Smoka's Ramblings

In this first part of my 6 part series, I'll be discussing the advantages and disadvantages of the 'day job' as a source of income. I'll be touching on a few of the more improtant aspects instead of trying to list everything.

Follow up:

Pros:

1. Steady Paycheck:

   This is the most major advantage I could think of. You have the knowledge that you will be getting a paycheck no matter what, as long as your job requirements are fulfilled. You know how much it will be and you can schedule any payments you may need to make by budgeting yourself.

2. Stability:

   This was sort of tied in with the paycheck point above, but I wanted to emphasize this point a bit more. As an example, let's say you want to get a new car. Well, you can either pay cash for it or you have the option to finance it. It's much easier (if you meet the rest of the requirements) to get a loan if you have had a job for X amount of time.

3. Company benefits:

   If you are young and single, you probably don't think much about company benefits. I know I never cared. Now that I am older and have a family, the medical benefits are a huge bonus. There is also the paid holidays, misc. days off paid such as sick and personal, and then there's the 401k. You don't have to worry too much about it as most companies will train you in the process of semi-managing a 401k.

Cons:

1. A boss:

   Hopefully you get a decent boss. It's unlikely though and you will probably get the brow beater! These are the kind of bosses that micromanage everything even they don't remotely understand what it is that you do. They show up 30 to 60 minutes late, take extended lunches, and pile the workload on you to the point of breaking. Ahhhhh, it's a wonderful life.

2. slaving day in and day out

   Wake up to the alarm clock. Run and shower, feed the cat/dog, slam some coffee. You rush to hop in the car, take the lovely commute with all the other friendly folks just yearning to get to their job. You arrive at work a little late. The boss glares at you. You get to your area, sit down and start the tasks you have waiting. Lunch time comes and goes. you grind out the day, praying there's a time shift and everything will move faster. No such luck though and you work work work like a busy little bee until quitting time. You go home, rest, watch your TV shows and then go to bed so you can get up the next morning and do it all over again.

3. Picking a bad career choice:

   You thought you'd be interested in zoology but 6 months into the job you realize it's not for you. You have 2 choices now. Either you can see the previous paragraph and follow it, or you can find another job and hope beyond hope it's a fit for you.

As I had stated at the beginning, this is but a very small listing of the pros/cons of a steady job. It's the choice of eahc person how they want to earn money. Personally I have a 'regular' job along with a few other options which will be discussed in more detail with other posts in the series. Keep watching!