I hate my career

Now maybe I already know the answer to this but about a year and a half ago I started an apprenticeship as a Maintenance and Operations Engineering Technician (Electrical), my issue is although everyone tells me to stick it out and that I'll "have a job for life" I'm struggling to find any meaning in what I do, I struggle with the work and I'm just struggling to find any motivation anymore. The people I work with constantly drill into me because I find it hard to understand parts of the job.

The past few months I've had my eye on accountancy and I might just bite the bullet and make the leap, I don't want to be the career hopping guy who hops from career to career but I just don't enjoy what I'm doing and it's killing my mental health. Waking up at 5am to go to a job I hate and having no energy left when I leave work. I only picked what I'm doing now because I was thinking of the money and now I'm regretting it.

All I'm looking for is a bit of advice and maybe know that I'm not alone in this feeling.

Thanks for reading

Reply 1

TheCareerPages

You’re definitely not alone in feeling this way! Recent studies have shown that the average person will change careers 5-7 times during their lifetime and nearly 6/10 middle-income workers are currently considering changing their careers (novoresume).

You’re not stuck to a single career path and there will be other opportunities out there to find a job that you find fulfilling. For now, it sounds like to have the following options:
1) Complete your apprenticeship and continue your current career path
2) Complete your apprenticeship and change your career path in the near future
3) Discontinue your apprenticeship and change your career path now

Without talking to you and knowing your exact circumstances, from your post alone, it sounds like you’ve given your apprenticeship a go, you’ve learned about yourself in the process (i.e. what type of job you like / don’t like), and you can take these learnings forward into whatever option you decide to pursue.

It may help to build a list of criteria of what you need from your job to feel fulfilled i.e. write down the learnings from your current apprenticeship and really think about what aspects of the role you’ve enjoyed, what aspects you haven’t enjoyed, and what are the core values you need to have fulfilled in order to find satisfaction in your role.

Once you know what type of role you'll find fulfilling, you'll need to think about making a plan. Weigh up the pros and cons of discontinuing your apprenticeship, versus completing your apprenticeship prior to making any career change.

Hope this helps.