Why isn't early retirement an option and other questions

Just now, I found myself googling: How to find a job. Because how does one find a job? Do you look through one of those recruitment websites? Do you spend way too much time on LinkedIn? Do you look up enough keywords so the algorithm works its magic? Or do you just hope for the best?

In May, I handed in my letter of resignation knowing I would be taking a break before looking for a job. At the end of July, I ended my last day of work (for a while) looking forward to a nice holiday. In August, I was busy busy busy and now, before I even realized it, it’s the end of September and I’m realizing that I will definitely need a job by the end of October/beginning of November.

This is obviously a bit overwhelming but this random little post isn’t about finding a job. It’s about how we need to market not just our goods and services now but ourselves. Most LinkedIn posts are people basically telling you why they are special or unique or what they bring to a table you didn’t know you had to bring anything to. It’s no longer enough to decide which skill you want to turn into a career and figure it out. No, you need to post mind numbingly boring nonsense on LinkedIn, keep your Twitter clean, and close friends your more questionable content on Instagram.


Image by kalhh from Pixabay

But here’s the thing. Why can’t we not sell ourselves for a job? I would feel less hopeless and vulnerable signing up for a dating site. And honestly, LinkedIn, the network for professionals, sure feels like that sometimes what with the heavily edited and filtered images some people use.

Talking about pictures, I recently had to get some photographs taken and had to tell the photographer not to edit out my blemishes or lighten my skin. But why should we even have to say this?

Anyway, back to topic, I will be spending the coming week figuring out what I want to do with my life and what I am willing to settle for. But until then, I do know what I don’t want out of a job (because this is the year of learning lessons and not repeating mistakes).

I don’t want to be doing another’s job just because they are bad at it but for some reason keep getting paid to basically do nothing. I don’t want to feel like death at the end of the day or not be able to do my job properly because someone else is incompetent. I want to work with people who don’t take shortcuts, people who do work they can be proud of.

And I don’t want to work with or for people who don’t do anything about issues when they are brought up. Put your foot down and sort things out.

I also don’t want to work for too low a pay. I’m usually happy as long as I can enjoy life without having to spend the week leading to payday hoping no unexpected expenses come up. But this just isn’t worth it anymore. I don’t want a huge salary, but I don’t want to settle for peanuts. I don’t want people to look at me like I’m joking when I tell them my salary.

I don’t want my job to be my number 1 priority anymore. I keep making this mistake and it’s time to stop. I need to prioritize myself, my happiness, and my health. I don’t want to be working from a hospital room or a funeral home. I want to be the kind of person who takes the day off when they are sick or their grandmother dies.

(And this is on me. None of the places I’ve worked at have expected this from me, but I have expected myself to be better than someone who takes a day off for every little thing.)

And finally (for this list/post, for now), I don’t want a job in print media, I suppose. It’s not easy to say this since this is the only field I’ve loved. But besides not wanting to give up Ollie’s Diary, which is published bi-weekly in Little Stars, The Sunday Morning, the low pay, the ChatGTP nonsense that gets published, and the lack of ethics aren’t things I can deal with anymore.

It's heartbreaking to say this. It’s not something I really even want happening but it’s something I need to come to terms with – and I think this is why I’m even Googling ‘How to find a job.’ Because, so far, opportunities have presented themselves, but now, I have to figure out what I can even do, because if I really had to sell myself, then what skills do I have? What kernels of wisdom can I write about on LinkedIn? What do I bring to the table? What do I have to offer? Do I have anything to offer?

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