Don't go changing your mind

So many options, so much hassle.

When you're thinking of getting a new job, the thought processes normally go something like this: I don't like my job, I want a new job, I'll get a new job. Mostly, this involves getting a new job that is moderately similar to the one you already have, so other than having to update your CV, get upset with incompetent recruiters and lie your way through an interview or two, the process is relatively straightforward.

You can probably see where this is going.

If, instead of being happy to just carry on doing the same thing for perhaps a slightly higher wage and a different route to the coffee machine, you want to be all difficult and reckless and stuff and not carry on doing the same thing, then it gets a little more tricky. I raise this because of course I have opted to go down the difficult and reckless and stuff path, and if anything illustrates the innate trickiness of my decision it's the letter I received this morning from the Department of Education. 'Hello,' it began, 'you've expressed an interest in possibly becoming a teacher.' 

Well, yes. Maybe. 

'That's great,' it went on, ''you can earn lots and it's brilliant for career progression.' 

Really? Please tell me more. 

'Thanks. Here's how you can do it,' it explained, and then went on to detail what turns out to be a two year process from initial application, to starting the course/training in school, to qualification. And at the end there's a possible job. And all the while surviving on, er, just a tad less than I'm currently earning. It's not just a move into teaching, of course. I'd commit acts of gross indecency on sweaty hoofed animals if it got me a commercial pilot's licence and a job flying 737s in return, but that would take (a) even longer, (b) a lot of money, and (c) a great deal of luck (commercial pilot jobs are somewhere near rocking horse do dah in the rare stakes). And I'd have to get over my tendency towards motion sickness. Bit of a bugger that one.

Anyway, the point (which I do get to eventually) is simply this: I don't yet know what I want to or can do - I'm still adjusting to the possibility of being able to do anything other than be a lawyer - but I am acutely aware that whatever it is it will take time, money and effort to get to the point where I can do it. What an odd society we are where it's so very hard to change your mind.