Your Life

[Tomkat]

Are any of you compleely content with your life, workwise?

At the moment I'm almost a third of the way through training for my PGCE (training to be a secondary school teacher). Now though, in the last week or so, I'm really not sure if it's what I want to be doing.

Part of me says to see the year through, get a qualification, then think about other things. But I really don't know if that's what I want - to spend the next 7-8 months in schools gradually working up to teaching full lessons.

And if this isn't what I want to do, then what is? There must a job out there that is well-suited for me (and is a realistic job, sitting on my arse "researching websites and games" doesn't count). But I have no idea what I want to do. Part of me would love to have my own business at one point, but the effort and the small problem I wouldn't know where to start puts that at a bit of an impossibility at the moment.

Are you all satisfied with your jobs/status at the moment? Have any of you been in this rut and managed to get out successfully?

Give me advice GD

[JC]

Originally Posted by Tomkat

Are you all satisfied with your jobs/status at the moment? Have any of you been in this rut and managed to get out successfully?

I'm doing a masters course i enjoy and i'm currently in the process of applying for several graduate training programs with major companies. I'm hoping i get the one with the MOD doing some pretty cool stuff with one hell of a good wage. So life it pretty good work wise atm for me .

Give me advice GD

If you arent enjoying it change what you are doing. What you change it to depends on what you want, but imo its pointless trying to stay in something you dont enjoy as you'll just get more and more down and not get out of your rut. On the other hand, think it through properly, you dont want to drop out of something and then regret it later.

[JC]

Originally Posted by Flavius

with (hopefully) a Cum Laude

I burst out laughing .

[Hicks]

I said at the time that you were being a muppet doing teacher training, seems like you just wanted an excuse to waste more time at university, if you've already paid for the course and you're halfway through it you may as well finnish it off now just to get the qualification, it's not like they force you to become a teacher once you're done.

[Nusselt]

I don't see the problem with teaching, you spend your time around teenage girls, you have more holiday time off then any other job and you get to ruin the life of the type of people who bullied you, on the side ofc you can help people achieve their potential and all that but really it is an ace job, after a couple of years you'll have the syllabus sussed so can just change the dates on everything and waste your energy shouting at children - helps burn calories.

Become a PE teacher even less work you only have to do geography on the side and even that half arsedly.

[Tomkat]

Originally Posted by Nusselt

I don't see the problem with teaching, you spend your time around teenage girls, you have more holiday time off then any other job and you get to ruin the life of the type of people who bullied you, on the side ofc you can help people achieve their potential and all that but really it is an ace job, after a couple of years you'll have the syllabus sussed so can just change the dates on everything and waste your energy shouting at children - helps burn calories.

Become a PE teacher even less work you only have to do geography on the side and even that half arsedly.

That's what I thought. I've spent the last week in a school not just observing, but helping teach and having to plan lessons. It's a lot more work than you think.

For ever lesson, the teacher plans it out bit by bit. You don't notice it usually, as the more experienced teachers know what they're doing. But say you have 4 one-hour lessons in a day. That's planning for 4 hours of teaching. From what you aim to have the pupils learn at the end, to what you will be doing on the 13th minute of the lesson. It's a helluva lot more complicated than I thought.

And it's really ****ing tiring too.

Hicks is right - I did half-choose this because I wanted to stay in university for another year. But now it's down to the nitty-gritty serious stuff, I don't think I can hack it. The idea of a proper job where I can actually have money and live decently seems too attractive. I mean, I have a degree. It's not like I'm dropping out of university.

PS: This thread is starting to become my livejournal. I'd better stop.

[lokken]

I have no ****ing idea what i'm going to do after uni, so I'd hardly blame you for thinking about it.

TBH i'd stick with it if you actually DO want to teach as with time and practice (like in any job, I'd presume) it will prob get easier. And quite honestly, a proper job probably won't decrease the workload or the difficulty.

[Nusselt]

tomkat treat the lesson plan like an exam ie just copy from the clever dick next to you, i half wish i had become a teacher im sure i have the mentalness to get all those lesson plans and marking done sharpish the thought of all those holidays is making me erect.

[Dante Hicks]

I've had to do a three week training session (training new inductees into a company) and I found it ridiculously tiring at first. From just speaking for a large proportion of the day to making sure everyone has enough photocopies of every crappy hand-out etc.

The point is that the second time I did it, it was a lot easier. So while I'm sure teaching is difficult at first it get's a lot easier with time (more so than other jobs perhaps).

As for my work-life, I'm reasonably satisfied. I'm doing a job which is quite interesting and I've reached a salary level where I can pay off most of my debts. I fundamentally don't like working in a 9-5 type pattern though so I'm looking to either reduce my work hours to three days a week or become a consultant of some kind.

[KoeN]

Originally Posted by Tomkat

Are any of you compleely content with your life, workwise?

YES

[Nodrog]

My life is pretty great overall, but the whole 'work' thing that I'll have to do at some point in the future occassionally bothers me. I probably want to do a PhD after my degree, but I'm not 100% sure that I'm good enough (90% of people who actually get accepted probably aren't. I would say that no more than about 20 people per subject per generation will actually produce something worthwhile in academia - the vast majority will end up pumping out worthless paper after worthless paper, constantly deluding themselves into believing they are producing something of value that somehow 'contributes to the sum of human knowledge') so I don't know if I'd actually want to do it even if I got onto a program. There's also quite a few other negative factors to consider. But on the other hand, the idea of doing a 'real' job in the 9-5 career sense makes me want to kill myself, unless I managed to end up doing something really cool. Being involved in running my own business seems neat, but that most likely wouldnt be a possibility until quite a fair bit into the future.

[Reidy]

if u dont like it, quit.

[Kurashima]

If youre content with your job, youre in the comfort zone, and you need more ambition to stay up to speed or youll start getting sloppy.

[Nusselt]

Nodrog i can't speak about maths but in engineering you do have a chance to contribute to knowledge if you're at a leading institution and even if you're not, infact its pretty much expected for lecturers to be involved in some kind of researcg, the only thing is that contribution is probably tiny in porportion to the knowledge already obtained, i think what you're getting at is most academics don't contribute something of real value, genre defining if you will, i agree with that. Also you'd be surprised at the amount of people who start PhDs but don't have or even understandd what it takes to complete one and are dropped with an MPhil.

University people whether they like to admit it or not are to some extent out to play the system, keep putting the papers out and keep getting research grants.

All jobs after awhile are shit.