Slave to the Wage

This is me pretending to read on the exact
 same spot in Chetham's Library where
 Marx used to sit when he visited Engels
 in Manchester in 1845

Today’s blog post is about your future job. There’s probably a reason why you’re studying this, hence you may already have an idea of what you’d like to do after you finish. You may even have a dream job. 

I remember I had a dream job when I was an undergraduate student, but looking back I can see it wasn’t really ambitious or relevant. I did get it, though. I’ve sort of got all the dream jobs I’ve had in my life so far. I’ve put a lot of effort into it, and even when at times I was lazy and irresponsible, I managed to find ways of making up for the damage that behaviour may have caused. I achieved this by taking new responsibilities and bringing them to completion the best way I could.

Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about my next ideal/dream job. I really want to continue teaching, but I think that I need to complement that work with research if I want to be able to contribute to society in the ways I’m interested in. I think the ideal future job for me would be one where I can do research, while being able to disseminate the knowledge my research produces through my practice as a teacher. Of course I’d also have to publish papers, go to conferences and the like (because research institutions need to produce in order to survive in this (capitalist) world), but I firmly believe the actual dissemination takes place outside academia, and a way to achieve that is through education. 

I’d also like to disseminate the results of my work through my involvement in different NGOs and at grassroots level organisations. I’m currently volunteering in one NGO called OCAC (I’m part of their studies group) and I’m also volunteering for a campaign with SINTRACAP (we still need volunteers if you’re interested). Although these activities are not necessarily related to the research I can do or have done, I think they're a good start. However, I'd still like to be able to do what I like whilst being able to earn a living with it, so the ideal job for me would allow me to do both things without having to choose just one. I’ve come to the conclusion that this is the only way I can get on in a world where we’re forced to depend on wages, without losing the motivation to go to work each day. Wish me luck!

Now what about you? Have you thought about your future job? If so, what is it and why do you want that job and not another? If you haven’t thought about that job yet, you can tell us why. Or think about the features your future job should have. Whatever you decide to tell us about your future job, make sure you:

- Do it in 210 words. 

- Leave comments on 2 of your classmates’ posts.

- Leave 1 comment on mine.