The (Mis?)Adventures of a Perpetual Job-Hunter/Job-Hater

A good friend of mine just recently started her own online vintage clothing shop (shop online here: http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=7957463), which has really inspired me. She and I often discuss the importance of choosing a job that incorporates what we’re passionate about in life, and since she hasn’t yet found a position that’s well-suited to her interests in this terribly limited job market, she took the initiative to essentially create a job for herself that allows her to apply her talent, creativity, and her passion for vintage fashion in a manifest way. I’m both incredibly proud and envious of her. That’s right – I’m envious, and I’ll own up to it! ;-D I’m envious because she’s on to something, folks – something that not many people my age are on to. Not only is she a self-starter with strong initiative, but she’s bold enough to exercise the selectivity that leads an individual down the path toward a self-fulfilling career.

I think it’s relatively safe to say that we know all about initiative. We hear all about it in discussions geared toward career searching and career development, we read all about it in job advertisements and in literature on what it takes to make entrepreneurial ventures successful. It’s clear that initiative and all things career-related go hand-in-hand. But let’s talk about selectivity for a sec, which my friend’s admirable venture has prompted me to contemplate…because I think everyone in my current position – desperate to be liberated as soon as possible from a soul-murdering job – forgets about the importance of selectivity due to the overwhelming notion that any other job would be sheer bliss in comparison… and don’t get me wrong, it probably would be, but if we’re talking about self-fulfillment here, then I think a certain longevity needs to be entrenched in that sheer bliss. A change of scenery would only bring about temporary job happiness; soon enough, though, if it’s just another job that stifles your potential, suppresses your creativity, discourages your autonomy… boy, I can really go on and on here… ahem, the welcome change of scenery will very quickly become just an alternate backdrop to the same mind-numbing and soul-killing you endured in the job you bolted from in the first place.

And yet even with that acknowledgment ever-present in the back of my mind somewhere, I’m still totally and utterly guilty of allowing this “any other job would be sheer bliss in comparison” notion to guide my job-searching frenzy. And “frenzy” is indeed the best word to describe my job search, due to my gross lack of selectivity, which is rooted, of course, in my dire need to realize my dream of abandoning this Human Resources Department-less (scary, right?), employee-undervaluing company with just a moment’s notice (courteously giving Awkward Boss two weeks’ notice is almost incomprehensible to me!). It’s all a haze. For example, when I frantically scour Workopolis job ads, I rarely fully absorb and process what positions entail. I copy and paste the same generic cover letter in all of my applications, the odd time making poorly thought-out modifications that evince an embarrassing lack of care on my part to tailor my applications to the specific positions I apply for (and on really bad days, I should confess, I’ve even submitted cover letters that specify incorrect job titles in the very first line – “I wish to be considered for the Production Editor Position” when actually I was applying for a Proofreading position… oops!). I next to never have a clue about the company I’m applying to work for. In the midst of the onslaught of resume submissions propelled by my need to find a-job-any-job-oh-please-I-need-to-get-out-of-this-place!, my desire to find a job that will make me genuinely happy and motivate me to be the most impressive, most valuable, most engaged employee that I can be doesn’t translate. I know in this horrible job market we job-searchers feel that we have no choice but to apply for anything and everything and that being selective is incredibly risky…I need a job, NOW, you may be saying, and being selective could jeopardize my chances of finding employment NOW. Everyone is in a different circumstance, of course, but if you have room to allow selectivity/your interests/your passions/your larger career goals guide your job search, then do so. The benefits, I think, are manifold – for both practical and “transcendent” reasons. Under the practical umbrella of benefits, for example: it’ll minimize the time you spend applying for (and, in the event that you are called back from potential employers, respectfully declining interviews for) jobs that you aren’t actually interested in. This has happened to me a few times – it involves truly begrudging effort to dodge phone calls from potential employers you’re no longer interested in or devise believable and reasonable excuses when declining interviews for positions you initially expressed enthusiasm about. Moreover, it’ll give you more time to allocate toward tailoring your applications with care (learn from my laughable mistakes!), thereby increasing your chances of recruitment. Under the “transcendent” umbrella of benefits: it will help you preserve your own conceptualization of a self-fulfilling career, one that won’t evoke a visceral reaction of disgust when you think about doing it for 40 years.

I think the preservation of this conceptualization is so vital in my search for a self-fulfilling career because I’m confident that the distinction between a job and a career is that the latter goes even further than providing one with an opportunity to make money while doing something extremely enjoyable… it’s so much more, I think, in that it provides one with the ability to intermingle work and selfhood; a career is so much more personalized and self-revealing, allowing one to manifestly demonstrate to others his or her individuality and passions with work and the workplace functioning as a kind of vessel for that process of “selfhood-revelation”.

Okay, so I realize that that’s some pretty lofty, idealistic discussion – but more hard-nosed entries will follow in the near future to problematize things…for now, though, let me revel in this idealism! Anyway, being selective, obviously, is contingent on knowing what you want – it’s contingent on knowing you. Oftentimes we lose sight of that, which is why I think the self-fulfilling career can be so darn elusive. But God bless my vintage fashionista friend for showing me the truly wonderful things that selectivity can lead to.