Unskilled Jobs Outside of North America?

[Titan]

I am just about 14 years at the bar and not many days go by that I don't wish I did something else. I have been careful to choose lifestyle type law jobs and that has worked pretty good. My kids know me and my wife still tolerates me.

However, I realize I probably went into it for the wrong reasons and now it is too late to back out, unless I win the lottery.

I am curious how you decided to go into it and what your perceptions were before you went in?

There are lots and lots of unhappy lawyers out there.

I applaud you making this decision. Enjoy some time doing what you want. There are tons of opportunities for someone with your background out there, as I am sure you know.

Alternatively, my brother has been teaching english in Germany for the last five years and I don't think he is ever coming home.

My $.02.

[troutman]

Originally Posted by ignite09

Sounds like the other posters who've made a decision like this are lawyer types. Is there a general lack of professional satisfaction in that field?

Second highest suicide rate after dentists. Rampant substance abuse. I avoided this by being my own boss. No overtime or weekends. No pressure to log billable hours. Helping ordinary people instead of big corporations. Works for me now with young family.

I had my big walkabout after articling - 5 months in South America. Best thing I could have done.

[JohnnyB]

Originally Posted by gargamel

Does anyone have any suggestions of jobs that I could get and/or places that I could live outside of North America without having any particular skills and not being able to speak any languages other than English and very poor Spanish?

As a little background, I'm 31 years old and have an undergraduate degree in chemical engineering and a law degree, and I've been working as a corporate/intellectual property lawyer for the past few years, but I just quit my job and need to do something that I enjoy.

I've never lived outside of North America and would like to experience that for a while before possibly coming back and finding a job in another field (I'll worry about that later), but I have no idea about what opportunities, if any, are out there. If there's nothing that I can do for work, I'll probably just use my savings to be the too-old backpacker in hostels for a few months, but I'd ideally stretch it out a little longer by finding a job and spending some quality time somewhere. I'm open to pretty much anywhere. Any ideas?

Chemistry teachers are always among the most in-demand teachers overseas. You would have a good chance of finding work in some international school as a chemistry teacher.

[Kswiss]

Originally Posted by flylock shox

Take the chance while you can. Just remember, you can escape your life for awhile, but you'll have to change your life to be happy in the long run.

I don't regret any of the time I took off from lawyering, but you've got to have a home to come back to eventually, and you've got to make your life at home as good as it can be. Otherwise you'll just be looking for another escape in a couple of years.

That said, there's a big wide wonderful world out there that you should get to know better while you can. I hope you enjoy it!

Really agree with having to change your life as opposed to just escaping something. The person who you become now will be the person you will be for the rest of your life. Better to discover the things that make you happy and also who you are earlier rather then later!

[SeoulFire]

Originally Posted by flylock shox

Take the chance while you can. Just remember, you can escape your life for awhile, but you'll have to change your life to be happy in the long run.

I don't regret any of the time I took off from lawyering, but you've got to have a home to come back to eventually, and you've got to make your life at home as good as it can be. Otherwise you'll just be looking for another escape in a couple of years.

That said, there's a big wide wonderful world out there that you should get to know better while you can. I hope you enjoy it!

Why? Home is not a fixed and unchanging place. I thought along the lines of the above and came 'home' but it was a mistake as I absolutely hated living in Calgary. I realized after three horrible years that 'home' is Seoul and moved back and couldn't be happier.

The time abroad could be a welcome break from your life or the start of a new one.

[JohnnyB]

Originally Posted by SeoulFire

Why? Home is not a fixed and unchanging place. I thought along the lines of the above and came 'home' but it was a mistake as I absolutely hated living in Calgary. I realized after three horrible years that 'home' is Seoul and moved back and couldn't be happier.

The time abroad could be a welcome break from your life or the start of a new one.

I agree. Home could be out there just waiting for you to find it. I went back to Calgary for the first time in about 7 years last summer. I enjoyed it, but there's no chance I'd move back there. It's not home. Every time I go back to Vancouver I feel a little bit the same too. What rationale is there in the notion that of all the places in the world it's the one where you're born, or grow up, or happen to be right now that's right for you. Shanghai, as much as it drives me nuts sometimes, is more home to me now than Calgary is. When younger I agreed with the notion that home is anywhere I laid my head at night, and that worked for me perfectly. Now I'm more in accordance with the idea that home is any four walls that enclose the right people.

In any event, there's a big difference between traveling on a vacation for an escape and moving somewhere to live there and experience the life. Totally different. A vacation won't bring you what living there does.

Of course, it's ultimately true that wherever you choose to make your home you should try to make your life there happy.

[tvp2003]

We need to rename this thread the "Disgruntled lawyers/professionals in Calgary" thread

I know a lot of the talk has been focused on lawyers and lawyering, but the last couple of posts have also talked about the culture of living in Calgary (or more broadly, Canada or even North America), versus something overseas (in a similar culture, or perhaps completely different). I'd be curious what it is about _____ (i.e. Seoul/Shanghai) that now makes that home for you as opposed to Calgary?

I can sympathize with the OP -- sounds like it's been a pretty long grind and you wouldn't be the first person to get sick of it (for good reason). Good luck!

[gargamel]

Originally Posted by Titan

However, I realize I probably went into it for the wrong reasons and now it is too late to back out, unless I win the lottery.

I am curious how you decided to go into it and what your perceptions were before you went in?

I think I went into law for mostly the right reasons, but going to a corporate law firm was largely driven by a need to pay off loans. When they were letting me cut my teeth by filing patent applications for guys who invented wacky stuff in their basements, I really enjoyed it, but they priced me out of those clients fairly quickly and then I was just making BS arguments and filing very slight variations of the same applications over and over again for large corporations so that they could slap "patent pending" on their non-patentable products. I really didn't mean to make this thread about me hating being a lawyer though. I may even try to find a place where I can work with independent inventors or even open my own firm eventually, but I wasn't happy where I was at and needed to move on, and I don't want to allow my first extended time off as an adult go to waste.

Originally Posted by tvp2003

We need to rename this thread the "Disgruntled lawyers/professionals in Calgary" thread

I know a lot of the talk has been focused on lawyers and lawyering, but the last couple of posts have also talked about the culture of living in Calgary (or more broadly, Canada or even North America), versus something overseas (in a similar culture, or perhaps completely different). I'd be curious what it is about _____ (i.e. Seoul/Shanghai) that now makes that home for you as opposed to Calgary?

I can sympathize with the OP -- sounds like it's been a pretty long grind and you wouldn't be the first person to get sick of it (for good reason). Good luck!

Thanks again to everyone who has responded. You've all been really helpful in giving me some ideas about how to turn this time off from a vacation into a real experience living abroad, even if it's only temporary. I think I've gotten the advice that I needed, so you're more than welcome to take this thread in another direction.

[flylock shox]

Originally Posted by SeoulFire

Why? Home is not a fixed and unchanging place. I thought along the lines of the above and came 'home' but it was a mistake as I absolutely hated living in Calgary. I realized after three horrible years that 'home' is Seoul and moved back and couldn't be happier.

The time abroad could be a welcome break from your life or the start of a new one.

Of course you can make your home somewhere else, but my point is that you're going to have to make one somewhere eventually. You're not going to be happy as the littlest hobo, perpetually moving on from town to town, always having to make new friends or look for a new temporary job to pay the bills. Eventually you're going to want the stability of good friends and loved ones close to you, and work that you enjoy and want to invest yourself in, and maybe the chance to start a family of your own one day.

The time away should definitely be used to have fun and explore, but it also should allow you to reflect back on your own life and the reasons you felt you needed to change it in the first place. Then, when you decide to put down some roots again, be it back where you started or in your new home, you've got to take steps to incorporate the changes that will make your home life (old or new) a happy one.

In the meantime:

There’s a voice that keeps on calling me
Down the road is where I’ll always be

Every stop I make, I’ll make a new friend
Can’t stay for long, just turn around and I’m gone again.

Maybe tomorrow, I’ll want to settle down,
Until tomorrow, I’ll just keep moving on.

Down this road, that never seems to end,
Where new adventure, lies just around the bend...

[AltaGuy]

Good for you gargamel! Have fun wherever you end up.

I articled and... that was enough of that. I've basically spent three years now just having a good time.

One funny thing from this thread - remember, you don't have to improve yourself or educate yourself wherever you go. Just go and enjoy yourself.

Typical lawyers : "While you are in SE Asia, don't forget to take some classes on engineering and get a degree and learn some local wisdom and use those skills to get a better job when you get back, and be successful man!"

Get laid.

[SeoulFire]

Originally Posted by flylock shox

Of course you can make your home somewhere else, but my point is that you're going to have to make one somewhere eventually. You're not going to be happy as the littlest hobo, perpetually moving on from town to town, always having to make new friends or look for a new temporary job to pay the bills. Eventually you're going to want the stability of good friends and loved ones close to you, and work that you enjoy and want to invest yourself in, and maybe the chance to start a family of your own one day.

The time away should definitely be used to have fun and explore, but it also should allow you to reflect back on your own life and the reasons you felt you needed to change it in the first place. Then, when you decide to put down some roots again, be it back where you started or in your new home, you've got to take steps to incorporate the changes that will make your home life (old or new) a happy one.

In the meantime:

There’s a voice that keeps on calling me
Down the road is where I’ll always be

Every stop I make, I’ll make a new friend
Can’t stay for long, just turn around and I’m gone again.

Maybe tomorrow, I’ll want to settle down,
Until tomorrow, I’ll just keep moving on.

Down this road, that never seems to end,
Where new adventure, lies just around the bend...

I still say why? It sounds like you are assuming everybody holds the same values and making assumptions based on that. I have met countless of people while over here and on my travels that don't agree with anything you say.

I think I know the point you are trying to make, but by trying to apply it to everybody makes it just sound silly.

[undercoverbrother]

Originally Posted by SeoulFire

I still say why? It sounds like you are assuming everybody holds the same values and making assumptions based on that. I have met countless of people while over here and on my travels that don't agree with anything you say.

I think I know the point you are point you are trying to make, but by trying to apply it to everybody makes it just sound silly.

I have a buddy that packed it all in, ran off to Africa, became a sea captain, and loves(d) it. Then he put one passed his g/f and is having to settle down.

I also know a guy that has worked on high end yachts for 15+ yrs, no set home and loves evey minute of it.

If you don't want to settle down don't.

[gargamel]

*UPDATE*

It's been almost a year since I started this thread, so I figure it's time for me to post an update.

After originally posting, I looked into the Australian mining/OG jobs, but struck out due to being over the 30-year-cutoff for the easy visas. Since I was 31, I pretty much couldn't find a decent job without a visa and I couldn't get a visa without a decent job. That realization resulted in me goofing around around the world for the next several months (Morocco, Bosnia, Turkey, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, South Korea and Japan were all awesome other than a minor teargassing incident in Istanbul), which wasn't a bad thing at all.

By October, I decided that the other suggestion from this thread (teaching English) was probably my best option, so I went to somewhere that I'd never been (Bogota, Colombia) to take the CELTA English language teaching course. Although the rules they teach are way too rigid, I highly recommend the course. I had no idea what I was doing as a teacher, and I felt pretty good about it by the time I was done (which is a good thing, because I doubt I'd have been any happier as a s****y teacher than I ever was as a lawyer).

After the CELTA, I accepted a job in Cambodia and have been teaching in Siem Reap, Cambodia, ever since. I still don't know what I'll do long term, but I can say without a doubt that I'm happier doing this than I ever was in my previous life. I just accepted a six-month contract extension, so I'm here for the rest of 2014. If anyone has any questions about the ESL expat life, I'm more than happy to answer them, but if not, I'm just happy to update that all is well with me.

[Johnny199r]

Originally Posted by Titan

I am just about 14 years at the bar and not many days go by that I don't wish I did something else. I have been careful to choose lifestyle type law jobs and that has worked pretty good. My kids know me and my wife still tolerates me.

However, I realize I probably went into it for the wrong reasons and now it is too late to back out, unless I win the lottery.

I am curious how you decided to go into it and what your perceptions were before you went in?

There are lots and lots of unhappy lawyers out there.

I applaud you making this decision. Enjoy some time doing what you want. There are tons of opportunities for someone with your background out there, as I am sure you know.

Alternatively, my brother has been teaching english in Germany for the last five years and I don't think he is ever coming home.

My $.02.

I was a partner in a small town law firm in the North making good money - 250k plus, in my late 20's. I got tired of only really living for work.

My spouse and I are both prosecutors in Edmonton now and we enjoy the job. I wouldn't even say it's 40 hours a week. We each get 6 weeks off, which will eventually get up to 8 weeks off.

Our lifestyle choice was to go to gov't so we could take sabbaticals over our career. There's nothing stopping us from leaving for 6 months or a year (only kids schooling issues) every now and then and see the world.

More power to anyone that feels they need a change in their lives.