As you may know, I have been on the hunt for the perfect career for quite some time. Although I have held many jobs in my lifetime I have never really found the right mix of challenge, responsibility, culture and compensation. I realize now that I have gotten older that my dissatisfaction may be attributable to the fact that I require a large degree of autonomy. People have thrown around the word entrepreneur quite a bit in the past couple of decades. But when I was a kid and my mom owned her business she was a “business owner” not an entrepreneur. I was a kid that sold magazine clippings and hand painted tiles to be able to buy clothes. I was not considered precocious or unique for doing so.
Certainly me and my siblings learned many lessons from my mother and the way she ran her business. Certainly this was in an implicit fashion. Maybe the desire we have to be our own boss is grounded in our DNA, whatever the case my search has been tiring, time consuming and sometimes an exercise in futility. Like most people I day dream about being independently wealthy…or at this point independently well off. Okay truthfully I would just like to be able to spend money on all the things in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs without worry or guilt.
My job hunt while (and since) being at university has resulted in me racking up a lot of part time and/or temporary work. It has also put me on a ton of email blast lists. I cannot count the number of times an insurance sales office recruiter has contacted me because they “were sent my resume.” I have also gotten a plethora of solicitations to work clerical positions. These include administrative positions which are exactly the positions that I went back to school to get away from working.
Living day to day and not knowing when I will find my career for years has caused me to become just a bit frazzled and worn out. Sometimes I miss things; like not fully initiating an online payment for a very important bill or maybe I miss the meaning of a text that comes to me. In fact, some of my email is only viewed in a cursory fashion; especially when it comes to the multitude of job listings that I receive.
Today I received a listing that had seemingly the perfect job; a “Reality Specialist”. Now, here is a job I can get my head around. Sharing the truth and nothing but the truth; giving people just the facts. How am I perfect for this job? Let me count the ways: I shoot from the hip, I am more concerned with being right instead of liked when I am in the consultant role. I have a tendency to inadvertently offend when I am asked to be honest. Sometimes people are offended because I know a lot. Yes, Reality Specialist, that is me. In Georgia? Sure I will move to the mountains. Forestry service and Department of Agriculture translates to the great outdoors…me again. People with disabilities can apply? Me again. Pay me $73 to 95K? Woah! I am all over that shit. Where do I sign up?
Then I realize that it is early. I did not sleep well. Apparently my eyes are on strike. Because the job listing read Realty Specialist—as in real estate—not reality specialist as my cursory view had determined. DAMN IT! Back to searching for a job with the balance of culture, challenge, responsibility and compensation. Or maybe I need to concentrate inventing the perfect widget.
Ried Rants 