...and it is satisfying.
Way back in 2006, I decided that I wanted to go to graduate school for archiving. I'd gotten a random internship at the National Archives Northeast Region facility in Waltham, MA, as the result of a class assignment to write a cover letter and resume for a job we'd like to have someday (story for another time, I promise). The more I look back on that decision, the more I realize I made it because I know I'm good at school, and I don't know if I'm good at working. (What? Stacking the deck in your favor is totally acceptable.) So I spent three more years in the realm of higher education, became as jaded with higher education as Jay-Z is with hos, and walked away with two masters degrees...right into an economy that had shit the bed.
Guess what? Two masters degrees don't mean shit when you don't have much practical experience and the majority of your field is dependent on donations or public funding. Money vanishes real damn fast when donors are seeing their 401Ks shrivel up like grapes in the Arizona desert. I applied for archiving jobs for six months while working a paid internship as a technical writer (Hallelujah, recruiting software company that hired me for three months and kept me for over three years!).
When nothing came through, I took a job as a technical writer for a financial software company. I had been trained as an undergrad and spent three years in the field, so I figured I could handle the job. And, y'know, I like eating food and sleeping indoors, so those bills had to get paid somehow. My mistake. Apparently being clueless about the financial sector is a bad thing when you combine it with a manager who can't train you and an I'm-overwhelmed-so-I-no-longer-give-a-shit attitude. I was laid off/fired from my first real job ever after eight months. Cue four-month depression spiral as I ate through my savings and wondered what the hell was wrong with me.
Two months ago, Bossman got me a job as a server assembler at the company he works for. I was (and am) excited. The pay was half-decent, I could start saving again, and I was contributing to society again. But - and for most of my family and several people I care about this is a big-ass but - I'm "wasting" my education, because I'm working with my hands.
Fuck all y'all.
My Dad is one of the smartest men I know, and he has spent his life building everything from model ships to houses. But he and my mom keep telling me that this job is temporary. They (and the rest of my family, and a few friends) ask if I'm still looking for work. Because using power drills and box cutters and vise grips is clearly beneath someone with a couple extra pieces of paper.
But I like working with my hands. Assembling servers is a series of discrete tasks that are easily completed and checked for quality. The servers I build are (mostly) going to the American military, to help soldiers' spot threats before they become issues. And I even get to do a tiny bit of software configuration, which I enjoy. Plus Bossman is fun to work with. So what if I have two advanced degrees? They'll make dandy placemats when I get around to laminating them.
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