Why there’s no such thing as a bad job.

20 years into my career, I’m feeling a little nostalgic as I look back on my many jobs and a couple of career changes along the way, I now see that whilst not every experience was an entirely happy or fulfilling one at the time, each and every one happened to get me to exactly where I needed to be in life.  

It’s highly likely that we’ve all had at least one shitty job in our life and whilst it’s easy to focus on the negatives, what if we looked at the positives instead?

So, let’s have a wander through career Tash and see what I learnt along the way and why I think it helped get me to where I am today…

1.       The one that makes you realise you’re on the wrong path

They say the average person will have 5 careers in their lifetime today and I can definitely see that this may be true and whilst I’m not quite at 5 yet, I’m not far off. My first career wasn’t quite what I thought it would be and in my early 20s I found myself sitting in a university finishing off my PhD, doing research and working as a teaching assistant in the area of consumer behaviour. I had planned to be many things, this was not it, but after being put off from being a psychiatrist by the fact I had to do a residency in a hospital, this was the next best thing and so research it was. I looked so young the MBA students I taught mistook me for an undergrad, I wore jeans every day and I spent a lot of time in the library photocopying journals.  Those are the 3 things that come to mind first when I look back! One day sitting in my office, I had a realization that I’d still be in the same place, likely in the same jeans in 20 years’ time and it was a total ah-ha moment and please get me out of here. I quit, applied to go on a grad scheme in an ad agency and well the rest really is history!  Ultimately, we have to do the wrong job to get us to the right job!

2.       The one you really hated

Whatever the reason for our unhappiness, there's good news even in the worst work experience and bad jobs have a lot to teach us.  Well, this I try and tell myself regularly anyway even all these years on. I thought I’d got my dream job. It was such an exciting time. This was my moment and I felt like “I’d arrived”. Only it wasn’t and what ensued was pretty much the worst year of my life. A job that was totally not what I expected, a boss from hell and a few other less than ideal circumstances and I cannot even tell you the misery I felt. But I couldn’t really tell anyone that, as it was my “dream” job after all! Every day I hung on in there even though I felt like dead man walking on the tube, I cried in the toilets at work, drank myself silly, felt beyond lonely and my confidence hit the floor.  And then one day when it all became too much I walked out with no job to go to and what followed was not the easiest 12 months of my life as I had to work on my mental health a lot and get myself in a position where I felt able to go back into a “proper job” again, but I did and in a different area of marketing and I started a really happy chapter in my life. Not in a “dream job” but in a “nice job”! So, what did I learn?  It sounds cheesy, but I did learn a lot about myself, my values and what is important to me and also, I learned how resilient I am and how I can cope with a lot more than I sometimes give credit for. I also learned that life is too darn short to be that unhappy. 

3.       The one that makes you realise how much the people matter

Before I moved to Dubai, I worked with one of the big global comms agencies for nearly 6 years.  I can’t say it was the work that kept me there or that I was especially fulfilled, but I enjoyed the work, learnt a lot and after the trauma of the job before I was so happy to be in a lovely environment where I felt I belonged and to not be in fear coming into the door every day. So, when someone asks me about my favourite job, I usually say this one and why do I look back so fondly – the people of course!   If you’re going to spend the majority of your time at work, which the majority of us do when building our careers, then it’s easier if you like everyone (or well most of them!). Company culture is so so important and once you’ve worked in a place where it didn’t gel for you, then finding one that does feels oh so good and you realise how much the people and environment matter. Many of my colleagues from here remain my good friends and I cherish every company party, Friday lunchtime at the pub and even think about the view from my desk window now and again too.  

4.       The one that gets you to where you need to be

For me it was starting my own business. For others it may be a major career change or even a move to another country. But for all of us I believe there is a job and a moment where we make a decision that will take us to the place we ultimately need to be in our lives.  If you’d have asked me before starting my own business if this was what I planned to do, I’d never have said yes because it really wasn’t my plan. Yet with this said the signs were always there and my entrepreneurial spirit was always desperate to get out with the little shop I ran at school, to my contemporary art side hustle in the UK. However, it wasn’t on my radar and setting up my own business happened when I was tired of the corporate slog and I liked the idea of taking things a bit easier and so I resigned with the plan of freelancing for a bit and figuring out where I wanted to be and well 9 years, 60 clients and a fair few rollercoasters along the way later – here I am! I guess I’m a business owner and an entrepreneur. I work for me.  Oh and I worked harder than I ever did before, earned less than I did for a long time and never actually made it to yoga.  So, careful what you wish for! But of course I wouldn’t have it any other way as the sense of pride and fulfillment is like no other.

As my mother always tells me, “nothing worth having comes easy” and I think when it comes to jobs this is very much the case and that even in the worst of working environments, we can gain so many valuable lessons in communication, positivity, perseverance, the importance of following your passions, the value of hard work and more.  

 Life is a journey after all.