find a meaningful job

i wrote this a year ago, in fact, it was the search for meaningful work that brought me to this site! I haven’t quite got to the paid work yet but i retrained and hope to start work in a new field: helping people live better with yoga and ayurveda. it’s been a long and crazy search for meaning and purpose but this is it—I know it is because it fills me with enthusiasm and i also know that it helps to make the world a better place, one person at a time.

yeah…so now i just have to start…

not sure I can find this when finding a job soon and one that isn’t in a call centre is in my list. We’ll see, I guess I can hope. At the very list looking at pure data entry cause at least that’s less interaction and can often do it in my sleep.

I found a job as a campaign advocate. I enjoy this job because we are supposed to get to know the people on a personal basis before drafting their letters to congress. I have only been doing it a week, but hopefully it will be something that is emotionally fulfilling.

I worry when I come back from my travels I will end up in the same kind of thankless, soul-sucking job, just because I’ll be broke and need to make a quick buck. And with a degree in English Literature, I don’t really have any marketably succinct “skills.” Or any desire to slave away in the corporate world, for that matter. I really want to do something that helps people, but what, exactly, continues to allude me.

I have worked in corporate america for ten years. I have held executive admin positions, an paralegal positions. I was able to pay all of my bills and I had a nice place to live. But, I didn’t like going to work. As soon as I got there I got involved in the “rat race” it was extremely stressful. Working as a paralegal for a personal injury lawyer was worse. I would see people with multiple slip and falls, and multiple law suits where they were “injured”. There were valid accidents and injuries, however most were frivilous and could have been solved out of courts.
So, here I am taking time off, not sure what I want to do. Last month I left my job with the school system, I left for personal reasons. I LOVED that job, but I wasn’t even making $700 a month. But, the work itself was fulfilling. Is it possible to love my job, do something meaningful, and still make a decent amount of money?

I have been working at online advertising agencies in New York City for about three years. My clients were large household brands, and I would work on their web presence, from websites to banner ads to e-mail marketing campaigns.

Then at my last job, where I was working on the Microsoft account, I got fired after just three months without any warning. The reasons that they gave for firing me were inaccurate. Completely untrue. I was baffled. How could a large established company fire someone on a whim like that and for made up reasons?

This made me do some soul searching and probe my inner thoughts. I thought about what had drawn me into online advertising in the first place and what had kept me in it for those few years. Making money was certainly a part of it. As was the prospect of climbing the corporate ladder.

I realized that I didn’t really care about these mega-brands. Who gives a shit whether or not they get an extra 1% of the marketshare or about a stupid banner to hopefully get more people to sign up. All I was doing was helping corporate america waste more money in the hopes of making more.

Being unemployed with little to do every day, I felt useless, bored. I would find excuses to drive places just to pass the time. But I started to realize that what I was doing before, getting up in the morning, going to work and occupying myself all day, was just something to do to pass the time. It was something that would keep me from being bored and from complaining. But then, why should I spend my precious days being occupied just for the sake of being occupied.

I now know that I don’t want to wake up in 10 years and have nothing to show for the 10 years of hard work other than financial stability, if even that. If I’m spending half of my life doing something, I want to make it worthwhile. I want it to be something that I’m excited about, that I would gladly do for no pay. I’m finished with ad agencies, and places that don’t give a shit about their employees. It may take some time to find that field of work that I’m looking for, but it will be worth it.

I found a completely awesome job! I’ll be helping people and I’ll have more responsibility, yay!

I’ve been there for 4+ years helping to take back America from these crazies!

Can anyone help? Something with meaning that pays the bills? Does that exist in a capitalistic society???

...by the job i have now. but i have to move on and hopefully find some other meaningful job with wonderful people.