Then I just felt like venting, so I fire up livejournal or blogger, getting ready to rant about how horrible my life is because I'm soooooo busy I don't have time to apply for all these jobs for which I'm already qualified... I'm think
Alright, so since I posted an updated resume on both CareerBuilder and LinkedIn, I have been getting about 2-3 job offers a week. Well, let me clarify--invitations to apply for a job for which they have already approved me for, so that's not technically an offer, but it kind of acts like one. At first, this frustrated me. After all, that's all I need--one more thing to do, one more email to respond to--ugh.
Then I just felt like venting, so I fire up livejournal or blogger, getting ready to rant about how horrible my life is because I'm soooooo busy I don't have time to apply for all these jobs for which I'm already qualified... I'm thinking about how I'm going to include things like "I can't believe this... I'm in school for crying out loud... I have classes to take, tests to finish... wa..."
I stopped mid sentance.
I'm in school. I'M IN SCHOOL? What kind of excuse is that? Why am I even contemplating a complaint? This is probably a good problem. I now have options, and good ones at that. These jobs range from everything I've already done, ones I'm currently doing (and love doing), and everywhere in between. The shocking part? That they're going to pay me, as in, pay me real money. These are not just jobs. These are the kinds of jobs people refer to when asked "so what are you going to do after college?" and their response takes the form of this standard conversation...
asker: So what are you going to do after college?
graduate: Oh, I don't know... maybe go home for the summer, take some time off and ____________________ (fill in the blank from the list below:)
- A) backpack / hostel-hop across Europe,
- B) Do nothing / play video games / vedge in parents' basement
- C) get a job with the company I worked for in high school / work at my old summer camp / volunteer in my old youth ministry
- D) pick up some part-time work / babysitting / landscaping / whatever else I can get until I find a REAL JOB.
Please note the keyword: "Real Job." Technically, if a job issues a paycheck, it is a Real Job. As opposed to the jobs that don't issue paychecks? See? The term is kind of bogus to begin with. However, going with the emphasis on the word "Real" in this context, what the graduate really means is: I'm holding out and diligently looking for the kind of job that is in the area I want to work in and/or I have a newly acquired degree in, which makes a competitive starting salary, has room for growth, full benefits package with retirement matching, blah blah blah, or other similar sentiment with huge expectation embodiments. All these expectations are summed to one descriptor of jobs: REAL.
And when a job fits most or all of these embodiments, it is almost arbitrarily deemed "REAL" ...versus jobs which... are not real?... sure, I mean, they're jobs alright, but they're just not good enough to meet our expectations, or maybe we are now overqualified for these jobs, or worse, they don't have sizable starting salaries in the competitive range. These jobs are called anything from "just a job" to "temp job" to "something-that-keeps-me-busy-while-I-look-for-a-REAL-Job" to "something-I-don't-really-want-to-do-but earns-a-paycheck-because-I-can't-find-a-REAL-job," or other, similarly derogatory associations, usually with spiteful overtone toward the people who've managed to find a REAL job...
(I think once or twice I heard these referred to as "lame" jobs but this apparently didn't catch on well... ? Not sure, but I haven't heard it in awhile, so maybe that came and went with the crash of 2008 and high unemployment of 2009.)
Regardless, the REAL job embodiment, complete with all it's self-centric, mass-consumer-mindset-infused ideation, is a strong concept. Although people's criteria for what constitutes a "REAL" job vary, generally, they include a pristine wish-list the reads like a fairy-tale: 6-figure starting salary, corner office, no boss or be-your-own-boss, full discretionary travel reimbursement, full fringe benefits plus 2 months vacation, all the sick and personal days you'll ever want, 401-k-IRA-pre-tax double-matching with free brokerage and paid stock options, full pension and retirement after 15 years, full med/dental/vision/diagnostic/accident/sickness/life/death/disability insurance, all paid holidays (including boxing day, flag day, secretaries day, groundhog day, and every other calendar named-day)...
I have a friend from Korean; he has a term he uses to describe the American fascination with entertainment, no work-ethic, and entitlement mentality. He calls it "Football Culture," first noticing how much time and energy Americans put into things like professional sporting events rather than other, seemingly more important things. Therefore I could combine these terms, and call this embodiment a FOOTBALL job.
Once the graduate takes a few summer or ho-hum jobs wherever you can get them, eventually, you'll land an entry position in your industry & field of choice with one of your top 8 companies, and eventually start working your way closer and closer to that REAL job, or so it is thought by the college student turned graduate. Aside from the obvious problems with the self-centered consumerism mindset now extending to every area of life, including job selection, it is this REAL job concept I want to focus on, rather than its sundries. Anyway, enough about this grandiose and idealized REAL JOB...
\\/\/\/\/\/\// ------------------------------\\/\/\/\/\/\//
So anyway, back to the job offers. Here's the kicker: these job offers (or invitations) I was receiving...? These were not just everyday jobs. Nor were they average or lame jobs.
These were, for lack of a better term, REAL Jobs...
And they were in my industry. Their job descriptions matched almost exactly what I do already. Today. Right now. But pay 6-10 times more than I've ever made in my life. And now I have options. Options! I didn't even look at the benfits packages because I don't really care. I can be paid to do what I love? Why not take one? Oh... but what about school...
But seriously, when things like this happen, sometimes you really have to ask yourself... Is there a good reason to I need to be in school right now? If one of the main purposes of graduating college is to get a degree so you can find a good job, why the heck not just take one of them? They're literally handing them to me... with new ones falling into my lap by the day... I even got a second and third email from one company, basically begging me to apply.
Hm. Let me think about this. OK, DONE! Goodbye homework. Hello career! Yes. Alright. OK. Uh-HUh. Amen; Yes, Please, and Thank You! (for those who got the Rich Mullins reference: *fist pound*; you're cool!).
And it's about time, too. All that hard work put into running my own business (for what will be 11 year next month? what?!?!?) is FINALLY starting to pay off!!!! Maybe not in money directly, but in the sheer amount of experience and trade skills I've learned through it. Either way, The. Fruit. Is. Coming. Anybody have a basket?
Picking fruit from where I stand
~AK
ing about how I'm going to include things like "I can't believe this... I'm in school for crying out loud... I have classes to take, tests to finish... wa..."
I stopped mid sentance.
I'm in school. I'M IN SCHOOL? What kind of excuse is that? Why am I even contemplating a complaint? This is probably a good problem. I now have options, and good ones at that. These jobs range from everything I've already done, ones I'm currently doing (and love doing), and everywhere in between. The shocking part? That they're going to pay me, as in, pay me real money. These are not just jobs. These are the kinds of jobs people refer to when asked "so what are you going to do after college?" and their response takes the form of this standard conversation...
asker: So what are you going to do after college?
graduate: Oh, I don't know... maybe go home for the summer, take some time off and ____________________ (fill in the blank from the list below:)
- A) backpack / hostel-hop across Europe,
- B) Do nothing / play video games / vedge in parents' basement
- C) get a job with the company I worked for in high school / work at my old summer camp / volunteer in my old youth ministry
- D) pick up some part-time work / babysitting / landscaping / whatever else I can get until I find a REAL JOB.
Please note the keyword: "Real Job." Technically, if a job issues a paycheck, it is a Real Job. As opposed to the jobs that don't issue paychecks? See? The term is kind of bogus to begin with. However, going with the emphasis on the word "Real" in this context, what the graduate really means is: I'm holding out and diligently looking for the kind of job that is in the area I want to work in and/or I have a newly acquired degree in, which makes a competitive starting salary, has room for growth, full benefits package with retirement matching, blah blah blah, or other similar sentiment with huge expectation embodiments. All these expectations are summed to one descriptor of jobs: REAL.
And when a job fits most or all of these embodiments, it is almost arbitrarily deemed "REAL" ...versus jobs which... are not real?... sure, I mean, they're jobs alright, but they're just not good enough to meet our expectations, or maybe we are now overqualified for these jobs, or worse, they don't have sizable starting salaries in the competitive range. These jobs are called anything from "just a job" to "temp job" to "something-that-keeps-me-busy-while-I-look-for-a-REAL-Job" to "something-I-don't-really-want-to-do-but earns-a-paycheck-because-I-can't-find-a-REAL-job," or other, similarly derogatory associations, usually with spiteful overtone toward the people who've managed to find a REAL job...
(I think once or twice I heard these referred to as "lame" jobs but this apparently didn't catch on well... ? Not sure, but I haven't heard it in awhile, so maybe that came and went with the crash of 2008 and high unemployment of 2009.)
Regardless, the REAL job embodiment, complete with all it's self-centric, mass-consumer-mindset-infused ideation, is a strong concept. Although people's criteria for what constitutes a "REAL" job vary, generally, they include a pristine wish-list the reads like a fairy-tale: 6-figure starting salary, corner office, no boss or be-your-own-boss, full discretionary travel reimbursement, full fringe benefits plus 2 months vacation, all the sick and personal days you'll ever want, 401-k-IRA-pre-tax double-matching with free brokerage and paid stock options, full pension and retirement after 15 years, full med/dental/vision/diagnostic/accident/sickness/life/death/disability insurance, all paid holidays (including boxing day, flag day, secretaries day, groundhog day, and every other calendar named-day)...
I have a friend from Korean; he has a term he uses to describe the American fascination with entertainment, no work-ethic, and entitlement mentality. He calls it "Football Culture," first noticing how much time and energy Americans put into things like professional sporting events rather than other, seemingly more important things. Therefore I could combine these terms, and call this embodiment a FOOTBALL job.
Once the graduate takes a few summer or ho-hum jobs wherever you can get them, eventually, you'll land an entry position in your industry & field of choice with one of your top 8 companies, and eventually start working your way closer and closer to that REAL job, or so it is thought by the college student turned graduate. Aside from the obvious problems with the self-centered consumerism mindset now extending to every area of life, including job selection, it is this REAL job concept I want to focus on, rather than its sundries. Anyway, enough about this grandiose and idealized REAL JOB...
\\/\/\/\/\/\// ------------------------------\\/\/\/\/\/\//
So anyway, back to the job offers. Here's the kicker: these job offers (or invitations) I was receiving...? These were not just everyday jobs. Nor were they average or lame jobs.
These were, for lack of a better term, REAL Jobs...
And they were in my industry. Their job descriptions matched almost exactly what I do already. Today. Right now. But pay 6-10 times more than I've ever made in my life. And now I have options. Options! I didn't even look at the benfits packages because I don't really care. I can be paid to do what I love? Why not take one? Oh... but what about school...
But seriously, when things like this happen, sometimes you really have to ask yourself... Is there a good reason to I need to be in school right now? If one of the main purposes of graduating college is to get a degree so you can find a good job, why the heck not just take one of them? They're literally handing them to me... with new ones falling into my lap by the day... I even got a second and third email from one company, basically begging me to apply.
Hm. Let me think about this. OK, DONE! Goodbye homework. Hello career! Yes. Alright. OK. Uh-HUh. Amen; Yes, Please, and Thank You! (for those who got the Rich Mullins reference: *fist pound*; you're cool!).
And it's about time, too. All that hard work put into running my own business (for what will be 11 year next month? what?!?!?) is FINALLY starting to pay off!!!! Maybe not in money directly, but in the sheer amount of experience and trade skills I've learned through it. Either way, The. Fruit. Is. Coming. Anybody have a basket?
Picking fruit from where I stand
~AK
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