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The Power of Having a Job you Dislike
or in my case, graduate school
I used to wonder why recent college graduates jumped into crappy entry level jobs. (I still do to an extent.)
…It’s predictable! It’s boring!
But also, I get it: money is important; paying off student loans is important; supporting yourself financially is important. Becoming financially stable is like a rite of passage into adulthood.
At the same though, is financial stability worth the cost of spending 40 hrs/week performing a job you dislike?
It reminds me of the cliché: do you work to live, or do you live to work?
Ever since I finished undergrad (2016), I’ve avoided the working to live lifestyle…like the plague. I believe I’m just not wired that way — I need to enjoy my work, need to find meaning in my day-to-day.
In fact, you see and hear the stories all the time — that guy who dropped a stable office job to become a masseuse, or an organic farmer, or a musician. They aspired for meaning, for purpose, for life and work to blend into a vocation.
But the path to a “dream job” — to quote the Elton John lyric —lies beyond the yellow brick road.
It’s a new path that you have to venture down, leaving behind that first job after…
