Late in life career assessment, how to move forward /u/Ok_Macaroon_7373 CSCQ protests reddit

I was a CAD designer for 14 years at the same small company and although I did well and became senior Designer, my workload had slow started to become too much to keep up with, even with working evenings, weekends, and even all night in the final years. I was on one those kids growing up who had obvious Attention Deficit Disorder. Constantly getting told to stop daydreaming even though I was still listening enough in class to know the answer. Struggled my way through school/summer school and graduated. Didn’t go to college until I met my wife and she told me about CAD designers at her work who made good money. I went to technical school and the only person who graduated with a 4.0 so I was offered an internship at the same employer who kept me on for 14 years. I believe two of my personality traits, introverted and disorganization, were crucial weaknesses that led to my career failing. I was juggling many jobs in many phases or design and would often have to put those on the back desk until they became active again and were “Hot” to finish. And I would often struggle to completely get back up to speed with the job if it sat for months. My employer was understanding to a point, but by then I was becoming an emotional mess as I became very adept at pretending things were fine at work even though it wasn’t. Money was an issue in our house and we had two young sons to raise. I was assigned to field service by my employer and would be gone for weeks at a time. Did this for over a year but inside I had really started to lock up. Being an introvert and dealing with contractors issues was difficult and not a strength of mine. I would eventually develop an extreme fear of work and would sit there wanting like he’ll to get the CAD aspect of my job done and it would just go ridiculously slow. I didn’t understand it myself and became sure I was losing my mental faculties in ways I couldn’t fix. But kept pushing anyway. I eventually got fires and took other CAD jobs where this freezing up would continually happen.after several short term jobs and firings I went to warehouse work, although I was in my 40a by then. I am now in a place where I want to get back into some form of cad work and am looking for advice as I am 52 now. I believe I would be most successful in a place where it was smaller parts that I would complete myself. I have an associates degree in mechanical design but I am truly a creative at heart. Very strong at original ideas, concepts, etc. Bless anyone who read all this. Any advice or insight careerwise would be greatly appreciated.

I was a CAD designer for 14 years at the same small company and although I did well and became senior Designer, my workload had slow started to become too much to keep up with, even with working evenings, weekends, and even all night in the final years. I was on one those kids growing up who had obvious Attention Deficit Disorder. Constantly getting told to stop daydreaming even though I was still listening enough in class to know the answer. Struggled my way through school/summer school and graduated. Didn’t go to college until I met my wife and she told me about CAD designers at her work who made good money. I went to technical school and the only person who graduated with a 4.0 so I was offered an internship at the same employer who kept me on for 14 years. I believe two of my personality traits, introverted and disorganization, were crucial weaknesses that led to my career failing. I was juggling many jobs in many phases or design and would often have to put those on the back desk until they became active again and were “Hot” to finish. And I would often struggle to completely get back up to speed with the job if it sat for months. My employer was understanding to a point, but by then I was becoming an emotional mess as I became very adept at pretending things were fine at work even though it wasn’t. Money was an issue in our house and we had two young sons to raise. I was assigned to field service by my employer and would be gone for weeks at a time. Did this for over a year but inside I had really started to lock up. Being an introvert and dealing with contractors issues was difficult and not a strength of mine. I would eventually develop an extreme fear of work and would sit there wanting like he’ll to get the CAD aspect of my job done and it would just go ridiculously slow. I didn’t understand it myself and became sure I was losing my mental faculties in ways I couldn’t fix. But kept pushing anyway. I eventually got fires and took other CAD jobs where this freezing up would continually happen.after several short term jobs and firings I went to warehouse work, although I was in my 40a by then. I am now in a place where I want to get back into some form of cad work and am looking for advice as I am 52 now. I believe I would be most successful in a place where it was smaller parts that I would complete myself. I have an associates degree in mechanical design but I am truly a creative at heart. Very strong at original ideas, concepts, etc. Bless anyone who read all this. Any advice or insight careerwise would be greatly appreciated.