We have all been in a similar situation: having a summer job that you hated, but was necessary to keep your parents happy. While we are young, these jobs are about doing as little as possible until the end of the day. The way we got through it all was the knowledge that the job would end once school returned in September.

As an adult, there are a lot of similarities between your attitude to that past summer job, and the one you have now. You hate your work environment, do as little as possible, and at the end of the day, you can’t get out of the building fast enough. Unfortunately the main difference is that there is no longer the definite end date that you can count-down to, because you don’t know how to get out of the wrong job or industry that you are trapped in.

 

5 Signs that You Are Working in the Wrong Industry

 

You hate Monday mornings almost as much as Sunday night.

As the weekend approaches, Friday is your best friend. You love the end of the week with an intense passion because it means that you will not need to go back to work for 48 hours! What a way to live your life on the installment plan! As a result, by Sunday night you are depressed: only to become full-on catatonic by Monday morning on your way back to work.

 

You fantasize about your boss being fired or discovered to be a monster.

Sometimes we imagine the worst about other people because we are so deeply unhappy with the circumstances that brought us to that person. Do you hate your boss? Would you feel the same way if you met them in a different set of circumstances? Probably not, because you are trapped in a job/ industry that you are not right for. This is likely a friction that can be solved by making a plan to pursue your passions. Focus your energy on something else!

 

You fantasize about revenge on people who have wronged you.

Holding on to anger and resentment is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die. Let go of the things that are keeping you in the past. If you must leave your job/industry to properly pursue your passion in order to fix your life, you have to take positive action to make it happen or else you will be adding names to your list of enemies for a long time to come.

 

You spend your free time doing hobbies that have no link to you job/industry

When we align ourselves with our purpose, we tend to do things for work that are related to things that we are passionate about. If you work in a law firm pushing paper around Monday to Friday, but give guided walking tours of the city’s food district on the weekends, then I would suggest that you are working in the wrong job/industry because these two areas have very little in common. My guess is that your work in a law firm is simply for a paycheck, and not because it feeds your soul.

 

Your ideas are not valued in your job/industry

Do you often feel like your ideas are dismissed by others in your workplace, yet outside of work people usually respond positively and with intrigue? This is a phenomenon that I have identified as being part of a bigger problem; say it with me: You are working in the wrong job/ industry!

I have had personal experiences where my ideas were dismissed and trivialized by the people I worked with, especially when it came to things related to technology (because why would I know how to connect an Ethernet cable, right?) I realized that the reason why my ideas were dismissed was not because they were bad ideas, but because the people I worked with did not have a high opinion of the person who the ideas were coming from. Basically, they didn’t see me as a person who they believed would know the right answer. I was working in a job/industry where people like me were rarely in positions of power or seen to hold value, and so, my ideas were judged as the same.

 

If you discover that you are working in the wrong job/industry, do not wait too long before you make the changes necessary to start living the life you want. Time is our most valuable resource, yet so many of us fritter it away while waiting for an opportunity to come to us. Don’t wait too long to pursue your passion and make a fresh start.

 

Thanks for stopping by,

 

Stephanie