Ribh's D'Coopage

[Ribh]

I agree wholeheartedly!

To fill in on Australian social benefits, if Ribh is close to retirement age, she can study that out and Australia will support her: Austudy until old age pension. These options are not a pittance (jobseeker is a pittance) but also not a tonne of money. My dad loved the old age pension, it made a big difference in his quality of life.

But she may prefer to work and that's a very real option. There are loads of opportunities. The Link will connect her with a placement agency if that's what she wants to do.

I actually looked @ my study options last night & will ring Armidale today as I think I can do my Masters online from there. My Alma Mater has no options for me. I am super happy to study as my one real useful work skill is my research skills. I started off work as a library technician & everyone thought I should study that because I loved reading but library work has almost nothing to do with reading & I pretty much hated it because it was very much to do with the public & I am not a people person. I liked Childrens, research & repair, all highly skilled areas with few openings. I went overseas instead.

At present I'm not sure I could hold a job down as I'm tending to fall asleep @ really odd times & have absolutely no control over this. I am speaking to my Dr next week.

@RoyalChick thank you for so many kind words. I'm not sure those who know me best would agree with you. I'm not known for my practicality. I love my degree & enjoyed doing it but it isn't really much use. I have a really weird skill set. I'm a great public speaker but what do I use it for? I'm a good story teller but...Plus just now I have things like court cases to sort out which doesn't mesh well with employment.

 

[MaryJanet]

But also

 

[Ribh]

I hoyed her off 7 eggs this morning! I don't know about this lot! They are mad.

 

[Ribh]

Good evening folks

To Bob's point, my degree is in Aeronautics with a focus on avionics and today I'm an IT financial analyst. It's really hard to get someone to hire you when you're close to retirement age. But, with your background, you might want to checkout Norman Neilson Group and take some classes in User Experience (Ux) There is a huge demand for Ux folks and not enough to fill it. And today, with the pandemic, there's a huge market for folks who can teach others on how to communicate and collaborate in a virtual environment.

I have no idea what you're talking about, Bob, but I'll look into it.

 

[Ribh]

At the risk of upsetting you and everyone else I am going to weigh in here because this discussion hits close to one of my triggers.
Too many people (maybe you included) define what they are good at way too narrowly and too tied to their original field of study (which we often pick randomly when we are barely out of being teenagers).
I don't even know you and I know that you are good with your hands, a font of common sense, and are a strong critical thinker able to analyze ambiguous and soft situations including things like emotion and motivation.
From what I have understood of your situation you are not trying to become a millionaire, just trying to have enough income to live independently.
I don't know how the social security system works in Australia so I may be off base here but my guess is you could patch together a number of part time activities that would add up.
Off the top of my head: Schools and universities need counsellors for their students; companies need customer service people (and many have found older people are better at the job because they are more able to understand what the customer is concerned about); Companies need people to proof read their instruction manuals for comprehensibility (hard to believe - but yes they do!); Publishers of all kinds need proof readers and editors; crisis lines and support groups need people to man them (mostly that is volunteers but not all); loads of small companies need folk willing to do a few hours a week to organize their offices.
None of the above are exciting careers and I am totally confident you could if you set your mind to it aspire much higher - but they are all jobs that need doing and can be done remotely and which I am very sure you would be able to do with one arm behind your back.
You are not defined by your degree or your narrow view of what you are good at.
Rant over. I will shut up now.

Some great ideas in here! TY. I am neither ambitious nor career oriented so part time something is a really good option. Something will turn up in the right time.

 

[Ribh]

None of the above are exciting careers and I am totally confident you could if you set your mind to it aspire much higher - but they are all jobs that need doing and can be done remotely and which I am very sure you would be able to do with one arm behind your back.
You are not defined by your degree or your narrow view of what you are good at.
Rant over. I will shut up now.

I did my degree as a mature age student so I'd been out of school for years but you are very right about one thing; I think I'm a flexible thinker, which ties into good research skills. I remember last time I was studying [in 2013] I was asked to help out in admin ~ not, I would have said, my area. They were trying to put together an information leaflet for overseas students & had been trying for months to find some sort of outline someone else had made to build on ~ with no success. I turned one up in 15 minutes. I don't know how one turns that sort of thinking into a saleable commodity but I'm good @ it.

 

[RoyalChick]

I actually looked @ my study options last night & will ring Armidale today as I think I can do my Masters online from there. My Alma Mater has no options for me. I am super happy to study as my one real useful work skill is my research skills. I started off work as a library technician & everyone thought I should study that because I loved reading but library work has almost nothing to do with reading & I pretty much hated it because it was very much to do with the public & I am not a people person. I liked Childrens, research & repair, all highly skilled areas with few openings. I went overseas instead.

At present I'm not sure I could hold a job down as I'm tending to fall asleep @ really odd times & have absolutely no control over this. I am speaking to my Dr next week.

@RoyalChick thank you for so many kind words. I'm not sure those who know me best would agree with you. I'm not known for my practicality. I love my degree & enjoyed doing it but it isn't really much use. I have a really weird skill set. I'm a great public speaker but what do I use it for? I'm a good story teller but...Plus just now I have things like court cases to sort out which doesn't mesh well with employment.

I am glad I didn't offend you too much. And for the record I didn't emphasize practicality, but you are clearly good with your hands - look at all the crochet - and clearly have loads of common sense.
Anyway, I figured that it would be hard to be employed full time which is why I suggested some part time, freelance type work. Editing and proofreading are traditionally done remotely and on a freelance basis. I imagine you can spot a badly constructed sentence from a hundred yards!
Anyway, I will stop as I am not in the position to actually offer you a job so cannot really help except to say that I love the retiree education idea and would totally do that myself if it was an option here. I am massively over educated but all sort of 'trade school' type things and I really missed out on things like philosophy and literature. As I am about to retire I was thinking of doing some on line studies myself.
I am sure you will figure it out.

 

[MaryJanet]

I am glad I didn't offend you too much. And for the record I didn't emphasize practicality, but you are clearly good with your hands - look at all the crochet - and clearly have loads of common sense.
Anyway, I figured that it would be hard to be employed full time which is why I suggested some part time, freelance type work. Editing and proofreading are traditionally done remotely and on a freelance basis. I imagine you can spot a badly constructed sentence from a hundred yards!
Anyway, I will stop as I am not in the position to actually offer you a job so cannot really help except to say that I love the retiree education idea and would totally do that myself if it was an option here. I am massively over educated but all sort of 'trade school' type things and I really missed out on things like philosophy and literature. As I am about to retire I was thinking of doing some on line studies myself.
I am sure you will figure it out.

I'm going to do philosophy at Cambridge when I retire. Can't wait.

I hope I don't end up kicking myself for not doing it sooner

I should probably do it now-ish. Maybe I'll do it after my next promotion.

 

[RoyalChick]

I'm going to do philosophy at Cambridge when I retire. Can't wait.

I hope I don't end up kicking myself for not doing it sooner

I should probably do it now-ish. Maybe I'll do it after my next promotion.

Interesting. Would you do that in person or one of their on-line programs?
I am at early stages of exploring the idea - I am in my last few months of work but it is hard to focus on what is next because I keep getting pulled into issues.
Then I foolishly decided now was a good time to do a bunch of long delayed basic home maintenance which is turning out way more time consuming and stressful than I imagined!

 

[MaryJanet]

Interesting. Would you do that in person or one of their on-line programs?
I am at early stages of exploring the idea - I am in my last few months of work but it is hard to focus on what is next because I keep getting pulled into issues.
Then I foolishly decided now was a good time to do a bunch of long delayed basic home maintenance which is turning out way more time consuming and stressful than I imagined!

I had planned to do it as a feature of my retirement holiday which (unforeseen viruses permitting) will be on a narrow boat in the UK.

But if I can do it sooner, I guess it will have to be online. Unless I take it at the local uni instead of Cambridge.