Do what you love. It’s pretty sound advice, assuming that what you love is not a drug. To be happy in life, it helps to do work about which you are passionate.
Unfortunately, reality does not always permit us to make this choice. Whether we like it or not, there may be instances in which we end up working in an industry completely unrelated to our interests, major, or values.
While it’s easy to perceive this situation as a negative one, the truth is, taking on a job in a field you’re not familiar with can offer up some fairly substantial benefits, assuming you make the conscious choice to acknowledge them.
By working outside of your comfort zone, you. . .
Develop Confidence
Working a job that relates to your life goals isn’t necessarily easy; the mere fact that you enjoy it does not guarantee that it won’t be demanding. We’d all like to be confident in our work, but actually achieving that state of self-assurance is a struggle.
If, however, you’ve already thrived in a position that didn’t have much to do with your previous training, you have solid evidence that you’re the type of individual who can manage to learn new skills and adapt to a challenging work environment. It seems that after college, many of us assume our degree has transformed us into a specialized person, only capable of operating within a narrow career path.
We forget the fact that we still possess the ability to learn. Rediscovering this truth allows us to develop a confidence that will make our entire professional life much easier.
Appreciate Other Goals
In any given moment, it is entirely possible to step back and ask yourself about the various values that went into creating the experience you’re having. Driving down the highway? Thank a civil engineer. Surfing the web? Some computer genius probably had a hand in what you’re doing right now. Out to dinner? Your food may have been prepared by someone whose lifelong goal was to be a chef.
Very often, we get so caught up in our own perspective that we forget how significant other types of work are. By learning to appreciate these different approaches to the question “What do I want to do for a living?” we can, quite simply, enjoy an enriched experience of the world around us.
Working a job in a field you know nothing about is a fantastic way to experience this. You’re surrounded by people driven to reach goals you never give a second thought to. You get to understand the work that goes into something you may take for granted.
Focus Your Priorities
While most of us have a dream job, the degree to which we pursue a career in our chosen field varies. Some of us are born with an innate drive to realize our ambitions, while others need outside forces to motivate us.
Working a job you didn’t hope for can be a powerful influence. On the one hand, you may discover that you have an unexpected knack for this type of work; your priorities realign as you find a new goal, one you never considered before. On the other hand, if your job doesn’t inspire you, you’ll feel a stronger desire to start chasing your dream. Every day at work will be a reminder that you need to strive towards your true aspirations.
When you read about successful celebrities, you often find that theirs are rags-to-riches stories. They started with nothing and ended up with fame and fortune. That may have something to do with the fact that they were desperate to escape their circumstances. It gave them the focus to keep chasing a dream.
Working a job you have no passion for can help you gain some of that necessary desperation.
Impress Employers
Anyone who has ever filled out an application for an adult job knows the frustration that accompanies reading the following words: “Preferred candidate has 2-3 years experience in [insert field here].”
How can you ever get any experience when no one wants to hire a newcomer? It seems that barely any employer wants to risk hiring someone who hasn’t done the job before.
As such, you may feel that working in an unrelated industry is a waste of your time; when you do get around to applying to your dream jobs, you won’t have the experience that everyone seems to want.
To an extent, this may seem like a legitimate concern, but you should also account for the fact that a potential employer may very well be impressed with your ability to thrive in a position for which you weren’t prepared. Talent and training are important to a potential boss, but so are qualities such as flexibility and maturity.
If you can demonstrate that you took a job seriously even though you didn’t care about it, you can prove that you’re the type of individual who commits to doing good work, whether or not it makes you feel personally fulfilled.
Employers want to know that they can rely on you to consistently perform to the highest standards of professionalism and dedication, even when you’re not completely enjoying yourself. Working a job you didn’t plan on is an effective way of showing off this trait.
