What do you do?

tomd

penis like a micromachine
I have recently finished college. I now have BTEC national certificate for ICT practitioners. So, naturally I've been giving much thought into what I should do now. Ive searched many computer programming jobs, but they all require past programming experience so Im now quite disheartened by this idea.

About an hour ago I found this article:
What should I do with my life?

The worst part was constantly being asked The Inevitable Cocktail-Party Question: "What do you do?"
 

swears

preppy-kei
I check invoices in some boring arse office, I'm not academic enough to do anything better. I wanted to be a journalist as a teenager, but I can't write for toffee.
 

Anderai

Active member
I work in a local authority pensions section, administering the local government pension scheme for council employees. Maybe slightly more varied than checking invoices, swears...but only just.
 

barry_abs

lil' beyutch
some of the hype answers i've had to this question over the years:
* i make unsolicited calls to random people out the phone book asking them if they knew they were being ripping off on their business rates
* i dust screens in a tv shop
* i sell kitchens door to door
* i do audio typing
* i do data entry
* i wash cars (£2 per hour, in 2001!)
* i do silver service

have been in software the last 6 years.. talked pure fantasy in the interview for my first programming job - i had no qualifications or experience.. i was found out but managed to suspend the boot long enough to prove myself.
 

mistersloane

heavy heavy monster sound
Oh god, I really don't know. Prefer the 'what are you doing right now' to 'what do you do?'. At the moment I'm making videos that could be classed as film or art and doing music with a band. What I do is probably spend too much time on the net whilst I'm waiting for stuff to render.

I was a stonemason for quite a bit, and I realised that I had spent so much time wanting to be a stonemason that I'd missed out actually doing it.

'Nuffink' used to be my answer to that question, which I still prefer.
 

Chris

fractured oscillations
I'm going to college with plans to teach art and art history, while going through a string of random jobs on the side to pay the bills. I just got some evening and night job where I'm stocking wine. Great. But I'm poor at the moment and that's all I can find to still have time for classes. I guess I'm content enough in knowing that I'm working towards something I'm really into, I did used to teach animation and it felt pretty satisfying for me.

I wanted to be a journalist as a teenager, but I can't write for toffee.

Yeah, that'd seem like something I'd want to do too. I'm always buying new records (when I really should be saving), exploring genres and analyzing them top to bottom, reading books and blogs on music, and am particularly fascinated by the idea of the supposed "end of history" and where music, culture, and art could go from here. But I don't think that I'm nearly a good or consistent enough writer to be a journalist, as much as I might have the drive and love for it. So music discourse just remains a silly interest I've always had. :slanted:
 
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swears

preppy-kei
It seems glamourous when you're 15 and reading Jockey Slut religiously every month, but most people I know that write for a living don't like it much at all. I know a girl that writes for this home-decor magazine it drives her up the wall, and a freelance sports journalist who says it's as boring as any other office job. You can only really make money by writing articles to spec that editors need, stuff like "500 words on the best leather sofas under a grand."
 

Chris

fractured oscillations
It seems glamourous when you're 15 and reading Jockey Slut religiously every month, but most people I know that write for a living don't like it much at all. I know a girl that writes for this home-decor magazine it drives her up the wall, and a freelance sports journalist who says it's as boring as any other office job. You can only really make money by writing articles to spec that editors need, stuff like "500 words on the best leather sofas under a grand."

Or even worse... watching and reviewing an endless succession of nearly identical "the" indie bands... :mad: ;)
 

Gabba Flamenco Crossover

High Sierra Skullfuck
What do I do? Bugger all at the moment, and doesn't my wallet know about it. I just finished a HND at college, and I was going to go onto a degree this year. but now it looks like I'll wait for another 12 months. So it's get a job time.

No so bad being out of work in summer actually. There's loads of free fun stuff to do when it's hot.

I was doing landscape gardening with my mate until last week. That was pretty good.
 

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
For money: tutor rich peoples' kids.
For development of long-term career prospects and/or moral fibre: particle physics PhD.
For fun: argue with people on Internet messageboards, listen to lots of industrial music and cook wicked stir-fries.
 

mixed_biscuits

_________________________
I'm teaching maths in a prep school.

Some previous jobs:

data entry (top of the speed charts every day to win the precious end-of-campaign £50, only to be told after leaving that my work was unprecedentedly error-strewn :eek:)
cash counting (at the kind of place that gets held up for £50m)
copy-writing
translation (French/English)
roadie for David Essex :cool:
pro quiz machining (= WORD UP :))

Best job around: one of my friends plays table-footie professionally :D
 

Leo

Well-known member
pr, mostly for advertising/digital agencies. self employed for about six years after working for a number of years inhouse at advertising and pr agencies. journalism degree, spent first five years out of college writing for trade magazines.
 

viktorvaughn

Well-known member
Fairly banal officism which allows me lots of time to go on music website, write emails to people and often tune into Rinse FM or listen to music on my headphones too.

I too wanted to be a Journalist but after I worked as an intern at New Statesman i changed my mind. Bare schmoozing/fake idiots.
 

spooky girlfriend

Wild Horses
're-evaluting' whilst enjoying the benefits of having minimal overheads living with my parents in the middle of nowhere.
visiting friends in Oxford and Norwich.
working as a cleaner whilst listening to music.
listening to music, talking about music, reading (mostly about music), writing and general internet gubbins.

i was a *ahem* data entry clerk for Royal Mail 'door2door' department in Oxford for a bit, a truly demoralising experience but i learnt alot. chiefly that i didn't want to work under another human being ever again. it was a service set up for businesses to open accounts with RM to have their leaflets distributed over a specific post code area, i was responsible for shutting down accounts and chasing up companies behind on their payments. and FILING. oh the glamour.
 
currently completing an architecture degree, but i dont think i want to be an architect, its a cuntish existence. might do the post-grad though because studying it is fantastic. i live at home home with my parents so existence is cheap, and do fairly banal office jobs over summer to raise a little cash to live but money's not a motivating factor for me right now. what i love to do most is paint and weld. Am thinking of signposting my own favourite cycle routes round london sometime soon.
 
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