Something I'd like to Teach my Son

So I've got a child that is a college graduate. But he's struggling to find a job in his area of study. Part of it is that he's probably got some maturing left to do and may not be carrying himself in interviews as a hungry prospect, but also academics wasn't his strong suit so the grades weren't great, and while grades mean less as you progress in your life, they are the only thing to go on for your first job. 

But I have been pondering how to communicate to him that work is just work and it doesn't really matter if you get a job in your college subject or not. It started me thinking about the concepts of labor and jobs. 

Factors include the skill you have and the things you're good at and the things you're not so good at. And  also the jobs available, and which ones you want and which you don't want. Your work life is about getting into some intersection of those things and navigating them.

I drew a Venn diagram to illustrate this.

What does it mean?

1. Star: This type of job is the typical goal. You have a skill, you're good at it, and there's an available job that lets you do what you like. Sadly, many of us don't get here until we retire. That's right, we take the not-so-fun job that pays well, and then when we retire, we start taking the hobby we like (painting, woodworking, gardening, cars, whatever!) and manage to turn that into a revenue stream. I think the problem is that often enough, those hobbies aren't really viable for a living wage unless you're really good or really lucky, so you don't try it until you don't need the money and are mentally liberated to take risks. That's a big talking point from the Universal Basic Income camp, but I think there's still a fair amount of bullshit in that argument because the odds of making it as an actor or artist or dog walker are still pretty low.
2. Plodder: This is where a lot of people end up. There are jobs available, it's something people think they want, but perhaps they don't realize they're not actually the most talented at it or perhaps they're not really that passionate about it. They're not bad at it and are competent enough to keep employed. I call this the plodder because they're going through the motions and doing OK, but either they're ignorant of the fact they could be better, or they're self-aware of it but caught in the inertia of a job that pays well enough that they kid ourselves into thinking they want it when they'd really be happier somewhere else. 
3. Caution: This is where people want a job, there are some available, but they're actually bad at it. Perhaps they're in an industry where there is a constant need for help, so they have no trouble finding work even though advancement never seems to happen for them, or worse, they get advanced due to circumstance and not merit. Teaching could be a good example; some teachers are clearly better than others, but these days as long as you're not an ex-con, you can be an idiot and get a teaching job because I'm not sure how much the administrators really care. 
4. Hope: This is where you want a job for a skill you do well, but there aren't any available. Your strategy here is to take what you can to sustain yourself, but keep looking for opportunities to move.
5. Delusion: This is where you want a job, there aren't any available, and you're not good at it. Bestselling writer, actor, and professional athlete would qualify as these types of jobs. Everybody wants it because of the money or prestige, but most aren't good enough or lucky enough, barriers to entry are high, and there are few opportunities. 
6. Safety Valve: This is where some of us end up too. There's a job you're good at and there are plenty of jobs available, but they're not the jobs you want. I think of the guy I knew that wanted to work in tech, but had a job in food services. He was really good at that job, but he wanted to get to the Star job. This is not a terrible place to be. It's actually second place on this list of labor types. He made good money and was stable and his workplace loved him. Often the difference between jobs in this category and those in the Star category is that they use different skill sets, but it doesn't always have to be that way. Sometimes jobs that are adjacent in an industry can represent this divide, such as an application developer versus a database administrator. 
7. Desperation: The worst labor scenario. There are plenty of jobs available, but you don't want them, and you're bad at them too. You only take this job if you're unable to find any of the other job types. And if things are this bad, perhaps you'd better learn to get better at this job and convert it into a Safety Valve job because if you don't you might get kicked out anyway.

This is not a conclusive list, I'm not a professional labor analyst, and as I've said before, any categorization is just a starting point for discussion. Categories are too rigid for cases where someone may be moving from one to another, and there can be different degrees of state in each one.  

I do think the diagram can help people looking to be more cognizant of what their desires are against what is available and be ready to adjust expectations or prepare to take a fallback role. Nothing is written in stone; you might have a great job in the star category for a company that might go out of business or transfer work offshore, or you might be in a safety valve job and then either a better job opens up to you or you come to grips with the fact that aren't going to find the star or delusional job, so you come to recognize where you are is actually a great spot for you.