So you’re looking for a new job?

Suffering from NNJS (Need New Job Syndrome)? Ok, Ok, I could have come up with a better form of initial-ism for that but my brain is so warped at the moment neither catchy initial-isms or acronyms.

As an almost-30 year old I’m currently suffering from a mid-mid life crisis. I have a box of bleach for my hair (which I plan to use soon) and I recently got a nose stud. If I could afford a motorbike I would get one but moving on from that I’m also suffering from NNJS (it’s sticking, there’s no going back).

The problem is finding a new job sounds easy and should be easy but it’s not. It’s not for a lack of jobs out there, no! There are TONS of jobs out there. Lovely admin jobs, telesales jobs, boring jobs.

I’m at the stage where I need to leave the office I’m working it. It’s done nothing for my life or career. It was a job I took when I needed money and have been stuck in for lack of motivation to leave because… well, did I mention I was getting paid?

Now I’m getting old (and I need to buy a house in, like, the next 6 weeks… don’t ask) I have realised what a waste the past 7 years have been. We get told the most important thing to do is make money and so you take an office job because you do in fact make the money but at what cost? I haven’t furthered myself in any way that is tangible. The skills I’ve learned in the job have only really given me admin experience and I could have got that in 6 months. Yes, the job paid for my English Lit and Language degree but even that isn’t enough to land me a job and here’s the stinger, it’s not that I can’t do the jobs. It’s not that I don’t want to do the jobs I find, it’s that the jobs offered are insultingly low paid.

Take, for instance, a local law firm who prize themselves on being pretty damn cool and professional (due to all the young ‘hip’ lawyers they have working there). They always advertise ‘Marketing’ jobs, which would be great for me. I’m savvy at marketing, it’s kind of what our generation is good at, right? Except the place I mentioned is offering a wage of what I’d expect to be just over minimum wage. I am an adult and I kind of need a decent pay packet now so I can do things like, oh I don’t know, pay for a mortgage.

The second job peeve I have is when places don’t advertise the wage they will pay. A POA is not what a job seeker is looking for. It actually stops me from contacting the employers because I find it insulting to think they would have me waste time filling in an application, updating my CV, and then potentially having to go to an interview only to find they only offer half of what I’d expect to be paid.

Since when was it that the job seeker had to vet the job giver?

It’s a minefield out there but for all the reasons I didn’t expect.

Basically I’m pretty good at internet, computers, marketing, communications, being an intelligent human being with the capacity to do ANY JOB (providing it’s not being a doctor, lawyer or astronaut). My brain is still able to take in new information (despite being 29). GIVE ME JOB. Or, y’know, just be upfront about how much you’re going to pay me. Either one, really.

Oh the struggles of adult life. Le Sigh.

Sam