My "Professional" History // TalkBack Thursday #3

Hi,

Welcome to TalkBack Thursday! Today’s going to be more of a personal post. I flew back to Sydney on Tuesday night for my Graduation 2.0 on Wednesday. I love graduations because you truly don’t get to attend many of those in your life. It’s really a celebration of what you have achieved and it represents all the hard work you have put in over the years. I always get really inspired by the speeches and I think of all the possibilities for the future. While this is all nice and good, it also reminds me that I have to fly back to Melbourne five hours after the ceremony and wake up the next day and go to work.

Although I don’t hate my job, I don’t exactly love it either. Let me tell you a little a bit about my “professional” history. I graduated from high school not knowing what I wanted to do except that - I couldn’t be a doctor or lawyer (didn’t have the brains… and I’m kind of scared of blood); I didn’t want to do commerce or science (too nerdy...); I wasn’t allowed to do arts (not ‘prestigious’ enough) and I HAD to go to university. So, in the end, I chose to do Architecture. It was the worst three years of my life.

Being a Taurean I am fairly stubborn so once I had decided to embark on a Bachelor of Architecture I was not willing to let anything or anyone (including myself) get in the way of me finishing this degree. I never failed anything because if I did, I knew I’d just have to do it again and it would be twice as painful. My goal was not to excel but to simply graduate so I would never have to present another project to a group of pretentious architects again. I always said I would never work in architecture because I hated it, much to the disappointment of my parents who thought a female architect was the coolest thing ever. To be fair, I didn’t hate my entire degree. I liked history and theory and even did it as an elective. I did well in a photography elective which was fun. I wasn’t alone in hating structure and construction because it was all unnecessarily complicated maths and we’re not civil engineers so we really couldn’t care less how the building stands up as long as it looks pretty rendered. As for design, well I had pretty crap tutors in the first three semesters who had no idea and just gave no constructive feedback. I had better tutors in the last three semesters and it showed in my marks as well as my emotional attitude towards design. Overall, architecture just really did my head in and while the work is not hard (like brain surgery is hard…) it takes a lot of passion and dedication (and insomnia) to really do well. Guess I just wasn’t cut out for it.

So, onto degree #2 which was a Master of Art Administration. Most people have no idea what that is and I don’t blame them. To be an Art Administrator is to be a curator, marketing manager, sales, office support, event planner, coordinator, graphic designer, client services … whatever you need to be at that instant to make sure the show/festival/event/exhibition goes on. In my final semester I was working fulltime (and then some), studying full time and writing a research paper (which was really neglected but I got a fairly good mark considering…) I was ‘stressed’ but I was never stressed because I was always enjoying what I was doing.

You’d think this was the answer to all my problems…but no. Jobs in the arts are hard to come by (not impossible) and they don’t pay very well (to be totally honest). So, when I up and moved to Melbourne I thought it was time to find a real job so I could complain about hump day and look forward to Fridays like everyone else. I thought it was okay to hate your job as long as you were being paid the big bucks (and by big bucks I mean more than the checkout chick at Woolies…) Oh how wrong I was. Like I said, I don’t totally hate my job. I just hate not having the freedom of working as much as I want when I want and not working at all when I don’t (the joys of being a casual) and I hate not being able to see and experience the fruits of your labour (as you do when you work at a festival).

… Now that I’ve told you my whole life story, I’d love to know where you are in life “professionally”. Are you still in school? Have you graduated? Love your job? Hate your job? ‘In-between jobs’ aka unemployed (the best kind of employed!)? Are you in your perfect career? Have no idea?

I’m interested to know, so Talk Back at me in the comments below!

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x peachsbeauty

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