'I'm 32, a uni graduate and I can't keep a job.'

We need to admit that job security is a thing of the past (like parachute pants and Mark Latham’s political career) and embrace it.

I’m 32 and when I left uni a decade ago I had a pretty unrealistic idea of what my working life would look like. And I seriously thought I would have my career locked down by now.

After all, that was the dream I was always sold. You finish uni, you start out in a junior position and you work your way up. A good education equals a good job.

But for me, the reality was far from that. By my early 30s, my resume looked like the dating record of a serial monogamist – a lot of short, intense relationships but nothing that stuck.

I was in danger of becoming a career spinster. The old aunt who everyone whispers about at family gatherings. “The poor thing. She just never found the right man job.”

So why had I been left on the career shelf? It was a combination of being in the wrong place at the wrong time, a really shitty job market and a pretty naive opinion of what the ideal career should look like.

A few years out of school, Blair Waldorf owned a business. If only real life was anything like Gossip Girl. Image via CBS.

In my twenties I went through two redundancies and took on a string of contract roles. That meant I was constantly back out in the market fighting it out for jobs with a whole bunch of new graduates.

And every time I started a new job or contract, I felt like I was hitting the refresh button on my career. Every career low felt like a personal failure and a sign that I wasn’t living up to my potential.

You see, I had bought into the fantasy of what a successful career should look like. The Sex and the City/ Grey’s Anatomy ideal that every other area of your life might be a hot mess, but your career would be on point.

I’d consume TV shows about young graduates working ridiculous hours with a mad kind of jealously – if only I could have an opportunity work 100 hours a week for minimum wage! Look at them doing what they love!

I’m not the only one to feel like this. Sure, I have a handful of friends who have been lucky enough to land a role in their chosen industry and work their way up. But the rest of us have been left floundering.

We’re stuck somewhere between the security of the Gen Xers and the freedom of the Millennials.

If I look at all the people I went to uni with, most of them have retrained several times and are working in industries completely unrelated to their studies. Some of this is by choice but most of it is a result of mounting HECS debts outweighing their desire to #followyourdreams.

When we have PhD’s answering the phones and former lawyers doing data entry – I think it’s time to start questioning the stories we’ve been fed.

Sex and the City taught me that every other aspect of your life might be a hot mess - but your career would be on point. Image via HBO.

We’re the first generation for who having a good education doesn’t necessarily lead to a good job, and having a good job doesn’t automatically lead to other signs of success – like becoming a homeowner. But instead of feeling ripped off, I think we need to embrace it.

For me, it was only when I abandoned the dream of job security that I could finally enjoy the freedom and creativity that comes from a non-traditional career path. What I hadn’t noticed in my twenties when I was so focused on what I didn’t have, was everything I did have. Like my ability to pick up a new skill really fast. And the fact that I can easily adapt to different workplaces.

And once I accepted that I would never have a conventional career trajectory, I felt a hell of a lot freer, and I could get down to the business of doing what I loved.

This meant possibly kissing goodbye to the more attractive aspects of a traditional career – including annual leave, paid professional development and long service leave.

Watch  Mia Freedman discuss what she wishes she knew before starting Mamamia. Post continues after video.

But it also meant dumping the concept of a cubicle for life and not being tied down to a job you don’t love. And it takes away that pressure of what your career should look like.

A few months ago, a friend introduced me to the idea of a portfolio career. It’s basically about embracing your inner career polygamist and holding several different jobs – including part time, freelance and working for yourself – which add up to the equivalent of a full time job.

I realised that I was already doing this – and I loved it.

So from now on, I’m taking a more relaxed approach to my career – I’m putting 100% into whatever I’m doing now, but I know it’s not forever, and that’s OK.