Careers Part Two, or Shut Up And Write

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Greetings, from another house sit with another dog. I could get used to this!

Here comes some more, to quote a dear friend, 'self indulgent' musings on work and what it means. I'm reading Alain de Botton's book on the subject and would certainly recommend it: mostly there are nice descriptions of unusual things; occasionally there are startlingly lucid paragraphs encapsulating the torment of responsibility.

I hope you get to the end because there's a TREAT of a link waiting for you there. First up though, a link that you've no excuse for missing - a wonderful lady doing a frightful thing for an excellent cause:

http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/SkydivingWithGregInMind

On we go then:

I arrived in Australia, fresh from the only job that I hadn’t left due to lethargy/misdemeanour/ misguided belief in alternative career potential. Here’s the rub though - and thanks to Matt H for speaking my mind in the comments: all this time I’d been fumbling for a route towards stability and, well, something permanent; now, on my working holiday visa, I was restricted to seeking short term work as a man for hire for money. How cool is that?!

Little Sarah’s Uncle Mike took me on as his labourer in air conditioning installation and maintenance. For a couple of months back there in Mooroolbark I was getting up at the ungodly likes of 05:30 (as was Sarah, to be fair, to give me a lift) to spend my days crawling around inside roofs on behalf of Flair Heating & Cooling. One day in midsummer it was 43 degrees and I was the filling in a fibreglass sandwich. That’s not life.

I learnt a bunch of stuff though, with Mike my tutor in Aussie culture, from the format of the NAB Cup and how to use a cordless power drill to the life and times of Pauline Hanson. On top of the invigorating lifestyle of physical labour for cash in hand, Mike gave me a start in showing Sarah that I could bring home the bacon.

Since then I've had a stint working for Sarah's dad as a driving school administrator, before a brief contract assignment in the mailroom at Toyota. Now I'm working in Order Services at Rockwell Automation, on a 12-week contract with a view to a permanent position... The fact that I'm finally writing this blog while sitting at my desk will confirm your suspicion that this 'view' is much more theirs than mine.

You see, I can do all this stuff, and I'll probably keep doing it, because there's something healthy about daily structure, and we've a wedding to pay for. I'm pretty sure now though that it'll never turn into a career, as such. In theory, I could 'work my way up' here, and become, I don't know, a more important Order Services type person, or even 'transfer my skills' to a different department. In practice, that won't happen, because, while I'm a strong believer that all the world's a stage, I just don't have it in me to fake enthusiasm on a full time basis.

For years on end I've wavered in the face of this dilemma. Millions of people seem to get on with jobs of limited scope for personal gratification, without complaining, and I don't consider myself somehow more special than any of them. Why, I've always asked myself, should I insist on abandoning the nine-to-five for a shot at a creative career? My mate Matt is every bit as creative and inspired as I, yet he chose stability and is now a successful accountant. Another close friend springs to mind who perhaps didn't make any such 'choice' but, in return for what he often describes as fairly unrewarding drudgery, he is a mature, secure, functioning member of society in a way that I've never quite managed.

I admire Matt and countless others for their choice, because something in me isn't up to following their path. Call it laziness, by all means, I don't care. You see, I've another close friend who, 15 years ago, told me that office life and the standard working week wasn't for him. I considered his attitude egotistical and unrealistic, especially when he submitted a poem about the inner trauma of his creative spirit for English class.

Fyfe's now a famous rockstar, but at least I'm mentioned in the sleeve notes of his latest album...

So, I'm done justifying my failure to make any of these jobs work. I'm finally making the right choice - it's just a shame that I've wasted 10 years wavering between my options: always calculating that I OUGHT to be sticking to something solid; always FEELING that somehow I couldn't.

That's why I'm working on a whole new blog. More frequent, more regular, and more focused. At least half of you won't be interested in it at all - that's how focused it is! More on that next time though. Instead, please take a few minutes now, and hopefully a moment each day, to enjoy the quite wonderful body of work that has finally inspired me to pull my finger out:

http://www.365daysofsomethingspecial.blogspot.com/

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Comments

[a dear freind]

You clearly need to utilise your obvious literary talents for own financial gain . Carpe Diem Paul.

[Jon Bloxham]

hmmm
Well done!

[Jess]

I like it Paul. Many feel like you and I have for a long time too. I am now in something I like and feel like im diong f=good but I get depressed about parts of it and there is so much more that I could do or could be done at school to make it better. I too wanted a creatiev career and gave up when I wasnt getting any money. Its very difficult. Si would love to be a muso as you know but is still stuck in the pub trade. Have you got any answers? Kepp going x

[Karen Marston]

Follow the dream
I am a big believer in following the dream and not giving up on it just because it might be difficult or might not work out. You might not see my job as something other than office drudgery but in order to do what I really wanted to do I had to take the risk of setting up on my own with zero experience and just a couple of contacts when the sensible thing to do would have been to "get a job". I also discovered that a 1st class degree and an MA were not enough to get me to where I wanted to be so had to do more study by correspondence. We are blessed to have parents who have been willing to support our pursuit of our dreams and they supported me as I started out. It took me 6 months to be financially independent and following that I was not earning anywhere near what my friends were earning and was often short of work. But the result is that I get to do a job I love (most of the time), have variety in my work and be in control of my own time. Pursuing the dream is not the easy option and requires determination and dedication, probably more in your case than mine. But the tricky thing is identifying what the dream is and the best way to achieve it and still be what you call a functioning member of society at the same time - a balance not an opt out. Hope you can find it x