Hi koolman. I am experiencing something similar right now. I was laid off along with half of the company back in May and am having a hard time trying to figure out what direction I should take in terms of my career path. I've been working for over 20 years, and this is my first time being out of work and it's very scary. I don't even want to do what I've been doing anymore and I need to figure out something that I will enjoy doing. I am burned out and very anxious.

I'm having a similar problem, only it's not from trying to find a job. It's from trying to keep one. When I first got into web development, I was fascinated by it - loved every minute of it. I took to HTML and CSS like a fish to water. I learned Photoshop, Dreamweaver, and Illustrator on my own. I stayed up late into the night designing graphics and playing with HTML. I was nerdtastic.

Recently, I've been getting more and more bored with the coding part of my job, even though I still love the design part. I'm looking for ways to enjoy the coding. And it's sort of working... kinda. But I still get so tired of doing the coding and then I get grumpy, and then I feel useless and idiotic because I should just be happy that I have a job.

I just want to get that old zest back. The zest that kept me enthralled with web design / development even at 3am while my friends were out partying. I'm not sure where the zest went, but I'm on the hunt for it.

Thanks, y'all!

"Don't even want to do what I've been doing anymore": I share those sentiments exactly! Looking for some new wellspring of passion and excitement, but everything just looks like wellsprings of stress and shit.

Web development: Yeah, I know! Seems fascinating, until you get deeper and deeper into the coding, and then there's sort of a burnout factor there. The woman who hired me even complained that she hates the detail work, which is why she hired me to take care of it. She's more the designer. I don't mind detail work, but I'd like to "paint" in some broader "strokes" too...the detail work moves too slowly and is too tedious for my taste. I'm always trying to think up shortcuts AROUND it, and there are none. One simply has to get down in the trenches and plod along.

Makes me really appreciate the RELATIVE excitement of doing weddings on weekends! There was burnout factor there too, a repetitive "factory" assembly-line feeling, the same old crap over and over again, a point where I felt if I saw one more "bride/father" dance I would scream, but after doing web development, wedding work is exciting indeed! Maybe we just need that fresh, new perspective, a more boring job to show us that the work we thought was boring was actually not boring at all.

And, yes, it's nice to have a steady paycheck. But, I've always found that, if I'm excited about the work I'm doing, the money comes, because others can SEE that I'm excited about it, and give me A LOT of it to do!

Directing movies has been sort of a pipe-dream of mine since I was 10, and I've still got a pretty good imagination and talent for it. But it is indeed a dream job, a dream business, a fantasy, show business, where so few actually succeed, to the point of making a comfortable living, and I'm not even sure I want it anymore, unless I find the story I'm telling so compelling that the money I'd be earning is irrelevant, but I gotta pay the rent while I'm telling the story, so can't afford to work for months for free. But filmmaking combines the technical and artistic, material and spiritual resources, and that's why I love it.

As far as other "dream jobs", home theater installation looks enticing, but haven't found any openings there yet. I suppose reading to the elderly or kids might be spiritually rewarding, but have no idea how much the paycheck would be. Maybe pursue the spiritual and the money will come, from mysterious sources-?

I want to do the Lord's work, and pay off debt and keep a roof over my head in the process. Here me now, God...

"Patience, my young Padawan!"

Hi koolman,
I suffered a nervous breakdown Feb. of 2009 and was laid off. I have been a teacher for 20 years now - it's all that I know how to do, who to be, but I am burnt out and can't face going back to controlling high school kids.The anxiety at the thought of walking into a classroom again is debilitating. So I am looking for a new career and am struggling between my hope for a brighter future and the crashing reality of having those hopes crushed by the reality of my limitations from fibro.

Hi, spero. Sorry to hear of your woes, but it's probably all for the best. I wouldn't be able to handle a room full of unruly post-pubescent teenagers either.

Do you enjoy working with people more or things?

Change of career for you: Maybe a florist? Seems to me to be about as low-stress as there is. Working in the gardening department of Home Depot or someplace?

If you're talking fibromyalgia, my mother had it, and found complete relief from it through orthobionomic massage therapy after a few treatments. She's been cured of it for a decade.

I can somehwhat relate to your problem. I just recently found another part-time job at a nursing home by me. I am 22 and work for a preschool where I have been working for around 7 years, I am looking to get into something but my health issues make that hard for me. I was in the hospital 3 times within one week and lost lots of hours at work and they cut my hours back. I am working his summer full-time and just got another part-time job but I'm afraid that my health and anxiety issues will cause me to lose both jobs.

I can completely relate to your situation. I recently left a job that I'd been at for several years and loved because I had to relocate. Now i'm in a job that couldn't be more different. It's hard and it creates such a void in you when you aren't passionate about a career.

I haven't worked in a while due to being on disability and having an extremely ill father, etc. It was all too much. I now feel better ready to re-enter the work force but it'll take a lot to get there... I need to gain a lot more confidence and learn to conversate better, especially on interviews...

Thanks, folks.

Bipolar: Interviews are easy, if you really know the subject. Then it's a matter of being warm and sociable with the interviewer, trying to consider their position and what they want, making their job easy. Make it all about them.

Thanks Koolman! Good luck in your endeavors!