Enjoying life should always be a priority, and that is why I chose this path - i turned 40 at the weekend - I'd spent years and years in dead end jobs, my personal favourite was in a call centre for Zenith Windows cold calling and trying to get people to buy double glazing - life is wayyyyy too short for that! I've also done the supermarket checkouts, worked in a tanning salon, a bank call centre on the charges line (another personal high :-|) but with only a few O levels to my name, and all the interesting jobs asking for a degree I realised that I could either do this, or spend my life brain dead. This was never actually my plan when I signed up for nightschool A levels 7 years ago - I wanted to be a midwife - but life took me this way and now its what I want. I figure that even if I spend my life smelling mildly musky and dusty and wearing stripy jumpers and shapeless slacks it can not be so bad as cold calling with a 'supervisor' (read spotty idiot) shouting over my shoulder to not take no for an answer when hassling people..... I moan a lot, but all I have to do is to look back and I realise that I'm actually incredibly privileged to be doing this - its something I could never have dreamt of 7 years ago, I was approaching mid-thirties with two kids, a divorce, a remarriage and another baby on the way and on a hiding to nothing career wise.

That obviously isn't the case for many of you here - as guitarman shows we're quite capable now of getting good jobs with our current qualifications, but that fear of dropping back into the occupational gutter spurs me on no end!

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Thanks for the Birthday wishes! :D

Stressed - I hear you... I did some pretty rubbish and soul destroying jobs, though only for a few months at a time prior to going to uni. Sometimes I complain at having to work late or whatever but the work is immensely more satisfying and rewarding than most other jobs I know. Glad to hear you're doing better now :)

And of course - we should all be enjoying ourselves :D
One thing that really grinds my gears are those who work evenings & weekends for NO extra pay, just in order to 'do that bit more work' or impress the boss. Ugh... not for me. Does. Not. Compute. Lol... I know guys that regularly work weekends, and for what?? Sometimes they stare when I leave ON TIME at 5:30pm, but I don't care, as I know I've done my time and am leaving to go have a life!

Lastly, regards getting a job with current quals - if any of you have kids, tell them to go into engineering... plenty of jobs. Not the best paid, but we're always in demand!