My First Salary- A Happy Story

Switching from a carefree high school student schedule to a more responsible working schedule can be a real eye opener for most people. However, if you have lived a carefree student life you should probably do a quick 2 min thank you prayer because living a carefree life as a student is also a privilege. I know a lot of people who had to work even in high school to make ends meet and that makes me feel very grateful for the easy life that I have had. 

I started working after my 11th standard. My parents looked after all my expenses up till that point and as a working individual now, it is scary how many expenses a person can have! And to think that my parents covered all of that makes me feel even more grateful. 

How it Started:

I started working with one goal: to be able to buy things I really wanted to be financially independent.

As materialistic as it might sound, it's the truth of an 18 year old. I asked my parents for anything and everything I needed/wanted but after a certain point I felt really guilty asking money for every little thing (including unnecessary fancy things that an 18 year old me couldn’t resist)

So I sat down to look up basic jobs an inexperienced girl could get. I knew my forte was writing. I have always loved to put down my thoughts on paper. I found out that content writing was all the rage in the digital world and every other business needed a good writer. So that was it: I made a freshers resume with nothing but my educational background (which was pretty good because of the reputed school & college I attended and my scores)

I applied through third party apps/websites and waited for a response for days, but got none. So after a month or two, I forgot about it and got busy with my college exams. 

After almost 7-8 months, I got an email regarding my application. It was a long long time later. I had completely forgotten about the companies I had applied to and was clueless but I agreed to go through the further processes and finally got selected for a paid internship after the last round. I’ll come to the ‘paid’ part in about a minute or two.

The Job:

I’m going to refrain from mentioning the name of the company. One, because it is a very well known/reputed online platform and two- because I’m about to spill some piping hot tea about the same!

I was told I will be writing research based articles -each about 1500-2000 words. I agreed because I knew I was capable of writing that many words every day.

I was given a sheet with a lot of instructions that had to be followed while writing/uploading the blogs. Thus began my first internship and I got down to work. 

The Pay: 

This is going to sound like a shocker to most of the readers because the pay was very disappointing and I had no work experience and I believed that it must be the most that  freshers get.

Rs. 250/- per blog.

It sounded okay to me because I just figured I would write more no. of blogs in order to earn more. 

The post writing process however was a big bummer for me. They sent back the same blog at least 3-4 times until it was crisp and up to their satisfaction. This led me spending more time on the same blog instead of writing more (and earning more).

By the end of the first month, I only had 4 approved blogs. Each one reworked at least 4 times. 

Now, I had no issues with learning and improving through these reworks but what I did have issues with was the effort that was going into it and the disappointing returns I was getting.

Anyway, it was finally payday and I received Rs.1000/- for the 4 blogs I had finished. Not going to say I wasn’t disappointed but can’t deny I was happy too.

It was my very first salary. The outcome of my hard work (also frustration lol) but it was ‘my’ money. I had earned it. Even though it was a small amount, it seemed big to me. It seemed like an achievement! 

How I used my first Salary:

Thousand bucks can’t buy you a lot of things in this day and age. So I was pondering hard over where I should spend my precious money (or whether I should spend it or not). After thinking over what I really wanted, I decided I would spend it on the lipstick I had been eyeing for the past few months but which was very expensive for a 5 gms bullet. 

Not going to lie but I felt guilty spending that much on lipstick- but since I wanted to reward myself, I went for it. I was extremely happy. 

Later:

I left that job in a few months as I strongly believed they were exploiting their employees by dumping work and not paying them adequately. I added that experience in my resume and applied to other places.

Fast forward 4 years, I am a full time content writer and copywriter, I take up freelance writing projects, social media content and have worked with some really great brands. 

What I learnt:

I learnt that experiences can land you to great places and that one should never settle for anything less than they deserve. Even later in my journey, I came across difficult people like a sexist boss and some disrespectful colleagues but I stood up against all of that and came out a stronger person.

At my second job, I got paid 5 times more than I was paid at my first and 10 times more in my third one. That’s when I realised that I would never give my hardwork for free and that each person’s contribution to the growth of a company MATTERS and should be respected!

So this was the bittersweet story of my very first salary! It taught me a great deal and is a part of the several things that led me to be the financially independent, growth oriented, continuously learning kind of individual I am today!