100Days Day 16: my job

I think 22-year-old me would have been thrilled with this job I have now. I wonder what I would have said if someone told me then it would only take 36 years to get it.

When I graduated from college with a BA in English (and a dual concentration in creative writing and publishing), I had no idea how to go about getting a job in my field. My dad, a graphic artist, had some experience in advertising; my mom was insistent on trying to get me to be a teacher, which was the last thing I wanted to do (ironically, I ended up doing just that years later--a story for another day), and I was somehow convinced I would be the next great American short story writer. After about a dozen or so rejections from literary journals, I started looking through the "want ads" in our local newspaper. Yes, kids, that's how you looked for a job back in those days. You opened a newspaper, made of actual paper, turned to a section near the back (or the actual back page, in the case of some tabloids like the Village Voice), grabbed a pencil and started circling jobs that seemed tolerable.

I remember seeing ads for "proofreader" and "junior copywriter" that offered an hourly wage of about $7 an hour. I circled them, but didn't really pursue that option after a few phone calls indicated that they had the nerve to require applicants to have experience even at that low of a salary. Since my parents were working class and I needed to make money, I took a series of jobs: as a temp, as a food server, and then later as a part-time instructor at a youth center. That job was my favorite of them all, and it led to my interest in teaching--a career that I had longer than any other.

My dreams of being an author or editor or advertising copywriter gradually faded into the rear view of my life, and I was okay with it. Still, I occasionally wondered if my life would have been different had I stuck out my job search. I probably never would have gone to California, among other things. I may not have bought a house later in life, but maybe I would have lived in Manhattan? Who knows.

Last year I was lucky to get an interview with an ad agency after over a year of pandemic-induced unemployment. COVID had shut my workplace down, and while I enjoyed some downtime and the blessing of UI, I was ready to get back to society as a contributing citizen (and earner). Interviewing for a job when you're at the age when many people are planning to retire is terrifying; there's the fear that your vast work experience will be interpreted as a liability rather than advantage, or that you'll be perceived (erroneously, in my case) as not being "tech-savvy", or your interviewers will assume you're untrainable or too expensive to add to the staff.

Fortunately, none of this was the case and I managed after five interviews to convince my future managers that I was capable enough to hire. While I still have imposter syndrome, I'm very happy working as an Editor, a role that is fairly new to me but one in which I feel like I've been stealthily developing the skills for a long time. It's like I've landed right where I need to be.

Don't get me wrong, I don't regret any of the jobs I've had prior. Well, I mean, the ones that were most like careers: I definitely regret the miserable few weeks I worked for Publisher's Clearing House taking a van at 6am to a warehouse where I was emptying envelopes for eight hours, and the fortunately short-lived stint working as a telemarketer in Manhattan or when I was a phone switchboard operator outside of Philadelphia for a summer.

Working in restaurants got me cash in my pocket and taught me the value of multitasking and organization. My years as a teacher taught me more about myself than anything I ever could have imagined, and gave me the opportunity to help hundreds of students learn who they were, too. All the teaching I've done has been rewarding, including the years I spent teaching yoga and training teachers to teach it also. I was able to meet the most incredible people, both as students and fellow teachers alike, and many have become lifelong friends.

This job is perfect for me at this stage of my life. The challenges of my other jobs were better suited to the younger version of me. It just goes to show you, you really never know, and what you think you want will come to you when you're ready for it and when it will best serve you, if it's meant to come at all.