I really want to find "the one" (job :p)

I'm 32 years old. I got my first job when I was sixteen and my whole life I guess you could say I've been what you'd call a "job hopper". I've had lots of jobs and I pretty much resigned from most of them myself. Up until 2013 I used to work in retail but I'd always known I wanted to help people (welfare work/be a psychologist). I have mild ADHD so I found it really hard to concentrate on study and did take eleven years to finish my Bachelor of Psychology degree. But I finally finished it and along the way also managed to get a Certificate 4 in Mental Health and Drugs and Alcohol; and a Diploma of Disability.

I volunteered in a disability art class and also in a church mental health programme, which helped me get a job as a mental health support worker in 2014. I liked my job and worked on a small team in the office. I helped people with all kinds of mental health issues work on their life goals. Unfortunately after only six months in that job, the organisation lost all its government funding and everyone was made redundant. Also during that time I was volunteering with another mental health organisation as a mentor/companion to two lonely women with mental illness. I'd enjoyed volunteering in the disability day centre also, so after I lost my job, I decided to give disability a try.

I started studying a Diploma of Disability online and the requirement of passing the course was to do a placement in a disability organisation on a weekly basis. So I actually got a casual job as a disability support worker with a private agency. My job was working with people with various disabilities and mental health issues one-on-one in their own home and out in the community. I helped them with all aspects of daily living, like personal care, cooking, shopping, doing fun things, etc. The agency I worked for was really bad and treated staff badly and the pay was low. However, I actually just felt something "click" and felt a very strong connection and passion with helping people with disabilities. I loved my job but the agency was just really bad. So when I finally finished my Diploma and last subject of my degree, I decided I could do better. However after a year and a half at the agency, they said they couldn't be bothered giving me a reference.

I applied for some other jobs and because I just really wanted something new, I was just sending out my resume everywhere, without properly checking the job ads it turned out lol I got a job interview for what I thought was a disability role. It was only when I arrived for an interview, I realised the job was in fact aged care. It was advertised under the "disability and aged care" umbrella term on the job seeker web site, so I got confused. I did the interview since I was already there and just did my best. The managers told me they had forty five people apply but only two people could get the job. I was OK with that as I didn't really want the job anyway because I didn't really want to work in aged care. To my absolute shock I got a phone call saying I got the job. The organisation was a not-for-profit and they were huge and very well known, with many community and welfare services, not just aged care. I decided this job was better than the agency because it could actually lead me somewhere if I could just stick it out for a bit. Also the money was better. Anyway I took the job but it turned out to be a disaster. Most clients had severe dementia and I had zero experience with it and I was making a lot of mistakes. I hated the job and felt like disability was my true calling. I felt so guilty because they chose me out of 45 people but after two months I couldn't bear it and quit. I wasn't able to get a reference as I didn't end on a good note with my boss there.

The company I'd previously worked for in mental health in 2014 also had disability services and they merged with a large not-for-profit organisation. I saw a disability job with them so applied. They still had the same manager for disability as in my old work and he remembered me and gave me the job on the spot. I've been in this job now for 8-9 months. It's literally identical to my job with the agency in every way. At first I was enjoying it but I didn't actually love it I must admit. Prior to getting it I did apply for some case manager and advocacy jobs (I volunteer in disability advocacy also) and had interviews but I got nothing. Anyway now the awful thing is I'm getting pretty sick of this disability job. I don't work on a team but only by myself one-on-one with clients. The work does involve personal care, cooking, cleaning, helping people in the toilet, but it's not even that I'm put off by those tasks. It's just that I feel isolated on my own and the work is very mundane and repetitive. I only work with three people with disabilities and the shifts can be long, like six hours in a row with only one person, always the same. Though my boss is really nice and the pay is actually pretty good too.

I'm just feeling scared because I'm really starting to dislike my job and want to leave. But I have not been at any of my jobs very long and I know this looks bad on my resume. Not to mention it's stressful always getting a new job. I'm also really worried because I felt like I had a special connection with disability but now I'm getting tired of it and I'm getting tired of my volunteer work in disability advocacy too. I'm also thinking that because I have a university degree in psychology (undergraduate only) that I can get something a bit higher up that doesn't involve personal care and cleaning, etc. But the problem is that I actually literally don't know what it is I want to do and what job I'm actually going to enjoy and not want to leave. I know I don't want to work alone and want to work on a team in the office. And I want a job with a lot of variety and different opportunities, e.g. working on projects. I know I'm probably interested in working with people with disabilities and mental illness. I'm not sure if maybe because of my ADHD I get bored easily and can't "sit still". Maybe that's why I quit my jobs because a new job brings excitement initially. But now I'm terrified because what if no job will feel good enough? Has anyone ever felt like this? What are people's experiences with their career path? Have you found jobs you loved and what do you think was important to you in a job? Help please! lol

Hey, I find this post really interesting because I relate to you in a lot of ways. I'm also Australian too if that helps but more than that, I'm on the autism spectrum with mild ADHD and have a history of job-hopping (some of which I can blame on 'temp' work but mostly due to my social and attentional difficulties). I realised some time ago that I was not going to be happy with the job options that were available to me, if I continued walking down the path I was on (finance industry and accounting degree). One of the problems with job-hopping and 'lower level' (or entry level) work is that you really don't get the respect or support that you need in order to bring out your best qualities. I think this is particularly problematic for people who have a mild learning or other disability who need that extra structure/guidance/understanding in order to flourish. There is a lot of top-down management and the tasks are often quite tedious. So before I go on, please stop blaming yourself for feeling restless because you are quite literally in a difficult position with those things. Even if you didn't have ADHD you would probably hate the kind of work you are doing because guess what? It is difficult (and that is why so many people avoid it).

So one thing I realised is that what I was truly looking for was highly skilled work. That is, work where you are well supported because you bring something to the table that is more difficult for your employer to find when screening candidates. You also get to work amongst people who have more in common with you. You seem like a smart person, but (and I mean no offence in saying this) it is not difficult for many people to get a diploma in disability and find work in that arena. That is why it's low-paid and under-supported.

My solution to this is (possibly not something that you want to hear) to go back to uni and do postgraduate study. I genuinely believe this is the best option for you for a few reasons. First of all, being at university opens you up to a lot of disability support (help keeping on top of your coursework and getting assessments in on time) and career advice from people who know the options available to you. Secondly, the more education you have the more competitive you will be when you start to apply for higher-level work. And thirdly, you may realise once you start studying that while you are passionate about disability support, it's not your true calling, and a slightly different degree will be more suitable in terms of giving you the right work environment. Even if you are passionate about working in disability, the jobs available to you may not be the jobs that bring out the best in you. You are better off finding the right work environment, and I believe the best way to do this is the select the degree which places you into the company of people who you want to work with. For myself, I am pursuing research because even though I struggle with coursework, there is nothing I love more than nerding out on a topic of interest and constructing a well-written thesis on it. You should aim to look at what you are best at, who you want to work with and the kind of work conditions you want to be in, and then pursue that by means of education.

Also, the last factor that I think will make this feasible for you is that by the time you've gotten through your postgrad study, you will have had a lot more time to consider the ideal job and you'll be more ready to settle on it once you find it. Study isn't just for getting a job - it's also a process of self-discovery and refining/consolidating our strengths and values.

I know this might not be something you want to do, so in that case I apologise for my clearly unhelpful suggestion, but I do believe it will lead you to what you want

Could the problem be that you're expecting that the job you get will only use/develop the skills you gained from your degree/license and the kind of work you want to do? I spent an hour yesterday printing out documents and stapling and organizing them when that has nothing to do with my skill set or why I have/want the job I do. In the past an assistant would have done that for me, or mostly, but in my current work environment I don't have administrative support like that. But, for several reasons it's my dream job and I enjoy the part that I am trained to do. Try to take an honest, objective look at your expectations. I was a teacher many years ago of young children - and part of the job was cleaning up various bodily fluids and that kind of thing. It's not just about "feeling" like something is good enough but about getting real with yourself about the expectations in your head and how you react to feeling bored/out of sorts, etc. Have you considered talking to a career coach or life coach? Some give free consultations.

In my about 14 years of working (30 years old now), I've been an infantryman, grocery bagger, clerk, assistant retail manager, debt collector, order picker, forklift operator, line cook, treatment aide, and now interpreter. Aside from interpreting and infantry, that's in no particular order. I'm sure I'm missing a couple shorter stints, but point being I've jumped around a bit. Part of it was due to living a vagabond lifestyle for quite a bit, picking up and moving state to state on a whim, but a big chunk of it was also due to not really being happy with a job.

I've been interpreting for deaf and hard of hearing students for a bit over 5 years now. It's very mentally tasking and is pretty far from my ideal job. My dream job was to be a paramedic for a fire department, but after the Army, I have eye conditions that preclude me from operating vehicles, which is a requirement for every department I've come across. That said, it provides me a good living and I'm able to take advantage of the pay and stability to comfortably explore the things I am passionate about outside of work.

Thing is being happy with a particular job is a luxury. Don't get me wrong, it's a luxury that's fine to strive for, but it's still a luxury. All you have to do is go to Dunkin Donuts or big grocery chain to see a lot of 40+ folks working entry level or close to it. It's a safe enough bet that wasn't at the top of their list of dream jobs. It's kind of a baffling phenomena to me that so many seem to lose sight of this despite it being in our faces literally every day. While some jobs will genuinely make you miserable regardless of your mindset, and those are definitely ones to avoid or get out of for the sake of your sanity, learning to take solace in the stability offered by a job or the opportunities it will extend to you in the future first and foremost and the exact duties of it secondarily is, in my opinion, critically important even if you've actually made it into your field of choice.

I think, if you can manage it, finding a career coach is a great idea. Getting help to reframe your professional mindset may better enable you to stick out positions if for no other reason than to fit in the "time served" component that's unfortunately required to reach what are more universally considered more satisfying career levels. Personally, while I'm no expert when it comes to the mental health and disabilities field, I would assume that were you able to stick it out with the elderly folks suffering from dementia, that would tell a lot of employers you could probably cut it just about anywhere. But it sounds like your current position is also a good opportunity to show your stuff as well. I'd do what you can to hang in there, at the very least until the 1 year mark.

That was about 90% rambling, but hopefully it helped a bit.