Shubhi Singh
There comes a time in your professional life when you ask yourself- Am I in the right career? Is my current job right for me? Am I happy with the direction my career is taking? Do I need a change?
After being in a rut for four long years in my previous job, I asked myself that very question one fine day. My job had started weighing down on me. I was able to pay my bills, clear my dues but professional fulfillment was a far cry from where I was. Every morning, I would get up and feel utterly irritated at the thought of going in the same building and giving nine hours of my time Monday through Saturday. I had to go to the office whether I wanted or not. I had to do work which no more made me excited. Moreover, I had started missing having personal time. Not just that, I didn’t find my work making me happy, which is very much necessary. Plunging into depression was not a far-fetched scenario now.
It was no very long before I realized that I was not in a rut. Being in a rut means that you fall out of motivation for day, weeks and months to get up from the bed and go out to work (you still do that, though!). You stop feeling motivated to give your best. Being in a rut, you don’t perform your best and feel frustrated about it. But eventually, you get back on track. It didn’t happen to me for years now.
I was not making a lot of efforts in my job. I was just not interested to perform my best in the job, I simply didn’t care about my work, my job or for that matter I industry I was in.
I surely knew in my gut that I was in a wrong career. I hate to change. It was high time that I take responsibility for where I was and for a chance, stop going with the flow, so to speak.
I started thinking as to what was holding me back? Why am I stuck in a job like this? The answer to this was not something complicated.
I had grown comfortable in my job. The surety that I had money to pay my bills made me so comfortable in the job that the thought of leaving it for a more fulfilling career never seemed like an option.
Moreover, if I had to change my career, I would have to start from scratch, taking a pay cut in order to get some experience. It would be years before I start making the same money that I was making at that point in time. I was also thinking of my previous four years as an investment towards one career path. That would have become something of a sunk cost, had I leave for a different career. Moreover, people used to tell me that it was a part of adulthood to hate your job. But I didn’t want to hate my job since professional fulfillment was something I craved for.
I started writing to make myself feel better. Ever since childhood, the writing was my way of navigating my mind when it used to be in an utter chaos.
One fine day, when I was reading one of my diary entries, I stumbled upon what I had written a weak back, which happened to be the answer to my predicament.
I love writing. I wish I could write all day long and get paid for doing it.
‘Et Voila!’, I exclaimed with excitement. This was just what I needed. My heart was in writing. I just couldn’t believe myself. I had the answer all along and I didn’t know.
It was soon enough that I left my old job. I took a career break and then started interviewing. I had enough savings to last for a couple of months. After two and a half months of leaving my job, I got a new job as a junior copywriter. It surely took me more than a year to start making the same money as I was making in my old job, but it felt way nicer.
I noticed that I had started taking initiatives. Going to work made me excited in the morning. I loved my job. Today, it has been 6 years and now I am at a much senior position and doing well in my career.
When I look back, I thank the ‘old me’ for taking that bold decision and not being afraid to pursue own passion.
