Location-independent vs. Stability

Lately I’ve noticed a lot of buzz (on many of the post-grad, figuring out your career blogs I read) about location-independent jobs. I have mixed feelings about this.

At first glance, it sounds like a great idea: set my own hours, autonomy, opportunity to do something I truly enjoy.

But I also have to consider: Setting my own hours would mean I wouldn’t be able to “leave for the day,” and I probably wouldn’t get paid while on vacation (though, theoretically, I could do some work then); Work wouldn’t necessarily always be available, and sometimes there might even be too much to process; I like not having to worry about having health/dental/eye insurance.

It’s a tough call, but something I might be interested in trying at some point. I would absolutely love the flexibility of the scheduling though. Something I really miss the the ability to be out and about during the day.

Since lately I’ve been thinking so much about my career, I made a list of paths I may be interested in pursuing:

• Graphic design (advertising/marketing): This would give me more of a change for the location-indie lifestyle. But it also could mean for a company in a regular hour position.
• News/magazine design: Not newspapers, though, for obvious reasons (unless it was strictly graphic design and I didn’t have to work evenings/weekends).
• Social media: This also has many possibilities. I prefer either a nonprofit or a good company I believe in.
• Somehow working with environmentalism: This is an issue I have a strong interest in and could include social media, graphic design, or something else.
• Teaching: This is still a possibility, but probably not until later down the road. I’m mostly interested in it for the “giving back” aspect, school holidays, I do usually like being around kids, and it would be stable.

In the meantime, I’m just trying to be happy and continue working on side projects that hopefully will begin to lead me in the right direction.

It’s resolution time

It has been awhile since I wrote anything for this blog. I’ve been busy at work and trying to cram too much into my lunch breaks (when I have been able to take them) and evenings. Plus there was the general craziness of the holiday season.

Lately, I’ve been trying to accept my lifestyle and living situation – while still looking to make transformative plans for the near future. Since this week’s trend is to look back over the past year (and decade), I figured I’d jump on the bandwagon.

Where was I at the beginning of 2000? I was in 7^th grade and my neighborhood had a 4^th of July-type celebration on the big open field in the middle of the subdivision – needless to say it was freezing. But there were fireworks, and I believe I was sitting on a blanket next to someone who is still a very close friend, Sara.

What a decade it has been. Half of middle school, and all of high school and college packed into it.

Now is also a good time to look back on my resolutions from last year to see how well I did. Last year I decided I would:

• Get in shape (for real this time)
  Well, I did well for awhile…
• Learn to play guitar
  Failed, yet again
• Learn to drink red wine
  I can drink it, but I haven’t grown to appreciate it yet (though I do enjoy quite a few beers now)
• Do more meditation/yoga
  Didn’t do a whole lot of this. I have tried to focus on relaxing more, though.
• Drink more water
  I do a lot better with this. I don’t drink much Diet Coke anymore, and I just have one cup of coffee every morning. The rest is basically water or Crystal Light. I can tell on days when I don’t drink enough water because I usually wake up with a migraine the next day.
• Run the Peachtree Roadrace
  Check. My time wasn’t at great as I would have liked, but it wasn’t bad considering I was sick at the time. But while training I actually did a couple of no-walk runs that were longer than the Peachtree.
  

And for this year’s resolutions:

• Move out of my parents’ house
• Find activities that make me happy and feel fulfilled (this is vague on purpose)
• Pick up my old trumpet and make sure I can still play (I actually used to be pretty good)
• Travel somewhere new
• Continue running regularly
• Eat fewer sweets (It’s probably just because of the holiday season, but I’ve been eating way too many lately. I won’t cut them out completely because they’re good for the soul. But they aren’t so kind to my mid-section.)

Overall, despite how things have been for the past few months, I’m happy with how things have unraveled so far. It’s expected that major transitions will be difficult, and I’m going to do my best to make sure 2010 is a great year.

Tending the garden

During my lunch break today, I was reading “Uh-Oh” by Robert Fulghum, and I came across a passage that perfectly expresses my feelings on this topic. He was talking about how, despite not being Jewish, he likes to celebrate Rosh Hashanah each year by planting daffodil bulbs to remind him that we have to actively participate in the quality of the future. He wrote, “If I want flowers in the future, the planting must be done now.”

Change doesn’t happen just by wishing. We must actively take steps to make the changes was want. If there’s something we want, we have to be responsible for seeing we get it.

One of the blogs I follow, Graduated and Clueless, wrote earlier this week about how we must work to eliminate mediocrity from our lives.

In my life right now, in an attempt to minimize mediocrity, I’ve taken on an outside project with some friends that is both fun and productive. I think this and other things I’m working on in my own time will help me get better over time and continue to eliminate more mediocrity that leaves me feeling unfulfilled.

All these projects are my bulbs that I’m tending to and I hope will grow into something I enjoy.

But as the Graduated and Clueless writer mentioned at the end of the post, what we see as exciting today could someday become mediocre to us, since it’s all about perspective. We grow accustomed to the things we do on a daily basis.

For example, when I worked at the college newspaper, I absolutely loved my job. I loved what I was doing and the people I worked with. But no matter how much I enjoyed my situation at the time, it was easy to get run down by the day-to-day tasks that are less than exciting. And almost always, by the time I had completed my work for the day, I was more than ready to go home.

I have mentioned before that driven individuals are never satisfied. If it’s an impossible feat, then why do we constantly strive for satisfaction?

Well, we never know when the weather isn’t going to cooperate. And sometimes we just want to go for a different look and feel.

I’m perfectly happy to plant. But sometimes I have trouble deciding which flowers I want to watch bloom. And tending to them sure is tedious.

Let me tell you something, kid…

Let me tell you something, kid. Working sucks, okay? Working sucks! And it doesn’t matter if you’re in a bank, a department store or a doughnut factory, because once you’ve been there long enough, the only thing you’ll care about is when your next pay increase is, how many vacation days you’ve accrued and if your health insurance is gonna pay for the cholesterol medicine that keeps your heart pumping no matter how much shit you’ve worked through it. Then after you’ve gained 20 or 30 pounds because you’re so fucking uptight all the time, you wake and discover you’re working for your father-in-law in a position with a gratuitous title and you’re totally replaceable. And not only is the new guy better at your job, but he’s got a better car and better jokes and better hair! So not matter what you do, you make sure you make a lot of money doing it because it all sucks! And that is one lesson I, as your mentor, can teach you. (from Meet Bill)

Last weekend I watched the movie Meet Bill for the first time, and the quote above really stuck with me, because this is how I absolutely do not want to feel. What a horrible predicament.

Work life is something I’m still trying to figure out. I’ve been employed full time in the adult world for 3.5 months now, and although I’ve gotten into a regular routine, I still haven’t completely figured out how to cope. What’s to cope with? Well, giving up 45+ hours per week in exchange for a comparatively measly paycheck while living with my parents and having very little free time during the week has been a huge live change for me. Previously, I was working almost 30 hours per week (between two jobs I enjoyed, for the most part) while taking seven class credit hours, and I lived on my own less than 10 miles from anywhere I needed to travel on a regular basis. And I always had a solid group of friends nearby.

This is a major life transition, but when I look around, I see so many others living similarly. Sure, not all are living with their parents and commuting 2+ hours each day. But we’re all united in being trapped in an office for 8-9 hours each day. That’s a lot of time! Especially when so many people don’t get a great deal of fulfillment in their work.

I think everyone strives to find a job that makes them feel fulfilled and doesn’t actually feel like work. But there are so many people who end up settling for stability. There’s nothing wrong with that, as most of us need stability in income, health insurance, etc. But is that worth settling into an unfulfilling job? Obviously, it depends on your situation. But for so many of us Gen Yers, we’re young enough that most of us aren’t responsible for supporting a family, paying mortgages, etc. Therefore, it’s important that we continue to explore what’s out there and what lifestyle will make us happy. For some, it very well may be a 9-5/6 job that has a steady income and affords traveling, shopping, etc. For others, it may be working for yourself, doing something you love on your own time.

While I’m still trying to figure out what will ultimately afford me the lifestyle I want and cope with the daily 9-6, one thing I do know is I do NOT want to end up like Bill and believing working just plain sucks, so it really doesn’t make a difference what you do. Because I think it does make a difference, and it should.

Taking the wheel

I’ve always said I would not commute during rush hour traffic. Simply put, it’s stressful enough to make a person crazy, and it often does. This morning as I filed my nails while moving along the interstate at a snail’s pace, I almost seriously considered getting on 285 West (where there was much less traffic) and just driving straight to Texas. (Obviously, I didn’t follow through.)

In a given week, I spend approximately 10-15 hours driving. Most of that is between home (in the suburbs) and my job (on the outskirts of Atlanta). If I’m going to work in the city, I need to live in the city.

Eventually I also need more free time, which means shorter hours and/or living much closer to work. I need to feel fulfilled in my work, which means preferably doing something creative. I need a fun work environment, which means working with a fun, friendly group of people.

What I will be working toward now and into the new year is a lifestyle change. I don’t know exactly what I want at the moment but the way things are now isn’t working. I want to be able to see my boyfriend and other friends more frequently than only on weekends.

It won’t necessarily be easy to achieve the goals I’ve set for myself, but I know that if I want to make changes, I have to be the one to initiate action.

The environment can make or break a job

One of my good friends works for a company that has an arcade and a nap room.

My office is actually really nice, the company just moved here over the summer. It’s spacious with a pleasant color scheme. However, one of the sales reps who quit recently said she eventually wanted to “work for a good company” where she doesn’t feel “chained to her desk” like she did here.

My job isn’t all that bad though, but it’s certainly not something I want to do forever.

Something that’s very important to me in a job is the work environment. I probably got spoiled by working at the college paper for three years. There we worked hard and it got tense at times, but at the end of the day we were a team and there to support each other. (Not to mention the fact that we were also friends and would go out for drinks after.)

I only know of two people at my job who actually get together outside of work. Everyone else runs for the hills when possible. One of my co-workers was talking about how you just can’t let the pressure get to you. He said he may be stressed out during work hours, but when he walks out that door at 6 p.m., he lets go of work-associated worries. For some reason, I just don’t function that way.

I can’t compartmentalize my life so simply. If I’m unhappy at work, it’s going to spill over into my drive home through traffic and into my free time when I eventually get home. But when I have a good day, I also am likely to have a good evening.

A generation ready for change

Yesterday, a friend from college tweeted a link to this article: Working with Gen Y: It’s Not All About The Money. It piqued my interest so I quickly read through and was in complete agreement with it. Although having enough money to live comfortably is definitely important, we are a generation that requires constant learning and brain stimulation.

This week I’ve experienced A LOT of downtime at work, which can be good or bad. (It has given me lots of time to blog.) Either way, it has made the days go by much slower. My current job, in general, does not allow for a great deal of growth. I’ve been here almost three months, and sometimes I feel like I’m already in a rut.

Usually I stay very busy, but lately jobs haven’t been coming through so I don’t have enough to build press sheets, thus the down time. I’m sure if I stay here long enough, I will eventually take on other responsibilities, but from what I can see, they won’t be much more stimulating. Ideally, I’d like to cross-train as a graphic designer, but I don’t really see that being very likely. And I’ll openly admit I have less than zero interest in moving into sales.

I am not content to sit back and carry out a job for a long period of time that leaves me feeling unfulfilled. Sure I can do a job, but that doesn’t mean I want to for years to come. That’s not my personality, and I don’t think it is for many people from my generation.

We are a generation that multitasks without even trying. Our schedules have always been packed and we’ve grown accustomed to it. We grew up going straight from school to sports practices to home for dinner and homework. Rushing around without giving it a second thought. We kept Xanga blogs and chatted on AIM throughout high school while “studying.” We started Facebook and “social media” as we know it. We were even a major driving force in the current president being elected on a platform of CHANGE.

But what we can’t seem to handle are mundane entry-level jobs being offered (or not) to us under poor economic conditions. We notice that the same old systems used by these companies we’ve just joined are outdated and not the most efficient way of getting things done. But who are we to try to change the way things have been done for decades by our parents’ generation, which is highly comprised of individuals who don’t even know how to use the “tab” feature on Internet browsers (or what a “browser” is, for that matter).

I’m not saying, by any means, that I would want to be working non-stop for eight hours a day. Down time can be nice, and everyone needs a little goof off time once in awhile. And I don’t want anyone to confuse “constant learning and brain stimulation” with stressful overwork. These are completely different. All I’m saying is that I need the opportunity for growth in my career and daily life. After all, I did just spend 17 years in school where I was taught to expand my brain’s capacity on a daily basis. While I’m all for “paying my dues,” I just don’t want my brain to corrode in the meantime.

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

The beginning of November marks my three-month anniversary of living back at home, post-college. Living at home and working, I’ve had a LOT of time to think about what I want and don’t want. It’s really amazing that I have all this time to think because in actuality, I have almost no free time. Here is a typical weekday for me:

• 5:45 a.m. – First alarm goes off
• 6:15 a.m. – I finally stop pressing “snooze” every 10 minutes and actually get out of bed
• 7:30-8 a.m. – Leave for work
• 9 a.m. – Arrive at work
• 6 p.m. – Leave work
• 7 p.m.- Arrive at home (hopefully, depends on traffic)
• 7-9 p.m. – Free time to work on to-do list, run, watch TV, visit with parents, eat dinner
• 9-9:30 p.m. – Wind down and go to bed

I know I shouldn’t complain. At least I have a job and all that. Sure, I have absolutely no life during the week, but I have income, and I’m able to save a lot of money by living at home. But all that doesn’t make my current lifestyle much easier to bear. So in all my “thinking time” (getting ready in the morning, commuting, down time at work, running, etc.), I’ve come up with many things I’d rather do.

My job really isn’t terrible, but it isn’t what I’d really like to be doing. Lately, I’ve heard a lot of talk about how my generation feels entitled. I don’t think that is the case. I don’t believe I feel entitled to anything. Quite the opposite actually. Sure, we may want the best, but does that mean we feel “entitled?” I just think it means we don’t want to settle. And there’s nothing wrong with that.

In all honesty, my No. 1 reason for taking my current job was lack of options. I am getting good experience, but I also don’t want to feel trapped on a different career path than I’d like just because of this recession. I have to keep reminding myself there’s no time like to present to do what I can to make myself happier. The problem is, I have yet to discover what exactly I want to do in terms of a career. If I knew that I’d at least be able to start a plan of action.

And on a related note, living back at home isn’t terrible. I get along with my parents and they don’t hassle me about anything. But I really do miss my independence. However, until I figure out what my next steps will be, I’m better off staying put and saving as much money as possible. I’ve accepted the fact that I’m here until the new year. I need to do my best to figure things out now so I can start implementing whatever course of action I decide on beginning in January/February.

Up until now, these thoughts have mostly been in my head or shared with close friends, my boyfriend and my parents. I’m hoping that keeping this blog will help me be more accountable to myself and streamline my thoughts. (My thoughts have been all over the place lately.) And I have to give credit for the idea to someone I don’t even know. Last week, a good friend passed on the link to the blog, Follow My Bliss. Since then I’ve been reading about one woman’s inspiring journey to quit her desk job and “follow her bliss.” I’m hoping this same sort of method will work for me in trying to figure out what I want to do with my life and how to get there.