I am a
millennial, but before you grab torches and pitchforks to run me back to my lazy
treehouse, hear me out. Yes, many millennials are playing career leapfrog, but
very rarely are any of us doing that for fun or because we aren’t capable of
holding onto a traditional job.
Millennials
were raised as dreamers, and a bit differently than previous generations we
grew up in a world where people were going out and proving the cliché to be
true. We watched underdogs conquer the world and started thriving with a mantra
of “I can do that too”. This beat of ambition became the backdrop for our every
dream and we began to see that we didn’t need to settle for the first thing we found
or the second best reality.
From a
young age I proudly proclaimed that I wanted to be a teacher. I would double
major in teaching English and History and become the most beloved teacher to
grace the halls of Big Dreams High School. Spoiler alert: That did not happen.
Approximately
one day into my college career I was introduced to a degree path in Event
Management and, to the utter horror of my parents, I declared that major with
pride. I would now be the greatest event planner the world had ever seen and I
would either be hired as Taylor Swift’s Tour Coordinator, or manage the Oscars.
You know, simple dreams.
So I did
it. I resuscitated my parents, and graduated college with a degree in Event
Management. I then tried for nine months to find a job before moving home and
getting a job folding sweaters. Apparently the rest of the world had not gotten
my memo about my big dreams, or Taylor Swift didn’t have my number.
Either way I kept up the hustle and
become beloved in my retail job. I love people, so I kept up my job search
while also cranking out dreams of becoming a store owner or getting hired as a
model. Again, super grounded in reality. Thankfully no one was ever subjected
to me attempting to become a model, and one of the 231 applications I submitted
finally scored me an interview with a major hotel chain.
I walked into the 72 story building
on my first day with stars in my eyes. Yes, I could see it now. I would run
this multi-billion dollar, international hotel empire. It might take five or
six years to become CEO, but it would be worth it. Well, maybe not CEO, but I
knew in my heart that I would love this job and I would work for this company
until I retired gloriously at 65 (that retirement plan might actually be the
craziest dream of all).
A year later I was turning in my
letter of resignation. Poor interdepartmental communication, a boss who didn’t
adore me, and some less than healthy work expectations led me to see that this
was not my forever job, and it led me to see that event planning might not be
the cake walk I had envisioned.
I then had a promising career as a
bank teller for less than three months. Then I went back to retail while I
waited for “my next big adventure”. Well funny story retail is not doing well
and I was laid off. After a month. So after crying and moving in with my fiancé
since I could no longer pay rent, I became a dog walker. Yep. A college
educated, worked for huge companies, big dreaming dog walker.
Now in my defense I was applying
for sparkly, full time, 401K included jobs throughout this journey, but since
you can’t walk up to hiring managers and say “I am wonderful, hard-working, and
I will bring in yummy baked goods if you will please just hire me” those
applications didn’t pan out.
But don’t worry folks! Just like Jar-Jar
I kept bouncing back despite the fact that no one seemed to want me to. My next
big dream? Graduate School. That was the key! More education on my resume and
people would be beating down my door to beg me to work for them! Five minutes
into grad school I decided I could always become a college professor if my big
career plans fell through. Teaching college can’t be that hard, right?
A year after starting my graduate
career I was getting antsy. Walking dogs and studying was not using up all the
creative energy I was buzzing with, so back to the job hunt full force. Did I
mention I also planned to eventually get around to publishing several novels
and becoming rich enough to just write for a living? Yeah it’s on my list right
after laundry.
Cue me getting a part time
assistant job at a library. If you haven’t picked up on it yet, like many
millennials I’m optimistic to a fault. Every small start is a stepping stone on
the path to world domination. Working 20 hours a week answering phones quickly
led to dreams of running the library. Like many jobs before, I was ready to
pledge my heart, soul, and every working day of my life to the job. The fact
that I devour books the way most people breathe didn’t hurt
Well after five months of “not like
that” and “you’re not qualified for that promotion” I realized that my dream of
dying at my desk after 40 or 60 years of passionate work and haunting the
library was not how my life was going to go. That realization, and some less
than stellar circumstances, led to me leaving to once again pursue “my next
great adventure”. Again.
Leaving that job was hard. It hurt.
I cried and ate ice cream and cursed the universe…for a day. Then, it was time
to get back to dreaming and hustling because I had bills to pay and an
unquenchable thirst for working hard at something.
So I finally bumped one of my
less-realistic dreams to the foreground and decided that if I couldn’t find a
job that fit me, I’d make one. I created my own company, my own logo, and I set
out to become the Millennial Marketing Genius I boasted to be on my business
cards.
Three weeks after quitting my job I
had two clients and a job offer to join an international company and be their
marketing go-to girl. Not too shabby if I do say so myself.
For those of you who aren’t
counting, that was seven jobs in three years, plus two extra (pending) Master’s
degrees. So yes, while I may seem like a job-hopping, hot mess millennial, I’m
really a hustler with an aversion to giving up.
Will this new adventure be last “new
job”? Will I end up working seven more jobs before all is said and done? No
clue. What I do know is that I will always be working hard, searching for a way
to spend my passion, and dreaming way bigger than anyone thinks I have any
right to.
