Had a very interesting chat with Sue Laybourn and we talked about loving what we do.
I was told by like EVERYONE at 18 that no one makes money with writing – given this was 1985 – they were probably right. We didn’t have internet, kindle, etc, you were left with the publishing houses to get published. Chances of that were slim.
I did sub to Silhouette when I was twenty-five or so, but it was a year later before I got the rejection letter. LOL…
Sue and I decided neither of us could work in an office now because we’re so happy doing what we do…
And it got me thinking about what I’ve done since I left school after A Levels…
- Trainee Bank Manager (18 months of hell, sorry Lloyds, but I would have ended up giving all your money away to the needy)
- Assurance assistant (banking) – boring and painful as hell, I mean seriously mind-numbingly boring, and office bullying was rife
- Assurance assistant (pension docs) – meh, still boring
- Pension fund & Council tax investment bod – Local Govt – exciting for about six months – lending out millions to banks and building societies, seemed very important and clever until I got bored.
- Statistics bod – Food company – anything for the money – seriously, I’d walked away from the last job and really need *anything*. On the boring scale, it was 100, but the advantage was the dessert taste testing once a week. *I’m so shallow*
- I was a lecturer in IT – teaching people how to use Word, Excel etc… how could I forget that! I actually kind of enjoyed it, until I didn’t.
- Education statistics bod – Local Govt – fitted around being a new mum, and anything for the money, seriously, anything for the money. Stayed two years exactly so they couldn’t take back their pension contributions… bwhahahahha
- Web Designer – this one stuck for a while – lots of alone time faffing about on computers. My kind of heaven. Oh and I found fan fiction at the same time, and began to learn my real trade.
- Author – yeah, I finally made it.
Finally happy in my career… what about you? Have you got something you really want to do?
RJ X
Crystel Greene says
“on the boring scale, it was 100” LOL
I can relate to that (I’m a recovering lawyer;))
Nice post, thanks for sharing! <3