A ‘Survival Job’ Is the Newest Job Option

With the economy headed for a ”double-dip” in critic’s language, and experiencing a ”temporary slowdown of economic recovery,” in the language of economists, self-actualization and personal career goals become insignificant before the all-important question of economic survival. In the second week of August 2010, new jobless claims were higher than 500, 000 for the first time since November 2009, and sales of existing homes reached the lowest level in past 15 years. The durable goods scenario was similarly poor. While government efforts are there to pacify both sentiments and the situation, there is no denying the fact that what started in 2007 can no more be termed a recession, but that it is a full-scale depression.

For most job seekers, the question is now to find a job to solve personal economic situations in the best possible manner, rather than finding a job ”aligned to personal career goals.” Hence, a survival job is an aptly termed option for jobseekers whose careers have been ravaged by the recession, and who are consciously sacrificing personal career goals to take up jobs in order to survive.

Getting a survival job

You would be consciously reducing your chances to get a survival job if you cling to the status, attitude, and social expectations of your past job. Except the government, no other employer willingly and knowingly offers survival jobs to candidates. No employer likes to employ a candidate who visualizes the offered job as a survival job and communicates the same, whether consciously or unconsciously. It doesn’t take genius to understand that if a person visualizes a job as a survival job, then for him or her, it is only a stopgap arrangement, acceptably only so long as required to tide over current difficulties. If you were an employer, you wouldn’t have accepted such a candidate. This is the reason why, people visualized as ”overqualified” find it so difficult to get jobs beneath their recognized status.

To get a survival job, you need to tone down your resume and attitude, and tone up your demeanor. Believe in the dignity of labor, and that any honest work is better than living on UI checks.

How a survival job helps you

Besides solving the problem of immediate earnings, a survival job helps to keep you in shape on many fronts. For example, a survival job:

• Helps to retain your self esteem
• Keeps you active by providing challenges on the job
• Helps to pacify your social situation as your efforts are visible to your well-wishers
• Allows you to conform to your social role within the family
• Helps to expand your social network
• Offers new opportunities to sharpen neglected abilities
• On the job benefits like healthcare, if available

Survival jobs do not necessarily have to be low paying, or temporary in nature, though they are mostly so. Essentially survival jobs are jobs not preferred by candidates due to non-alignment with personal career objectives. They are accepted due to the overwhelming consideration of economic survival and well-being, and in contradiction to planned progress of personal career. With the recession slowly turning into a depression, ”survival jobs” have become an industry-recognized term and option, and no more disfavored by candidates.