Stories about it turning out OK?

LegacyUser

I am a male in my late twenties. My career has never been a success.

I currently work 30 hours a week (the maximum hours available), earning the equivalent of €13 per hour. I am hoping to get some part time work on Saturdays and during two evenings in the week.

I earned a Bachelor of Arts degree back in 2008. I have mixed feelings about it. On the one hand, I hate that I spent three years working toward something which taught me (and I'm speaking only about me here) no transferable skills. I hate the way young people who are unsure what to do with their lives are encouraged by clueless guidance counsellors to undertake such degrees.

However, I accept that I am personally responsible for my own decisions. I also accept that, had I enrolled in a different course, I may well have failed at it, dropped out and left with no qualification.

Some days I am stuck in a deep, paralysing depression. I am entirely clueless as to how to escape the situation I am in.

Does anyone have any stories of how they were in a similar position, and how their life worked out for them? Hearing happy stories would be a comfort.

Exclamation Marc

I did a law degree which I completed in 2006 in Griffith College. Education was fantastic and had lots of partners in firms telling me that being educated in Griffith and other private colleges was preferable for them in hiring people as the education was better and the smaller classes were more conducive to a better learning environment and better outcome of student. All this was said to me with them having no knowledge where I did my degree.

I came out of college with a respectable 2.1, sat exams and then swirled around in a decent enough job in a hospital and mortgage company and then some part time jobs all with the end result being that I'd end up in a law firm. What happened was that after all that I ended up unemployed after jobs changing, companies closing and just part time jobs being enough for me. God, I bounced around about 5-10 part time jobs that lasted anywhere between a day (no word of a lie, induction training in a cinema showed me I couldn't hack that kind of work) and a few months (I worked in a teddy bear factory at one stage a truly shocking experience for a male in their 20s!). I even worked as a barman in the Aviva which was fine but was one day every few weeks. I was literally all over the place career-wise.

I ended up in a call centre in bank feeling exactly like you feel now. I was in there for just over years and was passed over for promotion multiple times despite being far better suited than some of the candidates who eventually got the roles (I think they wanted bank lifers and not someone who had ambition). I was promoted sideways to a nice role but with no pay rise and the job was far too handy which made me lazy and effectively cul-de-sac'd be in the company.

At that point, I just felt absolutely lost. I couldn't see how the hell I'd get out of there as my law background was gradually becoming a memory and I was becoming totally institutionalised in that absolute career graveyard. I figured my law degree and the money spent on private education was just thrown in the bin and I had wasted my time. I really felt I was destined to be stuck in that bank forever and slowly lose my mind.

As luck would have it, I met a guy through my dad (who was showing a house) and ended up having a completely incidental chat about life and my background which turned into my career and education (I was 28 at the time, 30 now). Following our conversation he was able to get an interview for me in the London office of his company which I was able to get down to the last two people. Painstakingly close!

I was slightly disheartened but it relit a fire inside me. A few weeks later a position came up in the Dublin office as someone was retiring. They were impressed with my original interview from what they had heard from the UK interview, and changed the role from 3 to 5 days (which the retiree had been fulfilling) and hugely expanded the responsibilities and I got the job.

Two and a half years later I'm still there and I love the company to bits and everything they've done for me. They pulled me out of a hole. Unfortunately I was diagnosed with a Hodgkins lymphoma back in April so have been off work sick however I'm near the end of that battle and hoping to return to work fully healthy and in remission after my final tablet is due in 55 days (not that I'm counting! Haha). But the company are sticking by me and looking after me, so again, more light at the end of the tunnel.

Life worked out for me, speed bump aside! And it will for you. It just does and it will, don't lose faith

Hope this helps OP.

iusedtoknow

I not only have a BA, but also an MA in arts - graduating in 2006.

I am currently sat in my office in San Francisco, where I am a solution owner and product owner for a large company managing an incredibly talented group of developers and leads. I know I got very lucky, but somehow it all worked out for me. My career path took me from being a level 1 support in Dublin to being a support specialist in Madrid to where I am today.

Personally - I married a great woman who has made a great number of sacrifices, including putting her own career back by 2 years so we could move to the US (she is a doctor, fully qualified in Spain but had to do her residency and some licensing exams again for California). Through this, we have endured lengthy periods of being apart due to officialdom, but this is now mercifully over.

I know I got lucky in a lot of aspects of life - however, i took a job and found that I was good at it and well liked, and moved on to another job that I found I was good and, then took as many opportunities as I could. I really don't know what advise to give you as we all have unique experiences. It worked out for me well - but it was luck coupled with hard work and taking chances when I needed to - knowing it could fail.

prettyrestless

I sat a fairly good leaving cert and went off to college feeling very optimistic about life. The first two years were great and I got good grades, but then everything went downhill.

I got ill, missed a lot of college, lost all of my friends, got into a horrible, abusive relationship and my grades slipped. I finished college with a third and was distraught. I decided to repeat my final year to try to get a better grade however I still hadn't fully recovered, was still in a cr@ppy relationship and was very lonely so not surprisingly it didn't go too well.

One year later I had scraped a 2.2 and couldn't take the graduate position I had lined up as I needed a 2.1 for it. I found out my bf had been cheating on me for our entire relationship and still had zero friends. I was working part time in retail and miserable. I honestly questioned why I bothered getting up in the morning.

About a year after I graduated I took a graduate position in a small firm that I didn't want. I wasn't keen on the money, the company, the location, anything about it. But for some reason I took it anyway and things finally started to turn around.

Over two years later things are a lot better. I'm still not in love with my job but I've made friends, taken up hobbies and am in a relationship with someone I want to spend my life with. Everything I went through was really **** and i wouldn't wish it on anyone but it's made me very grateful for the little things in life.

OP life can be really harsh and its definitely not fair. It's easy to feel stuck or trapped in your own life. I'm sorry that things are working out for you right now but please hold on. If someone had told me a few years ago that one day I'd be happy again I would have thought they were full of bull. But just keep trying, and you'd be surprised at what can happen.