Those of you who have had the privilege of job hunting will agree; job hunting isn’t as easy as it looks in the movies or is announced in mainstream media statistics. Looking for a new job often demands as much time as a full time job, and the paperwork required, the endless polite exchanges and the scrutinizing interviews can bury you, before the real work even starts.
Many people spend their lifetimes doing jobs that they hate no matter how they try to convince themselves otherwise. Many of us enter into boring corporate or dead end jobs telling ourselves that it is temporary but very soon it becomes the one constant in our lives and before we know it, we are permanently attached to it and completely detached from our real passions. Life is surely too precious to be wasted like this!
So next time you embark on a job hunt it would be useful to know how to choose a job made for you; a job worth doing without neglecting your happiness. View these pointers:
Working hours. Often jobs have a predetermined time slot but on entering them, we realize that the working hours are not at all what was set out initially. You’re called to your office at 9am in the morning on your day off or have to stay back till 10:30pm and sometimes you are called over on holidays. Yes, emergencies may happen but unless your job is your passion, make sure that it does not require you to always work past your paid and planned hours.
Salary. Let us all be real, if the pay is crappy on top of you not loving your job, the tap of happiness will be hard to turn on. Of course, not all paychecks are equal and your pay always depends on your position in your company’s hierarchy, however, if you are not paid fairly and in proportion to all the work that you put in, the job is not at all worth it.
Making an impact. How are you leaving a mark on the world with your job? It is important that the job you are doing, has a purpose, or else it gets very easy to become another pointless and unimportant cog in the large wheel of the corporate sector.
Colleagues. You can truly love your work only when you can relax and be yourself around your colleagues at work. A tense atmosphere with hostile co-workers will not benefit anybody and perhaps add to stress levels.
Priorities. At the end of the day, you will go back to your private life and not your job. No matter what, the outcome of a job always comes secondary to spending time around people who replenish your emotional well being and engage and stimulate your mind. Choose a job that does not include spending a large amount of your time away from dreaming and receiving love.
Creativity. Obviously finding a job that allows you to express your creativity, apply your ideas and vision whilst interacting with fellow thinkers, is easier said than done. Nonetheless, it is a sure way to be happy and such job exists, they are possible to find! Think and search outside the box…
Qualifications. Unfortunately however experienced or smart you think you are, there are rules. In a world where everyone is busy chasing time, no-one has time to wait for you to prove yourself on the job and instead you are expected to prove your credentials before you have even started it. Only one term matters for certain jobs; qualifications on paper. In order to sustain your happiness whilst working, you need to find a job that matches your qualifications. Or better still, invent the job that suits you and remember the jobs of the future have not been created yet.
Lastly, the stress, the right job might be hard work but it should not make you irritated or depressed. It should not have you dreading the day ahead every morning. Being anxious or stressed all the time doesn’t even help you perform better on the job. Whenever you have the opportunity to do so, always prioritize your happiness over your employment. If you don’t think there is an opportunity: “Our most significant opportunities will be found in times of greatest difficulty.” Thomas S. Monson.
Book recommendation:
Post Office by Charles Bukowski:
“After dinner or lunch or whatever it was — with my crazy 12-hour night I was no longer sure what was what — I said, “Look, baby, I’m sorry, but don’t you realize that this job is driving me crazy? Look, let’s give it up. Let’s just lay around and make love and take walks and talk a little. Let’s go to the zoo. Let’s look at animals. Let’s drive down and look at the ocean. It’s only 45 minutes. Let’s play games in the arcades. Let’s go to the races, the Art Museum, the boxing matches. Let’s have friends. Let’s laugh. This kind of life like everybody else’s kind of life: it’s killing us.” Charles Bukowski, Post Office
“Look, you’re small-town. I’ve had over 50 jobs, maybe a hundred. I’ve never stayed anywhere long. What I am trying to say is, there is a certain game played in offices all over America. The people are bored, they don’t know what to do, so they play the office-romance game. Most of the time it means nothing but the passing of time. Sometimes they do manage to work off a screw or two on the side. But even then, it is just an offhand pasttime, like bowling or t.v. or a New Year’s Eve party. You’ve got to understand that it doesn’t mean anything and then you won’t get hurt. Do you understand what I mean?”
I think that Mr. Partisan is sincere.”
You’re going to get stuck with that pin, babe, don’t forget what I told you. Watch those slicks. They are as phony as a lead dime.” Charles Bukowski, Post Office
“We’re forced into absurd lives, against which the only sane response is to wage a guerrilla operation of humour and lust and madness.” Charles Bukowski, Post Office
“Baby, that’s grammar school. Any damn fool can beg up some
kind of job; it takes a wise man to make it without working. Out
here we call it hustling. I’d like to be a good hustler.” Charles Bukowski, Post Office
“the first place smelled like work, so I took the second.” Charles Bukowski, Post Office
“Well, as the boys said, you had to work somewhere. So they accepted what there was. This was the wisdom of the slave.” Charles Bukowski, Post Office
“And underneath all that, the fish, the poor fish fighting each other, eating each other. We’re like those fish, only we’re up here. One bad move and you’re finished.” Charles Bukowski, Post Office
“stood a supervisor, another Stone, and he had this look on his face—they must practice it in front of mirrors, all the supervisors had this look on their faces—they looked at you as if you were a hunk of human shit.” Charles Bukowski, Post Office
“The post office, or any world of work, is only one institutionalised system of control that is designed to beat people, to condition them into accepting that humiliation and failure is the norm. Those who do not rebel against this lose any ability to think for themselves. The workers are robbed of power whilst the bosses have only a small amount of it and can only use it arbitrarily, which is to say, pointlessly.” Charles Bukowski, Post Office
“I wanted the whole world or nothing.” Charles Bukowski, Post Office
“You can’t blame a man for wanting to better himself.” Charles Bukowski, Post Office
