After a year of silence, on both our ends, I am back to the world of sharing view online. I wasn't out of the country this time, I just found myself with different priorities of which I'm happy to have rid myself in the past few months. Retail being the main waste of time, both in store and in lifestyle change. I drank the company kool-aid, cared about the store gossip, and aligned myself with the team only to realize I had lost myself. So, here I am, again, reborn.
It has recently come to my awareness (as things sometimes do when one learns things through the process of observation not in directly being taught) that I may not "grow up" to be some CEO on the cover of NYT making deals with the Japanese in high-rise boardrooms. It has also recently come to my attention that I do not want to be that kind of person. If college was the time that the decisions I made day after day shaped me into the person I would become, post college life has me reflecting on what the effect of those choices had on me... I'm discovering who I am now. I am discovering that many of those potential paths that made me so excited to ruminate on now, in the light of day and real life plans, seem of little life value in the great scheme of things. Like the CEO situation. Part of the self discovery is the acknowledgement of where I actually do find worth. This is an ever continuing enterprise but it's happening and the paths are narrowing. I am moving towards something concrete. And this time I think I know what I'm doing. (Maybe).
Thursday, January 17, 2013
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
Life con cell phone sans job to pay
They lied to me. They told me I could be whatever I wanted, that I was gifted and talented and that my choices and my resume and my volunteer hours and my letters of recommnedation and certifications would get me on a career path and make my life happy and long and rich in every way. Where am I and how did I end up here?
I read the books, took the notes, did the time, and now, after so much preparation, I'm highlighting jobs in the classifieds with headlines like "part-time driver wanted- $15.02 an hour". I spend more time on my MacBook and my Blackberry looking at ads for jobs than working at my part-time job. And I'm not the only one. For the last job I was really interested in, oddly enough the position of "Recruiter" at a temp agency (ironic), I saw the demographics for the applicants on one of the search sites: over 75% had a bachelors degree and over 60% had worked at a professional type job. My generation is fighting over semi-professional jobs that educated workers 10 years our elder would scoff at as temporary jobs muchless career choices.
As a 23 year old in 2011, I am in crisis. I don't like the looks of any of the blue collar, services, industrial jobs that are covering the classifieds. I don't want to go back to school only to become more educated than any kind of future employment will need me to be (or too educated to even compete for those jobs for fear of the employer that I'll flake out right away). Plus, why pay for more school when this is all it's got me? I'm constantly fighting an inner battle of dignity; I know it's dignified to work for the money you earn, but working alongside those who only care about their next smoke break, their child support bills, and their next happy hour feels just about as satisfying (not to mention that at that kind of work I feel like a complete outsider for my lack of cultural similarities) as a smack across the face.
Is the only thing for us to start at the bottom and work our way up? Are there no jobs for people who study and pay for education? What industries are safe? Where are the jobs? I thought part of the plan, part of the promise, was a job for me to spend the rest of my life at, find my purpose in?
Looks like I'll have to find something from the classifieds to tie me over.
5
I read the books, took the notes, did the time, and now, after so much preparation, I'm highlighting jobs in the classifieds with headlines like "part-time driver wanted- $15.02 an hour". I spend more time on my MacBook and my Blackberry looking at ads for jobs than working at my part-time job. And I'm not the only one. For the last job I was really interested in, oddly enough the position of "Recruiter" at a temp agency (ironic), I saw the demographics for the applicants on one of the search sites: over 75% had a bachelors degree and over 60% had worked at a professional type job. My generation is fighting over semi-professional jobs that educated workers 10 years our elder would scoff at as temporary jobs muchless career choices.
As a 23 year old in 2011, I am in crisis. I don't like the looks of any of the blue collar, services, industrial jobs that are covering the classifieds. I don't want to go back to school only to become more educated than any kind of future employment will need me to be (or too educated to even compete for those jobs for fear of the employer that I'll flake out right away). Plus, why pay for more school when this is all it's got me? I'm constantly fighting an inner battle of dignity; I know it's dignified to work for the money you earn, but working alongside those who only care about their next smoke break, their child support bills, and their next happy hour feels just about as satisfying (not to mention that at that kind of work I feel like a complete outsider for my lack of cultural similarities) as a smack across the face.
Is the only thing for us to start at the bottom and work our way up? Are there no jobs for people who study and pay for education? What industries are safe? Where are the jobs? I thought part of the plan, part of the promise, was a job for me to spend the rest of my life at, find my purpose in?
Looks like I'll have to find something from the classifieds to tie me over.
5
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)