Never Stop
Yesterday, I decided to get certified in Microsoft Office. I finally acknowledged that, if I want to get a job that is more career-oriented, I need to do more.
It is easy for me to feel bitter, like I’ve been cheated somehow, when it comes to college, and that I can’t get a job related to my degree, but it is exceedingly easy to get yet another job in retail. Well, I have quantifiable experience in retail. While I have a degree in Marketing, which should theoretically count as experience, I know it is not real-world experience. I can expand on theories I learned, but I have not been in the trenches. It’s logical, it’s just frustrating, because society implies that a degree is all you need. It helps, but in the end, you will still always need to be doing more.
It is one thing to want something different and continue to apply and be upset. It is another to take a step back, look at the situation, and plot the best way to get to where I want to be.
Six months or so ago I thought, I should look into expanding my knowledge related to marketing/public relations, so that I can get a job actually doing that. What did I do? Sign up for the first easy way out that presented itself -more retail- hoping that it would propel me to a management position, which has not happened (I know, I know, it’s only been about 6 months but I’m impatient). I now find myself facing the prospect of another holiday in a store, something I did not want to experience again, and on top of that it’s in a chain where they are now open on Thanksgiving and have always been open on Easter. I do not want this, so why did I settle for it? The answer is pure laziness-I know what I need to do/should be doing, but I tried to take the easy way out.
Am I qualified for the higher level management that would be getting me out of this store? Yes. Do I have the experience? No. Will I get the experience? Possibly…but do I really want to waste more time waiting to get something, when I can be taking actual physical steps to do something more? Absolutely not.
I enjoy learning; I tend to over-dedicate in my jobs. Why is it that I can pour more into my work and be upset when I don’t see results, when I’m not pouring more into myself? I need to make myself better if I expect better out of my world. I just need to keep reminding myself of that, because it’s easy for me to get caught up in the why’s instead of the why not’s.
I have to stay motivated. I can never stop learning.