Drawing on Harvey Mckay

“Find something you love to do and you'll never have to work a day in your life”

I’m in a bit of a rut professionally at the moment. I don’t enjoy my job; it wasn’t a career I chose. I fell into by chance as I tried to get out of my chosen career. It was only meant to be temporary. But 12 years later I find myself miserable at work. I work for a great company and enjoy what I do but do not have the greatest of managers which turns a positive situation negative in so many ways.

I find there is often a difference between doing something you love & doing something you’re good at. Unfortunately the latter can sometimes be more of a curse.

In early high school I was passionate about design. Graphics was my favourite subject and if I was drawing I could see hours go by and feel like minutes. I soon realised it was the design and build process that I enjoyed as opposed to the artistic side.

A bad placement on work experience made me change my mind and look at other career prospects. Midway through high school I was really enjoying biology and human development and started consider options of careers in nursing or perhaps as a paramedic. By the end of high school the pressure from my parents to go straight into university pretty much made my mind up for me and I studied Nursing. I worked as a nurse while I studied and thoroughly enjoyed the contact with people and helping those who needed it, but felt my size & strength made me more prone to be used as a lifting machine.

I made the decision to leave that profession and lined up an IT support role and did some additional studies and soon found my niche and 12 years later here I am. I did choose to quit a job I was working about 6 years ago and obtained the necessary qualifications to work in security at night allowing me to be home in the days and mamma bare could teach, but ultimately found myself looking for what was familiar and went back into IT.

With children comes responsibility and I have always put the importance of supporting the family over my career satisfaction and the perfect reward at the end of a stressful day and slow commute is hugs from your little ones. I've set career goals regardless of my level of passion for the work I do. I had a salary goal for when I turned 30 and reached it at 28, I set another goal for 35 and will be on track to reach it by 32 but money doesnt motivate so here I am applying for roles.

My parents never gave me the freedom to do whatever I wanted. Who knows if that was the case I could be a teacher now, or maybe build houses or any one of a dozen other fields that interest me. In the mean time i'll stick with what i'm good at and maybe look at contracting, working 6-9 months of the year and doing what I truely enjoy for the remainder

A quick poll of my eldest 4 on what they would like to be when they grow up
B 10 Years - Something with elctrical stuff or electronics
T 8 Years - Police Officer
L 6 Years - A Mum(Her mothers daughter clearly)
C 4 Years - Metal Bean Chicker

This list will no doubt change completely time and time again, the important thing for me is to support whatever is on it no matter what.

Until next time.................