- Inventory Analyst/Merchadise Planner
- Writer
- Account Manager, Marketing or Ad Firm
- Consumer Goods Marketing
- Sustainability Expert
- Small business Ops Manager/Consultant
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| This is the first image that showed up when I googled "confused". I find that hilarious. |
Uh... yeah. And I have experience doing the majority of that, just to give you an idea of how disjointed my resume looks. Apparently no one is hiring for a "jack of all trades" these days.
I was in the middle of looking at Masters Degree programs in Urban Planning (to add some indecisive icing to my confusion cake), when a girlfriend called to ask if I wanted to grab coffee. Yes! So I left my cave and joined her for some much needed sunshine and caffeine. We got to chatting about my job search, where I promptly diarrhea-style dumped on her about my lack of direction. It turns out I'm not the only one. She told me story after story of people she knows that went to school for very specific degrees, only to find they hated their chosen field or couldn't find a job in it, and are now going through a predicament very similar to my own. Apparently it's a pretty common issue amongst my peers.
Should I be relieved? Well, I was at first... but then I realized my lack of uniqueness in this quandary may be a bad thing... Are there thousands of late twenty-somethings roaming the interwebs looking for professional purpose just like I am? And if so, how do I, with my random cornucopia of capabilities, look better than the rest in case someone is hiring for my dream-jack-of-all-trades position?? Ugh. I have no answers or insightful references to end this post with. Maybe you do?
*I have yet to discover whether this is helping or hindering my job search, although I am inclined to believe the latter, but that's a whole separate discussion.
Hi sam, just came across your blog and read this post. This also applies to me! I went to therapy recently cause I was so stressed about my job situation and I got some good advice. During one of my rants about not wanting to be one of those people who quits a job every year and struggles to find something totally unrelated to do for a living, he said "Why not? What's so wrong with getting different jobs frequently for the rest of your life?
ReplyDeleteThere are 2 implications for the statement. One big problem for me was having people perceive me as a flake because I couldn't pick one thing and excel at it for the next 40 years, for some reason I had this picture in my mind of being awesome at something. So the big hurdle is to get over what other people think about you.
The second implication is that you can't make a ton of money if you keep switching jobs, essentially starting over at the bottom of a new totem pole every year. I don't know if this is true yet. But what's keeping me sane right now is not giving a shit. I've been in jobs where I've made decent money (not millions, mind you, so I can't speak for that) but it has yet to be worth it to sell my soul at a horrible job just because the pay was good. Your time and experiences are the most important things in life and it's never worth it to trade them. So my two cents is to get a low-key job that affords you to live comfortably, and don't worry about what other people think or whether you will ever reach that 7-figure salary. Now if only I had good advice for getting that job...
Thanks for the thoughtful post.
Thanks for sharing your experience! I absolutely agree with you in that it's not worth selling your soul for a paycheck - life is too short! I find that I'm not so worried about other people's perception of my career and ambitions, but my own that are causing me all this confusion. If only I could stop competing with my own made-up ideal of what I should be accomplishing!
ReplyDeleteThanks again for your thoughts. I hope you've found something fulfilling and fun to do for work - at least for now ;)