Is it Worth it if You’re Not Happy?
When you finally get that first job out of university, 9/ 10 times it won’t be something that you are absolutely enthralled with (unless your business major in which case you probably landed that accounting job before you graduated, enjoy climbing the corporate ladder).
Speaking with other post graduates in my circle, most have found themselves in soul sucking jobs that don’t align with their morals or their passions in general. For example one is a criminology major/music junkie who is working for title insurance and another is an android programmer/video game enthusiast who was working for a data processing company. For the criminology major, she has found herself in the wrong wing of law, real estate law, processing thousands of paper documents that are indicating that the rich folk buying up the properties are only getting richer. Bright eyed and full of hope, she had originally started her quest for a job in law to hopefully turn the tables for those wrongfully incarcerated in a messed up system but instead landed a role that only makes the gap between wealthy and poor more extreme. Same goes for the programmer: he got his masters in computer science, had been applying for entry level programming jobs and internships, and wound up getting a job where he simply plugged numbers into excel sheets for a different department to look over.
“ Its stable, you should be grateful they hired you ”
Why is it that the go to answer from working folk when you express to them that you are miserable in your 8-hours a day, 40 hours a week and you work Christmas Eve/ New Years Eve dead end office job? Its as though the beige cubicle walls have sucked the childish spirit out of them . Now I hate to be melodramatic but come on, is money really all that worth it when they don’t even pay you enough to move out from your childhood bedroom? Now a days, undergraduate degrees seem like they are the equivalent to a GED and even then you still need 6+ years of experience for a job that is entry level. When was this professional experience for customer service supposed to happen, when I was cramming for exams in Trig?
Like all of us, they were grateful to be employed at first, the prospect of paying off student loans, moving out, becoming independent shined bright in the forefront of their minds. Once bleak reality sets in that you’re work routine will become your life it is as though life has smacked you in the face with a lesson: Is it worth working this job if you’re not passionate about it?
From someone who has also been hit with this question, I personally think that it is not worth the money/ stress that comes with whatever the position is. As a creative, I strive to make art that speaks to people, if I can change one persons perspective on a controversial topic, like the racial divide in America or the issues around the LQBTQ+ community, I feel as though I have been successful. The only thing I’m currently changing in my non-creative job is stranger’s paperwork when they buy Manhattan apartments. Now I’m not saying by any means that I have mastered the craft of paperwork for real estate law but given the technical skills and knowledge I have gained from my mentor/coworker, I have been told I have learned almost everything I need to know to complete this job to its fullest. Is this nice to hear? Absolutely. Is it mildly disheartening to hear, especially as someone who thrives in an environment where things are constantly changing? Hundred percent.
Coming from a life of schooling to a mechanical 9–5 with coworkers who have lost their spark for life has really snapped my post graduate counter parts and myself out of the illusions that life will be easy if you just prepare yourself that school had taught us, but that being said life is one of the best teachers. We have all learned invaluable lessons we only could not have gained in a classroom and we have also gained several grey hairs in the process. First jobs (and internships) are where you gain the “professional experience” needed for you to move into a field that you’re passionate about. The stress will get to you, small fits of anxiety and depression might hit you randomly but I guess at the end of the day its up to us to push through and make our destiny’s a reality. That dead end job isn’t your dead end, just pop a U-turn, keep applying to the jobs you want and make sure to drink water ( hydrate or diedrate).