Another thing about the Job Finding Process

[featherynscale]

The woman asked me this morning, "So, is accounting your forte?"
I say, "I'm pretty good at it, yeah."
She starts to close the folder and sighs. "There's no accounting in this."
I cock my head to the side a bit. "That's okay. It's a thing I can do, not a thing I have to do."
She looks vaguely startled for a time. She opens the folder back up. The interview continues.

So anyway, here's my question. I can do a hell of a lot of things, many of which are legal to do for pay, and some of which are things that people actually get paid to do on a regular basis. Why would someone assume that since I have been working in a particular field and that I'm good at being in that field, that this would imply that I'm unwilling to/incapable of doing anything else?

If you've got a job, is that kind of job the only thing you feel qualified to do? Is it the only sort of job you would look for, if you were looking for a job?

Maybe it's just me, but that seemed a little bizarre. I've been doing money-related jobs because those were the jobs that I could get, and they pay reasonably well, not because I feel that God called me to be an accountant, or anything.

Comments

[triadruid.livejournal.com]

If you've got a job, is that kind of job the only thing you feel qualified to do? Is it the only sort of job you would look for, if you were looking for a job?

Maybe it's just me, but that seemed a little bizarre. I've been doing money-related jobs because those were the jobs that I could get, and they pay reasonably well, not because I feel that God called me to be an accountant, or anything.

Avocation versus vocation. Many, if not most, HR-sapiens seem to still be working in the "work-for-IBM-for-forty-years-get-your-watch-and-retire mindset. As we have told you before and will again, no doubt, you are a frighteningly competent individual on a variety of skillsets. Even when you're not *very* good at something, you're willing to try it, and more likely than not, keep from failing at it. That sets you apart from 96%+ of the workforce out there, and above most of them that are still looking for a job. Most people in your class never want for a job, because they're mugging opportunity, going through its pockets for loose job offers, and off to the races. Or they're starting their own company.

You, however, don't like the money thing. You do what you do at work because you want to get paid, so you can do the other 937 things you do. Despite being nearly diametrically opposed to this, please don't think I'm belittling you. It's just math, honey, not a value statement.

And it's also why I keep telling you you'll have no problem finding a job you're competent at and is not evil. It just takes a lot of dross to come up with something shiny enough for you. Damn discriminating tastes.

[featherynscale.livejournal.com]

Despite being nearly diametrically opposed to this, please don't think I'm belittling you.

I don't at all think you're belittling me. You're telling exactly the truth. I don't know how to get paid for doing what I like to do, so I keep working so that I can do the things I like to do in my off hours. I don't need a whole lot of money for this, I just want to have enough to manage on.

Hell, since I moved in with you guys, I feel like an ostentatiously wealthy person because I go out to eat all the time at nice restaurants and I still have some money in the bank when the next check comes (even if it's only a few dollars). My usual mode of living has involved eating rice and beans at home most of the time, and still being broke by the time the first week was over, then trying not to need anything for a week.

I think that if I could figure out how to be "mugging opportunity, going through its pockets for loose job offers, and off to the races", I'd probably go that route, but the secret of it has not come to me yet, and it's not that important to me in the end whether it does or not.

to sum up.......

[matchgirl42.livejournal.com]

She works to live, she does not live to work.

;)
Your explanation was much more satisfying, however.