Is it more important to have a job or to have a job that you love?

My personal experience seems to bear out the old advice of it being easier to find a job when you have a job.

I’d take a job that paid the bills and then look for one that paid the bills and didn’t annoy me, and then work my way up to one that paid the bills and made me happy.

It is a matter of priority. First is having a job; second is finding a job you like.

If one is unemployed, no one should feel obligated to help you financially “until I find the right job!” when you could be supporting yourself.

I the long run you need a job you love. Being in a position that you barely tolerate is a soul-sucking experience. You will find yourself suffering and what is the use in that. Gotta find something you want to do but @BellaB has a good point about it being easier to find a job when you have one for some reason just don’t stop searching and don’t saddle yourself with a job that doesn’t give you any time to keep looking.

Yes that is exactly what my instincts tell me, its just that a couple of my friends have turned down the same job for “its not what I majored in” and that kinda puts me in spot and doubt my gut feeling.

There is not only one right answer to that, but in your situation, there is. Unless you are a Trust Fund Baby, you need to earn a living and get work experience. Take the job while you keep looking.

It’s harder to get a job when you have no experience. So your chances of getting a job you love go way up by taking the time to work some jobs you don’t love.

I don’t do well with a job I dislike. But you need a job to survive. I solved this in college by having an open mind and taking jobs that were vaguely related to my area of study.

I went to school for Illustration & Graphic Design so I took jobs as an airbrush tee-shirt artist, an assistant to an architect, and a picture framer. Not exactly what I majored in, but close enough that I wouldn’t go nuts.

In the meantime, I looked for other jobs in my field.

The one time I took a job way out of my field (debt collector) I was miserable.

From the perspective of a someone fresh out of college, most should have a need to earn money to pay bills and have a little spending money at the very minimum. I see so very few college grads truly prepared to go to the job market with a targeted job they want let alone sufficiently qualified to get. The ones that are prepared to get their dream job did so much more planning while in High School working internships and extra class work and continued that while in college. Those are the ones that are recruited for those dream jobs.

So for the rest of the grads scratching their heads asking “now what?”. They then have the hard choices of getting ground floor jobs working their way up to their dream jobs which can take years Millenials don’t seem willing to wait or invest that time. After that it all comes down to your financial needs and obligations currently are. I was one of the legions of grads who could not find work that I had a degree in. Mine was Radio TV and Film and the best I could do was as a videographer for a wedding photographer. I took part time work at Temp Agencies, boiler room telephone soliciting anything I could do to earn money. Other opportunities outside my degree popped up….took chances in my 20’s and now I own a successful adhesives manufacturing company…go figure.

Very few of us have the luxury and flexibility of independent means. If a person needs an income, Step 1 is to have a job, any job. This is especially true for a recent college graduate. After a person has found and kept a position for a while, no matter how uninteresting or unappealing it may be, the individual has leeway to look for something more meaningful.

Parents who coddle their adult children can damage them over the long-term. Certainly, nobody wants to see a loved one be unhappy, and it’s extreme Tough Love to toss a 20-something out into the world. But, providing rent-free housing, food, and spending money will prolong adolescence and prevent someone from learning self-sufficiency. At the very least, everyone should pay room and board and be responsible for personal expenses.

Just before looking at this question, I came across this article;, which says that working at a job that you dislike can negatively impact your physical and mental health. By placing a dollar value on your health, you may be better of with a job that you like more, even if it pays less. As others have suggested, keep at your current job while looking for one more to your liking.

^^^ I had my health seriously damaged by a nasty, untenable job situation. My stress-related symptoms mimicked cardiac arrest, and I was rushed by ambulance to the hospital. Even though the condition turned out not to be life-threatening, it was permanent; years later, when I’m in an especially difficult situation, the symptoms might return.

Even at the time, though, I knew that homelessness and bankruptcy would be much worse for my physical and mental health than that toxic workplace. I stayed employed until I could find a better situation. Luckily for me, I had highly-marketable professional skills and readily found something new. Most recent, college graduates aren’t so fortunate.

You can job hunt for a new (better) job while working at a job that pays the bills. No need to “wait around” for the perfect job.

One thing to be sure you do is at first when getting that experience is that you get a job that will get you where you want to be long-term. This could mean taking a job that may not pay as much as one that is not providing the proper experience. Don’t get pigeon holed in a job that pays well but is not fun or providing experience. This does not include your “just keeping the lights on” work.

What I found at your age was that it was important to avoid the easy trap of getting into a situation where I and my friends were essentially “selling our youth” and getting a very very very low rate of take-home pay, due to low wages and high living expenses. If/when you do feel you need to sell your youth for practical reasons, be planning how you are going to get beyond that, into something worth your life, or that at least enables an enjoyable life, which could still mean doing some work you don’t particularly like, but getting other benefits that make it worthwhile. The gut feeling of whether or not you would prefer to go back in time 6 months and do something else, can be a good barometer.

The real question though is how/where do you find a way to live that you’ll like, and that’s different for everyone and isn’t really a direct this-or-that question of dumb job versus dream job, for most people most of the time.

Ideally yes. We should all find enjoyment in our work, however, one must survive so being able to meet the necessities comes first, sadly. haha
I am a strong advocate for doing something that is a good fit for the individual, but this is not always possible or may not be sustainable at times. That said, if you can afford to be picky by all means, take your time and find your dream job.

I, personally, find it very sad that so many are stuck in jobs they hate out of necessity. I am very much a march to the beat of your own drum type and wish everyone could find their happy niche. The world would be a much more pleasant place if everyone loved their work. Like the old saying ” Do what you love and you will never work a day in your life.”

First you get the money. Then you get to do what you like. Don’t be the dreamer who thinks he’s going to get rich doing what he loves.

@rem1981 There is a balance between those extremes that allows you to have an enjoyable yet fruitful life. You’re not successful if you have money but no life or happiness. Same goes if you are doing something you love but are starving in the process.

For me, the initial start is to have a job that pays well, because for a college student, money is crucial! Earning a decent amount of money in college years would be great because there are so many things you would need to pay for…. Plus, it gives you a great start into adulthood. Afterwards, it is more important to start craving the path for jobs—a job that you enjoy.

If you’re going to lay around in your mom’s basement because you don’t have a job that you love, as opposed to getting out there and doing something (even if it’s clerical) to get some money flowing in and get some experience, then you’re not making a smart move. Everyone has to start somewhere. I’d say very few people in the world are lucky enough to have a job that they love and be able to afford it. I’d love to quit my job and do something that I love, but it’s not practical, at least not right now. There are bills to pay and mouths to feed and we need health insurance and we like our little luxuries like vacations and stuff like that, so I trudge off every day and deal with the shit and put on a happy face.

Many a mind better than one mind. Thanks for all the answers as I find myself feeling better about it within just 24 hours! :)