Need some actual career direction, a rant.

[Coily]

This will be long and likely incoherent in spots, so bear with me.

 

I have been employed in a small small family owned Cellular Engineering company for 5 years this April, and I can no longer take the mercurial nature of my job, schedule, long travel, and the severe lack of personal life. But being family I have put off leaving out of distorted loyalty, and a feeling of responsibility to get the job done in some really hostile work conditions. Part of my sticking around was to get 5 years in "somewhere" so that I could get a decent career started at the next place of employment, but that time is drawing near and I am really struggling to find where my true talents lay.

 

Yesterday was a tipping point of sorts, when I realized that I was obsessing over trying to figure out the body language of a friend/romantic interest and using that to ignore the real problem she and I discussed, career. She really got me thinking about my real desire to be successful, not for the money as much as to be a provider for a family some day; and yes I will admit that I was fantasizing about winning her over. But as I actually spent time thinking not on her but on me I kept hitting walls as to where I want to go with my professional life.

 

I want to stay in the area (or an hour radius) were I own my home for the next few years, so that I can actually live in it and not out of a suitcase. I have also considered going back and getting a Graduate degree, but I get hung up on being practical vs where my passion is. History is my life in many many ways, but there is no money in it unless I spend more years and lots of money slaving away to get a doctorate then going into academia. I do not want to stay in the cellular industry, since I have no passion for it; but that is all I have known for the last few years.

 

All in all I am confused about my career path, worried that the last 5 years have actually made me unemployable, I'm turning 30 in a few months and fear that may hold me back, no good support network to help me in my search, and I am impatient with me not being "perfect."

 

Thanks for muddling through the scrambled thoughts.

[becomingkate]

What kind of transferable skills can you take to the next job? Do you supervise anyone, do payroll, hire or train? Have you done any marketing?

 

What do you like most about the job you have now?

[Coily]

I'm kind of a jack of all trades: Site survey & assessment, project design, job-site supervision, purchasing and inventory, customer relations, web design, RF engineering, whipping boy, trouble shooting, as-built documentation.

 

Sadly just being employed is what I like the most. I enjoy some of the early site survey and design aspects, but that is mostly because I am out of the office and on my own. However those jobs typically require an engineering degree and I am just a savant in it.