Weirdly Specific Job Preferences

Hello!

About half a year ago, after putting an end to a business project, I went to career counseling. The year prior I found out a lot about myself in terms of what kind of a person I am and what kind of jobs fit me. I’ll be going over the journey what has led me to contemplation and choices I make now on that front.

Desk jobs with paperwork were already ruled out in high school when I got my secretary diploma on the side. Tour guiding, also obtained during school, seemed to fit me but I didn’t actively pursue the job opportunity my teacher gave then.

I started university straight after high school on the subject of restoration/conservation. Lots of history, something handy to do, it seemed to fit so perfectly. But alas, when I needed to pick my tighter specification, photo materials was fairly dull, mostly still a desk job with lots of repetitive actions. The information and the chemical characteristics of the materials were very interesting but I felt not enough.

Throughout high school I’ve been working aside school, firstly as a cashier in a hardware store where my parents also worked, then I changed to cinema once I moved out at the beginning of university. That job with its late hours and mild pay sadly only elevated my restlessness and I skipped school a lot to rest well enough for my next shift. 

School was basically down the drain then, it was the second year and I was mentally in a very tough place at the time. Just before the winter holidays I managed to catch a job as a gift wrapper. I still work in that field and I enjoy it when the schedules and management issues are solved. I got back on track with school but still there was a restlessness. I was thinking about businesses. 

Meanwhile in summer prior to that school year I had picked up guiding which paid well and was very social, I loved the strolls in the Old Town as well as meeting people from different cultures.

In spring I got a business opportunity. Sponsoring and MLM, to put it short. I did not earn enough from my daily job to sponsor so I tried the MLM. I quit school and for a month my job. I got the point and vision so clearly. But a “fatal” flaw for me is that I cared too much about what people thought to use the persuasion tactics I was taught. Thus in the summer I crashed and burned. I got back into gift wrapping under another firm and cut myself loose from the MLM part by January. I was given the chance to work with a very notable person in the business and I got overpressured, thus snapping and cutting myself off. 

Still, I had learned enough about the project and its improved sponsoring opportunities that I am still passively tied to project as a small-time sponsor, an opportunity that didn’t exist when I initially joined. I’m content with this.

So what had I learned by last year? That I dislike desk jobs, I like creative jobs where I can use my hands or move, I like social jobs but without the pressure to sell. 

I regretted quitting school, given I have to wait right now about 5 more years before I can study in a Bachelor’s course for free again. 

This year after some tensionous debates with my partner (almost referred to him as my husband haha whoops, not yet), I was encouraged to start school. So I went to career counseling. I took some tests and took into account my location and decided for a school that you can obtain professions by session studies. I picked painter/finisher because it was a prerequisite before restorator-finisher.

The study is intense, practical, and the profession is very mobile but not overbearing (ie no need to lift heavy things aside from a plaster bag once or twice on a project). Our teacher is very highly noted globally and very strict, thus I am under internal pressure constantly which makes me push myself. And as I’ve taken my first commission, I feel I could do this! I have no idea though how the job market works to the details but all in due time. 

For now this seems to be a good fit, and I will be doing guiding in the summer as well, keeping my passion for history fresh. I am not sure at all what to expect from this profession, and it’s fairly unnerving. But I’m getting a grip on myself.

Cheers~

Ann