We need to admit that job security is a thing of the past (like parachute pants and Mark Latham’s political career) and embrace it.
I’m 32 and when I left uni a decade ago I had a pretty unrealistic idea of what my working life would look like. And I seriously thought I would have my career locked down by now.
After all, that was the dream I was always sold. You finish uni, you start out in a junior position and you work your way up. A good education equals a good job.
But for me, the reality was far from that. By my early 30s, my resume looked like the dating record of a serial monogamist – a lot of short, intense relationships but nothing that stuck.
I was in danger of becoming a career spinster. The old aunt who everyone whispers about at family gatherings. “The poor thing. She just never found the right man job.”
So why had I been left on the career shelf? It was a combination of being in the wrong place at the wrong time, a really shitty job market and a pretty naive opinion of what the ideal career should look like.
A few years out of school, Blair Waldorf owned a business. If only real life was anything like Gossip Girl. Image via CBS.
In my twenties I went through two redundancies and took on a string of contract roles. That meant I was constantly back out in the market fighting it out for jobs with a whole bunch of new graduates.
And every time I started a new job or contract, I felt like I was hitting the refresh button on my career. Every career low felt like a personal failure and a sign that I wasn’t living up to my potential.
You see, I had bought into the fantasy of what a successful career should look like. The Sex and the City/ Grey’s Anatomy ideal that every other area of your life might be a hot mess, but your career would be on point.
I’d consume TV shows about young graduates working ridiculous hours with a mad kind of jealously – if only I could have an opportunity work 100 hours a week for minimum wage! Look at them doing what they love!
I’m not the only one to feel like this. Sure, I have a handful of friends who have been lucky enough to land a role in their chosen industry and work their way up. But the rest of us have been left floundering.
We’re stuck somewhere between the security of the Gen Xers and the freedom of the Millennials.
If I look at all the people I went to uni with, most of them have retrained several times and are working in industries completely unrelated to their studies. Some of this is by choice but most of it is a result of mounting HECS debts outweighing their desire to #followyourdreams.
When we have PhD’s answering the phones and former lawyers doing data entry – I think it’s time to start questioning the stories we’ve been fed.
Sex and the City taught me that every other aspect of your life might be a hot mess - but your career would be on point. Image via HBO.
We’re the first generation for who having a good education doesn’t necessarily lead to a good job, and having a good job doesn’t automatically lead to other signs of success – like becoming a homeowner. But instead of feeling ripped off, I think we need to embrace it.
For me, it was only when I abandoned the dream of job security that I could finally enjoy the freedom and creativity that comes from a non-traditional career path. What I hadn’t noticed in my twenties when I was so focused on what I didn’t have, was everything I did have. Like my ability to pick up a new skill really fast. And the fact that I can easily adapt to different workplaces.
And once I accepted that I would never have a conventional career trajectory, I felt a hell of a lot freer, and I could get down to the business of doing what I loved.
This meant possibly kissing goodbye to the more attractive aspects of a traditional career – including annual leave, paid professional development and long service leave.
Watch Mia Freedman discuss what she wishes she knew before starting Mamamia. Post continues after video.
But it also meant dumping the concept of a cubicle for life and not being tied down to a job you don’t love. And it takes away that pressure of what your career should look like.
A few months ago, a friend introduced me to the idea of a portfolio career. It’s basically about embracing your inner career polygamist and holding several different jobs – including part time, freelance and working for yourself – which add up to the equivalent of a full time job.
I realised that I was already doing this – and I loved it.
So from now on, I’m taking a more relaxed approach to my career – I’m putting 100% into whatever I’m doing now, but I know it’s not forever, and that’s OK.
Top Comments
At 35, I've been unable to find work for far too long. It's demoralising to apply for job after job and not hear a thing back. Living in a country area, every job receives upwards of 300 applications. I've been turned down for supermarket/fast food roles because I'm overqualified, away from other jobs because younger people are cheaper for businesses.
Relocation is out of the question due to family issues. I'm not old or young enough to receive proper attention from these so called job network agencies.
Now I'm back at Uni retraining for jobs that will also probably be redundant by the time I'm finished.
I can relate to this even though I am a gen X and a decade older than the author. I was in high school in the eighties where we were constantly told we could be anything and achieve greatness if we really wanted it. My parents also encouraged me to think big. In my early and mid 20s my career flew and I was loving life. However, it stalled and stagnated since then. Like the author, I had two redundancies and I even got sacked once because I unsettled the golden boy. He responded by sabotaging me. This all took its toll on my career and confidence. Now in my forties I find myself at the same level I was in my twenties. I have a good, steady job for five years, but I feel my career has gone backwards. There is also that sense of guilt and failure that I let all those people down that thought I could achieve greatness. Instead I find that I am actually rather ordinary.