Lpink,

Finding the perfect job, or any job for that matter in today's world, is always hard. I would have loved working at the National Archives, the Smithsonian, a presidential library, the Currier, or even places like Strawberry Banke and/or Jamestown. My love of history would have made those dream jobs.

I am lousy at & hate math yet ended up, by default, as a banker. Go figure (hey, I made a pun!).

I also would have enjoyed archeology 'cept for the fact that I don't like 'roughing it'. My idea of camping is a Ramada Inn. :) I would have liked the history part though.

I once struck up what turned out to be a rather lengthy conversation with a woman who worked at Gettysburg. She was in charge of the museum's textile collections. I thought her job was both laid back & enriching.

From your article...

"Stressors of any job include the duration of the work week, dealing with angry people, confronting situations and competition. People should look for a job situation where normal work hours are encouraged."

I think each individual defines stress differently. For instance, I never shied away from an angry bank customer. I'm pretty good at negotiations & bringing opposing parties to middle ground. So, I felt a sense of accomplishment when an angry customer walked in my office & left offering to "buy me a cup of coffee" the next time they were in the bank. I think the first thing to do when somebody's angry is to validate their anger...catches them off guard & defuses their need to act out. But, I would have found the routine of being a teller unbearably stressful.

Other people thrive on the confrontation & competition...my DH is a good example. He could turn sitting on the front porch swing drinking a glass of lemonade into a 'competition'! lol He's one of those Type A personalities who doesn't know what a 40 hour work week means. Just doesn't get the concept.

What's hard, IMO, is learning enough about ourselves to identify our strengths & weaknesses then honestly acknowledging that we have contridictions within ourselves. Like I said above, I'd love digging up lost treasure if I didn't have to get my knees dirty! :)

What we expect from a job also enters into the equation somewhere. Here's a couple examples from women I went to school with...both very different but with similar end goals. The end goal was make a lot of money quick & retire before age 35 in a life of luxury. Neither wanted to marry or have kids.

The first decided to work as a call girl (yeah, yeah, I know). She worked the LA to Las Vegas circuit. Three-day weekends only. This was in the 70s & she charged $2K for a weekend (at the time, I was working 40 hrs/week for $800/month). For the $2K her client got her hanging on their arm at some snazzy dinner restaurant & at the casino tables. She stood by giving admiring looks while they chatted with 'business associates'. She was a beautiful woman & poured thousands of dollars into her wardrobe so she always looked great at the client's side. At evenings' end, she retired to her own, private suite. Anything else was separately negotiated. The last I saw of her was in her high-rise Las Vegas condo in the mid-80s. She's been retired for awhile & was enjoying traveling the world & thinking about going to college. She said she never needed to work again if she was careful with her investments. Shrug.

The other woman...she was a Type A personality similar to DH. She attended business school in Whittier, CA. A very mundane school but came out a crackerjack secretary. She landed a job with an LA brokerage. Within a couple years, she had been transferred to Wall Street. She worked practically 24/7 for a few years collecting year-end bonuses. She retired also in her mid-30s although she ended up married & a mother to a beautiful little girl who I only saw once as a baby. Our paths haven't crossed in years although I know that she made sure not to co-mingle funds when she married. She was a wealthy woman.

Both of those women made short-term decisions to obtain long-term goals quickly.

Today, with technology, there's so many ways to earn money outside the 9-5 routine. I think it complicated rather than simplified the choices of careers. More people are going it alone rather than join the corporate brigade of 'suits'.

IMO, one could earn a very decent living today serving as a career counselor for middle-aged people dissatisfied with their career choices & uncertain which direction to turn. I know of one person, in the Boston area, providing career guidance & they charge $20K for their services. There's a package deal you get for that amount & then other services cost extra. So, I know people are willing to pay fairly large money looking for the answer to, "What Do I Want To Do When I Grow Up?"

/tricia

Those articles always amaze me. I always wonder where they get their info. Doubtful they have actually worked in all of the fields they tout.

Travel Agent can be relatively low stress, but there are also some very stressful times as well. After all, you are dealing with the public all day long, every day. In addition you have to make sure every detail of their vacation goes off without a hitch. And business travelers....well, that's a whole different animal. I do as little corporate travel as I can get away with. Business travelers tend to be very demanding and many of them are condescending. (I don't mean to offend anyone here that travels for business, I am just generalizing based on some I've dealt with...)

Seems like anything I enjoy doing, where I can be creative, tends to be a low paying job.

Guess you get paid to be stressed!

Linda

Yeah... I saw that article on yayhoo. Rather doltish but what do I know? Travel agent... LOL! Great job going into an economic depression.

Math I so hated in HS. Flunked algebra a couple times. When I bought my first PC of my very own ('96) I got a math tutor program. Did a whole year of Algebra in six hours. Easy stuff if you don't have a teacher making it slow and sleepy boring. Work sent me to trig and calc... makes my head spin to think the one time math flunky finds it easy. What I'm saying is don't shy away from math... really it is all not much more then 2+2.

Low stress jobs? King's offical cat petting servant? Doggie massuse? I do love planting trees! Lots of hard work but sunshine and birds.

I can't imagine call girl being low stress. If I were younger I'd consider escort work. Transvestites are supposed to make better then genetic girls... specialty field! Old and ugly now so it would be a difficult career at this point. Sex ain't a big deal to me but I can't see selling the physical act... pretty date with lots of adoration, some dancing, maybe a shoulder massage. If I liked the person enough to go further it certainly would not require any money.

LOL!... am I still on the cooking forum? Where did those pretty tea cups come from....

: )
lyra

Bunny in your case the profession would be gigolo! Nice work if you can get it. I was never pretty enough and my gag reflex is too strong.

Math has haunted me all my life, unfortunately I can't stay away from it as I am in the science field. I can barely keep my two phone numbers straight in my head. Last summer I suffered through college algebra (again) in a vain attempt to raise my GRE anayltical score. Plus studied all the tutorials for the math part in my spare time. I would hate to imagine what kind of score I would have gotten had I not done all of that! Still it wasn't good enough to get into a doctoral program. So if I ever have any spare time again, I will be back at the math tutorials. I just don't have the knack, it's a real struggle.

The job I want is to write trite, innacurate platitudes and make a bundle selling books to miserable bourgeoise who dream of being a forest ranger! People say I'm a good writer. Another gig I fantasize about is travel WRITER. You know, go on fantastic trips, and then write about it for the poor slobs stuck in the office!

Having had jobs that a lot of people fantasize about being easy and stress free, it is one of my pet peeves. Like the idea that teaching science to kindergarteners is "easy" because it is at a basic level. Yes of course it's easy for a college educated person to understand the science part, but the difficult part in managing the kids with their different perceptions, experience, maturity level, and 15 minute attention spans, etc. It's not just a matter of speaking slower and louder!

And to work as a tour guide at a national park you have to put up with years and years of grunt work and moving from park to park. One of my former students works for the National Park Service. Sure he has had some great jobs--he once lived in a lighthouse on an island off the coast of WI on Lake Superior. But i saw him last summer and he says he longs to settle down. He said he wants to finally know where the hardware store is and what box he left that book in. He's lived in five places throughout the country in eight years--FLA, WI, CA, WA, and now ND. Yes, he's finally gotten a job where he can settle down a bit--in the Badlands!

Going on a nature hike in a park is fun and relaxing, but it isn't necessarily fun and relaxing for the person who's job it is to lead it. They work hard to make it look easy. Not that I haven't loved my career, but non-competitive and stress free it aint. The visitors feel non-competitive and stress free--but they are on vacation. The employees are not, and all the things that they deal with and take care of are the stresses the visitors are there to avoid. That's what they get paid for, to deal with them so the visitors don't have to.

If you live in a tony vacation spot it is even worse. On your way running errands or to the grocery or laundromat you have to pass by folks lounging around on the beach, something you would LOVE to do, if only you had the time! But you're NOT on vacation. It's like torture, lol! I much prefer grungy Allentown where the housing is affordable and the parking is ample and folks are as stuck here as you so might as well smile and make the best of it!

But having worked outside most of my life I am unfortunately spoiled for a desk job. It also doesn't suit my personality--I need to be up and doing.

At this point in my life I am possibly completely unemployable by someone else. I have freelanced for far too many years. Both being an employee and being self-employed have stressors. Some the same, some different. As for being self-employed - in reality, every client is my boss.

But I would love benefits, and a paid vacation again. Sigh.

Math I was good at but I had little interest. My kids are also good at math. Very good. Neither of them have any idea what they want to do as a career. Daniel is in his first year of Jr. college and loves his Farm Ecology class...is this the beginning of some interest in something other than hanging out with friends and eating pizza? I can dream.

I once took the Strong Campbell Interest Inventory and my top career came out as TV/Radio announcer. My bottom was scientist and military. In otherwords, I am a good talker but have no brains or discipline. It really nailed me!

I don't know what my dream job would be but it would definitely include not having to ask anyone for anything. That's what I do every day -- ask people for money.

I'd like a job that wasn't 8:30 - 5. I wish I could keep my own schedule (like sleep until 9 every day).

I ended up in Development because I started my career late. It is a very female-friendly area. It also uses my strengths which are writing and social interactions. I just get agita when it is time to ask for a gift and I also hate having to try to get our Board to do what they are supposed to do and don't.

I worked as a Library Assistant for nine years. I enjoyed the people who came in and out, I liked having first crack at the new books, reading Peopl magazine without having to buy it and I loved the people I worked with. However, the back office stuff was deadly boring and the pay sucked.

Barnmom, I hear you about the benefits. It's a large part of what keeps me where I am. My benefits are outstanding. I like the people here. what I hate are goals, job reviews and other corporate crap.

I envy people who have a clear vision of what they want to do and then end up loving it. Work isn't work at all for some few lucky people.

I have a long time good friend with a son a year ahead of mine. He is a bright kid but a disaster as a high school student. He is a brilliant mechanic, though. Passionate and creative about anything with wheels and a motor. Mom sent him away to an auto tech school right after high school (everyone held their breath until he actually walked the stage). His last year of high school was spent in independent study. He just got into too much mischief on the campus, usually not of his own making but that's another set of stories.

He LOVED tech school and chose to specialize in body work and auto customizing. He came home after he finished tech school and banged around doing some sort of odd jobs for people that create low riders and the like. Not a real job and he finally quit when he kept getting paid in parts that were lying around. Tried working at the cannery as a mechanic. Lasted one day, maybe a half day. In his defense, canneries in August are hellish. Hot and horrible and relentless.

Yesterday my friend and I talked and she gave me the good news. Son has a real job with a local Honda dealer. And a uniform shirt with his name on it. She is doing the happy dance and dreaming of having a bathroom to herself and being able to park in her own garage.

Linda, I agree with you. I was in corporate travel for almost 20 years. Went into travel to sell leisure, but started out in corporate and stayed there. Low stress? NOT! And you are so correct. The travelers are so demanding and yes, condescending. So are many of the admins who work for the 'big boys'. They are all type-A's who work for hot shots and expect you to jump when they say jump.

I left and started a pet sitting business. Not making a fortune, maybe 45K this year, but it is very low stress and it leaves me with a very flexible schedule which I love.

Duane

While working at the Smithsonian or the National Archives sounds like you immerse yourself in history, the truth is--both places are government bureaucracies. You're far better off becoming a researcher for authors or television/film productions if you like delving into history.

But media conservation/preservation and archiving is actually a pretty hot field.

I would think a "low stress" job depends on your definition of stress. My idea of stress he!! would be anything involving numerous small children or kissing some VP of Misc Affairs backside. On the other hand, I've had a couple jobs that other people thought were high stress and I was fine with everything but the commute time. Besides, there's good stress and bad stress. I've worked facotry jobs that had little stress, but I was bored out of my mind. That's sometimes worse than what most people call "stress."

Here in the real world, we're just happy if the paycheck doesn't bounce or we aren't asked to train our offshore replacement. Not having a job at all or trying to find one in your middle age? Now THAT is stress.

I did my usual Sunday job hunt and everywhere I looked were openings for librarians of some sort or another. No archivists per se, but information literacy specialist, research support and managing specialty libraries. Too bad I don't have a MLA, which was what they all required. The only stress I know about in libraries is low pay and few jobs. But apparently "librarian" has suddenly become a hot career. My mom will really get a kick out of this. Of course she has long maintained that librarian was the most important job out there for the world!

I saw zero jobs in forestry although a few for environmental engineers. A couple of jobs for math teachers. Didn't look for travel agents. Most of the jobs were in health care or taking care of screwed up kids.