a beneficial Wrong Job ??

Another Career explorations book i’m reading lately (i’m getting in alot of reading in on Career Advice books!) has an interesting excercise:Taking the Wrong Job
I admit i’ve been floundering for the past year, since being so unexpectedly “abolished” from my former job. It wasnt so much that it was a dream career choice, but it wasnt the way i’d wanted to leave the job, with it collapsing & folding up under my feet —the whole divison was dismantled. Tho, since i had a small severence, i thought it was a good opportunity to take some time and Really think & plan & explore what i really want to do in this life, with passion. I’ve gathered alot of info and formed some ideas, but as far as Getting a Job…i’m stuck. And i’ve been unemployed for so long thats its beginning to build up to a huge (unrealistic) fear about getting hired again. Thus, this book suggests, to get Unstuck, take a “Wrong Job” for awhile….

To Highlight the Strategy:

• take any job you know very little about, and doesnt fit you at all
  
• do the best work that you can at this job
  
• focus on that you are already working for a company, and that company is You.

Therefore, the goals of the wrong job are:

1. not to just make your boss happy
2. not to impress anyone
3. Get knowledge and skills for yourself
4. remember that experience is always good for you
5. remember everything leads somewhere, as long as you focus on what you’re doing there
   

And What To Do while at the Wrong Job

• Set a 6mos deadline -- a cutoff date allows you to not feel trapped
  
• make a commitment to learn as much as you can, dont waste time, gather inventory
  
• remember that this job is a foreign country, and youre just visiting; dont let bad moments spoil the trip
  
• Become an Amateur Business Reporter: learn everything abount the industry youre a part of, develop attentiveness and create your own education
  
• Start gathering notes, quotes, comments of people around you, as if writing a novel or screenplay on this workplace; it is not only a great distancing technique, but a useful cathartic. Dump all your frustrations by keeping notes on everything stupid or unfair that people do. Get creative and entertain yourself, if the job bores or frustrates you.

And once youve learned, gained, absorbed everything you can from this job, but dont know where to go next…Take another “Wrong Job”

~ text by Barbara Sher

Definately a lot of good food for thought for me…