What do you do to make a crust... - Page 2 - TravelPUNK Backpacker College Student Budget Travel Message Boards!

**llemus7** · 10-08-2003, 07:47 AM

well I work ass an engineer for the city of los angeles. I do a lot of street lighting design for the city. It's a good job. pays well. I only work four days a week. 10hrs a day. So I always have a 3 day weekend, which I like.

On my spear time, I am working on building my own financial business, I have a life insurance license, and I'm in the process of studying right now for my securities license (investment license), I also have a loan license. So on a part time basis, i sit with families and help them with their finances, try to get them out of debt. Basically set a plan for them that they can follow. I also hire people to join me in this business on a part-time employment, its all comission base. The great part of this business is that you get payed even if you don't work. There called overrides. If anyone I train to do the business does any transaction that I am license for, I get payed. Its great and I love it.

**joanofarc** · 10-08-2003, 08:06 AM

llemus - hey, i think its really great that you love your job - damn - self actualization - i should give that a try.

i think a lot of people hate their jobs (i know i do) and that sucks because we're there 5 days of 7 and so just wasting our lives away toiling for something we don't even enjoy.

i'm glad for you and hope i can one day say that i don't mind doing what i'm doing in pursuit of the not-so-mighty-lately dollar.

TheCross · 10-08-2003, 01:11 PM

Joan I know exactly how you feel. When I have nothing to do at work I spend all my time surfing the net, once I've done that for 2 weeks in a row I become very bored and start to hate my job.

Like you I am so much happier with a day full of work. In theory it sounds nice doing nothing all day, unfortunately it does not take long for boredom to set it and with boredom comes (for me) depression.

I think it's one of the hardest challenges in life finding a job that you really love, I wish I knew what I would like to do. I criteria for my dream job.
1. I want to work for my self.
2. I want to have a job were I meet new people.
3. I don't want to be in an office all day.
4. I want something creative and hands on.

In some ways I am hoping a little time off and some travelling will help me figure out what I would like to do. I may see something that inspires me or talk to somebody who informs me about a profession I've not though about.

I HATE FLUORESCENT LIGHTING TOO! And air-conditioning! They are the devils work!

-TC-

**joanofarc** · 10-08-2003, 02:04 PM

Quote:

Like you I am so much happier with a day full of work. In theory it sounds nice doing nothing all day, unfortunately it does not take long for boredom to set it and with boredom comes (for me) depression.

yes, of couse i can sympathize. for me it's more utter disillusionment than depression (hey, maybe they're the same) that sets in after weeks of cruising the net. and yes, it must be one of lifes greatest challeges (uh, cruelest jokes) trying to find a job you love - maybe only second to actually knowing how to love.

ah, life... what a strange dream.

**cliffo** · 10-08-2003, 03:19 PM

TheCross,

my god man....reading your post i was beggining to think i had posted that...that is me too.

I've always bounced between jobs (in the last year especially). I am hoping that whilst i'm backpacking i'll discover who i am and what i enjoy. I hate office work - pushing papers, but thats all i've done. Hopefully when i get back i'll have the motivation to do something that i will enjoy doing 5 days a week and don't have to drag myself to work each day.

I'm sure time away from work and the experience of travelling will give you the insight into what you would like to do and the motivation to acheive it..Good luck in that quest dude...i know thats what i'll be hoping for.

**travelpunk** · 10-08-2003, 04:34 PM

Damn Llemus! Why don't you finance a trip for all of us

:D !

Tui, I think I saw her on the corner of Booty & Licious

:D :P

Yeah, doing nothing all day can be quite boring! I've been in that situation for a while and I'm itching to get back in the work place! I'll probably get bored of that very soon though, despite making a very decent living. I'm just not a 9-5 kind of guy, well I don't think so anyway

.

**Diorama** · 10-09-2003, 12:01 PM

haha tp..u da man.

I don't know where to begin. I've had the cashier job for four years started back in grade 12. I hate it so much..the customers, the staff, the anal rules, the shit hours, the fluorescent lighting!!!! (ah i swear it makes everyone look so shitty) But then again I know it so well. I do other things as well front desk, aisle work, ordering etc..I have a lotof seniority and I have a relationship with management where I can tell them straight out how it is. It doesn't make me happy at all, but you'll find that my store has tons of "older" people working there because they pay a really really good hourly rate and people get 'trapped' and can't leave the place in fear that they'll never find a good paying job again. I vow not to fall into the trap. My target for quitting the store is end of feb..we'll see if i'm right. i don't want to be that person who becomes a 'lifer'. This summer has been amazing though, i started working for as a concierge/sales agent and found that "hey! Not all jobs suck!" IT's not that I love working, because i don't (i freakin hate it), but I actually found a job that allows me to interact with people of so many nationalities. Though i'll soon be laid off..(seasonal job) and back to the friggin life of a cashier.ugh..

but really my number one goal in life is to be happy. I don't care about materialistic things and have never wanted the nice car, or big diamond necklace. I don't care. anyways i know i'm babbling (i'm home sick today...again!) but what I'm saying is don't settle for that high paying job where your not happy. I think most people (a lot of my friends) are stuck in that rut. they get good pay and only 2 weeks vacation time a year. i don't want to become that..I think that's my biggest fear.

excuse me for my rambles

i'm feeling a little out of it today

**joanofarc** · 10-09-2003, 12:40 PM

you make total sense dio. and me too! re: fuck material possesions - cause they aren't worth a damn, and this ain't egypt - that shit isn't going to the afterlife with us!!

my biggest complaint with my job is that i was lucky to get 3 weeks off for this vacation - in their eyes they did me a favor. ah, i just sighed so deeply - but i have already resolved that i will vacation as much as my bank account allows - any job that stands in my way - i will quit.

that's kind of a scary resolution, too. i mean, i'm pretty young yet, 22 -but once i get older, i just hope i have the luck/determination? to keep up with this plan.

ideally, i would like to have a career that naturally affords me 6 weeks per year vacation (i mean i could do with more, but i'll settle for 6) - and i don't want to have to work somewhere for 10 years before i can have that.

damn - is that really asking that much?

**worldwidemike** · 10-09-2003, 03:29 PM

Try teaching, Joan. At least over here in the U.S., they get the summers off when the kids aren't in school. I almost went into teaching just for that...thank god, I didn't, though. Can you imagine, going into work every day thinking, "Wow, only X number of days till I'm done" for 30 years!!

If you've got the personality for it, though, I think teaching would be an excellent traveler's job.

worldwidemike

**travelpunk** · 10-10-2003, 02:07 AM

Complacency is death. That's my view. Of course, I'm always trying for the impossible. More satisfaction that way. Challenging, at times excruciating, but at the end of the day...satisfying always.

Teachers have it made, in terms of vacation time. Summers off?! Shiiitt, thats what I'm talking about!

Dio, you CAN quit in Feb...it you really want to. "Whether you believe that you can or you can't, either way you're right." Abraham Lincoln

**Mocassin** · 10-10-2003, 08:41 AM

Hahah! I agree with you girls! Material posessions suck! I live in an appartment now and I don't even have a TV or a regular phone line...I try not to buy things I don't need, exept for camping stuff...Hey! I could bring all of you to camping with all this stuff! I'm a compulsive camping and travelling stuff buyer!

I own 4 backbacks, 2 tents and 2 sleeping bags dammit!

I quit the forestry because I knew that as an engeneer, I would work behind a desk most of my time, and not in the forest where I feel so comfortable...Plus it did not allow me to work everywhere. Now, I study medecine, but it's actually a dream come true. I had a master degree planned in forestry, a lot of money coming with it, but when I was accepted in Med school I left it all! So I may look like the kinda girl just wanting a job for the money, but it's not it at all...As a Doc, I want to work 6 months a year to gather enough money to travel the other 6 months...I don't want a big house or a nice car, the things you own keep you prisonner...It will also allow me to work with people, and feel I can really help them in a way. I want to be a GP because you have more contact with people this way, get to know them better. When I was young, my dream was to go in a poor country and help out as a doctor...Well, I still want to do it and I certainly will...

**Diorama** · 10-10-2003, 09:53 AM

Tp- don't worry I WILL quit in feb. I'm aiming to leave for my trip in march. I got paid today (from both jobs) and the bank account is looking reaaaallll good.

Moc-I'm sure you'll do it. You seem very determined with a good head on your shoulders. You have a long road ahead of you, but I'm pretty sure you will fight forward and claim that doctorate.

yay for joan and moc. It's good to have more girls on this site. All summer long i've been surrounded by cootie men ewwwwww <_<

kerouacscabbie · 10-11-2003, 12:39 PM

as for myself, i spent thirty thousand dollars, of borrowed money, to get a degree in fine arts, now i drive a cab for a living. the hours suck, 72 per week, no insurance, no cage in my car, i pay a twenty five-usd lease on a vehicle each night, and if i get into an accident, no workmans compensation, no unemployment, taxes are my responsibility. but, when i want to i walk into work and i say' i'll be back in two weeks/two months. the manager says ok and off i go.

its not the greatest job in the world, but i get to meet new people, i'm my own boss, i get to read alot, i see stuff my people have to get on the internet to read about or wack off about, and ocassionally i get to have a gun stuck in my face (ah, not yet, thank god/knock on wood) but it does happen in the town i live in.

TheCross · 10-11-2003, 11:02 PM

Why don't you use your fine arts degree?

-TC-

kerouacscabbie · 10-12-2003, 04:31 AM

sometimes, you have to spend alot of money, to find out who you are not.

don't get me wrong i love art, don't know if i am personally anygood, that is for the critics, modrian(the artist) also said the first qualification to being an artist is you must be fourty years old, so maybe i am just abbiding my time.

but the money side the whole gambit really bothers me, i see many off my friends begging at the feet of gallery owners for a show, begging is not much for me, i kinda prefer to work. so i drive the cab.

it makes people happy, not haveing have to walk, sure i charge them, but i would do it for free if they would let me. everyone seems to appreciate getting from point a to b. ya sometime there drunk and belijerent, but when they see there house and they know there is acozy warm bed only a few meters away, the look in there eye is the best tip a human being can ever recieve.

**travelpunk** · 10-12-2003, 05:16 PM

Very interesting job, KC, but that's definitely a job that requires insurance! d'oh! Never a dull day at work, I bet.

And, what? No cage in your taxi! Man, you are one corageous mofo! Who do you think you are- Travis Bickle? haha

**Diorama** · 10-12-2003, 06:05 PM

cage in the taxi? I've never seen a cage in a taxy. We don't have them here. fock! that's awful that a taxi driver would actually need a cage. keroucs-i'm tired..72 hours per week

Dude you rock.

**cliffo** · 10-12-2003, 07:55 PM

Taxi drivers were made to install cages in their cabs here in NSW, Aus a few years ago by the state government. Many refused to as those that did install them found they were worse off and it made it easier for people to do a runner and not pay their fare. They no longer are requied to have the cage which i think is a good thing - its hard to talk to a cab driver through a tiny hole in a thick sheet of perspex.

As for the 72 hours/week thing....thats killer kerouac - how do you do it?

wong name · 10-12-2003, 11:37 PM

we dont have cages in taxi's here yet.......i bet some wished they had-------mostly they get held up at gun point................but as far as united states teachers are concerned yes they get the summers off, but most teachers get burned out after 5 years and never return; u have to deal with bratty kids all day, then come home and grade there homework and tests. just thought i would throw in that good news. <_<

dmac · 10-13-2003, 01:29 AM

I've been known to take a few pieces of clothing off for the right price........

And The RIGHT AUDIENCE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!