To think some people ( like me) aren't great at careers?

[malificent7]

I do well academically but when it comes to getting and keeping a job ...that is a different thing.
I struggled to get a job as teacher and now I have retrained (NHS) i just got turned down for my 1st job interview. I know I have to try harder but some of my peers just walked into their first role.
Truth be told , I often feel totally overwhelmed at work and am much happier pottering around at home. I just cannot cope with the cut and thrust of office politics but I need to coz of money.

Careers can be unbelievably draining and the politics can be awful. And I speak as someone who's career-oriented and who basically likes it. In most competitive jobs you have to spend a lot of time being nice to people you at best don't find very interesting and at worst absolutely hate.

It's really not for everyone and in many ways it would be far healthier if people weren't relentlessly funnelled into doing things which don't suit their personalities.

I'm just dropping in to say that it's okay to not want a career. I think there's quite an assumption in many parts of society, and certainly by some of the higher paid people on MN, that a career is something that everyone wants, or should want. And @Queuing4Fergs there are jobs that pay the rent, with okay pay without being "career" jobs.

I agree with you @tectonicplates. I do have to massively eye roll at posters who think that working is 'too stressful' and they'd much rather just 'potter around the house' and 'cooking nice meals'.

Wouldn't we fucking all

Thank you @SparklingLime. I'm okay really. Like @Sewsosew I would like a (preferably) part-time job that is mundane, but which I could do well, but if those jobs exist they are well hidden.

I think office politics is the worst. It's where folk congregate therefore get on each others tits. You can get lucky and have a really good crowd of folk to work with or unlucky where your co-workers are a bunch of assholes. I was office based for over 17 years and fortunately only one of those offices fell into the latter. It can make the difference between going in with a spring in your step or dragging yourself reluctantly. Even when the job itself has been keck, the people can make the day go well or not.

I may be wrong but there seems to have been a bit of a change in attitudes over the last few decades. I'm in my fifties. I think there is more pressure on folk to make a career out of anything, even the mundane because being mundane isn't enough. The snobbery is astonishing. That drips into the psyche thus folk feel that they are not good enough if they are happy doing mundane.

I love challenging this. I'm a part time cleaner. The hours suit me. The works suits me. I get instant gratification of seeing a job well done rather than being a tiny cog in a wheel where you never see the end result. Once they get to know me a bit better (and learn that I am very highly educated with a previous 'high-flying career'), I often get asked by my clients if I'm going back to 'work'. I reply but I am working. They then say yes but surely this is just a stop gap. There is this expectation that I'm not satisfied and that being a cleaner isn't anything to aspire to. It pisses me off. Your house needs cleaned. I'm happy to take payment for doing it but your questioning suggests that you consider the job demeaning. It shows how much this nation defines a person by their 'career'.

And I also get pissed off at the eye roll from certain folk because I'm lucky enough not to have to work 12 hours a day like I used to but I get the impression that they think I should be because they do.

I'm similar OP, I was really academic in school, went to a top university, got my first job easily, but I've always found the workplace exhausting and emotionally draining. I am generally quite anxious and a perfectionist, I find group dynamics tiring and I don't handle stress well.

Eventually I retrained as a gardener. I absolutely love it! I mostly work on my own, I can see concrete results, customers are pleased with the work, and I work part time to suit me. Plus all the fresh air and exercise is great for mental and physical health :)

I've had a range- high powered, stressful career as a contractor, a chef, self employed- I hated life. I'd count down the hours until I'd be set free and go home.
I'm now working part time in a shop specialising in my hobby, and I love it so much. I haven't been since February granted as I went on mat leave, but I miss it dearly, chat to my co-workers every day. Best job ever. Sod the stress, it's not worth it.

Absolutely. I was always good academically but I have no interest/ability to navigate the average office environment. I think the whole thing tedious. It usually is the same pattern. I start a new job and really want to do well but end up being beaten down by poor management, ridiculous expectations and the boredom of it all. I really need to work fo rmyself somehow because I am simply repeating the same pattern of failure.