Trying to find meaningful work and settling into a new job

As a few of you may know I started a new job this week, and, in an epic whirlwind I was whisked off by Air Creebec to the De Beers Victor Mine - 90 km west of Attawapiskat. 

I work 90 km west of the orange dot

I'll be honest, I was absolutely terrified at the thought of trecking all the way up here. I'm someone who likes to be driving distance from my home so this remote fly-in and fly-out type of work is really new. It also scared the bejeezus out of me to have no comfortable place to retreat to once I started to feel overwhelmed or burnt out. This place is crazy, in a great way, and the only thing that I could compare it to would be a bee hive. This place feels like the city that never sleeps - it's got this constant buzz of positive energy that just never stops. There's always people working and milling around - shifts are split into days and nights which effectively means that the work never stops. 

I started working as a Tutor/Trainer at the mine site. In a quick description I am a resource available here if people need extra help with reading, writing, math, computers and basic communication skills. It's only been a couple of days but already have popped in who are looking for tutoring which has been awesome. It's still a new job but this definitely feels like meaningful work. 

I think that was the biggest stresser when my previous work contract was coming to an end, not the fact that I needed to find another job, but that I needed to find something meaningful to do. As I was applying for jobs, some of them just jobs-for-the-sake-of-making-money jobs, I really started questioning how important doing something meaningful was to me. 

I don't want to just work, which I think was a major reason why I was starting to hate my last job. Yes I was working, I was accomplishing things but I didn't feel like I was doing anything. I didn't feel like what I was contributing was making any kind of impact and I want to make an impact. I didn't realize that impacting people was such a major factor in a job feeling meaningful to me until that part of me wasn't being fulfilled. 

I'll be honest, I was totally trying to lie to myself for the last four months or so of my last job, trying to fool myself into thinking that my job wasn't that bad. One of those - if I think positively about it enough maybe it will be enough. It wasn't. At all. 

When I went to post-secondary I always thought that my path should be graduate, find a perfect (or almost) full-time steady job and then buy a house, get hitched, have kids and all that white picket-fence themed trajectory. Needless to say that hasn't happened - I'm turning 24, I've graduated University (with the loan to prove it) and have been exploring my career options with contract jobs doing various things. I'm quickly realizing that maybe a really important step that I need to take is to start letting go of that cookie-cutter dream because it may not be for me. Not (and please don't read into it this way) that it's a bad dream, but my choices and decisions are pushing me in entirely other direction. 

I think though, for right now anyway, that although it's totally outside my comfort zone and not necessarily what I went to school for - this job is going to be extremely rewarding. 

Of unpaid internships and making it in this world

They are deemed as the necessary evil for the majority of post-secondary students or recent post-grads. They are where you’re supposed to be given opportunity to work in your industry and gain experience (as well as network) all whilst balancing mountains of student debt and the sad realization that this internship is costing you money.

I came across this article in the Toronto star that really highlights the flaws in unpaid internships, so I’m not going to regurgitate that information back to you – you can just read the article. Highlighting the most important bits, David Doorey – a professor at York University explains how employers are really using the word “intern” to avoid basic employment laws. Summing up his argument – you can have unpaid interns and that’s fine, however they can’t be doing work that you would otherwise pay an employee to do or create positive gain for your company.

I mean from a business standpoint it makes sense to have interns replace entry-level workers. Instead of paying out a boatload of money to someone who is just starting, you can take on that person as an intern and get them to do the same work – for free.

However being a starving student I see the other end of that. I’m  one of the lucky few out there to secure a paid internship/employment  but it was so difficult applying to places knowing if I did get accepted there would be no way to afford working for this place. I adored my internship and still really enjoy the work that I do – but there were definitely opportunities that were completely off the table because I couldn’t afford them. Life, especially in Toronto, costs money – money that I don’t happen to have large quantities of. I’m wrestling between that stage of adult independence that is running my own life and the need to call my dad to find out what in sam hell a T4 slip actually means.

I think there’s something to be said about the culture of interns as well. It’s socially acceptable to be treated like gum on someone’s shoe because that’s what interns are. Movies show interns and internships as being back-breaking work where you spend the majority of your time running to get coffee and cleaning only to never be told you’re doing a good job. There’s this glorification of being treated poorly at your internship like it’s a rite of passage into being a successful working adult. Why? I feel like for the most part that just ends up making people feel jaded about a career path they’ve decided will be their focus until they’re almost 70. No wonder so many young people are hopping careers like the Easter bunny! The first job experience in a field you get is your impression of how that field works. If everyone spits on everyone else why in the world would you want to do that for the next 60 odd years?

I’m not saying that internships are useless – far from it. Internships are really important, and yes sometimes you won’t enjoy them – but you shouldn’t have to hate them. Internships shouldn’t leave you under a mountain of student debt or working 18 hour days to afford your apartment, life and student expenses. Without a doubt, the culture of gogogogogo without a moment to just breathe or some kind of income from it just leads to high levels of burnout from people who are supposed to be the bright-eyed bushy-tailed newcomers to the field.

I don’t know the age demographic for sure for those reading this – but for anyone in the position to be able to hire interns – please realize that interns aren’t just anonymous cyborgs that do exactly what they are told – they’re actual people. The impression that you give them sets up their impression for the way that your entire sector is supposed to work. Role model good morals, good work habits and above all respect!