Does our Job define us?

Most people need to work, or should I say most people need to get paid for doing something but why is it that when we find ourselves out of work, we experience a disproportionate amount of worry?

I do not believe that the thought of running out of money is the key to this anxiety.

Adults will regularly ask children "What do you want to be when you grow up?". This is considered to be a helpful conversation starter and an insight into the interests of the wonderfully changeable mind of a child, but it also performs the unintended function of defining a person by their chosen career path.

As we get older the trend continues, schools will direct pupils in a direction that the student (or parent) chooses. At the age of 14, when I was asked by the English schooling system to decide which subjects to study I felt I was being asked to decide what I would do for the rest of my life, a daunting proposition for a confused teenager. This is the point that the conformity issue raises its head. As a teenager, one is under an immense pressure to conform with pre-determined classifications and through the eyes of a teenager, the peers who seem to find it easy to choose a "career" appear to become the socially acceptable.

Teenage angst aside, the pattern continues through adult life. Most social gatherings will at some point contain the question "So, what do you do?". I am fortunate to have enough confidence to answer this question honestly whenever it is asked and field the inevitable questions when I cannot be pigeon-holed, but I can imagine that even as a "grown up", this situation can be stressful.

So, when we have a traditional career (doctor, teacher, fireman, etc.), we are usually proud of the hard work and long hours of study that we have put in to reach the point we are at. This, quite reasonably, means that when we are asked the "What do you do?" question, we are happy to be assessed on the perceived "ranking" of our career, since its prerequisites are normally well understood by our audience. On the other hand, when one does not have a traditional career (I have a feeling that is most of us), then the thought of having to explain the intricacies of why we are doing "X" or "Y" at the moment can often deter us from wanting to be involved in that conversation at all!

I do not mean to belabor this subject; there are many other factors at work in this scenario. For example, group status, self belief and the behavior

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