BF2S Forums Good things that have happened in your life lately

Pocshy2.0 wrote:

I got all of my paperwork finalized for health insurance and pension benefits now that I'm a permanent employee, and all I feel is a sense of finality tied to my mortality that really worries me. Like, this is it. I've got 35 years ahead of me, and with very minor variation I can pretty much tell you where I'll be on any given day. Some might find that comforting. I just...don't. The weirdest thing is that I worked for years building experience and knowledge to get here, and my first thought is a profound concern for the shade of my gray my life has become.

All this to ask, should I strip on amateur Wednesdays?

Working in the public sector is for people who have given up on life. You can always flip and become a lobbyist or something.

Pocshy2.0 wrote:

SuperJail Warden wrote:

Get a vasectomy

Kill not only my myself, but my progeny? I mean, sometimes going nuclear is a solid move, but can we really gamble the future on a feeling? Mac, you're a particularly astute student of life, what would you do?

Consider joining Islam

melbourne is one place in australia i'd maybe move to. sounds kinda european. and like the weather actually fluctuates a bit sometimes. lots of publishing jobs there too. plus all the women seem to be preternaturally hot.

Ticketing for my flight was totally fucked - everyone was reallocated at the gate and by pure fluke I got an extra leg room seat (first row behind business class) with an empty seat next to me.
Other people were hopping mad they didn't get the seats they'd booked and were giving the staff shit. Some of us were laughing around, for an hours flight who cares about the seat? and I said to the ticket lady "I'll take any seat, as long as its inside the plane, not on the wing". Maybe that swung it but I doubt it.

Also noise cancelling headphones are the shit.

Oh and forget Adelaide, its a nice place to live if you want a quiet life but no reason to visit.

i'm not sure i like wine enough to skip european wine and go to australia.

if i'm ever over in asia on a lark for 6 months or a year, i'll definitely check it out.

jay considers his 20s a lost decade because of his catastrophically bad decisions so he's keen on shitting on everyone. 

he doesn't grasp that your degree and your public sector experience means you can move to another career relatively easily. you are employable. you have lots of cultural and social capital, too. you will be networking with the right people.

jay has a vocational qualification from an unknown college so he's got to defend and justify his own choice with the tenacity of a cornered mutt. he'll grow into those XXL khakis and spend the rest of his life tilting at windmills and reading reason.com to confirm his own limited worldview.

i really wouldn't worry about getting cold feet. you're not locked into one career for the rest of your life now. not necessarily, anyway. you're young and have plenty of time to try several other careers or niches in your field, if you wish. i wouldn't be worried about being locked into one thing for the long haul until i was nearer 35 than 25. 30 is the new 21, right? you have two degrees and are earning good experience, if you are uncertain. jay was in nowhere near a position as strong as that by the time he was in his mid-20s.

"public sector is for those who have given up on life" - coming from the guy who joined the US's biggest workfare scheme as a young man because his life got off to such an abortive start.

Last edited by uziq (2016-12-17 09:38:13)

uziq wrote:

jay considers his 20s a lost decade because of his catastrophically bad decisions so he's keen on shitting on everyone. 

he doesn't grasp that your degree and your public sector experience means you can move to another career relatively easily. you are employable. you have lots of cultural and social capital, too. you will be networking with the right people.

jay has a vocational qualification from an unknown college so he's got to defend and justify his own choice with the tenacity of a cornered mutt. he'll grow into those XXL khakis and spend the rest of his life tilting at windmills and reading reason.com to confirm his own limited worldview.

i really wouldn't worry about getting cold feet. you're not locked into one career for the rest of your life now. not necessarily, anyway. you're young and have plenty of time to try several other careers or niches in your field, if you wish. i wouldn't be worried about being locked into one thing for the long haul until i was nearer 35 than 25. 30 is the new 21, right? you have two degrees and are earning good experience, if you are uncertain. jay was in nowhere near a position as strong as that by the time he was in his mid-20s.

"public sector is for those who have given up on life" - coming from the guy who joined the US's biggest workfare scheme as a young man because his life got off to such an abortive start.

Thanks, Uzi. You're right. Even within the public service I belong to there are lots of opportunities to move between roles and specialties. We have a very well developed secondment system that lets you dabble in other policy areas for as little as 6 months to as long as you desire, all without the risk of losing your former position or any ill effects to your employment benefits. I'm pretty well locked into my current role for about year, but after than I can move on to my true passion in Cultural Policy (which is the reason I got into this field in the first place).

I lost sight of even that opportunity. There's something so path-dependent to your existence when you're truly in the trenches.

uziq wrote:

i really wouldn't sweat it. one of the best pieces of career advice i ever got was from a professor who told me 'do whatever you want during your 20s, try everything and anything you want and don't sweat it if something doesn't work out or click for you. people spend a lot of time worrying in their 20s about a career, whereas things tend to fall into place one way or another anyway'. he took his undergrad at cambridge and didn't bother going back for postgrad until he was in his 30s. he ended up as a professor at one of the better schools in the uk/world for his field.

took a lot of pressure off me and made me realise that you don't have to have everything lined up and locked in by 25. and if you do, you won't necessarily be any happier or richer for it, anyway. the world of careers and work has changed and everything is much more fluid now.

I feel the same way whenever someone tries to make fun of my dirty job. I am only 26 and I don't want a wife, children, and a home in the suburbs. There's no point in rushing or freaking out about a career. I like the fact I can just get up and leave to wherever tomorrow if I want. It is good to have supportive parents who are more interested in my happiness than bragging to the family about my career or lifestyle.

uziq wrote:

i really wouldn't sweat it. one of the best pieces of career advice i ever got was from a professor who told me 'do whatever you want during your 20s, try everything and anything you want and don't sweat it if something doesn't work out or click for you. people spend a lot of time worrying in their 20s about a career, whereas things tend to fall into place one way or another anyway'. he took his undergrad at cambridge and didn't bother going back for postgrad until he was in his 30s. he ended up as a professor at one of the better schools in the uk/world for his field.

took a lot of pressure off me and made me realise that you don't have to have everything lined up and locked in by 25. and if you do, you won't necessarily be any happier or richer for it, anyway. the world of careers and work has changed and everything is much more fluid now.

Which is why I was giving him shit for taking a government sector job in his 20s. That shit is soul crushing. Do something fun. Go wait tables. Anything is better than working in a bureaucracy.

i rather work in an office than bring people food. i know a few waitresses. the job sounds awful

the job is exhausting and the pay is not consistent. most often they are worried about putting in extra time to make ends meet. they go home without the energy to party unless you count hitting a bong or taking an oxy as partying.

I'd say my office is split pretty evenly between those over 35 and under 35. We aren't all DMV workers who dream of a minor improvement to a program process. I'm a policy analyst for a primarily intergovernmental relations ministry. I'd take it over waiting tables. My concern with the position is that it can easily become too comfortable. I could spend my entire career here if I wanted to--and that's not a bad thing apart from all of the other avenues not explored.