Why You Should Work At A Job You Hate
And Other Thoughts About Grit, Employment, and the Future of Careers
I want to make this very clear - I love my job, and I couldn’t imagine doing anything else right now. My career is headed where I want it to go, I work with an amazing team, and my project gets me out of bed with a smile on my face every morning. But it hasn’t always been that way.
There are plenty of articles out there about how to find your dream job. Here’s a few to start you off.
However, many of us are not in jobs that we love. Many of us are in dead-end positions we don’t love that frustrate us daily.
But I don’t think that’s a bad thing.
If you read about many famous entrepreneurs, most of them started out in jobs that weren’t so glamorous or fulfilling, but taught them essential skills to be successful.
I believe passionately that any situation is as good, or as bad, as you make it. Having the unwavering belief that you can make change is critical to success, but sometimes you just get stuck. We’ve all been there. But here are some ways to make the best of a tough situation.
Grit
Being in a tough job is one of the best ways I know to test your grit. Grit is a buzzword that is being thrown around a lot these days, but I think it is pretty simple to define and more important than ever.
Grit is defined as courage and resolve; strength of character.
More specifically, I believe grit is that quality about someone to push through difficult times in order to reach something better on the other side. Grit is the mental capacity to deal with crap in our lives without losing it.
When you work in a job that isn’t in your field, where you have long hours of boring work, no career direction, and terrible colleagues, it is easy to become demoralized. We’ve all been there.
But think about this like climbing a mountain. Sometimes the weather is just awful. Sometimes the slope is steep and slippery. Sometimes you just don’t have the resolve to keep going.
But developing a character of persistence in the face of adversity, determination towards a goal, and a positive outlook despite all the evidence to the contrary - that is what having grit is all about.
Working in a job you hate is the best situation I know of to build character and develop grit. No other environment in my entire life has been as trying (thanks mom and dad, love you), but knowing that you are getting better by simply surviving is a refreshing perspective.
Initiative
Working in a crappy job you don’t like is an amazing way to develop a sense of initiative. In nearly every crappy job I’ve ever had there have been three primary things that make it difficult:
- The work is not stimulating, and in some cases, physically and emotionally draining
- The culture is demoralizing and your colleagues don’t want to be there either
- There is no career trajectory associated with the position
I think that the solution to all of these problems is the same: initiative.
When you take the initiative to instigate and respond proactively instead of reactively, your entire philosophy and outlook on your work changes. Don’t look at it as a crappy job you are forced to be a part of, think of it as a work-in-progress that needs you to come in and fix it.
When a flower doesn’t bloom you fix the environment in which it grows, not the flower. - Alexander Den Heijer
So if your job is not stimulating, find ways of making it interesting. Can you automate some of the role? What would that involve? Maybe you need to learn how to program in order to do that, but that’s a great challenge in order to make your life better. If you can’t automate it, can you find ways of making it a challenge? If it takes you 8 hours to perform your job to your normal level of completion, see if you can do it in 6. Or 5. Or 3. And then with that extra time, think about other ways you could provide value and be useful. That’s taking initiative.
If your environment is not up-to-par, it is not just a good idea to make it better, it is your responsibility. Everyone contributes to the environment, whether they realize it or not. We are all connected in that way, and if you intentionally make the environment better, others will respond. Take the initiative to be the change you want to see in your workplace.
And most importantly, if there is something I have learned from my short career, it is that no career worth having is linear. Spending time working in areas that are not directly related to your field of study or career is not just important, it is vital. Being able to see the world through different lens is something that all senior executives and well-adjusted individuals must be able to do, and if we can learn anything from famous entrepreneurs, it is that where you start is seldom where you end up. Enjoy the ride - every position has something it can teach you. Take the initiative to find that lesson.
If, for whatever reason, you can’t game your job any further, your colleagues are shitrats, or you just aren’t learning anymore, the solution is simple: change jobs. Take the initiative to find a better job. Not qualified? Get qualified. Break down the doors and weasel your way in. Take the back door if you have to. Take the side door. Climb through a window. Do what you need to to make it happen. This is on you. Take the initiative to be better.
Perspective
The single most important reason I would recommend everyone work in a job they hate is to change their own perspective.
Change your perspective on the meaning of work.
Change your perspective on what a good job is.
Change your perspective on what is required of you to succeed.
Change your perspective on who you are and where you want to go with your career.
The way I see it, there are three changes in perspective that happen when you work in a job you hate.
The first is a sense of Self-Awareness. You can think of this as seeing yourself as you are now. Being able to see clearly who you are, who you define yourself as, and what you believe in, is crucial to moving forward. A crappy job will force you to confront discomfort, and what level of discomfort you are willing to tolerate. Success is seldom defined by how amazing an individual is at a particular set of skills, but rather by the level and type of discomfort they are willing to tolerate. Knowing intimately where you are is the first step to making progress.
The second is a sense of Vision. Think of this as seeing yourself in the future, as you want to be, where you want to go. Working in a deadbeat environment should force you to want more. The only way I know to persevere through tough environments is to have a vision of something better coming afterwards. The view at the top of the mountain is worth the climb, but the person you become for having done it is worth so much more. Have the vision to dream bigger. But start from the bottom - it will remind you years later why you went to all this trouble in the first place.
Lastly, a sense of Empathy. Think of this as seeing others. It is so easy in today’s ever-connected world to see the population around you as inconsequential. But when you work in a crappy job, you learn to see the world through the eyes of the people who work at that level. Working as a server in a banquet hall, I worked 13+ hour days every weekend for 3 years. I learned a lot in that job, but the most important lesson I’ve taken away from it is to always treat staff with respect. You don’t know what battles they are facing in their own life, or what their day has been like so far. Having empathy for people in all walks of life is hard, but working in a dead-end job for the rest of your life is harder. Be kind, and learn to see things through their eyes.
Closing Thoughts
My good friend told me of a hiring manager she really respects who looked for 3 traits when going through candidates: Do they have experience in a low-level service/janitorial/manual labour job? Do they have experience taking a leadership role? Have they never worked for their parents?
If the answer to all 3 was yes, they would get the interview.
I don’t necessarily agree with the question, but for anyone who started from nothing and built a career for themselves, they understand the value of starting from the bottom.
There is tremendous value to having a job you hate, because it helps you realize the value of moving towards a job you love
In truth, hating a job is entirely up to you, and if you want to work at a job you love, you need to earn it.
Change your perspective.
Take initiative.
Have some grit.
This is on you now. What are you going to do about it?
Hat tip: Emily Miller, Victoria Limary, Isaac Kim, My Parents
