Might as well jump

By Tony Li

So I have. After a busy few months sorting out the sale of my flat  - still not completely sorted I might add - I've handed in my notice at the Pensions Bored. Should be out of the capital by mid-August.  Now just have the scary prospect of actually going about starting on the path to that beautiful job I'm after.

I have a few volunteer placements on the cards up in Manchester. One's with a co-op that sell fairtrade products from Palestine; another two sell organic and fairtrade clothing (I never thought I'd end up a fashionisto but I'm warming to the idea. Gok Wan better watch out). So that's 1-2 days of my week sorted. Now all I have to do is find something that pays me money. 

I thought I should just go for whatever job to fill in the other days, but part of me wants something related to ethical trading/fairtrade/organic produce etc. It's almost a year since my brain staged an uprising and decided to revolt against the constraints of doing work for the sake of it. Should I compromise now? Even though I would be getting experience in a sector I am, at this stage, very interested in, do I want to occupy the other 3-4 days a week in an estate agents or Kwiksave or selling Avon products door to door? Should I 'pretend' the other days to earn some cash and preserve my true self for the volunteering?

What do you think? I mean, you're all active/prospective Careershifters so I wouldn't mind a piece of your advice, or a piece of your mind. 

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By skuft on 27 July 2007 at 09:53

Hey Tony. Congrats on making the jump. I think you should stay true to your idea of making the ethical work pay and work back from that. Sure you might have to stack a few shelves to get there in the meantime, but if you accept compromise as the end result now, you might never find out if you could have made it work. Just my two pennies... actually thinking about it, couldn't you stack ethical shelves (I don't know - at a fairtrade/organic food shop - not sure if they have them where you are)?


By Tony Li on 30 July 2007 at 17:38

Thanks for the post. I have actually thought about stacking some ethical shelves and there might be a few opportunities near where I'll be living to do this. It would be good to build up some momentum cumulatively by being in the sector all the time, so I'll try and make that work first before compromising...and I assure you any compromise would be short term because I've come too far to welch out now.

By Selina Barker on 7 August 2007 at 15:47

Hi Tony,
My advice would be to look out for the odd short-term contract work to tie you over financially. A week or 3 here and there that you can slot in between volunteering. I do that every few months, the jobs might not be ideal but as it's short term it's bearable. And we all need to eat.


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