Careering and Careening

As I mentioned in my check-in yesterday, I'm feeling some consternation in the job hunt as I yet again consider my options for the future.

In some ways the mission is simple: find a job that pays money so that I can work on the novel and game project.

In other ways, it's gotten complicated. The placement agent I spoke to on Wednesday told me that most offices will want staff in dress pants. This is entirely reasonable and expected. It's also something I can do. But I was surprised by how much I don't want to do it.

The problem is, part-time work isn't really available in office environments, which means such a job would have extended periods of time where I'd be living my life in dress clothes. Dress clothes are poor choices for doing exercise--even just with walking, dress shoes are crap for it. And maintaining a healthy lifestyle, predominantly through walking, has become so important to me that the idea of being cooped up in an office and hobbled by impractical, status-focused clothing doesn't sound appealing.

It also sounds like the work right now isn't all that much better than minimum wage, at least for office temping. Which is fair, since the employers are just hiring someone to cover a hold in their admin staff for a few weeks. But if I'm going to be working for low wages, I'd almost rather work part-time at Staples or something where, yes, I'd be wearing crap clothing, but at least I wouldn't be living in it most of my life.

This is all causing me to realize that if I want to earn decent money, pick my own hours, and/or have other such conveniences, I can't go in half-assed. I need to find a job that is actually career focused and not just a placeholder to make money. While this will make it harder to work on the projects I want to, I would at least be compensated by working at a job that interests me.

The other option is another variety of impractical: finally start leveraging my yoga teaching certificate to earn money. The money would be bad, but the hours few, and the dress code would be mandatorily exercise-friendly. If on top of that I start promoting myself as a script reader/editor/doctor, I could find drips and drabs of interesting set-your-own-hours work.

This post is stream-of-consciousness. I'm figuring out my angle as I type. Thanks for the talk. :)