Are these odd jobs mistakes costing you, your next career move?

As a Job Search Career Coach in my own business Careers Reborn, I meet a lot of people who at times when they are in between jobs or are new migrants in the country, tend to work in temporary/ odd jobs. While working in odd jobs is not a bad thing and has a few advantages, there are some big hidden disadvantages. On one hand they give you immediate access to local culture and communication and off course help you pay the bills, but on other hand they tend to provide a false sense of security.

Firstly, what are odd jobs? Simply speaking, definition apart, odd jobs are temporary work opportunities where you are working outside your normal professional profile and mostly not using any tertiary education skills. Students, semi skilled workers and backpackers form a large portion of this labour force. New migrants or those people, who are in between jobs, are also among this work force.

The biggest mistake is those people who started working in odd jobs after migrating to Australia keep waiting for that illusive perfect dream job interview to come knocking to them without seeking professional help after some time. The main words in the previous sentence are "after some time". Initially, after an immediate job loss or migrating here, yes the job market is tough and you may have to work in odd jobs to make ends meet or spend time to understand the culture. But it should be a temporary measure as far as possible.

I am seeing more and more people continuing to work in odd jobs beyond a reasonable few months time frame. What they don’t realise is if they work for too long in that odd job, then that odd job, is likely to considered as their main profession. It’s going to be hard for them to go back into their real trade or proper profession. It is not impossible, but it’s going to be hard and would take lot of effort. They are creating work history in this odd job and it’s going to difficult for them to go back to their main profession as time goes on. Yes odd jobs bring in money and give temporary job satisfaction but in the long run consider where they are taking your career.

Second mistake is sometimes odd jobs pay people more money in hand as they can work more in double shifts or night shifts, than in a professional entry level job so people tend to think odd job is better. Feeling of temporary financial security is a  part of this problem. Third mistake is, to think that you can do this particular odd job for life. Unfortunately what happens is things change, that odd job vanishes or conditions change or you simply physically/mentally cannot  do it anymore. Fourth mistake is that there is no thought to long term career growth, job aspirations, mental satisfaction and international job prospects. Do you see that happening in the odd job? Well, there are some success stories of people making it big from an odd job, but that’s 1 or 2 in 100! Again it’s not wrong to be working in an odd job, it’s logical for the short term, few months, but it’s a big mistake to assume things will work out, automatically and everything will be back to normal on its own, without taking any efforts.

Consider the facts my friends, normally you have put in the hard yards to complete that qualification, get that elusive 'Diploma' or have previous work history, why would you give up on that dream so easily? Struggle is a part of life. Career professionals are there to assist you, so my suggestion is to consult them. You may be going down the wrong career path without knowing it. Take some bearings, seek help, but don’t get stuck in that odd job for too long. You can keep the car engine running in neutral, but you need to move it into drive to take it forward.

Any comments?