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Original poster

What job or career would you aim for if you could do ANYTHING?

117 replies

BleaketyBleak · 16/02/2022 19:10

Posting as think it might be an interesting discussion, and keen to hear ideas I may not have though of.

I need something to aim for and throw myself into to distract away from health problems and infertility. (My health means plenty of jobs are unsuitable for me personally, but still would enjoy reading about other people's ambitions and adventures)

What would you do if you were free to do anything?

OP posts:
DrNo007 · 16/02/2022 23:17

Film maker. I work in science communication but often think film is a far more powerful way to say important stuff and transform the way people think.

Hoolihan · 16/02/2022 23:21

Musician/singer - I think this would be an unbelievable joy.

At the other end of the joy scale 🤣 I always think chartered accountants have a lot of security, choice and earning power, shame I can't understand numbers.

Anything in the heritage sector - curator/art historian/archeology.

Hoolihan · 16/02/2022 23:27

Actually I've always thought that the best job ever is to be a non-recognisable member of a very big/successful band e.g. the drummer in Radiohead. The creativity, camaraderie, thrill of live performance, satisfaction of success and huge wealth without being hassled on the street or papped coming out of the pub. The fortune without the fame.

So that's what I'd do.

TottersBlankly · 16/02/2022 23:28

@LadyAnglerfish

Nun/surgeon.

Like Sister Wendy, only with a medical degree and working in foreign parts or Margot Maynard from the Chalet School books.

I am already doing the thing I could never have dreamt of ten years ago.

But the happiest and most complete women I’ve ever met were nuns.

I have no sympathy whatsoever with the ‘saviour’ element of Doing Good Works in Faraway Places - but I was made for a contemplative life. I’d be ecstatic with just beekeeping and cooking and communal silence. Would be heavenly.

Myadhdusername · 16/02/2022 23:29

If I’m still me … in a library

Davetheshoes · 16/02/2022 23:33

Fantasy dream job- Marine biologist, specialising in Humpback whales.

Another dream job- Children's book illustrator.

Real life dream job- I'm going back to uni in September to do Speech & Language Therapy.

Iamnotamermaid · 16/02/2022 23:38

Meteorologist

caulkheaded · 16/02/2022 23:39

My jobs comes up a few times on this list which is nice.

My dream job would be as the person who tracks cars for the police when they need to see the route someone took. Only the car tracking, nothing else in the police though.

TottersBlankly · 16/02/2022 23:49

Can I put in another request for those of you who have retrained in mid or later life to make a habit of browsing the threads on the Mature Study and Retraining board?

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/mature_students

It would be a generous act to share your experiences on threads where posters are hesitant, or terrified of the leap.

blueshoes · 17/02/2022 00:06

I have no sympathy whatsoever with the ‘saviour’ element of Doing Good Works in Faraway Places - but I was made for a contemplative life. I’d be ecstatic with just beekeeping and cooking and communal silence. Would be heavenly.

Totters, I am the opposite. I don't want to be a do-gooder or a nun. A life of contemplation would drive me up the wall.

I'd want to help the people who live harsh lives, particularly women who live in oppressive circumstances. Where it does not take much to improve their lives. Perhaps I will work in microfinance or learn how to build irrigation systems or shelters.

TottersBlankly · 17/02/2022 00:22

Ok … But have you really unpicked your thought, blueshoes? Are you thinking of an NGO type of doing?

Because if it does not take much to effect a change somewhere outside the UK, why would they need your expensive self to do it? You’d probably eat more than the locals, require more electricity for aircon or fans or fridges full of Coke and ice …

And they already know how to build irrigation systems and shelters. And they need the jobs themselves. And. And. And …

Mixandmash · 17/02/2022 00:22

A neurosurgeon. I find the human brain fascinating. Unfortunately I'm not intelligent enough for that so realistically I'd like to be a psychologist.

Gingernaut · 17/02/2022 00:26

Lab technician

blueshoes · 17/02/2022 00:44

@TottersBlankly

Ok … But have you really unpicked your thought, blueshoes? Are you thinking of an NGO type of doing?

Because if it does not take much to effect a change somewhere outside the UK, why would they need your expensive self to do it? You’d probably eat more than the locals, require more electricity for aircon or fans or fridges full of Coke and ice …

And they already know how to build irrigation systems and shelters. And they need the jobs themselves. And. And. And …

Yes, I know that argument.

I do not want to work for an NGO, the last thing. I just want to have the skills to help others.

I thought we were having fun thinking about our dream jobs ... now you have brought me down to a thud.

Perhaps the nuns don't want you amongst them because you kill the bees, eat too much of the honey and snore at night.

midsomermurderess · 17/02/2022 00:46

I saw an advertisement for an apprentice curator at the Rijksmuseum today. If I had a higher art degree, what a marvelous thing that would be.

TottersBlankly · 17/02/2022 00:52
Grin
LovelyYellowLabrador · 17/02/2022 01:00

Just enjoy being a free spirit
Not working and just doing what I like

Grapejuiceisntwine · 17/02/2022 01:03

My dream job would be one where I could earn enough money to help people who are in need, oh, and save dogs from the dog meat industry!

fiveminutebreak · 17/02/2022 03:06

Features writer for The New Yorker or something similar. Or a photojournalist for a non-profit organisation, telling the stories of people and lives we don't often hear about. I work in comms / writing / editing but kind of wish I'd pursued journalism more seriously. Also I would love to be a successful fiction author / freelance writer.

But I also wonder what it would be like to do something like midwifery.

And maybe working with refugees.

LadyAnglerfish · 17/02/2022 08:37

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawa_Abdi

This woman is my hero. She faced down soldiers and provided care to women in war zones.

If only I’d been better at physics and my parents hadn’t forbidden me from
Nunning…

Oh well. That’s life.Smile

ItsCanardBruv · 17/02/2022 08:39

Army field medic.

Allsorts1 · 17/02/2022 08:41

I think psychiatrist

LadyFlumpalot · 17/02/2022 12:36

Jeweller. In fact, my lottery win plan is to learn how to properly work fine metal and set up a little jewellery studio. I already work with silver and semi precious stones as a self taught jeweller but I would love to learn properly and be able to work with precious stones and metals.

TottersBlankly · 17/02/2022 12:43

Are there really no bursaries, grants, Arts Council type funding sources for crafts like jewellery making?

How do people get into it if they’re not millionaires?

JesusInTheCabbageVan · 17/02/2022 12:52

@nancybotwinbloom

Serial killer profiler or florist
Did anyone else miss the all-important 'profiler' bit on the first reading Grin

I heard the other day about a man who is basically a publicist for a UK beauty spot/area. So his job is just to spend all day doing these beautiful walks, taking photos and then posting about how lovely it all is. That would do me (and if there are any wannabe serial killers reading, would you mind bumping him off so I can have his job?)