to ask what you do for a living?

[TeapotsInJune]

Currently in teaching, and HATE it!

Any inspirational ideas? Xx

I'm a writer (mostly novels, some journalism).
I also own several blogs and websites that I run for profit.

Anairofhope I am on ML and could end up being a SAHM mum and also think I am not very good at it. I love my kids, but I think the quantity of time I spend them does them no favours.

I work in advertising. I look at lots of information about your lives and then decide how to persuade you to buy a product you probably don't need. It's very interesting but I am currently having the "with two kids, is it worth it" crisis whilst not wanting to throw away a 10 year career.

CEO toilet cleaner, laundry lady, dish washer at Lady of leisure (the company name sucks, I must rethink)

I think teaching has changed enormously recently, the pressure put on teachers to deliver results, encourage children to have a 'healthy lifestyle' (how I hate that one!) and with academies becoming more and more difficult to avoid, I just don't see how long-term I cn survive in it.

I really do like the kids, but I feel so vulnerable all the time to complaints, bitchy TAs, parents.

But I also desperately want DD to have a good life and grow up in a nice home and go to university (and any other DCs we may have.)

It's a tough one!

Operations manager for a Hi tech engineering company!
I'm basically my own boss and love the job!
I hate the HR aspects as whatever is on offer is never enough and they are all well looked after!
There are long hours and sometimes very stressy.
But my head has been pushing the glass ceiling for the longest time and there is no opportunities for growth without relocating, which I have no interest in.
So I am interested in a change but unsure where and caught with golden handcuffs which are nice but very restrictive when making career choices.....

teapots it is really tough once you get caught in the salary trap. I know so many of us who would leave, but in order to do that you need to accept a big drop in pay. That's why so many seem to go within the first 5 years - they haven't gone through threshold, so it's not as much of a shock to take another job.

My best advice would be to try another school, or possibly a different kind of school (SN perhaps?). I find it hard to feel fulfilled when under constant pressure. The kids are never the problem - it is always external stress and not being allowed to just get on with planning/teaching/marking, which takes so much time in itself.

Good luck, and know that feeling like this seems to be a very common experience for teachers.

Coldcuppacoffee - I'm the same, I have a 3 week old and a 2.10 yo and returning to work just isn't worth it right now. The only added value I see for my children is that i can extend breastfeeding on demand and i take them swimming which a nursary would not do. I hate housework and cooking, but love my children.

I was a secondary school teacher. When DD was small I stopped though and moved into prison education where I trained and worked as an advice and guidance worker. I now work as a TA in primary school, and have just been appointed as a HLTA. I love my work - I get all the fun bits of teaching and not the immense paperwork and admin, or not as much of it at least. The pay is rubbish though!

I have 2 jobs - I'm a lawyer for a multinational corporation, quite specific industry, responsible for our EMEA and Asia operations. I'm not sure I would recommend this job to anyone. Money is good though.

I'm also a fitness instructor. Now this I would certainly recommend, a lot of fun, flexible and keeps you in shape. Doesn't pay that well though (unless you get to Jillian Michaels' level) but you'll live if you teach enough.

I'm a teacher.

I would recommend going for a significant TLR for people fed up with teaching. It makes the job much more varied and you get to have at least some say in priorities if you are a HOD. I thought of leaving because I found it a grind, but was offered promotion, and then got another one, and it has changed my job completely. I thought a lower pressure classroom teacher job would be easier with small children, but it was frustrating, and that was the problem. I work much, much harder now, and it is more stressful, but it is also much more interesting and engrossing and I don't resent the time I spend doing it.

I'm a government lawyer. It's a fab job if you love law and politics and being at the centre of things. Not everyone's cup of tea but I enjoy it.

when i am feeling naughty, tell people i "turn a handle on a money pump"....

i run my own small highly profitable but demanding IT company. on a good day i feel very lucky, on a bad day, it is relentless & sucks the life out of me.

I'm a Nanny, which I LOVE, nannying is more of a passion than a 'job' to me :) [Although very frustratingly unemployed atm :(]

Was a pastry chef for 4 years and then hotel management. Swapped career and joined the police force at 27, front line police officer for 4 years and am now support staff working with victims and witnesses going to court. Still do a lot of casual hotel work as a duty manager in a medium sized 3* hotel and am tossing up switching back as a good opportunity has come up to run it

I'm a lawyer. Wouldn't recommend it at all.

It's high pressured, the pay is OK (but nothing like what people imagine, just OK), the risks are really high if you get something wrong, the clients, by and large, are not great and the hours are awful.

If I had known all this, I'd have done something else. Some days, my colleagues and I day dream about being shelf-stackers at Waitrose (they get a bonus)

Oh dear seabright My DH is a lawyer - a solicitor and he loves it.

TA in a special school for children with severe autism. Badly paid but enjoyable and allows me to be home in school holidays for my own disabled child.
I would love to be a foster carer but need to dislodge one of my own (nearly grown up) children for a free bedroom first!

Am a solicitor. Agree with Seabright about it not being paid as well as people think, and also about being high pressured. Also clients do not understand the concept of you not being available.

But by and large I do enjoy it - I find my area (insolvency) interesting and like the people I work with.

Another lawyer here (family and wills). The wills bit is really nice, it's easy, the clients are pleasant and they pay on time.

The opposite is true of family. A surprisingly high proportion of the clients are really high maintenance.

Nurse but currently on ML.

I'm a mental health nurse. Still love it.

But would love my own bookstore....

Tech support 'meh'

I dream of working for myself but I'm scared lol

Farmer - sheep and cattle x

Itwasaboojum

Good luck, great career switch.

Translator here. I choose my own working hours, but the pay is not great. Mind you, these days I am mostly a carer for my SN son, so don't do as much translating, which could explain my empty bank account.