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It’s not about the money; working for a paycheck

As much as it pains me to say this; Jessie J was right. It really isn’t about the money. Assuming it in this case is life, enjoyment and all that good stuff.

Most of you will know what I’m talking about when I say that at University, I had a ‘plan’. But for those who don’t quite know what I mean, allow me to translate; I had some sort of, kind of, maybe flexible idea of what I would do after I donned that cap and gown to receive that piece of paper I’d spent three years achieving.

Having not had a gap year, I was going to find myself a job back at home and earn some money to go travelling. Simple. Well these things get delayed, things come up and come to nothing; sometimes opportunity knocks and then just runs away giggling like a child.

In all that left me months after graduation with no real source of income and somehow too much spare time to be productive. I panicked and jumped onto the first job that came my way.

This was, at its core, a mistake. I was so thrilled with the potential prospect of a regular pay slip that I didn’t think about the job itself.

I’ve held a few jobs in my two decades of existence, some I’ve loved and some I’ve not liked so much, but there’s always been some sort of redeeming quality in the latter. This redemption can range from learning a new skill, to something as simple as just enjoying the company of your colleagues and getting through it together.

And doing a job that, quite frankly, had no such redeeming features I cannot stress how important getting just the smallest amount of enjoyment from your job is, even if that job is only for a few months.

People, often your parents if you’re in my situation, will say things along the lines of ‘at least it’s money’. Now I’ve never liked that phrase but now, having been paid breadcrumbs in a job that was so mundane and unexciting, I absolutely can’t stand it.

Sure money is the reason we work, but it shouldn’t be the only one. We should want, even the smallest amount, to go into work in the morning. Whether it be because you know that you’re doing some good, feeling a sense of pride or accomplishment or just because you know that you’ll enjoy the conversation all day long.

So, to anyone who has that choice, who can muster up enough offers to have a selection, it pays to think about what you’ll be doing. Everyone looks for that something in particular that gets them through every task, and for each person it’s different. For me it’s a sense of achievement or accomplishment at finishing a task, I just managed to find myself in the one job that is an endless slew of the same thing where nothing ever really gets finished and I wouldn’t wish that misjudgement on anyone.

This preference, this little thing that gets you through, is a product of experience. You don’t know what you don’t like until you have to do it, but you also don’t know what you love until you’re not doing it.

So if you’re out job searching, throw that CV around willy nilly by all means, but don’t say yes to just anything. You might not realise the extent to which those shoes don’t fit until you’ve worn them for a few weeks and you’ve already passed up those other more comfortable ones.

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