Dyspraxic friendly jobs

[Ruth]

I think that prospective employers would be impressed by the different view points you will bring to the position having done a year of travelling.
All of these marvelous life experiences and proof you have the nonce to look after your self for a whole year.

It is also an oportunity you should not pass up lightly. All too sooon the years roll round and you have responsabilities which mean you cant anymore, grab the chance while you have it. I never did cos I was too scared!

As for the age thing I'll be 34 (aarrgghh) when I graduate with bugger all experience and I'm hoping someone will give me a job!!!

Let us know what you decide. OOOh you could mail us from Aus!! Awesome

[fuzzy]

Mattie, i dont think that that will put employers off at all- youll have the experience of travelling, visitng new places and experinecing new cultures. If theres one thing that emplayers love its expereince, and not just work- but life expeience too. If you can show that you have plenty of it, youll have no problem

[Daniel]

Academic qualifications can be overrated, Mattie. They're important to have to a degree (no pun intended) but in many lines of work it's but one string to your bow, and travelling and other such wider experiences can prove as appealing to an employer. I would also echo Ruth's comments in that responsibilities can come upon you all too quickly. I am 27 now and several of my friends are looking at buying houses. In contrast I'm wanting to get some travelling in now, as travel and mortgages don't mix too well!

Get out there, experience the world, and in the end you'll be better off than many of your peers in ways you never imagined.

[mattie]

I was going to go travelling anyway, regardless of jobs. Like everyone else has said - life's too short. I'm not a career orientated person anyway. I come from a very working class family so earning a mediocre wage won't bother me at all.

I'll be travelling with my sister. I think I'd find travelling and living on my own too much to handle, especially as I've never spent more than 24 hours away from my family before. I'll go on the round the world trip straight after I graduate i.e. in just over 2 years time. I'm really looking foward to it, even though I've still got quite a long time to wait.

I must admit I'd still love to emmigrate to either Queensland in Australia or New Zealand. The thought of all that wonderful coastline and warm weather.

Mattie.

[Daniel]

Likewise Mattie. Although don't let the fact your family members haven't generally aimed high in the past mean that you shouldn't necessarily do so. I sometimes wish my parents had pushed me a bit more. I tend to find that children of professional parents tend to go into similarly professional lines of work, and business people seem to have business-minded children. I suppose having been brought up in certain surrounds and seeing what it takes is a great aid in following in those footsteps.

As for emigrating, although Australia has made this more difficult in recent years, friendly countries downunder are amongst the easiest to move to outside of the EU.

[david456]

Mattie, if you can afford it, go for it, it's life expereince and you can't buy that. It will give you an advantage, when going for a job. I want a job that pays enough for me to be comfortable on. I have spoken to people about travelling and it is generally seen as a good thing in the work place, especially if you are going for a job, rather than in one, when the employer isn't going to want to lose someone for 4 weeks at once if they can help it.

[mattie]

The problem at the moment is that my parents, particularlly my mother, prefer the thought of living in Australia, whilst I prefer the sound of a much more sedate and quieter life in New Zealand. Having said that both countries sound really cool for outdoor living, which is what I'd be after.

I guess a little travelling should help me to decide.


Mattie.

[mattie]

I've gone out of the emigrating stage. I really wanted to move to the other side of the world but now it doesn't really interest me much anymore. I used to spend probably an average of 3 or more hours every day looking stuff up on the Internet. You see, I go through stages where I develop obsessions for things, usually when I feel stressed or depressed. Because I don't feel like that at the moment, the obsession has gone.

I still wouldn't mind travelling, but I've realised that a change of place won't make any difference to anything. I'd still face the same problems I do now, only they'd probably be 10 times worse.


Mattie.

[david456]

I guess, you don't know about something until you try it. you may find a short break somewhere turns out to be a great place that you would like to live.
With regard to your last point, Dyspraxia is still going to be there I agree, but if it is just a situation of location. It won't make a difference where you are. I can't see a problem being worse. OK, if you had to learn a new language or do a job specific to that country that you couldn't do here, I could see it as worse, but otherwise not.

[Daniel]

Hi Mattie,

I go through phases like that as well. Sometimes the idea sticks, sometimes not.

Going abroad is an unpredictable business, and it's not always necessarily that easy to gauge how it'll turn out. Home has familiarity of system as its advantage whereas abroad may offer different types of opportunities. For now you've got Uni, so there's plenty of time to mull over these things.

Dan (on the road)

[arthmelow]

I was considering either the patent office or being a patent agent. Both would allow to show creative strengths and capitalise on my ability to absorb in a lot of information and process it to a conclusion through a non-standard route.

As dyspraxia becomes more well known, many companies are introducing positive policies for dyspraxics, including the British Army!

Eventually it shouldn't stop anyone from being in a certain career. However I would say that cold sales is still a no-no for me personally - I can't position my pitch and tone correctly in conversation and my memory isn't good enough to employ subliminal sales techniques.

[towildhoney]

People might find the charity employment oppurtunities could be helpful
http://www.opportunities.org.uk/
they have a grad jobs section

[Philip]

I have not much experience either - the only experience I have had (so far) are a few jobs which were via employment agencies at various different companies - some of the jobs were been better than others - one or two were unsuitable for me due to lack of skills and needed a lot of communcation

A placement (whilst doing a NVQ) which was sorted out with the Training Centre I went to.

I have worked in one of my local charity shop after my NVQ (which was one hour per week on Saturdays) which did not last very long - only month

I have some very good skills (mainly in IT) but I am reliable, friendly, etc

My weaknesses has slipped me up and affect every job I have had so far (all from agencies) - I think my weaknesses have probably annoyed some of the work colleagues/team I have worked with and probably has affect me being kept at the companies and leaving huge work gaps on my CV

I do not deal with stress well. I would prefer a job where the focus of a single task/job are needed - rather then having six or seven different tasks (muti-tasking) to juggled with at the same time

I do not feel I be able to managed or handled a top rated job where everything will be demanding and you would need to strong skills in every area of the job description (able to communication highly on all levels etc)

I do want to work (I do not like having to sign on) - money is not a big issue at the moment - just above the minimum wage (per hour) will be fine

I do not want to travel to far - I would prefer the location to be local or be in the city centre. I prefer to work in a good environment - where there is not too much backstabbing going on or where the blame get pass around if mistakes happen

There are certain jobs/areas which are a big no no - dangerous environment (working with sharp/dangerous tools, heavy lifting etc etc)

other jobs which will not be able to managed are call centres, sales, customer service/sales -

[Daniel]

Philip I know just how you feel! It's frustrating in some ways because you know that you've got decent abilities in certain areas, but there are some dyspraxia related factors that would impair doing everything that I job entails. I've encountered this time and time again. I wonder sometimes if I should have pushed myselfed to aim for a higher powered job or that sort of thing, but I also feel in my heart that I'm not destined for that sort of thing. Not because I haven't got the grey matter required but because it wouldn't suit me and the ways in which I work.

It's annoying because there must be jobs out there that would suit our cans and can'ts list, but on the face of it it seems that we're generally lumbered with fairly mundane roles where brain power isn't required, and judging by the people on the forum they could tackle much greater intellectual hurdles. It's just finding that right balance. I'm sure suitable jobs do exist but finding them is proving to be a bugger!

[Philip]

One employment agency did managed to arranged a perfect job for me in November last year - which was purely data-inputting

The assignment lasted 9 days since this job was ideal for the uni students since this was on two different shifts and the company needed a lot of people to get the inputting done quickly

I also got pre-tested doing the other job which I got asked about - I did well in the practise testing making few mistakes =D> however I was unsucessfully and jobs were being cut #-o