March 21, 2014 - Written by: Becky Solomon

“What Else Do You Do?” – When Your Day Job Just Isn’t Enough…

So, we all know it’s tough out there for young people and graduates. Those first few steps out of university can be a massive anti-climax when there isn’t that dream job waiting at the end for you.

Then there’s the realisation that all the work you put it doesn’t necessarily mean employable skills (but I can write 3,500 words on the male body and gender in media… How does that not equip me for communications manager??).

Some will easily find what it is they were looking for, and hurtle up the steps of the career ladder, happily attaining the benchmarks of adulthood: a good job, a car, maybe even a mortgage…

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…and then there are those of us who slowly realised that things aren’t going to be as easy as we’d hoped. A degree doesn’t always equate to a nice, well paid job, or even to continuous, employment with a mediocre wage. There’s a lot of other work that needs to go into it too. So, we do the sensible thing, and take whatever we can to make a living.

For many of us, this meant returning to the same sorts of jobs we had when we were 16. Suddenly, we’re frozen in time, increasing in age, but the dreams of steady adult life not getting any closer.

And yet, whilst we’re working our asses off in jobs we didn’t really want to do, we begin to come to terms with it. We work, we accept, we start to think about other directions we may go in, or about working our way up the ladder in the business we’re in (hey – it’s not so bad here after all).

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But then the slap across the face will come in the form of a condescending customer inquiring about what else you do; are you at college or university? What did you study? What are you hoping to do?

Slap, slap, SLAP.

These seem like perfectly innocent questions, but every one of them reinforces the concept that your job isn’t a real job and can only be considered a part time pursuit at best. They imply that your work is not ‘worthy’ and that you must to be validated by some other desires, drive or education.

I’m sorry, but is actually working not enough nowadays? Is this not a real job? Is it not a vital part that’s integrated into most of our lives? Does it not pay?

What gives you the right to assume I must be doing something ‘more’ with my life? I may bloody well love this job!

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These questions don’t always come from customers, they come from the friends who have already got to where they wanted to be, or the relatives who had the highest hopes for you going to university and what that would mean for your future.

As interested as they may be, it is not conducive to be constantly asking the question: “So, what are you up to?”

We shouldn’t have to feel like we owe an explanation to what we’re doing, or why we aren’t working in that fantabulous job we’ve dreamt about.

I’m saying no!

No, to allowing someone to make us feel belittled with these questions.

No, to having to feel ashamed.

And no, to feeling like we owe some sort of explanation as to why we haven’t achieved all of our dreams…

Don’t even get me started on Facebook adverts like this one:

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Honestly, sometimes it’s just circumstantial. The current economic climate doesn’t exactly help matters – why don’t we have a chat about that instead, eh? It may well be that you have other things in your life you would like to pursue, but I don’t believe that anyone ever has the right to make you question the work that you do.

So, the next time someone asks these belittling questions, I say, we announce our job titles proudly, and go into the greatest detail about all of the days’ tasks that we achieve and the day-to-day responsibilities that we undertake.

No matter what you are doing, whatever your job, be proud of it. Every role is worthy.