I recently saw a posting for my dream job:
“This position necessitates a stellar command of English and grammar, attention to detail, and experience with Microsoft Office.”
OK, sounds like me. Then it said: “Teamwork is a vital part of the job, and you will be expected to work individually and as part of a group.”
I can do that, I thought. The gig promised to teach me the ins and outs of my desired industry and assured me there was much potential for upward mobility. Just as I was about to polish my cover letter, I slammed into a stop sign. The job was in the adult entertainment industry.
With a traditional Christian upbringing, I had to ask myself if I’d be OK with a job I couldn’t tell my mother about, even if it would give me a foot in the door.
Would you be willing to put your morals on the shelf from 9 to 5? After all, your job is not who you are; it’s what you do.
The most talked about recent episode of the AMC show “Mad Men” last season focused on office manager Joan Holloway receiving an indecent proposal. The partners at advertising agency Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce ask Joan to sleep with a man who could be influential in a new account the firm was trying to acquire. They offer her a large sum of money to do so. One partner comes all the way to her house to talk her out of it. They don’t need to get new business that way, he tells her. But we learn the deed has already been done. Joan, a married woman, sleeps with the unattractive man and is made a partner in return.
A new briefing from the Economic Policy Institute found that for college graduates, the unemployment rate averaged 9.4 percent over the last year, while the underemployment rate averaged 19.1 percent. Unemployment rates for young black and Hispanic college graduates were higher than overall rates.
Some people may say they wouldn’t compromise themselves for a paycheck or promotion. But Sallie Mae doesn’t care about your convictions.
Suppose you found a marketing job at a tobacco company that enabled you to get experience and pay back your student loans. Or perhaps your major is aerospace engineering. The only job you see close to your field is with the military, designing weapons of mass destruction. Would you really take the moral high road and go work at Starbucks?
Considering that studies have shown many young professionals change jobs every two years, it would only be a temporary conflict of values.
So let’s hear it, VIXENS. Would you take a job – or do a task on your job – that wasn’t exactly upstanding if it allowed you to get ahead?