I remember a time in my life where I asked the question how I am supposed to gain this specific job experience if all the jobs require you to have it upfront? I was just starting out in my career and attempting to improve the job I had with another that paid a little better, had some better hours and you know was just more aligned with where I wanted to go. The problem was all the jobs I applied for said experience required. I didn’t have all that experience at the time, at least formerly in some cases but it seemed the best way to gain experience was to do it right? So what was really up with that requirement?
My name is Amy and I am the owner of Dragonspit Apothecary. I’m a mom, wife, employee and small business owner just trying to live as naturally as I can every day. This is my blog sharing some of the wisdom and experience I have gained on this journey to help you do the same.
Work is so full of irony you know?
You’re either underqualified because you lack certain experience or overqualified with too much experience. By the way I have since figured out overqualified with experience simply means a company doesn’t think they can afford you and you may be bored in the job you’ve applied on. I don’t know about you but there are quite a few days I could do with some boredom in my job. Jobs are is like the fairy tale of finding the porridge that is just right. The problem is who is it right for? The hard truth is as jobs go there usually isn’t a right porridge for more than a couple years before you’re out looking for a new bowl. So what does all this experience actually get us then?
As we gain experience in our careers, we often realize the trade-off with our employers is not always equal. We invest in keeping up certifications, continually training on some new program and advancing our skills only to be told the promotion went to someone else or there isn’t going to be a raise this year for whatever reason. The experience we gained by adding all that knowledge from trainings usually goes to the next lucky employer we find right? I know I have more than once changed jobs when that’s happened to me. If we stay where we are there is a period of time we feel pretty used and frustrated from all that too.
I found at a certain point in this cycle that I was not using the experience I actually had anymore. The degree I was told I needed from college well I can’t say I actually ever used that in my jobs other than getting in the door. It is a required experience element on my job and any I apply to. The experience I have doing certain things open opportunities for me but again with every company doing things differently what I know and can do is often replaced with new processes and information to be successful in the next job.
So this is where I asked myself what to do really with the wealth of experience I had. It had to mean something more than just helping me score some impressive interviews and job offers. To be honest the one place I have actually been able to apply my experience and knowledge is when I started my own business. A lot of the skills my employers had no use for were excellent resources for me to apply in my own work.
Now having your own business may not be for you and that’s cool but hear me out on this one. Where in your life do you let your creativity out? Do you have a special hobby you enjoy or way you like to release stress? A lot of that is the result of us not doing the work we were meant to do in this world. We are working at things for money but not getting the soul satisfaction of the work we’re doing. As a result our inspiration, creativity and energy are usually pretty low. I personally believe it is why we have so many Monday sucks memes too.
Yet when we do something that really lights us up and taps into those areas we see a completely different side of ourselves. We feel good and we have more energy too. Maybe it is just a hobby or outlet for us but what if that actually turned into something that became a part of our livelihood? What if one day it could be the income we need to support our family or make our mortgage payment?
When I started looking for ways to support my family to more natural products in our lifestyle it was out of necessity. We needed to cut expenses and we needed things that would help us with health needs. My husband had been diagnosed with PTSD, our son was adopted from foster care and came with his own trauma needs to fill and I was completely burned out from a career that kept letting me down. We needed help. Life wasn’t feeling good anywhere for any of us. I turned to natural products out of desperation to help save a few bucks so we could be prepared for the next storm we could face. Storms usually cost a lot of money right?
During all of that my job was awful. I would later replace that job with another that let me down severely by cutting funding for my role and then not having another place to put me. From there I went to another job that just 2 years later was experiencing restructuring and would also leave me potentially out of work. It didn’t matter my experience, knowledge or skill as I was told I was a good worker this was just business was the response I received. I couldn’t take anymore and yet our family still needed my job to support us. My experience didn’t really matter much past just making sure we could survive.
I don’t enjoy living like that and I’m sure you don’t either. What it results in us going with the first thing that comes along that offers us any solace from the crisis we find ourselves in. We barter our experience for that security and then we end up uninspired but just trying to hold on. Friend, having been there done that a few times it is still hard living and it makes life really challenging to feel content in. I had to change the storyline.
When we choose to use our experience to do more than just survive we realize how empowering our lives can actually become. Whether it is a hobby we sell a few things on the side from or we create a business from it that is the first step to leveraging our wealth of experience for real. It may take some time but slowly and intentionally we can manifest the life we want that actually uses the best part of our experience in our work. For me that looked like turning what I was learning about natural products into a little business now known as Dragonspit Apothecary.
So as you go into your work day today ask yourself how your experience is being used? How incredible it is to wake up in the morning and love what you get to do that day too. Can you even imagine the experience you would gain from working like that more often?
If you’re ready to explore what that could mean in your work life, let’s chat. You can reach me directly with the chat located at dragonspitapothecary.com
Until next time, live well naturally my friend.
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