Bob’s world

Obviously, professional footballer comes high up on the list, but that’s probably not a viable career option for me at my age. Okay, it never really was.

Something in the City could be lucrative. My mate has just switched from auto-engineering to management consultancy and is starting on a salary of £80,000. He did have to go through the pain of an MBA to get there though. But even if I did have the brains, I don’t know if I could handle the hours, the suit and city types in general.

Why am I thinking about changing my job?

Two words: Northern Rock. For those of you as old as me, all this talk of recession is making me feel rather twitchy, especially as I am in the process of buying a lovely new house. Is it going to be a repeat of the 1980s? Plenty of people got out of construction to pursue different careers then, and not all of them by choice.

I can’t pretend to understand how the money markets work, but I am worried.

I don’t want to be lumbered with a huge mortgage, a house in negative equity and no job. It’s all very well people saying that the Olympics will take up the slack, but I don’t work in London. And I don’t want to either.

If you really want to know what I’d like to do instead of this job, it’s nothing. I might moan about it sometimes, but there’s really nothing I would rather do.