They’re Not Just Being Cliché

We all have heard the Confucius quote “Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life”. I always thought that people were being cliché when they would say this, but recently I have found this to be true.

When I went to college I had no clue what I wanted to do with my life. When I was looking at colleges the thought was that I would study to be a pharmacist. I had no desire to be a pharmacist, it was just a top contender because it would be a very lucrative job. I would have been a horrible pharmacist.

It was literally hours before I signed up for my freshman classes that I decided that I was going to pursue a business degree. It was quite a stressful afternoon trying to work with my advisor to get my schedule switched from a slew of science classes to pre business requirements, but it all worked out. My biggest piece of advice for future college students is to not settle on a major. You have more than enough time your first few semesters to decide what you want to do with the rest of your life.

There are also so many different jobs that you can hold with almost any degree that you do end up receiving. When I first graduated and started looking for a job I started to believe that there was no hope for me ever finding anything. I would search Indeed, LinkedIn and even Facebook Jobs for a job that directly matched my idea of what a person with a marketing degree should have. Just an FYI there is no such thing. Every marketing job’s expectations are completely different.

I was working at my hometown grocery store as a manager after I graduated and really started to believe that that was going to be where I ended up working for the rest of my life. I can’t tell you how many “entry level” marketing jobs that I applied for and heard back from telling me that I did not have enough experience.

I finally started broadening my search and received an interview for a marketing job at a bank in the Quad Cities. I left that interview knowing that I nailed it and that the job was mine to lose. Guess what… I wasn’t offered the job. At least not at first. When I got the call from their human resources manager telling me that they loved me, but that they had somebody with 20+ years experience apply for the entry level job and had to give it to her, I was literally ready to give up. It was an extremely low place in my life. Weeks later I would get a call back that they did want me. I would go on to work there for about a year before moving on.

Three years later, I am now the Director of Marketing and Communications for an organization. Had you told me back then that I would be a director of marketing by 25 I would have never believed you. This is the first job that I have truly loved. They really aren’t being cliché when they say that 'if you find a job you love you’ll never have to work a day in your life'. Of course we are all human and still have those days where we question every decision we’ve ever made, there just seem to be less of those days in my life now.

Why am I telling you about this? Tonight I ran into an old coworker who told me how much happier I seemed these days. This made me reflect on how even though I am working a lot more hours right now than I have in the past, it really does not feel like I am working as hard. This is because I love what I am doing. I want others who are struggling with finding their place to know that if you work hard things do find a way to work themselves out. When one door closes it is inevitable that sooner or later another will open, even if it doesn’t feel like it will in that moment.

Until next time,