Working?

I’ve not had a full time job that lasted over 3 consecutive years. I’m 41.

My working life has always been to support my social life. Earning just enough to do the fun day to day things but not enough to plan or future-proof. It’s mostly served me well, I’ve had a lot of financially constricted fun. I’m very privileged to have been able to start over X amount of times. But the 3 year job cycle goes back a long way.

It started when I was 13 as my morning job having a paper round. I left because I was very much enjoying drinking as a 15/16yr old (saturday mornings were super rough). Having facial hair at that age was great for fooling the pre-millenium shop assistants in to what is now a pretty major offence. But that’s another story about drinking, and I did not cause anyone to lose their job or be fined.

During these years I worked in a variety of places. Sales, hospitality, office based admin, driving jobs, technician & ultimately general builder & apprentice carpenter.

So when people ask(ed) “what do you want to do?”, I’ve never had a career based answer. I want to be happy, earn enough to live and support my current situation. What that entails doing is open for suggestion.

“But what did you enjoy doing?” is another great question. I’ve enjoyed every job for a time. Or aspects of it that I’ve tried to bring in to other roles and industries.

My interests that I think would allow me to have an enjoyable working life are:

Veganism (quite vague)

Women’s football ( very vague)

The music industry ( super vague)

I’ve been vegan for 13 years and a B-corp company feels like it would be a good match for me. I can do sales and admin and food testing. I worked in a vegan supermarket for 2 years and loved so many parts of it.

The Women’s football space is where most of my attention is right now. All across the world there is incredible stories from players and clubs that need to be told. Or trying to help with business development, at a junior level, to increase sponsors or revenue. I volunteered at a tier 4 team here in the UK for a couple of years but doing that around work was limiting for a social life. For me at least. But if there’s work to be done in those kinda clubs, I’d be open to it.

I also produced and edited content for a Women’s football blog for a few years. I podcasted more than I wrote, but this goes back to wanting to tell stories in the game.

The music one is a hard one. Playing in diy punk bands for 20ish years meant I learned so much about time management and limitations. I’d love to be able to use what I experienced into work. I’m not competent enough to teach any music so that’s out of the question, but maybe some level of artist management?

But all of this is without a university degree. I tried university (film & tv production) and did well at the practical work, but the sudden death of my father and my lack of concentration or ability to do extensive essays meant I tried the 2nd year twice but could not complete. I struggle to read into questions, according to the 2nd dyslexia test I did whilst at college, which I think means it takes me longer to work out the task or situation if I’m quite unknowledgeable in it. And I’ve always taken the long way round to get to the point/answer.

I’m also very self aware, in working terms anyway. I know what I can and probably won’t be able to do. It’s why I just left a fairly stable job and apprenticeship. It wasn’t sitting right with me and I wasn’t performing to a good level. The building industry is awkward for someone who has lived in diverse & inclusive spaces with incredible people. To suddenly hear casual racism, sexism and homophobia (plus more that I can’t recall right now) pulled me out of the task or classroom. I tried to confront yet never felt my argument was convincing. But watching a digger repair man try to work out veganism in real time was fucking hilarious.

I’m a month in to job hunting and I hate it. My CV is so varied that it’s hard to fit what I am into the places that I don’t really want, but kinda need. Transferable skills are plentiful but experience in a specific role is preferred. Plus so many institutions make you re-write out your CV to their format. Yeah I have a lot of free time, but please!? I also just got rejected from a full interview after doing a pre-interview.

Unfortunately, due to the presence of candidates whose experience more closely match our current needs for this role, we have chosen not to move forward with your application currently.

This was for a trainee position. And it very much sums up the ever continual search

Also there’s a lot of sport happening in July. I would very much like to be around for watching all of it so if I don’t find anything till August, that would be ok.

I hope this serves as a funny reflection to future me that I managed to find a job to grow in that I adore.