We have the Love/Relationship thread, so I figure it might be worth having a thread for people to get advice on their general/life issues. Plus I want some advice, but starting a lone thread just for me is probably a bit over the top :lol:.

So, to get us started.

I'm currently at a rather large crossroad in my life. I posted regarding the end of my relationship in the other thread, so I won't go over that again. Essentially at the moment, I have pretty much free choice of what I want to work towards with my future. Of course the flip side of this is that I honestly don't have a future/any goals to look forward to, so I really need to make the right choice now, to make sure the next year or two aren't just a massive waste. So here's where I need some advice.

Pretty much, as I see it, my main two options are going back to study again, or to continue to look for work. I'm leaning towards Study for a couple of reasons. I don't really have any qualifications to look for any career based work. I'm pretty much stuck looking for Retail/Admin work, which I have no problem with, but obviously it doesn't really much to look for going forward in terms of career/life in general.

Studying obviously doesn't guarantee this either. A couple of courses that I'm really interested in doing, are very specific fields, that wouldn't definitely have job outputs at the end of it. I haven't set myself in stone for anything though, and am keeping my options open. So while I understand going back to study is a risk, I think it's worth taking for the long term possibilities. But that's my view from the inside, hence this thread.

I think I've rambled on enough. Hopefully I managed to get my point across. Any suggestions/advice obviously is greatly appreciated, and everyone feel free to post up your own troubles/decisions you want help with.

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Seriously though - is there anything preventing you from studying?

If I could do it all again, I would study what I want to study, not study what would bring me job prospects. I would rather be poor and happy/interested than rich and bored out of my fucking mind 8 hours a day.

Study something you love. Like notor said, I'd rather be able to live in relative safety and do what I love rather than be rich while working a job I hate. I've changed uni course twice already and I'll probably change again so there's at least 2 years of my life wasted :lol:

What do you want to study, and do you genuinly enjoy the subject matter?

I too vote for the study option, unless there are any major reasons not to.

Any main reason why you can't get a job?

Might as well post my conundrum too.

I'm not sure whether I'd rather work part time and do uni full time, or work full time and do a 6 month music production course (for no reason other than for my own enjoyment). I don't mind work and I don't know if I want to keep going at uni - I've changed course twice already and don't feel like I'll enjoy it but I feel pressure from my family to do it. It's not like I can't defer, but if I do I'll be another 6-12 months behind.

:lol: =d>

Meh, defer and do what you love. What's the hurry to finish a degree that you're only mildly interested in?

I've done the studying what I thought would bring me good job prospects thing rather then studying something I like, and agree with notor, its a bit of a life fail doing that! I now don't use my qualifications at all and that was pretty much a wasted 5 years. Avoid that if you can!

In saying that, I think we need more information in order to offer you an objective opinion on whether to work or study, for example, what are your living arrangements? What are your income requirements? If you study full time, could you survive financially with only part time work?

Maybe studying part time while working full time is a valid option depending on your circumstances, thats what I did and while it was a fair bit of a juggle at times particularly coming into exams, I still managed to do it and people who have watched me post over time on here know that I'm hardly the most intelligent bloke your likely to come accross.

But the best "life advice" I could give you is do NOT under any circumstances commit to study unless you are 100% sure you want to do it! Don't study a course just because it seems like the right thing to do / all your mates are doing it / "lawyers make good money, i'll study law!".

Only study if your 100% into it and want to do it and most importantly have a PASSION for it!

I hear this a lot from mates and stuff, people carrying on about how their job is meaningless and no career and blah blah, and 9 times out of 10 they are so focused on this mindset of "I've got to get a career! Got to study!" that they can't see the forest through the trees in that they are already in a job that DOES offer a career or a lifestyle or whatever.

I'm not saying that is the case for everyone, but I've heard of too many stories of people giving up jobs they enjoyed doing or had a workplace and colleagues they really loved in order to take a job that is boring as batshit and they hate, just because of the "career prospects"

Money doesn't buy happiness, as the old saying goes, find a job you love and you won't work a day in your life and honestly man its the muther trucking truth!

6-12 months behind what?

It's all a simulation. :cool:

without getting all stalker on your arse funky, we need more details. what kind of qualifications do you have? what are you interested in studying, and how long will it take to do so? how old are you and what are your commitments in terms of loans, relationships, etc? have you done the whole "travel for 6 months, come back a changed person" thing yet in your life?

It sounds like you've got a great opportunity to take the chance to go overseas and work overseas for a couple of years.

Thats something you should only do if you have a real desire for it though, if you do it just for an escape, it might still be a great thing, but it also might be a very lonely time.

Depends I guess on how much of an outgoing person you are and how well you can make friends, not everyone is like that.

I did do a post last night answering some people's questions/posting more details. But it got lost in the great forum meltdown of 2013. I'll repost later tonight.

FFT's servers are popsicles.

Ok.

To provide some details...

I am currently living with my Grandmother, and don't have to pay rent. We share bills, of course, but other than that, I have to cover all of my own stuff/food/travel etc. Which isn't that much, I live fairly comfortably off Centrelink payments. This is another reason I'm leaning towards study, in that I probably won't have the opportunity like this again.

In terms of what I want to study, that is the next big hurdle. I'm being indecisve because there's a lot of things that interest me. I need to sit down and properly make some decisions regarding this, although I am limited in that I'm fairly sure I've missed cuttoff for starting now, and will have to wait till Mid-Year intake.

In terms of why I'm struggling to find work, it's mostly because I haven't worked in a long time. I decided to focus on my uni work during my course, so I have very little recent work experience. That said, I'm currently doing volunteer work at a Salvo's Op Shop, so that's going a long way to fixing that. I'm pretty sure I will find some sort of work soon, things have been picking up, but obviously not a set thing.

In terms of qualifications, I just have my audio course. I think if I do go back to study, I want it to be something around this. I've been looking at Games Design/Programming, or possibly Film Design, because I love doing Sound Effects. That industry is a definitely tough to crack into though, which is why I've been hesitant to decide on what I want to do.

The Travelling overseas thing I hadn't thought of. I don't know if I could do it. No money saved up, It'd be a big risk...Yolo?

Yolo!

I would YOLO it. do your rsa/rcg, get 6 months experience in a pub over here, save for the start of the next spl/epl season and head your arse over to Scotland/England with a pub job over there. live in said pub, go to games, etc

This is not recommended in Glasgow though. You will be stabbed. :lol:

You only YOLO once, Funky.

Having said that though, if you actually do find a course that you really WANT to do I agree in saying your current conditions make it the idea time to take that path, but I wouldn't let that fact get in the way of doing what you want to do, you're wasting your time studying if your heart isn't in it.

Unless your fav EPL team is one of the big clubs, as tickets are 90 pounds + IF you can even get a ticket

Perhaps you could use...a life coach?

:lol:
There are enough idiots out there who use carpe diem after seeing Dead Poets, although YOLO has knocked it back into obscurity.

I assume you still know/have friends at your old club? Did they take training very seriously at your old club, or was it more of a casual practice sort of thing?

Wouldn't you be better off talking with your old coach about it than a bunch of guys on a forum?