The last time we talked about getting a job, I waxed on the many trials and tribulations of searching for a job after graduation. What I didn’t get into was the bigger issue of how does one find what they want to do. In college I picked the major of film, which I loved. I still love film. After I graduated I interned as a PA on an independent movie. Interning after graduation is a funny thing, because it’s really just being a slave, it’s not like your earning a grade or anything. PA is supposed to stand for Production Assistant, but it really stands for PISS AT. That’s right everyone, take out your dick and piss at this guy, he’s here to be humiliated. I worked long hard hours for no pay, doing every shitty deed possible and I was supposed to be happy about it because I was given an “opportunity” to work in show business. Fuck that. Imagine you wanted to work in the sewer like Ed Norton but before you can break in, you’ve gotta intern and wade through shit knee high for free, that’s basically what interning on a movie is. Knee high shit. But apparently so many people want to be in the entertainment business the world is ripe with suckers who will do anything to be around a movie set, and I was one of them. The truth is I want to write movies, not be a grip or any crewmember. How does someone become a screenwriter...you think I would’ve learned that in college? Nope. So since I’m not going to break into a career in writing by interning on movies, what shall I do? I gotta figure it out. Now someone older from a past generation would tell me there is nothing to figure out, work is work. You hate it too bad, that’s life. But I ask you my fellow 20 somethings is that true? Is growing up simply accepting unhappiness? I cannot believe that. I refuse.

So the problem I have is what to do, how can I find a job if I don’t know what to look for. There are two parts of life, figuring out what you want, and then executing that. Most people think it’s the executing part that’s hard, it’s not, it’s the figuring out part. When you’re in college or high school you know you’re on the right path. Even if you absolutely despised going to college (or despised going to High School) you felt secure because you knew deep down it wasn’t the wrong thing to do. Maybe not the right, but definitely not the wrong. I mean it couldn’t hurt to be in school right? But once you’re out in the real world it’s hard to figure out what the “right path” is. What should you do that will take you higher. Again an older person from a past generation would say that there is no path, make sure you can feed yourself and pay the rent and you’re okay. But I want more, I think most of us do. The problem is a lot of us, me included, sit around doing nothing really with our time.

Below is a list of the mental steps taken to get work. Now me specifically, I have a degree in film, which isn’t doing much for me, especially with how bad the economy is. I know we don’t all have film degrees, but some of us do. Some of us also have degrees in stuff we enjoyed in college, but can’t find an application for in the real world. I.E. women’s studies, pottery, jelking, philosophy, English, Drama, ect…

1) I want a “grown-up” job, where I can wear a tie and sit at a desk.
2) There are no “grown-up” jobs, the economy is shit, plus my degree in (whatever you’re degree is in) hasn’t trained me for a lot of stuff so I’m not qualified to do most “grown-up” jobs.
3) Okay well I’ll just work retail until I figure something better out. I need money.
4) Wait I can’t work retail, everyone is going to think I’m a failure, I have a college degree, I should get something better. Plus if I’m putting in 40 hours a week I might as well be making good money for it at a “grown-up” job.
5) SEE # 1

Then it all goes back around in a circle. Over and over again. So what ends up happening is you do nothing. Absolutely nothing.

In comic books there is a story device called “the calling”, it’s the defining moment in the life of a superhero. For Superman it when his adoptive parents die. For Iron-man it’s being kidnapped. It is a moment when you realize what you are meant to do with your life. I think a lot of us are waiting for that “calling.” Well that’s it for today kiddies, more questions without answers from your old friend Mike. Until next time I’ll be in my room waiting for a bat to fly into my window.