By Zoe Kaskamanidis

As a young child, I imagined the concept of an ‘adult job’ to be office-bound, formal, reliable and spanning at least 30 years. Fast forward to 29 years of age and, likely to no-one’s surprise, my views have drastically changed.

It’s not surprising to me that television shows based in offices (i.e. legal offices, accounting firms) are significant sources of this career view for many young people. My parents are both artists, and I grew up wanting to be an artist of some sort too. I spent hours upon hours practising and practising, and this went on for years while I worked part-time in a café and children’s bookshop.

So, what did I go on to study at university? Criminology and politics, of course.

I remember my mum looking a little disappointed when I told her that I wanted to be a lawyer. She wanted to make sure that what I did really fulfilled me, and I’m lucky for that, but something in me still held on to the vision of myself in a sleek office, reading through heavy legal books on the train and on my fifth coffee, having ‘made it’ (at least according to this false perception I had).

The real question that I and so many millennials like me now face is what predetermined destination qualifies as ‘it’. In other words, what even is an ‘adult job’?

It’s 2024, so let’s look at what the internet has to say…

A quick google can get you pretty far these days, especially when you find others googling the same query almost word-for-word, with an abundance of answers to peruse at the click of a button (thank you, Reddit).

Turns out there are mixed ideas about what qualifies as an ‘adult job’, and probably to the surprise of my younger self, there’s little-to-no mention of the sleek office and business attire I once imagined.

There are some responses that qualify an ‘adult job’ by opportunities or benefits: ‘To me an adult job is more of a career with opportunity for advancement’. Another replies: ‘To me [an] adult job usually provides benefits (health dental life retirement vacation) and is either salaried or is a very high hourly pay.’

Other responses are a little more exasperated: ‘[An] adult job makes you extremely stressed’; ‘Adult job, kid job, give me a job that pays my bills and I’ll work it.’

Others are more literal and qualify an adult job by age or simply as distinct from the jobs you might work in before you reach adulthood: ‘I think an adult job is a job that has responsibilities or tasks that kids are not capable of doing.’

And then you have the blogs about adult jobs that ironically read more like rules you might encounter as a child starting school. In The 9 Rules of Being an Adult at Work, for example, ‘grown-up’ jobs specifically require behavioural traits like ‘being polite’, ‘getting to work on time’ and ‘doing what’s asked of you’.

So, with the apparent blurring of what constitutes an adult or adolescent job (or adulthood and adolescence more broadly), why have so many people, including myself, been gripped by this elusive ideal of the ‘adult job’?

For some, this question has roots firmly planted in politics…

A Bookings Institute op ed lands us smack bang at the core of what Gen Zs and Millennials are now familiar with as the father of all problems – capitalism.

‘What most people want is a job that pays a decent wage and offers both some satisfaction and security,’ writes Richard V. Reeves, ‘…these goals are incompatible at a deep level with capitalist dynamics.’

Those dynamics being ‘a two-class system, private ownership, a profit motive, minimal government intervention, and competition.’

In a world where owning a house is out of reach for many Gen Zs and Millennials, government intervention remains strong and capitalist competition is pushing grocery prices through the roof, it’s no wonder our generations are feeling pressured to apply for those increasingly popular ‘adult jobs’ we see in the media – the jobs that appear more aligned with these capitalist dynamics.

At times, this can feel disheartening for Millennials and Gen Zs as generations with strong environmental and social awareness, when, for example, a job in the mining industry props you up at the 8th highest-earning career in Australia.

So, where does this land Millennials and Gen Zs?

Encouragingly, we’re starting to see our generations’ advocacy for social and environmental equality increasingly informing our career decisions. Young people are now more reluctant to compromise their values, and this is leading to ‘significant talent gaps’ in some of the highest-earning careers.

And of course, being selective about job opportunities or ‘conscious quitting’ is not a practical option for all (or even many) people, and the question of who is able to take this risk shouldn’t be disregarded in these discussions. There are so many pieces to this complex puzzle and job satisfaction is different from person to person.

These days, I see an ‘adult’ job as a job that I can imagine myself being satisfied in for years – not just by wage conditions and stability, but by co-workers, culture, ethics, and in those three, my own satisfaction and enjoyment. And while I’ve been lucky to find my little nook in this complex and challenging economy, the outlook for our generations’ job seekers would keep anyone awake at night.

It’s no wonder an ‘adult job’ is such an elusive concept when its borders shift and change with the multitude of factors that make us all different people, with different ideas, influences and values.

So, what would equitable access to ‘adult jobs’ really look like, if the concept is different from person to person?

Perhaps asking ‘What even is an adult job?’ is the wrong question after all.

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Zoe Kaskamanidis is completing her Masters of Creative Writing, Publishing and Editing part-time at the University of Melbourne while working in magazine publishing. When she’s not working she’s walking her cheeky labrador, Luca.