Get a Job!
Most people can measure their lives in hours spent sleeping, watching television and working. Sleeping is either a blessed luxury or an evil necessity but not really avoidable. Television is certainly an evil luxury, but it is addictive and cheap and it is a choice. Work is a necessity for most of us but for some it is evil and for some blessed.
We work to pay bills and to keep our in-laws from using us as a bad example. The lucky ones among us create wealth, provide a valuable service and gain a sense of satisfaction from work. Any two of those three represent a pretty good job, but many people lack even one.
With unemployment high and people holding on to any job for dear life, this is a great time to reflect on your job.
- Does it pay what you are worth? If you have no skills and no education, you might consider yourself fortunate to have even a minimum wage job, but most of us have a pretty good idea of what people like us earn. If you earn significantly less, ask yourself why.
- Do you provide a valuable service? A social worker or teacher may make far less than other people of similar capabilities who manage hedge funds, but they certainly get a check mark for service. If you don’t provide a valuable service, you need to ask yourself why. If it is because you make more money managing hedge funds and money is very important to you, you may have your answer.
- Do you get a sense of satisfaction from work? You may provide a valuable service as a teacher but if you hate the kids in your classroom you have a problem.
Please be aware that only you can answer these questions. It doesn’t matter if other people think you have a great job if it doesn’t satisfy you. And you find your job satisfying, it doesn’t matter what anybody else thinks. So if you are satisfied, you are done. If not, here is the prescription for selecting a job.
The Budget Doctor’s Prescription for Selecting a Job
- Determine your economic worth and financial need.
If you must earn $3,000 a month to keep your family and feel that your education and experience are worth $4,000 a month, you have your range.
- Determine how badly you need to be of service.
This is often a trade-off for money so be realistic about how important this is.
- Figure out what satisfies you.
If you like constant interaction with others you will be happier in a call center than as a bookkeeper. If you love the outdoors you will be happier as a farmer than a retail clerk.
If you have pondered these three questions, you now know that you want to be a firefighter at $34,000 a year or a CFO at $120,000 a year. So, go apply. If you get the job you want you owe me a huge debt of gratitude. If you don’t, you need to go back to the three steps and figure out the problem. Did you misjudge your economic worth? Did you fail to present yourself as someone capable of service? Did you decide that job satisfaction issues don’t match up to your qualifications?
Now start over. Either fill in the gaps to get your perfect job or settle for the next best job. Life is too short to be miserable in a job but too unfair to expect that you will find the perfect job. Get as close as you can to the perfect job and repeat this process every three years.