Jobs that I didn't like--Part 4

So, I have now had all the dumb jobs that people have when they're in high school or college, and a job at the library, and some retail jobs, and a traveling sales job.

And I really don't want to do that stuff again. Even the stuff that I enjoyed doing the first time around, I don't think that I could do it now. Or if it is something that I could do now, I couldn't make enough money to pay the bills. So, I need to find something to do.

I had always planned to go back to school, but I thought that I should have a career plan to go with it, rather than just going back to school just to finish school. But, when I worked at the bookstore, I did think that would be a good time to go back to college even without a solid career plan. Maybe try to finish the art degree, or maybe think about an English degree.

But then I had to put that on hold an take that traveling sales job.

So now I really want to do something different, and I decide that I do want to go back to college, and that I might want to become a teacher.

Okay, maybe that wasn't the best plan, but at the time it was really something that I was interested in. I went to talk to a few counselors and stuff like that. I had to study to take some test that people my age are normally exempt from, unless you go back to school to become a teacher. So I spent a couple of months studying and took the test. Passed the whole thing on the first try. Then I signed up for a self-paced geography course that I would need if I were going to teacher general stuff to fourth graders.

And then I got a job at a daycare.

Okay, so it didn't really turn out to be a daycare like I pictured. I thought that there would be other adults there and established rules and all of that. What it turned out to be was a trailer behind a guys business where someone would babysit his grandchildren while their parents were inside working. But, I needed the money, and I thought this would be a good experience.

Well, it was an interesting experience. And I should have given up the whole idea of teaching right then, but I didn't. I worked there for about four months, and I was amazed how different the kids acted, even when they were from the same family and only had three different sets of parents. Having a room full of thirty or forty kids with as many sets of parents would really be difficult to deal with.

So, the general mid-level teaching degree plan changed to a high-school level English teaching degree plan, and then the teaching part of the degree was dropped and I ended up just getting a regular English B.A. I was back in college for two and a half years. I was mostly happy with the experience, and I could now cross teacher off the list of future jobs.

But, there didn't seem to be anything to do with the English degree after I got it. Everyone tells me to become a librarian, except that is a different degree. It probably helps to start with an English degree, but to be a librarian you need a masters degree. I have no plans to go back to school for another degree, must less getting a masters degree to be a librarian. I am really not good at research and such anyway, and computers are not my thing either.

But I thought that just having any degree was supposed to help you get a job. But no one seemed interested in the fact that I'd just gone back to college. What everyone seemed to notice, rather than my recent achievement, was that I hadn't had a job in several years.

Well, I really did not want to take any of these other jobs that I'd had before, and I certainly did not want to work at McDonald's or anything like that. But it was starting to look like I should do that, just for a little while, so people wouldn't dwell on the fact that I hadn't had a paying job since 2002.

So I ended up taking a temporary job at a Halloween costume store. I thought that would work for my purposes. And I wouldn't have to worry about when I should quit the job, because it was this temp thing that was only going to last about six weeks anyway.

It wasn't as much fun as I pictured. The store was really big, and walking back and forth all day made me very tired and my feet hurt. I usually didn't have a full eight hour shift or a forty hour week (it just felt like that much work), so I didn't even make as much money as I pictured, and I spent too much of that on fast food and stuff I could get at the store with my employee discount.
It wasn't all bad. I liked the manager and several people that I worked with. And the job came with free haunted house tickets.

And then it was over. I meant to rest a bit and then look for a temp job for Christmas, but I was really tired and I waited too late to do that. Never mind, the point was to get rid of that 2002 date as my last employment, and I did that.

So then I go on a few interviews, and a couple of people ask me what would make me take this temp job at a seasonal store?

I give up.

If I sit at home and wait for the perfect job to appear, that's not going to happen any time soon. But, if while I am waiting to find a good job I decide fill some of those hours taking temporary work, then there must be something wrong with me.

So I have no idea what I want to do. I have a long list of things that I do not want.


I do not want to be working for commission. It really does make me feel evil.

I do not want a job that involves travel.

I do not want to be a school teacher. Though some other job at a school might be good.

I do not want to work in a big place where people expect you to know stuff about other people's departments. But I would rather not work totally by myself either.

I don't know if working for the government is a good idea. To get the smallest thing done, there has to be a committee meeting, and their has to be another committee meeting to decide when the committee meeting is going to be, and there has to be yet another committee meeting to decide who will be on the other two committees.

I do not want to move or have to drive very far. But, I do not want to work in Dallas.


So, I am not sure where that leaves me. But I should find something to do. Maybe after I finish the ceramics class I will have more confidence, and that will help me find what I'm looking for.