo-jumbo.

Honden

I work in the IT department for a hospital in Central Texas, it's challenging and a constantly changing environment...I tend to thrive on the chaos. I've seen some of the numbers on the back end, it's crazy the amount billed for medical mumbo-jumbo.

I'm flirting with the idea of starting a business on the side making solar panels (quite the nerd, I know).

ThailandTom

play online poker, freelance graphic design when the opportunity arises and I enjoy both of them, (poker when I am in the black and not the red)

compassionate_warrior

@Mountains It was a doctor from the nearest city who practices in an emergency clinic near me who told me there's no one at the hospital trained to administer what I needed. If they'd had someone there trained to treat severe migraines, they'd have successfully treated mine.

Brits (Europeans in general) like Vixthenomad are lucky. They can be self-employed and still have access to good healthcare. More and more I feel like the US is sliding into 3rd World status.

Mountains

Sounds like you need to go to a real hospital next time If someone graduates from medical school, they are trained to treat migraines. I've treated a lot of them as a nurse, and I've never heard of anything requiring any kind of special training. There just aren't that many drugs available that do much for migraines...

And yes, though they may not appreciate it, those lucky enough to live in places with either socialized medicine or some kind of universal insurance coverage have it good compared to Americans. For-profit health care is a ridiculous notion, but that's the way it is in the Greedy States of America.

compassionate_warrior

Sounds like you need to go to a real hospital next time

lol ! I agree! Unfortunately, there is no "real" hospital in town. And what's worse, the only one here just got taken over by a Catholic organization. But I'm hijacking the thread. Over & out--

DaltheJigsaw

Marketing, Sales and Merchandising.

ThailandTom

I am fortunate on being English for two reasons, firstly it is fastly becomming a national language (although I am overly keen to in learning thai/pali) and of course the fact that I have free healthcare. If I were to be diagnosed with something serious here in Thailand I would just jet off back to that rock and get it sorted, if it as possible to be sorted, then return back here where I work from my house

vixthenomad

I think everyone on this forum should just move to England, since you all seem to love the idea of it so much. I'd be happy to show you all the sights and stuff!

ThailandTom

That place have it's good points, but IMO, errrrr no! I only I am happy to be English for the two reasons I stated above, and anyway I prefer to see myself as a human and not 'English'.

But your offer is a very virtuous one indeed vix, I wonder who would take you up on it? The wonderous grey skies, the cold-screw faced people on the tube, the overal feeling of unhappiness and tension in the air, ahhh why did I ever move.

vixthenomad

@ThailandTom...grey skies yes, people on the tube yes, unhappiness and tension yes...in the capital. I live in Brighton, which still has the grey skies but is much friendlier and happier overall. I wouldn't live in London again for all the money in the world.

Mountains

I think everyone on this forum should just move to England, since you all seem to love the idea of it so much. I'd be happy to show you all the sights and stuff!

You're talking to probably one of the top ten Anglophiles in America right here. Some of my distant relatives came from those fair isles (ze rrrrrest from Germany! Ja whol!). I'm pretty sure I've been English, Scottish, or Cornish before After all, I prefer my beer served at the proper temperature, and I *love* roundabouts! Not so keen on blood pudding, but we can work with that...

ThailandTom

Well I was born in England, but I am quater english, quater german and hald estonian blood wise. Two long stories to how that happened, and if it was not for hitler I would not be here as I am today basically is the end of one of them.

Brighton, never been there but heard a lot. It is coastal (positive even if it is an english beach) friendly as it is so open to gay and lesbian relationships for one aspect, so yes I guess it would be an okay place to visit. But to live, PERSONALLY, anywhere on that 'rock' as I refer to it now I would not stay for too long unless forced. Don't make me begin a list of reasons please :bowdown:

vixthenomad

Not so keen on blood pudding, but we can work with that...

Nor are most English people under the age of 65.

ThailandTom

lol never tried it, but I will try anything edible. I have eaten some strange things here in the land of the Thais!

Mountains

I remember watching a TV program in the UK where they showed the process of making it. If you weren't a vegan before, that would turn you into one! I did sample vegetarian haggis, which seemed like an oxymoron, and it was quite tasty. Not so big on the real thing though.

ThailandTom

meh, I only ever had food poisoning in the UK, twice, not here where the meat is kept 'on ice' all day above 30 degrees C with flies and whatever else. That made me look at things with regards to food in a different way

Hubris

Before I lost my job, customer service. It's all I have come to know and do reasonably well at, however I hate it. I want a job off the telephone. I would rather work doing paperwork all day than be on a phone anymore.

Wish I knew what I wanted to be when I grow up, however if it has not happened at 47 it just may never. To get school loans at this age would mean debt for the rest of my days, and probably beyond, since education no longer pays for itself.

No wonder there are waiting lists at monasteries. Just saying

Mountains

Wish I knew what I wanted to be when I grow up, however if it has not happened at 47 it just may never.

If you're lucky, it won't! I'm 49 and still trying to figure it out.

ThailandTom

Do we actually become anything as such when we grow up? Speaking in terms of a career or profession then okay, but that al changes in almost every person that I have had that discussion with. Life seems to take you where it wants to. In mountains case, belize for a well earned break

Mountains

What I've learned (for myself) is this: careers are about amassing wealth. It's about finding 'your niche' and exploiting it to the maximum in order to lay in as much money as possible for "the future" when you "retire". So you spend your entire adult life killing yourself at someone else's expense in order to amass this "wealth" so you can then retire and try to regain your mental and physical health. And by then it's usually too late.

I've decided I'm not going to do that. Hence what appears to some to be hopping from thing to thing. It doesn't take a lot of money on a month to month basis to keep me comfortable and happy. In fact, I'm deeply in the middle of the process of simplifying and shedding 'stuff' in order to make that even easier to do.

So don't worry about figuring out what you want to be when you grow up. Just keep trying new things and if some (or all) of them make you happy, then do them!

ThailandTom

lol, i always get remarks thrown at me by my mum or people, ''why do you not look for a career and find yourself in this world''.
''Are you going to just drift along in life?''

Well I worked out well over two years ago now that people have built this society where you chase the dollar, get old and die. Along the way suffering and cravings mixed with brief breaks from duhkha.

So, as you am aware mountains of my current house/life situation, I have pretty muvh nothing in comparison to your average joe, and happier for it.

IF I get to the point where the conditions are ripe, I am ordaining because it is too clear to me that the rat race is something that has been conditoned into people, it is not the natural, and in my opinion better way to live.

Mountains

Prezactly... Like Pavlov's dogs.

vixthenomad

What I've learned (for myself) is this: careers are about amassing wealth. It's about finding 'your niche' and exploiting it to the maximum in order to lay in as much money as possible for "the future" when you "retire". So you spend your entire adult life killing yourself at someone else's expense in order to amass this "wealth" so you can then retire and try to regain your mental and physical health. And by then it's usually too late.

I've decided I'm not going to do that. Hence what appears to some to be hopping from thing to thing. It doesn't take a lot of money on a month to month basis to keep me comfortable and happy. In fact, I'm deeply in the middle of the process of simplifying and shedding 'stuff' in order to make that even easier to do.

So don't worry about figuring out what you want to be when you grow up. Just keep trying new things and if some (or all) of them make you happy, then do them!

I think you'd be at home here: http://idlefoundation.net/forum/who

This is my other forum hangout, and I'm vixthenomad there too. It's basically a bunch of people who have become disillusioned with the whole work-consume-burnout cycle. I warn you though, it's a British forum so the humour can be a little...well...British. Hopefully, though, you'll appreciate that, Anglophile that you are!