23 and Aimless

Gbear

First of all, I'd like to preface my problem by saying that I suffer from depression and I'm addressing that with medical professionals - my problem is both a contributory factor and a result of that depression.

I finished secondary school about 5 years ago.
I went to CIT to study Electronic Engineering. It seemed like a logical choice at the time - i was naturally fairly good at maths, physics and that sort of thing. I dropped out after about 18 months.
The following year I decided to try doing Arts in UCC (a bad decision in hindsight). I speak fluent French so I figured doing something in languages made sense. That was overly simplistic and ultimately I hated most elements of the Spanish and French courses that I was majoring in. I dropped out after I failed most of my exams in 2nd year.

I also tried my hand at working in a kitchen because I'm passionate about cooking and food. My uncle gave me a month or so of working as a lower-level chef and I got a job as a kitchen porter but after that experience I've decided it's not for me.

Now I find myself at 23 with no qualifications, no real experience and I just don't know what to do with myself.

I have a job with my Dad doing accounting sort of stuff for his clients - invoicing and the like.
I've found that I struggle staying focused on anything for any length of time. When I started working for my dad about a year ago I was fairly productive. It's getting harder and harder to concentrate. That it's not challenging is probably a factor.
Ultimately I get lazy, work builds up and I get put under a huge amount of pressure dealing with the backlog when i didn't need to.
Part of the problem is that I work from home and that makes it too easy to not do work.

I feel like if I eventually get into the working world, my life is going to be about hopping from one job to the next every year or so to stay ahead of the eventual disconnect unless I can find one that holds my attention indefinitely.

I have anxiety problems around dealing with people - specifically in the sort of customer-business relationship. So things like call centers, salespeople or other jobs that heavily involve dealing with the public would make me extremely uncomfortable.
Dealing with co-workers doesn't elicit the same response.

So essentially what I'm trying to do is take steps away from my sheltered life - working for my dad is not viable in the long term. I need independence.
I just don't know what to do.

I'm open to part time courses, although only ones that were a year long because after wasting so much money on college (and it's not my own), I don't trust myself to see anything longer all the way through.

The most straight forward thing would be to get a job. I just don't know what I could do with no experience/qualifications. Having a quick look at various job sites, the sort of jobs that don't require qualifications/experience usually also involve "having strong inter-personal skills", dealing with customers and so forth. Something that I'm both terrible at and terrified of.

I'd welcome any input.

December2012

If I were you, I would look at things from a different angle. It's really great that you're dealing with your mental health with a dr.

Right now, career wise, you have a lot of possibilities. Really I can see why it's hard to pick - I'm in a similar boat thinking about my eventual return to work when my kids are older - no idea what to do.

Ill consider it closer to the time.

Do you have any headspace?

Maybe the thing to do is not think about it for a while, but focus on other things. Sports, exercise, would you do that?

I find myself by exercising I turn my brain off from going a million miles a minute. Then I can ultimately make better decisions when I've worked out my body and rested my brain.

You might find that a combination of personal lifestyle change as well as your drs treatment gives you the peace to get the focus you want.

cloudatlas

The reality is that a lot of office jobs are quite mundane and don't set the imagination on fire. You have french so would you think of taking a year out traveling to a foreign country and working on a voluntary project? I think working on something where you can see a tangible result whilst remaining active would be a good idea. You have to find out what will give your life meaning, you may not find it in the workplace but who knows.