Work

Now that the weekend is almost over and I am facing another challenging week at work, I find myself sitting here and evaluating the last 7 weeks I've been working at my "new" job. So far, things have been going well. I pretty much have the hang of things and my training period is over. I am able to function almost completely on my own (except for a few questions here and there). I enjoy my job and have to say this is (out of all my past professions), probably my most favorite one of all. I've had quite a bit of professional titles and occupations. I started as a pre-school teacher, worked as a fine jewelry sales manager, did time as a jewelry merchandiser too. I worked as a research assistant and as an admissions representative while in graduate school. There was also the market research internship I did while in Berkeley. Then there was my almost 3 years as an organizational development and HR consultant. And then my more than 2 years as a Training Manager for a bank.

My current job is my favorite for a number of reasons. For starters, it is a rewarding profession. I find myself very much motivated that I am able to make a small difference in the lives of others. Another reason is while the work is busy and challenging, it is not a difficult job. I get a lot of satisfaction in doing what I do. Third, I work with a variety of very interesting people. There is never a dull day at work. Colleagues, students, clients ... I meet a lot of cool and not-so-cool folks! And lastly, the commute is awesome. I can leave the house 10 minutes before my shift and get home 10 minutes after I leave the office. Not only that, I am actually able to go home for lunch every single day. That is truly a luxury that I can not even begin to describe!

Of course, there are also "down" sides that keep this from being the "perfect" job (does that really exist!?). As with any job, there are goals that need to be met. I get that and am not opposed to having goals. In my role as part of Career Services, we are meant to get students jobs after graduation and the only thing our supervisors care about is how many employments we get. They don't care how many students are helped in other ways or how many employers we network with. They don't care how long the process takes and that in many cases it is all about building relationships. I have to stress over and over again that there are so many factors that need to work out and so many puzzle pieces that need to fall into place before an employment is made. But they don't want to hear it! All they want to know is "did you get a student employed today?". I guess I am starting to understand that even if I work for a college (an institution for higher learning and professional development), the bottomline is it is still a business and it is still run like one. I just have to get into that frame of thinking and stop being so idealistic! I need to stop getting too personally involved and just do the job. I am trying. Also, compensation-wise, it is not nearly as much as what I used to make. What an understatement =) That is a bummer, of course! But ultimately, I really think that in terms of money, I have learned my lesson well. I can honestly practice what I preach when I say that money is important but it is NOT the most important thing in the world! When you have a job you like, a career you can see yourself staying in, a company you are happy with ... well, salary still counts (I don't think I would want to or could afford to work for free!) but it is not as high on the list of priorities as it once was for me.