Choosing a career

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I'm at a point in my life where I really would like to choose a career or job I would enjoy doing, rather than just doing things I am "good at". My current job I am really good at, but I dislike it a lot. If I do it much longer I will go mad.

How do I pick a job or career? Is it just a matter of thinking about what I enjoy? my special interests maybe?

I also have a really hard time imagining what people actually do when they go to work. I can imagine my own job, and I watch tv shows that have people doing their jobs, but as for imagining what, say a doctor does, or a nurse or a teacher, I can't. So it's really hard for me to guess what I might like to do, because I don't know what those people actually do each day.

You could look up what a doctor, nurse and teacher do. I kind of have an idea because of TV shows. I'm not sure how accurate they are but teachers have said the shoe Teachers is very accurate.

If you want to do something you enjoy as a career pick one of your special interests. Mine is photography and I'd like to be a professional concert photographer as well as doing promotional photos and landscapes too.
I'm content being an editor to a wedding photographer at the moment though.

I think it's really difficult.

You're right that a job doing a special interest is likely to be the way to go, though I've been surprised how I can eventually take an interest in other stuff, as long as I'm allowed enough control over the way I do it.

The social dimension is very important - the quality of the workmates or colleagues. Unfortunately it's rare that a job candidate will get the change to look very closely at the other workers. The boss is usually the one who needs the most careful weighing up, as their personality often pervades the entire group - e.g. a cruel supervisor tends to make the whole group cruel. So if you get the chance, ask the workforce what they think of the boss. In the long term, workplaces often change quite radically as people come and go, but it's good to at least begin with a supportive group of colleagues if you can, because it's during your first few months that you'll be the most vulnerable to the wrong type of people.

Naturally you'll want to be sure that the prospective employer is truly committed to the equal-opportunity thing, i.e. that they understand your disability and are prepared to accommodate you according to your specific weaknesses and strengths.

In an ideal world I would recommend the "suck it and see" approach - get pretty much any job that doesn't look too bad, but be prepared to quit and look further afield if it turns out to be horrible. Unfortunately the world isn't ideal, and you might find the benefits people don't pay you if you've left your job "without just cause" as they put it in the UK. You can of course look for another job before quitting what you have, though that can be rather tiring. And with so much unemployment around, it's probably not all that easy to pick and choose. A lot depends on how poor you are financially and how confident you can be of surviving on benefits or other sources of support.

You might find some good clues if you ask yourself why your current job is driving you nuts. Sounds like it might be too easy for you........that can be almost as bad as having a job that's too hard.

+1 for special interests

ive been fortunate that my career/skills pay me well although its taken me a lot of jobs to find the right mixture of job + workplace that im very happy with

The idea that anybody can do whatever they like with their lives (career-wise) is a very unfortunate and totally false myth ... most people still spend their lives slogging away at things they don't really like, and indeed, their career will choose them, not the other way around ... most doctors for example are from privileged families, often a family of doctors ... if you want to become a doctor there are a whole bunch of obstacles in your way that keep 99% of the population out.