Film Courage: What is a junk job?
Viki King, Author and Film Consultant: The one that you…ahhh! The day job that you don't want
because you want the good job, the real job, the you know the "job job" that's the junk job.
Film Courage: I often see people online you know oh well then you're going to have to go back
to that real job but so much of doing anything creative there's also administrative tasks to it
there's a lot of stuff that's grunt work within that and it's just like work working doing data
entry at a quote junk job which I've had plenty of but there's a lot of components that are very
similar you it's not always where you get to just oh fluttering around and you know there's a lot
of stuff that you have to tie up loose ends well that's what I was saying before around
being being a knowing how to be a human being and then reaching for your your essence of you know
in the galaxy someplace that combination that's what's so delicious about being here on earth is
that we've got that that two-sey going on you know between the the two aspects of ourselves
and yeah you know the you can learn a lot from a junk job in terms of oh I mean you know the
politics and the and the dynamics of the the group and the thing and all that there there's
a you know this is interesting I had I didn't have a junk job but I had a research time that
I was at a bank in Beverly Hills that I was doing research for a a movie of the week in the bank
and it was so fascinating to see that that the head of the bank was so smart he recognized and
acknowledged everybody in the bank so that when it was the teller's birthday he'd get everybody down
to sing while the customers are there and you know she was acknowledged in front of everybody
so powerful and so it was really interesting to be there I was there for maybe 10 days or so you know
to just get the whole nature of the bank and I put him into the film because that was an unusual
that was that was an usual CEO and and he was very successful the response that he got from his team
from that but so you can always learn something from these junk jobs but you know I suggest you
leave after 10 days well but what do you say about those that having a junk job actually makes their
art stronger whatever it is yeah you can you know whatever works out for you in whatever
way you can do it then do that yeah certainly I mean for a while I used Hollywood as my junk job
to write my autobiography I mean because it was fund I was self-funding it and so I was help
self-funding it from Hollywood and all my work that I was doing there is you know I was like an
oracle on films and all and that you know that was I mean that would be considered like the big deal
job but really it was supporting other writing what does that mean an oracle on the job um
I would come in on the jobs from the launch I mean from the Inception of the idea to the launch all
the way through the making of the film and so it would be like all the the people that were doing
the film would be like the characters that I was working with it's very fascinating it was really
interesting that to be able to do that you know they would call me and when it would be raining on
scene 52 what are we going to do you know and then it would be raining raining on scene 52 and then I
would I was able to say and then we would move on from there as aide from this is that to the
man every director that I worked with somewhere you know at 3:00 a.m. in the morning when it's 12
below zero and we weren't getting the shot every director would say to me I'm having a time of my
life there's nothing like it really the to be to be creating involving at that at that level
of films it's exhilarating and it's you learn you learn so much every time and it's just thrilling
well and problem solving too problem solving and you got to you know there's always just
a terrible crisis and then you solve it right there's a charge you get from that yeah how do
we know if a job is right for us well do do you like it does it feel good are you happy
well I think that you in a prior interview you had something interesting you said you said that
somebody didn't like their job and they were a positive person and they felt that their job was
sort of a negative place and then you realized that maybe their job was to be this ray of light
right and they were there for a reason I thought that was fascinating yeah that you know if you
if you are that that's what you're learning to develop more so that you are the you know the
bright light in the in the dreary place and when should we stay at a job and when should we leave
well I think both I think you stay and you leave and you know and a lot of times you
will leave way before you leave right right because you conjure up still what you needed
to be for you so that it works for you before you leave sometimes you can't you know it's like you
got a big plan I'm going to stay until July you can't make it through March you know and
so then you go and it's sudden and it's out of the plan so you want to just follow your
heart in the way that it's best to follow your heart and and be to your good advantage to do
it and as creative people what's the best way to leave a job how do we how do we do it with
grace you know as creative people usually we've probably already checked out of the job maybe a
year or two before we actually leave or maybe not but how do we do it with grace so that we
leave and you know we give our two weeks or we don't I think it's with the people I think it's
relationship with the people because just because you can't stand a job there might be people there
that mean mean something to you and that you’d want to say a good goodbye to you don't want to
just you know abandon the thing you want to tie up all the loose ends of relationally with everybody
and that'll make you feel better but a lot of times it's like for instance if you if you've
got a a untenable relationship with your boss look at that one because you're working out your dad
and then and then don't leave until you've worked out your dad and then you might not have to leave
because this guy is you know not triggering you anymore sure we give him a big bear hug on the
back you wouldn't get that far but I mean but you know you look at him and you think ah you know
nothing this is nothing sure sure and then you know then you can leave because you don't have to
or if you actually don't need the job anymore you also see too that your energy around the job is
different and things don't matter as much that maybe would bother you if you really needed it
and that changes things too yeah it's all you know it's completely individual to each person it's not
one that we can say this is the rule here and this is the rule here it's that you know you follow and
you follow your story story of all these things are here for you not being GI you know not to
you it's not taking from you it's there for you so when you're when you see all that then
you progress in the best and highest way for you what do you say though to people that think that
okay once I leave this place I'm just going to be creating when you realize that a lot of stuff
can't be done in a vacuum and you actually fed more creatively by being out in the world well
the first thing you do when you quit your job is you fall asleep over over your project you think
oh yeah yeah I'm going to have this done by next week and you're you're conked out no you're gone
it's because you were you're rest you need that rest you need to you know take care of it and then
you have to switch to now productive because your story was oh I can't get anything done because I
have this terrible job that I've got then the job is gone uh oh now what and then you know you want
to be mindful you don't want to watch watch are you don't get yourself to the ER or anything don't
start creating other distractions in front of you let yourself be live empty settle down and then
let the project come into you and get a different rhythm going because it is a different rhythm you
know when you're working for yourself instead of working for somebody else I like that what does
that mean live empty live empty um how are you know how do you really feel do you know how you
feel what's going on what do you want to think about what am I curious about do I really want
to do this project is something else coming you know coming at me as something exciting
you when you're empty all those things can now start showing you don't know what you're about
without the job so it's kind of like a clean slate yeah for anyone who's an artist thinking
about quitting their job what are just some fast and and easy rules aside from do you have money
to carry yourself that I think that's number one and the last one I don't think it's the
money I don't think that's the one because you if you're there just to make money it's not worth it
cost you too much for that money if that's all you're there for there's got to be some other
something something going on and you have to be ready to for the next stage of what your
project is you know it's interesting when I went to Europe and I was living in Greece I got this
this this question all the time people would ask me because I was a American they'd say oh you're a
writer how do you what how do you do that when you're not subsidized by the government and I
always thought well that's really interesting let me see how I'm going to answer that today you know
because it would would be different each time it was fascinating because they couldn't imagine you
know well how do you how do you live well you just live you do it you do it any which way
whatever the thing is you know if you don't have any money then you're broke so you do something
about that all along the way just make it up as you go along sure but even if you're broke and
you have to live out of like a weekly hotel it costs money cost money cost a lot of money yeah
and so we do need money unfortunately to to you know and then so you you get money you get money
all kind of different ways and and everybody to each his own and everybody different from
one year to the next so it's not a question that you answer overall because it's different
for everybody at different times is there any shame in returning to a job years later let's
suppose you were an artist you feel shame about it there's shame if you don't feel shame there
isn't okay so it's kind of again how we view it yeah yeah it's just you know whatever the person
whatever whatever's going for them and everybody you know it's a personal trajectory for each one
of us our meaning that we place on anything is our meaning isn't anybody else's meaning and so
you know if you feel like you I have a client and she constantly goes back to the core family and
they were they were horrible to her and she's an adult now but she keeps finding a way to have that
she has to go back and live in their basement and that kind of thing and and that's correct for her
because she has to heal that thing she cannot go on without healing that thing and everybody would
say to her oh don't you know don't so they're wanting to her to skip a step and the skep step
is they want her to be healed already but she hasn't done it yet she's got to just keep doing
that until one day it's going to be like a week from Tuesday it's just oh I'm done and walk walk
out well sometimes bad circumstances can give you a real kick in the behind whereas when things are
good and easy you don't you don't push yourself as much so that's also sometimes I wonder why people
go back to a certain bad situation well maybe that works for them maybe something works different for
you some people work very well they they beat themselves up you know to do things they punish
themselves self-punishment is a very very creative arena for a lot of people and they like that you
know that makes them feel good that they've punished themselves that you know they're not
going to have the ice cream because they didn't do the pages or have the ice cream you know so
it's do you want avoidance do you want whatever works for everybody you know it's their choice.