Blogs: Richard's job log: 15

Richard currently works in a Birmingham law firm, after completing a contemporary history degree. He’s thinking about a paralegal career, but also has media ambitions.

When I was a boy I had a couple of dreams. One was to be a footballer, which if I’m honest, hasn’t gone fantastically well. The other was to be a professional wrestler. Big dudes with long hair and wacky outfits beating each other up seemed like great fun. I always wanted long hair when I was little so it seemed a perfect fit. So when I wasn’t playing football I was beating up pillows on my Mum and Dad’s bed or playing with my wrestling figures. I was a very cool child, as you can imagine.

Yet, as amazing a spectacle as this was to my young eyes, I gathered relatively early on that for all the pomp and circumstance, this wrestling lark was staged. Fake. Yet I enjoyed suspending my disbelief. The guys in the ring might not have been actually beating each other up, but everybody (to a degree) was in on it and everybody enjoyed the deception. A good time was had by all, including the wrestlers - they got paid to do something they loved. So good for them.

Now, as a grown man (sort of) who has a string of somewhat arbitrary jobs under his belt, I am beginning to see more and more resemblance between the real world and the world of professional wrestling.

 

Take job interviews for example. I recently had an interview for a relatively mundane position. I went to the interview knowing full well that I needed a job so the boring and not particularly challenging vacancy took on a new importance in my life. I WANTED that job and was perfect for it. In fact, I was born to fill that vacancy and would not and could not take no for an answer.

Now I know that that’s nonsense and so did the people interviewing me. It’s a kind of Orwellian style ‘doublethink’ exercise. They knew that I didn’t go to bed at night dreaming about their mediocre job yet at the same time they were pleased to think that I did. They were suspending their disbelief in order to fill the vacancy that they had.

So I said my lines and followed ‘the plan’ in order to try and get a job. It is all fake, or at least it is when it comes to the more mundane jobs. If I were applying for a job as a footballer then my enthusiasm would be very, very real. I wouldn’t need the deception and neither would the person interviewing me.

There are some things in life a person can get legitimately passionate about, like kicking a bag of wind about, or pretending to hit dudes in lycra trunks. Shuffling bits of paper around in a cubicle? Probably not.