Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Careers

It's been a long time since I've had as crappy a day at work as I had yesterday. It's not that it's been wonderful until now - it's just been "fine" - and it's a job and it's a recession and I go into the office every day thinking about ways to contribute. And in the scheme of things I've had much worse days at work.

But it was crappy enough to make me wonder what I want to do when I grow up. Do I still want to do this kind of job? Isn't there a saying that "just because it's what you do best doesn't mean you have to do it?"

What else would I do?

A former coworker once called this job the "golden handcuffs." That is, it pays well enough that it's hard to walk away.

Writing books, as I have learned, pays poorly. As does web writing. I've found that the plethora of writers and "writers" available via the inter-tubes has devalued the work somewhat. If you won't go low enough in price, there are plenty of other writers (and "writers") out there who will do it for that lower price. And often the group or person seeking that writing gets what they pay for - of course.

There's no more musing than that today. Yesterday wasn't awful enough to make me cry or immediately start searching the job boards. Mostly it just pissed me off how shortsighted and closed people can be. It just sucked and made me start wondering about other options.

1 comment:

Lynne Thompson said...

I feel you. And I hate to say this, but it gets worse. You are enough like me I think that you will find it worse as you get older. The problem is, you just get more sure about yourself and more wise and you see how dumb certain things are and it gets harder and harder to participate...(or not, perhaps you will figure out a way to avoid this...it's not a certainty or anything...). But take your discontent seriously perhaps? I am open to something new, even sort of planning it and I "stand" the writing stuff by keeping it to short-term assignments...whatever works:-) HUGS