Not so much complaining as I am searching...

I'm not sure why it happens, but I noticed if you asked men in college what their plan for the next 5-10 years were, they'd give you a career focused answer with maybe some life milestones thrown in for balance. If you ask women the same question, the answers are flipped; they mostly mention life milestones and when they talk about career, its much more vague. I'd say it could be summarized as "prove I'm as good as a man" and little else. This isn't all women, but it was far more common than not.

Maybe it has to do with role models. Even if your mom worked when you were younger, did she work because she liked what she did and had career objectives or was she working to help make ends meet? I think the only mom I knew with a career plan was my mom. I think I know of only two women in our age range that have career plans now. Every other female just seems to be working to pay the bills, waiting to get married/have kids, or a little of A and B.

My mom had to put her career on hold when the kids came early. She loves what she does. I'm just looking for something more satisfying. If working in an animal shelter would support my life this thread would be nonexistant. Maybe you're right, I don't have a solid plan.
 
My mom had to put her career on hold when the kids came early. She loves what she does. I'm just looking for something more satisfying. If working in an animal shelter would support my life this thread would be nonexistant. Maybe you're right, I don't have a solid plan.

Maybe you can work the least you need to and volunteer at the shelter for the rest of the work week. Or have two part time jobs, one in an office and one at the shelter.

zac please don't kill me for suggesting this k?
 
My mom had to put her career on hold when the kids came early. She loves what she does. I'm just looking for something more satisfying. If working in an animal shelter would support my life this thread would be nonexistant. Maybe you're right, I don't have a solid plan.
My dad always told me if you focus on doing what you love, the money will find you eventually. It's worked for me so far. Could you not get by for a while if you quit your job and just did what you were really passionate about?
 
Maybe you can work the least you need to and volunteer at the shelter for the rest of the work week. Or have two part time jobs, one in an office and one at the shelter.

zac please don't kill me for suggesting this k?
I do work for the rescue now. I handle fundraising and secretrial duties I guess you can call it. It's all volunteer work, so it will never pay the bills. :p

What would you rather be doing?
 
ape, maybe you need to reverse your way of coming to a job/profession. are you at a place where you can make less money in order to pursue a passion of yours? i know you love photography and animals, for example. have you thought of pursuing a job/career that way? if so, what has stopped you from doing it? money? time requirements?
have you ranked the things you want most in life? for example, i had an opportunity to do copy editing for a newspaper here. however, the requirements were nights, weekends, and holidays. i was not willing to sacrifice time with spange in order to accept that job. i ended up finding something that didn't use my degree but allowed me to work 7-3 so i could be wiht spange on nights, weekends, holidays.
i suggest taking a good chunk of time to really list what your passions are, and then rank what you do not want to sacrifice in order to find a job that suits your passion. sometimes people work JUST a job (not a lot of hours, money, work at home, etc.) for other things outside of work that are more important to them. others really enjoy the career drive and want the money/title/hours/experience. it's entirely a personal decision, but it's a huge one, and not something that's USUALLY found the first or second try.
good luck, toots...i hate to see you unhappy with something in your life. it's too short to feel so "stuck". :heart:
 
It won't make a difference soon anyway. CERN's collider comes online Wednesday, and about a month from now mini black holes will tear our world apart. Might as well just grin and bear it until then.