to ask what you do for a living?

[TeapotsInJune]

Currently in teaching, and HATE it!

Any inspirational ideas? Xx

Eurobond Salesman in the city in the 80s sound absolutely fantastic. I would have loved to have done that to satisfy my Wall Street/Bonfire of the Vanities fantasies.

Found myself in a similar position OP. I worked my bum off to get from being a single mum on benefits, having given up a very good career due to my situation, to earning a decent wage doing a job that I hated.

I looked into all sorts of other careers, different options and spent 6 months jobhunting. All the while going from strength to strength in the job I hated (I was really good at it, but it was ridiculously stressful).

I ended up having a breakdown, signed off work for 6 months with severe depression and eventually being dismissed on health grounds. I think it is important to try and get yourself out of a bad situation before it gets to you the way it got to me. I had other factors that influenced my illness, the main one was the job though.

Fast forward 6 months, I'm now working part-time Mon-Thurs, 16 hours in an office and I love it. I love that I'm not in charge, there's little stress and I can run my personal life/cope with stress/deal with my illness AND work. Ideally it shouldn't have come to this, I should be working full time but that is beyond me at the moment - I hope that this time next year I will be looking at increasing my hours, hopefully my MH issues will be sorted (hopefully, who knows!?)

So, my point - do something now, before your hand is forced.

Good luck

Civil servant. And I do serve well

Why not a couse on animal psychology alouise - you can then run pet behaviour classes.

i'm a full time law student but i work weekday evenings for a large transport/courier firm doing exports customs paperwork. I absolutely love it! If it was a full time job i would seriously re-consider uni

District Nurse - love it

I book interpreters for the police , love the people i work with, like family, i work long hours though, every weekend,

Before that i ran a medical clinic in south london for ladies of the night! I spent my days in brothels delivering condoms!
That was a great job, met some great women. Had to give it up when i had another child as the hours were very unsociable

I'm a teacher and hated my job with a passion this time last year. Changed schools and is now much better. Not wonderful but I don't dread going in apart from when I have year 11 Do try another school if you can. One in special measures is bound to be stressful.

retired banker

I'm a Head of Department . I like the holidays!

Secondary Maths teacher. Absolutely love it!! except when they're little shits DH is secondary science teacher and doesn't get on so well. I enjoy being known as a geek and spend a large part of my day laughing. Missing it at the moment, as I'm on ml.

Carer for my severe SN child. 24/7 even on Christmas day.

Paediatric nurse - love my job most of the time The good days mostly outweigh the bad days although the bad days are awful

Teaching assistant but not currently working.

Quite proud of high praise from Getorf!

It was sparky and exciting and male dominated. It was also physically and emotionally exhausting and beyond the excitement required huge amounts of personal discipline that was actually quite boring. You can't be in the office at 7.30am if you are still up after 10pm more than once a week, drinking more than a glass at a function was a no no, being anything other than utterly charming in spite of the reputation was a no no if you wanted to stay employed. All of that and still having to worry about your position on the desk book and whether it was good enough to survive.

Not for the faint hearted and all those who jibe at bankers might do well to see how long they can survive. I was burnt out and ready to be a housewife after 11 years. I was also getting old for the floor by that stage and wasn't going to rise any higher.

Dentist, but would love to be a florist. Most dentists I know have a dream of being something else, my DH would liked to have been a car mechanic.

I just finished training as a primary teacher but am working in a B and B and hate it. I'll have your job if you like, OP? you can have mine - flexible hours and really lovely staff apart from the bitch of a receptionist

I realise that wasn't helpful at all.

crikey that does sound hugely pressured, married, but fantastic with it. You must have some wonderful stories. I remember reading about LIFFE when I was at school, and longed to work there with the brightly coloured blazers and shouting (am sure I would have been utterly useless at it!)

Freelance editor/proofreader. :)

Senior Graphic Designer in my last corporate job... retrained to be a childminder a few years back. Still freelance now and again. Will be opening up a farm school within the next 2 years with DH (he is retraining and currently studying for a teaching dip, I have one already).

LOVE having one foot in the childcare industry and one foot in the creative world :)

I gave up a stressful ft job when DD2 started school, I now work part time (eves) in a supermarket and clean other people's houses during the day in term time. I would love to find something school hours but so would 100's of others in this area I guess..

I'm considering re-training, maybe swimming teacher (for youngsters) or someone suggested book-keeping to me the other day as a possibility.

Willaby, perhaps the floristry could be a sideline, reckon people might buy flowers from a dentist's reception, eg "see the dentist, then treat yourself" (in a non-damaging-to-teeth way).

I write stuff and people pay me money (not a journalist). I've no idea why they pay me.

Another ex teacher. Now working in the criminal justice system in substance misuse where I also deliver careers advice. I love my job. Also retrained and am self employed as a counsellor.

SAHM and part time Health Adviser for NHS Direct.

I used to have a proper career in clinical research and I even have a degree. I need something more challenging than what I am doing, but not a full on career as kids are still time consuming. I don't know what to do at the moment.