Girl get unserious...your career is not your life

Somewhere between the first proper hangover that makes you fear for your organs and the realization that you now check your credit score for fun, a terrible thing happens. You start taking your career seriously. You get the LinkedIn headshot. You schedule coffee chats with people called Giles. You pretend you care about alignment and cross-functional synergy. You start wearing navy.

It’s tragic, really.

For some reason, we’ve collectively agreed that, past the age of 27, we must approach work with all the joy and levity of a Victorian child laborer. Careers are no longer things we do; they become things we are. Even the word career sounds like an affliction, something you contract by being too earnest at university. We’re all out here trying to be taken seriously, which is a synonym for ‘exhausted and weirdly competitive about job titles.’

And for what? A company-branded water bottle? An ‘industry leader’ badge on LinkedIn? A lifetime supply of stress eczema?

Let’s be clear: your career is not your life.