Working World

With the recession raging into its third year, many people aren’t worried about making a savvy career move up the company ladder. They merely need to find a job to survive – cover bills, keep food on the table and gas in the tank.

How can we navigate a temporary survival job without slipping backwards for good? And how do we keep morale up at a job that is unchallenging and unsatisfying?

Working a survival job is an art. In Maslow’s famous “hierarchy of needs,” survival needs are at the bottom of the pyramid and self-actualization needs at the top. His theory is that until basic needs like hunger and shelter are met, we can’t worry about being happy and fulfilled. What I’ve found through my work as a career advisor is that even if my clients need to take a survival job, they still want it to have significance. The answer is to select the right type of position and tie it to your larger goals.

Identifying Your Dream Job

The idea of transitional “just to pay the bills” employment assumes you have some idea of what you would really like to be doing. If you don’t, here is a shortcut to identifying your dream job: ask yourself one simple question – “If time, money and other reality constraints were not an issue, what would I do for work?”

Go ahead and brainstorm – go in as many directions as you want, don’t limit yourself to just one position, don’t worry about how practical or realistic they seem. Right now you just need a compass for selecting the best survival job options for you. Next, list all the reasons the dream jobs appeal to you. Your list might include security, independence, working with your hands, making an impact, summers off, working outdoors, creative teamwork, and so on. Come up with as many reasons as you can.

Other questions to ask yourself are: What skills will I need to do my dream job? What life and employment experience will help? What contacts will be valuable? Now explore transitional survival jobs that have similar traits to your dream jobs, and that can provide transferrable experience. The goal is to make your time of underemployment useful. And to keep you on your career track so you don’t have a feeling of backsliding.

Look for Silver Linings

Every employment situation you accept will offer benefits beyond just the compensation package. You will be meeting people, learning skills and having life experiences you won’t find anywhere else. Choose your survival job with this in mind.

Try not to rule out industries where you have preconceived notions or stereotypes. For example, have you actually ever tried telemarketing? The skills needed to excel at telephone sales are similar to those needed in many jobs. Also, the daily exercise of assertiveness and ability to handle rejection builds great muscles for pursuing bigger dreams.

Voltaire said, "If we don’t find something pleasant, at least we shall find something new."
    
Staying on Track

Keep a list or journal of what you’re learning from the survival job: the contacts you’re making, the things you would do differently if you were boss, and skills that are showing improvement, such as working with difficult people or being more detail-oriented by doing data entry.

Another benefit of a survival job is that it’s probably low stress — you don’t take your work home at night. This leaves room in your life to better yourself. Take a class or attend networking meetings in the field where you want to be. Look for ways to juggle. If you have selected your survival job carefully, you should have energy to prepare for that future job. When the opportunity presents itself, you want to be ready to take it.

People who find themselves frustrated working survival jobs have often selected something that doesn’t fit their natural pattern and long-term goals. When you choose the right survival job, you will have enough time to do other things.

Find Inspiration

One client wanted to start her own restaurant. Her passion was cooking, but she also had strong administrative skills. She took a job as a personal assistant, letting her boss know she was starting a catering business on the side and would appreciate being able to hand out her business cards to his clients. He agreed, as long as her work didn’t suffer.

She worked the catering business on evenings and weekends with help from her husband and teenagers until she had enough contacts and money to do it full-time. She trained her replacement for the boss, and he and his clients became some of her best customers.

Read stories of inspiration about people who are working their ideal job. Best-selling fiction author John Grisham woke three hours early every morning to pursue his goal of writing fiction while still working as an attorney.

The ‘Profiles of Success’ column in Working World is a great source of inspiration, and can be found here. How did Mark Zuckerberg or Oprah build their empires? What sacrifices did they make and inconveniences did they endure along the way? Think in terms of later evenings, earlier mornings, less television time, and enlisting help from family and friends.

Your survival job is not your final destination, but since you’re there, why not make the best of it? Use this time to better yourself and get the future job in focus. See this as one more adventure toward finding work you love! 

 
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Mariah Williams is a career coach and freelance writer. She is a graduate of Coach University, one of the premier training programs in the country.