I feel like such a bum. Everyone else I know is happy in their job and their careers. I seem to be going backwards. I am ready to quit my job and totally lack direction. I don't know what to do:( I am going to cry:(

Sometimes crying can be very cathartic. To be honest I wish I could cry more often. Unfortunately I tend to hold it in usually even though I know it's the best thing sometimes just to have a good cry, and to let it all out. Often after crying I am able to see things in a much different light.

I'm sorry you're feeling so down and out. I admire your ability to talk openly about how you feel.

I know exactly how you feel. I have always felt that I always take ONE step forward, and 2 steps back.

It can get very frustrating.

I too, have had numerous jobs, all of them I quit, because I was seriously bored of the repitative nature of the jobs.

Some jobs weren't even repitative THAT MUCH, but I couldnt stand how I seemed to plateau when I had learned everything there was to know about that job.

When this would happen, and I could see advancement was way too far ahead in the future, and there were no other learning oppurtunities that I was allowed to pursue(they always limit the new employees)
then I would quit.

If I tried to stick it out, I would get seriously depressed and frustrated every day, before, during, and after work.

I dont know what to say.. other then perhaps you could speak to a superior, and ask for new oppurtunities. Tell them you dont feel like you are being challenged enough.
Tell them you believe you could be a great asset, if you were allowed to expand your "horizons" a little bit.

I never foung the job I wanted to live happily ever after with. I instead, signed myself up for college, in hopes that it will unlock more career doors for me in the future.

I still have hit a plateau. But, I know I need to do this. And I try to concentrate on other things in the meantime. This can be hard too sometimes.

I dont know if I helped you at all, but, Good LUCK.

I know exactly how you feel. The areas that may be available are not interesting to me. I really wanted to get into underwriting. Now, I feel my job is pointless. I don't like looking at cars or houses, and I don't want to fight with people about injuries. My motivation to succeed has gone to the wayside. Really, I feel like I am just putting in time with no hope for the future. I wish I could retool my mind so that I may like looking at cars or trucks..but I am not sure if that is going to wopkk...

The thing that has made it worse is the stress on the job has been multiplied by a factor of two. It was bad enough job when you weren't required to be a perfectionist but now there is no room for error and we are short staffed. Talk about a kick in the ***! You feel like you are drowining every day

I feel like such a bum. Everyone else I know is happy in their job and their careers. I seem to be going backwards. I am ready to quit my job and totally lack direction. I don't know what to do:( I am going to cry:(It sounds like you are doing what i do way way to much, comparing what i think are "normal" people. I think that the big differnce between much of the "happy in their job' kind of people is the way they can hide thier frustration better than i can. Sure there are a lot of people out there that are happy in there jobs, but we really dont know just how happy they truly are unless we can walk in their skins. It is not fun to compare oneself to others. I'll bet you have a lolt of wonderfull qualities in and out of your job. Now if you are truly unhappy in your job, then think about one that would make you happy and try to think of what it would take to get you in a job like that. Ill bet that somehow you could do it. a cdouple years ago i went to my 25 year class reunion and you know what, most of the guys had better jobs than i did, better cars, bigger houses, more money, but i had something that most of them did not and i was proud of it, a full head of hair.:D

pittguy how is it going? Are things looking up for you or do you feel about the same. My thoughts are still with you my friend.:) As we say in this get together that i go to, keep coming back, the miricle will happen.

Hey I have an appointment for my doc on Thursday
I cancelled my appointment last Thursday because I had to look for my drivers license to take my GMAT on Friday
I scored ok on GMAT (Got a 660)
But now I feel like it's pointless because I will be old when I go back for my MBA (will be 31 if I start next year and go full time)
I am just bad at making decisions and getting myself going!:(

Hey pittguy, I can relate to how you are feeling about your age, but I want you to know that I was 33 when I started back at school, and since it had been so long since I went through college in the late 80's, I opted to take everything over again as a refresher. It was not required of me, but I insisted due to the fact that I want to be prepared as much as possible for being a medical school student. When I enter medical school I will be 37, and maybe 38 depending on if I have to wait to get into the schools I prefer, and by the time I finish my residency I will probably be in my late 40's which is still very young. I have known others who entered medical school in there 50's. It's never too late brother.

Look at it like this. If I am 50 years old by the time I am able to hang a shingle as a surgeon then so be it. I will be 50 at that time in my life anyway. At least I will have followed my dream, and if it does not work out for me, and I find that I simply can't take the pressure, then at least I will not have to think "what if I had only followed my dream?" I will always know I did what I could to follow my dream. Please remember that it is never too late.

What have you been doing in the meantime Lars?
See my late decision to go to grad school isn't a late decision per se
I had a number of family issues to address over the last couple of years, my mom had a nervous breakdown, my dad got cancer, and my uncle became paralyzed and passed away. Needless to say I wasn't in the right frame of mind to attend school...

I'm very sorry to hear about your Uncle pittguy. I am also sorry to hear about your Mom and Dad too. That is certainlly a good reason to put your academic career on hold for awhile in my opinion. I would have done the same thing.

For me, I originally went to college in 1988, and I majored in fisheries biology. Aquatic biology has always been one of my great passions since I was a young teen. Well, during a summer vaction from college at the time I was working at a fish hatchery, and I herniated a couple of disc in my lumbar spine. I was about 20 or 21 at the time. Anyhoot, I was unable to return to school the following year because of my inability to walk without being in extreme pain, and as a result I ended up getting into the work force to make extra cash. Once I got a taste of making some money I blew off school as being not important, and focused on a string of dead end jobs while I perfected the art of being a world class pothead. I became pretty good at it. ;)

This all led up to the year 2000 when my Dad died as a result of taking the diabetic drug Rezulin that was pulled off the market. He was the 34th person that was killed taking that crap. Unfortunately, I had told him two months into his Rezulin therapy that people in Europe were pulling themselves off of that stuff and were reporting many liver problems. He did not listen to me, and I can't say I blame him much since I was such an out spoken proponent of decriminalizing herb for most of my 20's, and I would preach the gospel of marijuana to the point of making my family sick of hearing me talk about drugs. So as a result of my constant preaching about herb, and other drugs, my Dad would just let anything I say about any drug go in one ear and out the other. After he died I was very hard on myself for not trying harder to convince him, but I have since forgiven myself, and I feel like I did the best that I could.

As a result of his death, and the innability of anyone I cared about to listen to me concerning the dangers of certain drugs, I started to become more and more motivated to go back to school with the dream of maybe going into some branch of medicine. In high school, and when I went to college the first time I was not diagnosed with ADD yet, and I made horrible grades, so I was not expecting much difference in college this time around. After going back this time around though with medication for my ADD things were quite different to say the least. I have been on the Deans list every semester, and I am now preparing for the MCAT this coming spring. I hope I can continue on with my dream, but I also know that I am not as smart as most people, so all I can do is try my best and see what happens.

Sorry to ramble on and on, but believe it or not, that is the "in a nutshell" version of what I have been doing in the meantime. There are some nuggets of information that are not included, but I figured that this response was long enough already.:o

Hey pittguy, I can relate to how you are feeling about your age, but I want you to know that I was 33 when I started back at school, and since it had been so long since I went through college in the late 80's, I opted to take everything over again as a refresher. It was not required of me, but I insisted due to the fact that I want to be prepared as much as possible for being a medical school student. When I enter medical school I will be 37, and maybe 38 depending on if I have to wait to get into the schools I prefer, and by the time I finish my residency I will probably be in my late 40's which is still very young. I have known others who entered medical school in there 50's. It's never too late brother.

Look at it like this. If I am 50 years old by the time I am able to hang a shingle as a surgeon then so be it. I will be 50 at that time in my life anyway. At least I will have followed my dream, and if it does not work out for me, and I find that I simply can't take the pressure, then at least I will not have to think "what if I had only followed my dream?" I will always know I did what I could to follow my dream. Please remember that it is never too late.well yes you will be that old when you get done, but look at it this way, no matter what you do u will be that old, with or with out the education.

well yes you will be that old when you get done, but look at it this way, no matter what you do u will be that old, with or with out the education.
I should have stated myself better. That is what I was trying to say. :rolleyes: What I meant to say was that I will be 50 one day (God willing) whether I become a Dr. or not.

Hey I have an appointment for my doc on Thursday
I cancelled my appointment last Thursday because I had to look for my drivers license to take my GMAT on Friday
I scored ok on GMAT (Got a 660)
But now I feel like it's pointless because I will be old when I go back for my MBA (will be 31 if I start next year and go full time)
I am just bad at making decisions and getting myself going!:(Hey pittguy, that is not old at all! My sister (ADD/inattentive type) went back to get her MSW (Masters in Social Work) at 30. She is 50 now and has a thriving practice as a LCSW (Licensed Clincial Social Worker). She also managed to have 3 children after going back to school. And, my brother didn't get his Masters until he was 33 and his wife decided to change careers and went back to school to get her teaching certification at 35...she has been an elementary school teacher for years and loves her job.

So, my point is, it is never too late...don't beat yourself up, just go for it and be happy that you are doing so! Do you know how many people your age who would love to go back and get their Masters and don't have the courage like you do to actually make it a reality?

Give yourself a pat on the back instead of beating yourself up!:)

P.S. I forgot to mention...my father went back to school after he retired from the military at age 44 and got his Masters. He enjoyed a second career as a teacher in a high school and at a community college. He now has 2 retirement incomes because he was in military for 28 years.

So, you see, it is never too late!:)

I feel like such a bum. Everyone else I know is happy in their job and their careers. I seem to be going backwards. I am ready to quit my job and totally lack direction. I don't know what to do:( I am going to cry:(
I feel like a looser to - I am in the same boat - bored, of my job - but also GLAD that I GOT my job and try to celibrate that I have kept it as long as I have. But at the same time I know i want to do someting different, but I can't cause it would be too difficult to handle the change.

P.S. I forgot to mention...my father went back to school after he retired from the military at age 44 and got his Masters. He enjoyed a second career as a teacher in a high school and at a community college. He now has 2 retirement incomes because he was in military for 28 years.

So, you see, it is never too late!:)you know i came in here to see how pityguy is doing and ended up hlping myself too. 44 is the age i am right now and i also need to go back to school. I already have my associates degree so it would not be that much more to get my bach. I want to be a counsler. you know the statement about every one around us being happy?
"I feel like such a bum. Everyone else I know is happy in their job and their careers. I seem to be going backwards. I am ready to quit my job and totally lack direction."
I do the same thing time and time again, i judge myself against people around me. that person is more successfull than i am , that person is more happy and ect. ect. ect. One thing to remember we are judging them on our standereds and we are only seeing a part of what they are going thru. The truth be known they may be feeling the same things you and I are feeling but are just better at covering it up than we are. I learned a long time ago that there are no truly normal people in the world, just those who seem to assimilate better than others and those who seem to have a bigger closet to keep things in than other people. Dont try to hold yourself to the standereds of others, that will only serve to disapoint. What we need to do is find what truly makes us happy, grasp on to that like it is our life line(because it really will be) and move forward. There is no time line on becoming successfull, we can always keep moving untill the day we pass on, and even then we may be albe to move on, at least I hope so. good luck and please let us know how things are going.:)

My dad went back to school to school at age 50 (I think?) to realize his life-long dream of becomeing a research physicist. He is now almost 60 and is about to get his PhD and go start a whole new career as a scientist! It is never too late.

Dude, 17 years in the navy and I ended up getting promoted into ADD hell. I just knew I was gonna get in trouble and get demoted.

Guess what, it's happening now. Only, after several years of struggling through being a crappy administrator, getting demoted and going back to what I do best (fixing electronics), feels good. Why? Because it's my kind of environment. I tried for nine years to successfully adapt to the change in job description that came with the promotion. I was absolutely miserable hanging by the skin of my teeth all that time. Everytime I got better at adapting and came up with better tools my stress levels and anxiety would skyrocket and offset them. It was one step forward two steps back the whole time, and the only thing that kept me going while my marriage fell apart, and things got worse and worse was the fear of this terrible demotion..... You know what? If this had happened about six years ago I might still be married and I'd certainly be happier. We need to know where we fit and how we can use our strengths to offset our weaknesses. We need to know our limitations. We need to actively engage in making the environment we live in because it's critical to our well being. We need to follow our passions, because they are truly unflagging interests that we can easily apply ourselves to, instead of struggling to do what normal people take for granted we can amaze them with things we do well.

In short, take a little time, gather information (both about yourself and potential jobs, lifestyles, etc.) and make sure the priorities you set are your own not what you think your friends would expect or your parents, but what you want.

I'm not a loser. In fact, I'm happier now than I have been in a VERY long time.

Yeah this job is really bad for an ADHDER

I have to put notes in the file for every little thing I do on a file. Sometimes I get distracted and forget to do it, and I get dinged for it.

I have to do everything a certain way, and if it isn't done a certain way, I get dinged for it.

I have to follow rules, regardless of how pointless they are. I hate following rules that waste my f'in time. The rules I have to follow have nothing to do with the outcome on the claim. I have spoken to reps who work at other insurance companies, and they can't believe I would have to jump through so many hoops on a simple claim. It never used to be like that until I got two managers that are detail freaks

I had file reviews today, and I am f'in up on some things and it really got to me. I hate making mistakes, and the things I am getting dinged for are the STUPID little things on the file. It is driving me nuts. I am not a detail person.

Really, I am the best person probably in unit as far as solving the complex cases and issues. I am not tooting my own horn, just stating the truth.
It is on the little details that constantly mess me up

On top of that. work has been unbearable because of staffing/workload issues, My file reviews are really going to suck this month. I really don't care anymore. I am going to quit once I get my reference for grad school