How often do you change jobs?

Ray

Well Neps is about to but seems pretty comfortable with it. How many people doing a job just because it is what they got into way back and now there is no way to change? Many years back my reading at university was philosophy and English. Now I am 50 and a SAP basis guy for some while. I worked in a bank IT dept for 20 years. then a consultancy for two months, then an outsourcing company for 18 months and currently with one of the biggest IT companies in the world for 15 months and I gotta move, I cant stay here nomore. I spend a lot of time wondering how the hell things pan out the way they do. I mean hell, apart from the money I can think of no reason to be doing what I'm doing. And then to make all sorts of changes of environment while you are doing what you dont dig makes you wonder even more. Maybe I wonder too much.

Ray

Sorry. Hit post and then spent 2 minutes wondering some more. Wondered WTF anyone here is gonna think of this. I dont know how the hell to delete the thread. I cant whack all the content - it wont let you.

Bob-Dubery

Ray wrote Sorry. Hit post and then spent 2 minutes wondering some more. Wondered WTF anyone here is gonna think of this. I dont know how the hell to delete the thread. I cant whack all the content - it wont let you.

It's valid enough. And interesting to me because I am changing jobs.

I left Company N 18 months ago after being there 10 years. I went to Company F. I got a call from Company N about a month ago and now am returning there.

I'd like to be doing other things, but see my previous blatherings about roof over head and food on table. I need to take care of those and I need to provide for retirement.

Increasingly I see my job as something that I have to do so I can do the other things I do. That doesn't mean that I don't take it seriously and don't try my best, but it's not my reason for living etc etc.

I wonder how many of the people who play music actually make a living from it?

Somebody PMed me a while back about the DVD "In The Edges" which documents the making of the soundtrack for Werner Hertzog's film "Grizzly Man". I know that some of the musicians involved in that (and remember folks, the soundtrack recording was done in California) are not fully professional. They are very good players who either cannot make a living from music or chose not to. Richard Thompson played on that and composed most of the music, and he has said that he considers himself fortunate because many of the people he most likes to play with are not able to be full time musicians.

If it's a hobby that's OK. Hobbies are one of the spices of life.

Keira-WitherKay

[/quote]

I wonder how many of the people who play music actually make a living from it?

[/quote]

mmmm yeah i must be honest i get this question from students a lot.......... and my honest answer is i tell em.." if they can be happy doing anything else and music as a hobby ....... i recommend them to do that"

as for me i have been incredibly lucky in my career which started when i finished my music studies back in 1986 ....and in all reality have never had to do one day or waitressing or bar keeping or even do any other job ever ...........and i'm not funded by my family either heheheh in fact they of the school of the kids fend for themselves....... and yeah i have a had a career of 23yrs but i must say i performed most of it in europe and in other places around the world NOT South Africa.................

i once told a friend i was blessed by having a guardian angel looking out for me musically cos opportunities just seem to present themselves ...... however the reply i got is that it was not a guardian angel........ but just the devil looking out for his own............. nice opinion of me my friends have eh???? heheheheh

well outa music i have bought and paid for a house and a middle class existance..... and made some investments for my "older" age hehhehe but also got to see the world........ well half of it ....

but i think i been lucky/blessed/cursed heheheh whatever to have achieved this.....

however i do know musicians who were way better musicians in skill than i ever was.......... who never made it ....... and these are people who seriously tried........ and went back to day jobs........

if anything i have actually posted this a few times in threads..... being a successful pro muso is about entertaining not being a virtuosa...

i'm talking for the normal everyday working musicians like myself.... since lets be honest there is a thriving music industry worldwide... but if you mistake it for being a rock/pop/jazz star you have very little chance............ and the corporates and venues /hotels book people who entertain ....as well as being a competant musician ........

cos the reason they hire you is not to see how proficiently you can play scales or if you have a custom built guitar...... and a R100 000 rig but can you entertain their guests that are paying big bucks to be there........

so yeah Bob ... being a pro muso is very possible but being a star ......... thats the huge gamble....... oh and did i mention you need to have a product ........ musicians forget they selling a product so it has to be advertised,conseptualised, be unique.... and be professionally delivered....... so yeah just knowing a few songs won't cut it as a pro ........ put the entire package together then try .... it works ....

peace and light
keira

AlanRatcliffe

Formal employment? On average about every two years. My record four years. Any longer and I start getting bored and frustrated. Even self-employed, I have moved from guitar repair to web design to writing. I suspect I may have ADD (or whatever they are calling it this year).

Music-related things are good that way - when I reach a point where something bores me, I can move on to learning another aspect.

NorioDS

Alan Ratcliffe wrote Formal employment? On average about every two years. My record four years. Any longer and I start getting bored and frustrated. Even self-employed, I have moved from guitar repair to web design to writing. I suspect I may have ADD (or whatever they are calling it this year).

Music-related things are good that way - when I reach a point where something bores me, I can move on to learning another aspect.

Used to be 2 years for me too. Shortest time was 7 days ?

These days, on big projects I can barely manage 3 months before I get gatvol and want to leave.

Neeeeed... Stimulation!

PeteM

Yeah - I've been employed by many companies large and small, and done the freelance thing across a number of disciplines. Always moved on when the challenge died and the job became a means of earning a living. Always in search of the Holy Grail or in my case the lost chord!

FenderBender

Alan Ratcliffe wrote Formal employment? On average about every two years. My record four years

Ok I feel a lot better after reading that we carry the same job stats ?
I think they're saying I'm ADHD this year. The H stands for hyperactivity, so I disagree with the diagnosis ?

Mannemarak

My best was 6years, and working for a boss in an IT company. I now work for myself which isn't that much rosier. All the stress, SARS, bills and keeping clients happy, finding clients...the list goes on. It may also be the reason I play as little guitar as I do. I still feel I need to move on, maybe it is as you guys are saying, its not the job its me ???

I sure would like it to be the job ?

Bob-Dubery

Graeme Parfett wrote
Alan Ratcliffe wrote Formal employment? On average about every two years. My record four years
Ok I feel a lot better after reading that we carry the same job stats ?
I think they're saying I'm ADHD this year. The H stands for hyperactivity, so I disagree with the diagnosis ?

ADHD is not one thing. There classic symptoms of hyperactivity, impulsivity and distractibility can be present in varying degrees. The diagnosis is a broad one.

And it's a difficult diagnosis post puberty because by then a lot of people with ADHD have devised coping mechanisms.

Finally it's still not well understood. This is the case with a lot of mental health issues. Even into the 60s most medical research and research funding was going into things like Rubella and Polio. As those were addressed other, less obvious, conditions started to benefit more from research. Until fairly recently it was thought that ADD/ADHD basically cured itself during puberty. More recent research suggests that upto 2/3 of pre-teens with ADD will retain the condition into adulthood - though it will be masked to some degree by coping mechanisms.

Not saying that you do have it. I'm not a doctor. Just that it's not necessarily about obvious hyperactivity.

DonovanB

It has been said that people who are bored easily are highly intelligent so they need more stimulation.

Neps

DonovanB wrote It has been said that people who are bored easily are highly intelligent so they need more stimulation.

hahaha.. Then it means I must be a Mensa member. I tend to change every year. My record being 3 in one year. My longest sting was 4 years, but I was freelancing a lot on the side, so that also helped keep me in check. I love routine, yet I despise it.. go figure.. :-[

I crave the 'something-new' bug quite often. And thats probably why I'm not married yet. No women will be able to handle the 'im-bored-im-quitting-my-job' speech that often. And still being in my 20's makes it easier. Retirement is still ways off..haha.. But one has to start thinking about it as well.. (I'm sounding grown up now.. ☹ )

DonovanB

I found that I get bored very quickly but then I take steps to make my job easier or better. I've been at the same company for 9 years, have been promoted and over the term tripled my salary.
I've done all I can or am allowed to do within the circumstances. Even today, being in my last week they are still trying to hold me back (IMO) by asking me to do extremely mundane tasks that amonkey could do.

To answer the original question, I clearly don't change much as my areas of interest don't change often but I liek to set myself goals within the situation. If I can't do that then it's time to move on.

aubs1

I think I may have had lots of luck......worked at 2 companies for average 2-3 years each, then went into Audio-Visual Production as Production Assistant. Learnt one helluva lot in 2 years and was head-hunted into an Ad Agency as AV Producer and TV production assistant in small TV studio within the agency........then got head-hunted again into 2nd Ad Agency, and after 2 years was ready to leave when I was offered position as In-house photographer (this American Agency was the 2nd biggest in the world, ) .......I did that for 12 years, because I loved doing stills, and for those of you who know anything about the "Sullivan Principals", I was in a fantastic position. Then came 1994, and lots of things changed, including my "cushy" position, so together with my then girlfriend (an Art Director in the same agency), decided to go on our own........the rest as they say, is history. ? ? So my ride was a real fun ride......no time for boredom.......

I think Mick Jagger once said: "We (the Stones) had the best job in the world, why would we wanna do anything else?"

So if you really enjoy what you're doing, it's not a job anymore!! So for a guy like Neps, his job is a permanent holiday....... ? ?

[deleted]

I think I retired the moment I got out of school. I did things that most retired people do, like art, music, Tai Chi. It's not that I had my parents looking after me, I just know how to get by with very little.

So, being very stubborn I thought, hey, lets see if this'll work. I walked into two restaurants one afternoon and asked if they wanted a guitarist to play background music, and there I got my first two jobs.

I took that a little further and went to see hotels. I still cringe at the thought of me, in my very casual clothes sauntering in to some particularly posh hotel saying, "hm, what do you think about a little live music?". They were very polite and I even got a job or two in some hotels (after I had figured out that maybe I should dress a little more formally). The rest of my jobs take on a pretty similar patern. but I won't bore you with that. Needless to say there's not line which says one stops here and one starts there. Although my nursery school job has been more "defined" becuase I GET A SALARY (and paid school holidays), but things still carry on overlapping and developing alongside that.

So as you can see I'm not realy put off trying something new. My only regret is that I don't contribute something amazing to society, but I guess the world takes all sorts.

If you guys are ADHD then I've got OCD, obsesive compulsive disorder. I can never stop adding on new things to do. The best part is each new venture teaches me something I can apply later in a new context. I've been officialy employed for the past 4 years, that's my record. I'm a bit hesitant to give it up, since I've learnt so much from this one and it gives me great job satisfaction. I know I'll move on one day though.

Wizard

In the context of the comments so far, I'm almost terrified to declare that I've worked in the same company for 24 years.
It is a massive company and I've done lots of different types of jobs within it - so that does temper it a little ...

AlanRatcliffe

Wizard wrote In the context of the comments so far, I'm almost terrified to declare that I've worked in the same company for 24 years.

Someone has to be a stabilising influence around here, with all of us flighty arty-farty types. ?

Riaan-Combrink

Alan Ratcliffe wrote
Wizard wrote In the context of the comments so far, I'm almost terrified to declare that I've worked in the same company for 24 years.
Someone has to be a stabilising influence around here, with all of us flighty arty-farty types. ?

Four years my first, two years the second and going on 12 years in the present - so I'm also a stabiliser ... ☹

Riaan

so I'm also a stabiliser

I'm afraid my job is also pretty much like the Hotel California...and like GFSA, come to think of it...you can check out anytime you want but you can never leave! ?

aubs1

Riaan wrote
.........so I'm also a stabiliser
.......... come to think of it...you can check out anytime you want but you can never leave! ?

Hahahaha.......that was simply brilliant Riaan...... ? ?