Reply With Quote17th Feb is my Birthday and I live in Bristol too...do you accept NHS patients?
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I qualified as a dentist from Bristol University in December 1985.
I started my working career in Bristol on 17th February 1986 & have been at the same practice ever since. I've never owned the practice & have seen it as strictly a 9-5 job plus the occasional emergency....Dentists aren't usually cut out to be businessmen.
Consequently I have loads of patients that I've known & looked after for more than 3 decades.
Here's a recent photo of me & the first patient that I saw at 9 o'clock on my first day as a wet behind the ears dentist. He is now aged 81, I bet you won't find many dentists who are still seeing their first ever patient nearly 38 years later
I have a great rapport & laugh with a lot of these patients & view them as my friends. I had one recently who broke my loupes because she hugged me too hard! My poor assistant must be fed up hearing the same stories & rants over & over again.
Not surprisingly this captive audience always agrees with my favourite rants....for example....The Tories.....Brexit....The NHS. They know which side their bread is buttered on.....my probe is very sharp!
Of late I've had a lot asking me "I hope you're not retiring yet because I couldn't see anybody else”....I must be looking old!
One day a week I teach the final year dental students at Bristol Dental School. That is greatly rewarding, not in monetary terms so much, but from the angle of passing on the practical knowledge I have learnt from nearly 40 years in the job. The feedback that I receive from them makes it all worthwhile. It's like 'passing the baton' in a relay race.
Not least it's a reason to get out of bed in the morning & maintain my mental health.
Who else loves their job?.........& what watch am I wearing?????????
Last edited by trident-7; 14th October 2023 at 12:38.
17th Feb is my Birthday and I live in Bristol too...do you accept NHS patients?
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No....but I might make an exception for TZ UK brethren....as long as your mouth isn't already knackered :-/Originally Posted by Red Steve
17th Feb is my Birthday and I live in Bristol too...do you accept NHS patients?
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It's not in bad nick to be honest...flossing is key
No idea on the watch but something on a NATO .. G10 maybe
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Congrats on loving your job! If you love your job you never spend a day at work.
I don’t mind mine, but have a lot of time for the guys and girls who work with me and that makes it enjoyable, we work hard and play hard.
Oh and I would say a Mk11 / 6b of some kind
I have an old friend who was never the most conscientious student in 6th form. He is now a Professor & a world authority on coral reefs. Recently he said that he'd told his sons....'Find a job that you love & you'll never work a day in your life!"
........& you are a connoisseur Sinnlover.......IWC Mark Xi from 1948
Chemical (Process) Engineer here. Graduated in Chemical Engineering in 1991, and it has been a vocation since then.
Did Oil and Gas projects for many, many years, but for the last 3 years I have been a Lead Engineer on some of the largest Net Zero projects in the world. The skills where easily transferable.
That gives me immense satisfaction that I am at the forefront of tackling climate change. I guess not many people can say that. Poacher turned gamekeeper you may say.
As long as I keep away from office politics, yes, I am really loving my job.
I like my job, ups and downs, but in general I'm happy with what i do. Customers make it, most of them are great, a few of them are, err, cyclistsbut i wont hold that against them, for too long.
😛I like my job, ups and downs, but in general I'm happy with what i do. Customers make it, most of them are great, a few of them are, err, cyclists
Better if this was in the bear pit so that folk could be honest and swear.
I think it's fantastic when people say they love their job. My parents used to say "do something you enjoy" but like most people (I think) I just went where the money and security was.
Qualified as a sparky back in early 2000's, started my own business in 2008, began to detest it in 2020, had a mini breakdown in 2021 and in April 2022 finally spewed it in.
All good though because after having a few months off after wrapping up I found the perfect job, maintenance guy for a brilliant charity in an idyllic spot in the peaks.
I keep out of any politics and am more or less left to manage my own work, which is perfect.
Gratuitous shot from my office (old cow shed)
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I love my job. Became chartered in 1999 and have done various stints as an employee and self employed. Now run a small practice with a good friend who is a chartered building surveyor. Every day has something that I can find enjoyable.
I thought a good start, swiftly transitioned into the predictable brag.
Doing what blackal?
Whoa! Not you, your post was great to read, and you obviously got it right at the career path choice.
further down the thread
Last edited by blackal; 13th October 2023 at 19:14.
Wires crossed on my part. Actually I always wanted to be a Vet…but at that crossroads my head of 6th form said it wasn’t worth me applying because I wouldn’t get the grades. At that age I didn’t argue. Then I did get the grades…I knew that the exams were what counted & revised like f*ck….but it was too late by then.
Fast forward nearly 40 years & my daughter is a 4th year Vet student at Bristol University. At least half of my genes got to do it!
To be honest I’m totally cut out to be a dentist. OCD about perfectionism, manual dexterity & attention to detail….& I don’t have to have my arm stuck up a cow’s backside at 3 o’clock in the morning.
Op asked the question, and I (for example) answered with pride. I guess you don't like your job, and in the usual British way a certain downbeat attitude is celebrated.
I don’t post about my Ferrari/Aston/ Porsche/McLaren on the What Do You Drive thread, because I don’t have one. I have a leased Volvo EV and a 23 year old Vauxhall Agila.
But it is celebrated to fawn over vastly expensive cars that only the few can afford, and nobody bats an eye.
Last edited by noTAGlove; 13th October 2023 at 20:11.
Some similarities. I wanted to be a vet but didn't get the grades (looking after my dying mum), I became an actuary instead (all the fun, less stress). I'll live my missed medical career through my daughters instead (eldest just qualified as a vet, youngest in 3rd Yr of dentistry).
I play and teach drums for a living. Absolutely love it.
I don't know about loving my job, but I do know the nation needs more dentists like trident-7. Congratulations
Great thread!
'Against stupidity, the gods themselves struggle in vain' - Schiller.
I don't enjoy mine, never really enjoyed anything I 'have' to do each day, worked in different industries and areas, high data literacy required in them all.
However it has allowed me to do what I want when I want of an evening, weekend or weeks away and luckily retire early without a thought, so cannot complain at all.
I sort of envy those who genuinely love what they do, clearly a calling / luck and the way they keep doing it with passion is fantastic.
Strangely based on the thread originator, being a dentist was always something I considered, but never progressed beyond a thought; so many years in the same surgery is astounding!
Agreed.
3 careers I completely warned my kids off of. 1)Dentistry 2) Medicine 3) Law
I'd probably add Veterinary to that now due to the number of young vets disillusioned with that profession and high suicide rates.
If I was to do it again I'd do finance and play with other folks money.
I work in the murky universe of corporate finance and have done so since I graduated in 1987. Absolutely no desire to stop. I love the adrenaline, the unpredictability, the ability to grow a business.
It’s been a hell of a ride and there are still a few laps to go.
Most people can't get into a dentist to even try to become friends with them!.
Sorry couldnt resist that one,sad but very true unfortunately.after covid my dentist never requested my company or friendship for the usual check ups.
Great thread and really nice to know so many people love their jobs. Never had a job I liked in my life and truly envy those who have found what works for them.
Cant beat a good dentist. I travel three towns over to visit mine. Still down with my mums address in case they say I’m not local and can’t see me anymore. If she changes practice I’ll cry.
Yes find a job that youll never need to work.
Become an MP and do nothing for anyone,and go against everything your parents ever taught you........and Blatantly lie.
Yes should be in the bear pit.....
And he had the nerve to talk about my 'humble brag', Jesus!
I am with you there mate! I tried to stay with my old dentist but he retired.
Haven't heard that for years thank you 🙂
Don't hate my job, don't love it. Am in the fortunate position that it has taken me all over the world and earned and spent/lost lots of money.
I am a Chartered Mechanical Engineer and have been for nearly 30 years now, not that I've done much of that in the last 20 but I am still in engineering.
I will "retire" in 4 years when I hit 60, my daughter graduates and do something in a field that interests me part time. Maybe art, antiques, gambling related. We'll see. Would also like to do another degree with the OU - psychology or social sciences related.
I enjoy my job (firmware engineer) it’s different and challenging over time. However if several millions appeared in my bank account tomorrow I’d make sure it was real and quit.
That said I’d probably contract for them or other places as i say I enjoy it, but it would be per project and on my terms.
Very emotive question!
After a staccato start in an engineering apprenticeship (which I loved) the company went into 'wobble mode' and I chanced a response to a quarter page advert in the Yorkshire Post one Saturday morning. After a few months of a submitted application form and a few practical tests and an interview I found myself starting the most amazing journey of my adult life. I spent 12 weeks on a residential course being shouted at, being knackered and getting wet (very wet) I started my first day at my first posting as a probationary fireman (now referred to as firefighters). Over the next 31 years I enjoyed the privilege and heartache of working with some of the funniest, most pragmatic people a person could ever wish to associate with. We laughed, we had heartache and suffered failure when we won, and sometimes when we lost, what we were sent to solve. This was such a formative thing for me and it was something that I enjoyed so, so much. I spent most of my time out on the road responding to 999 calls and when I spent time away from that it was an instructor, teaching those that followed me. The happiest of days which I would repeat in an instant!. Too old now and time for others to enjoy the times and serve.
As somebody has said, when you love the job, it's not really a job.
When you look long into an abyss, the abyss looks long into you.........
Going to take 4-6 months off to change nappies in a few weeks. Once that’s done I’ll probably look for change with employer pension contributions as a focus. Then maybe I can join the TZ early retirement club, hopefully have something to humble brag about.
Stuck with my dentist as I have a tiny mouth and she normally looks after the kids!
You have a baby on the way and you want to join the retirement club? Where is your stamina, man. You will be bored of your t1ts ever if you had a sniff at it.
The early retirement thread is for us oldies who have done a proper stint, with kids who have grown up, the outlook on life has changed and we have done 30++ years of hard labour down the salt mines, not for late 30/early 40 somethings in the prime of their lives.
Best years of my life was when I had very young kids. Happy memories. It all went too quickly.
I’m a good 15 years down the mine and don’t think I have another 15+ in me. Not in the same mine anyway.
There is a point you get to in sales as an individual contributor where the stress isn’t worth it and you’d take a cut/change of direction for some stability. Pension being on basic only doesn’t help either.
The nappies will probably be like smelling salts and wake me up after two weeks, who knows!
Work in commercial property as a buyer/flipper/landlord
No two projects are the same
Get to meet very interesting people
Love going to auctions
Can be extremely rewarding financially albeit your only as good as your last deal
Extremely satisfying when I refurb something dilapidated and bring it up to date
Allows me plenty of downtime to spend with the family, holiday when I want, basically do what I want when I want.
No pension as such but my portfolio of property returns me a decent passive income and will do for the rest of my life. What I earn today will either increase as I add more property to it or remain the same moving forward but can draw the same monthly income for the rest of my life so no need to worry about paying into a pension.
In short, no.
Family business where I started working because my father got sick.
But I don’t really know what profession I would love.
I don’t feel like I have passion on anything that would be enough to make me love anything as a profession.
An interesting and possibly illuminating article on the nature of work for some. It seems plausible around 40 to 50 percent of workers are in ''bullshit jobs'', I have been for sure,
https://www.newyorker.com/books/unde...lshit-job-boom
''Is it possible that bullshit jobs are useful? In Graeber’s view, they simply reinforce their premises. “We have invented a bizarre sadomasochistic dialectic whereby we feel that pain in the workplace is the only possible justification for our furtive consumer pleasures, and, at the same time, the fact that our jobs thus come to eat up more and more of our waking existence means that we do not have the luxury of—as Kathi Weeks has so concisely put it—‘a life,’ ” he writes. His own idea of a life, which includes “sitting around in cafés all day arguing about politics or gossiping about our friends’ complex polyamorous love affairs,” may not be everyone’s. He also may misidentify the degree to which most people fret about the nature of their productive output; for some, work is the least important and defining of life’s commitments. But his point is that the bullshit economy feeds itself. Workers cram in Netflix binges, online purchases, takeout meals, and yoga classes as rewards for yet another day of the demoralizing bullshit work that sustains such life styles.''
Last edited by Passenger; 14th October 2023 at 08:42.
I love what I do (very niche software dev) but I always struggle with 'working with idiots'. I find it's generally the people you work with rather than the work itself that is the biggest factor in whether you enjoy a job or not
I made an intentional career change mid life jumping from one end of the job spectrum to the other (cruise ship entertainer to accountant). Each career perfectly suited my life at the time: the ships were a blast as a young person and then the 9 to 5 perfectly suits married life and bringing up kids.
I can’t claim to love my work, and daydream about retired life which I hope will include some volunteering as a third(ish) career.
Lucky to have a great (and young) dentist who should see me out
This is pretty much the same as me
Last edited by number2; 14th October 2023 at 11:40.
"Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. The third time it's enemy action."
'Populism, the last refuge of a Tory scoundrel'.
Not a million miles from our path.This is pretty much the same as me
I retired 9 years ago and now love my job and at times I really do wonder how I found time to work, the salary isent great but you can't have everything ( ͡~ ͜ʖ ͡° )
That is great taking that time off, you will love it for sure. I think it would probably encourage me to work on my exit plan, to be able to spend more time with kids as they grow up and not be working. Long school summer holidays together as a family would be amazing vs fitting in just 2 weeks.
I took 3 months off before I set up my own company, loved every second of it, the first long holiday since leaving uni. Was just a shame my mates were all at work!
We are all planning on giving it another 10yrs and all retiring about the same time. Be like being young & care free again, but with significantly higher disposable income to have fun with.
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I deal directly with the general public. The customer is rarely right. The customer is often incapable of doing much of anything for him or herself. The more you give, the more they demand. Seriously, they’d pluck out your eyeballs and then return for the lashes. This is why I prefer animals.
I’m enjoying my work at the moment, it’s the client demographic I’ve wanted to work with for over a decade, unfortunately it looks like my secondment won’t become made permanent.
Which means I’ll soon be heading back to my old role.
I’m contemplating a complete career change but going back to uni and the associated drop in earnings is scary, although with careful budgeting doable.
However I’d not earn more than I currently do for at least five years after qualifying.
OP will miss the gas and air when you retire.
It's great to hear you have a vocation you enjoy Trident it seems a very interesting profession. My dentists are pretty miserable sods, but they are NHS.
I never enjoyed work, possibly because I always had my own businesses, although I only usually did 4-5 hours a day.
Glad to call it a day at 50.
Cheers,
Neil.
I’m so glad I don’t deal with the general public, I don’t think I could cope with them. My wife has to and some of the stories blow my mind on the stupidity, ignorance and entitlement, of all ages & backgrounds.
Seeing many comments on FB, I can fully believe how painful the public are.
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