{"id":13324,"date":"2025-03-19T01:25:25","date_gmt":"2025-03-19T07:25:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/2c5e0903-9abe-11e8-99ad-ca52c1e5b2af"},"modified":"2025-03-19T08:02:07","modified_gmt":"2025-03-19T14:02:07","slug":"5-tips-people-lame-jobs","status":"publish","type":"blog","link":"https:\/\/www.boundless.org\/blog\/5-tips-people-lame-jobs\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Tips for People in Lame Jobs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Recently, I sat across from a young lawyer and heard the same story I\u2019ve heard so many times in Washington: I don\u2019t like my job. I don\u2019t feel like I\u2019m doing anything that matters. I\u2019m only doing this to pay the bills. There has to be more to my career.<\/em><\/p>\n

Our nation\u2019s capital is supposed to be the place where hard workers and idealists come to realize their dreams. But then it isn\u2019t, and it\u2019s heartbreaking for all the folks who are left asking themselves, Why did I work so hard to get here?<\/em><\/p>\n

Whether you\u2019re a barista or a barrister getting started in the world, you\u2019re probably beginning to ask yourself hard questions about your career. While that\u2019s healthy, it\u2019s important to keep a few things in perspective:<\/p>\n

1. If you want big money, you may have to do something that other people can\u2019t or won\u2019t do.<\/h4>\n

There\u2019s a great story over at CNN.com called, \u201cThe $100,000 job: Garbage workers<\/a>.\u201d It\u2019s about how waste management companies are doling out higher salaries and raises to garbage workers due to the shortage of qualified individuals to drive garbage trucks (one garbage worker in the story is making $112,000 a year). I\u2019m not saying you\u2019ve got to be a garbage worker to make the salary you want, but under the law of supply and demand, you\u2019re going to have to do something that other people can\u2019t do \u2014 and that might end up being something you don\u2019t particularly want to do.<\/p>\n

2. Your job will probably involve a lot of menial tasks.<\/h4>\n

When I tell people that I\u2019ve spent most of my career as a trial attorney, they\u2019re like, \u201cOoooh lala! How exciting<\/em>!\u201d Well, sometimes. Actually, a lot of my job is spreadsheets and meetings and outlines and tedious research and clicking \u201cPage Down\u201d thousands of times during document reviews. It\u2019s not what you see on TV (or nobody would watch TV shows about lawyers). That\u2019s going to be true of most jobs, so try not to feel gypped when it turns out that 78% of your work involves tedious tasks.<\/p>\n

3. Chances are, you\u2019re going to be overworked or underworked.<\/h4>\n

While I wish that all of our employers cared about us having perfect equipoise in our work\/life balance, you\u2019re typically going to be overworked or underworked, and there\u2019s not a lot you can do to get around it. What you can <\/em>do is ask yourself if it\u2019s so bad that you need to move on.<\/p>\n

4. You\u2019re likely to get a halfway-decent boss.<\/h4>\n

I\u2019ve served dozens of managers in my lifetime \u2014 a handful of whom have been exceptionally good, and a few who have been exceptionally bad. Most of them have been low-grade disappointments who have fallen somewhere in the middle. I\u2019m not saying that you should live with the expectation of being disappointed \u2014 I\u2019m saying you should live with the expectation of working for someone who is just as human as you.<\/p>\n

5. As a believer, you have an advantage in the workplace.<\/h4>\n

We have an answer to question, Does my work really matter?<\/em> The answer is yes, a thousand times yes. The Word says, \u201cWhatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ\u201d (Colossians 3:23-24<\/a>). Similarly, it says, \u201cWork with enthusiasm, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people\u201d (Ephesians 6:7<\/a>, NLT).<\/p>\n

How encouraging to know that all of our work matters<\/a> \u2014 all of it <\/em>\u2014 because Christ receives it as service to Him. Every day that we go to work, no matter the job, we work in service of the King of Kings. There is no higher calling, no greater honor, nothing more important we could be doing.<\/p>\n

With all of that in mind, if you are a believer, be encouraged as you go to work today. Your work matters because it matters to Christ.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2016 Joshua Rogers. All Rights Reserved.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Keep these things in perspective as you consider your future career.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":42507,"menu_order":0,"template":"","categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13324","blog","type-blog","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-career-finances"],"yoast_head":"\n5 Tips for People in Lame Jobs - Boundless<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Whether you\u2019re a barista or a barrister getting started in the world, you\u2019re probably asking yourself hard questions about your future jobs.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.boundless.org\/blog\/5-tips-people-lame-jobs\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"5 Tips for People in Lame Jobs\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Whether you\u2019re a barista or a barrister getting started in the world, you\u2019re probably beginning to ask yourself hard questions about your career.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.boundless.org\/blog\/5-tips-people-lame-jobs\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Boundless\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/boundless.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-03-19T14:02:07+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.boundless.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/5-tips-for-people-in-lame-jobs-679010b232ead.webp\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1500\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/webp\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"5 Tips for People in Lame Jobs\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"Whether you\u2019re a barista or a barrister getting started in the world, you\u2019re probably beginning to ask yourself hard questions about your career.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.boundless.org\/blog\/5-tips-people-lame-jobs\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.boundless.org\/blog\/5-tips-people-lame-jobs\/\",\"name\":\"5 Tips for People in Lame Jobs - Boundless\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.boundless.org\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.boundless.org\/blog\/5-tips-people-lame-jobs\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.boundless.org\/blog\/5-tips-people-lame-jobs\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.boundless.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/5-tips-for-people-in-lame-jobs-679010b232ead.webp\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-03-19T07:25:25+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-03-19T14:02:07+00:00\",\"description\":\"Whether you\u2019re a barista or a barrister getting started in the world, you\u2019re probably asking yourself hard questions about your future jobs.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.boundless.org\/blog\/5-tips-people-lame-jobs\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.boundless.org\/blog\/5-tips-people-lame-jobs\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.boundless.org\/blog\/5-tips-people-lame-jobs\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.boundless.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/5-tips-for-people-in-lame-jobs-679010b232ead.webp\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.boundless.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/5-tips-for-people-in-lame-jobs-679010b232ead.webp\",\"width\":1500,\"height\":1000,\"caption\":\"a person frustrated and working a lame job\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.boundless.org\/blog\/5-tips-people-lame-jobs\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Blog Posts\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.boundless.org\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"5 Tips for People in Lame Jobs\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.boundless.org\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.boundless.org\/\",\"name\":\"Boundless\",\"description\":\"Find your place. 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