Do you change jobs a lot? Do you keep finding what you don’t want and dreaming of what you do?
That’s me. I have a really good track record of crossing out the things I don’t want to do, but struggling to find exactly what I do want to do. I am a job surfer. If your resume, like mine, is stacked with start and end dates, there is hope!
My first career was like that high school crush you can never forget. I knew right away what I wanted to do when I finished school and I did it. I landed my first job as editor of a community newspaper, working far too many hours and spending way too much time on the road, before bolstering my resume with contract reporter positions at mid-size dailies then finally landing a full time, permanent position at a small community daily newspaper.
I got paid pennies, worked days, evenings and weekends, got stuck in ditches during snowstorms and ruined multiple pairs of shoes trampling through muddy fields just to get the best spot news photo or land that exclusive interview. I loved it.
I know it’s not right for me now, but I can’t forget the joy that job brought me in the days before I got old and confused. Yes, I am still under 40 but I may as well have woken up with wrinkly skin and a full head of gray hair.
"Now, when I am finally oozing with the experience employers want, I am burnt out from life."
I left my career to have my twins and unfortunately never returned (albeit only for a few months). My son got cancer and for seven years, my life revolved around his surgeries, his treatments, his recovery and eventually his death. A career was second. A job became work, only means to make money for necessary therapy or activities to support our children. The career-driven me I once knew was gone.
Has this happened to you? When life throws you so far off track you don’t even know who you are anymore. So, you try to go back to the career you thought you loved and quickly found it wasn’t the one anymore. Then you tried another facet of your field of study? Then a job that aligned with your passion and that still didn’t do it for you. Then, you reassessed your skills, did some online training and tried another job. And now you are working, or maybe not, but still rummaging through your skill set to find what would bring the most joy back into your career. Or maybe you are at a stage in your life where you just want your full time position to be Mom. (If this is you, check out my blog Moms who just want to be moms)*
If this sounds like you, don’t fret, you’re not alone.
I haven't made it to the other side yet, or found that miracle advice to help you find what you are looking for, but I can tell you I have stopped criticizing myself for being more picky about what I do and don’t do. I am extremely lucky I have the opportunity to be picky and if you do too, I encourage you to embrace all the jobs you do because in the end they make you amazing. When that right position comes around or you decide to start your own thing, you have accumulated a wealth of knowledge to draw on from so many different areas. That’s power!
Give yourself a break. Life is hard. And it’s going to take some time to learn who you are again, to rediscover and reignite that old flame when it comes to reintegrating yourself back to work.
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