Final Fantasy III (1990)

The sorcerer Xande, slighted at his mentor’s gift of mortality, drains the Earth and Water Crystals and triggers a cataclysmic Flood of Darkness that shrouds the world. All that remains is a floating continent where the other two Crystals reside, as time freezes on the surface world and Xande regains immortality in a warped fashion. Many years later on the floating continent, four orphans from the village of Ur fall into the Altar Cave following an earthquake and discover the Wind Crystal. Bestowing them with power and declaring them Warriors of Light, the Crystal instructs the orphans to bring balance back between the light and the dark… 

For most of my twenties, I had absolutely no idea what I wanted to do with my life. 

Okay, that’s not strictly true. I knew what I wanted to do when I was 14 or 15 years old. I wanted to make movies. I’d grown up most of my life watching them, and after I started learning how movies were made and how they could be interpreted, I realized that ‘Wow, making movies would be so awesome!’. So, I studied for four years at school and college in Media Studies and then Film Studies, learning about the craft of filmmaking, film criticism and analysis, and the fundamentals of what makes a good movie. That lead to university and three years of further critical analysis of film as a medium. When handed the degree that would be my entry into the world of film, I was undoubtedly excited for what lay ahead. 

That, of course, didn’t come to pass. 

I tried my best to get into film over a period of five years. There were false starts, missed opportunities and disappointing experiences all along that path. I would hesitate to call the work I did ‘jobs’ because I wasn’t paid for any of them. I would be paid in ‘experience’, something that I learned very quickly was the go-to currency in the entertainment industry because rent, bills and tax are clearly not things that exist there. The straw that finally broke the camel’s back was my finally having a contract of employment to work on a pilot for a comedy TV series. 2 weeks of filming in and around the London area and making connections all the way. After meeting many fantastic people, gaining a wealth of experience and leaving with a spring in my step, I was over the moon that I had at long last gotten my foot in the door…only the production company that were making the pilot filed for bankruptcy two weeks after filming wrapped and no one got paid. I heard it was for a tax write-off. How sure I am of that, I can’t say. What I was sure of was that after five years of constant pushing and pulling, sweat and tears and being treated as a dogsbody, the world of film and TV was not for me. 

I’m sure you’ve all had that happen to you at some point. How you firmly believe that you’ll suit a job or profession and then the realization hits you that it’s just not right for you. Job satisfaction is not something that has come very easily to me. I’m unsure whether this is a genuine challenge to overcome or if it’s just wired into my DNA. And it’s not like I haven’t tried to find satisfaction in the jobs I’ve had in my lifetime. I’ve tried to make them work, tried the best in my ability to make a decent living out of them. Even with all that in mind, I can say hand on heart that almost every job I’ve had has made me question why I ever took them in the first place. 

We all want to feel satisfied with the careers we’ve chosen, doubly so if we’ve put time and effort into earning that career in the first place. It’s also an apparent fact of our being that we would much rather live a life of Riley on little to no work. I remember sitting and watching Lord of the Rings for the first time and picturing an idyllic life as a hobbit; sunshine, countryside, good food, fine drink, great parties and so on. The fact that we must work to earn those things in the first place ranges from minor inconvenience to outright rejection. The idea of grafting day in, day out, week on week, year on year is a necessity we all begrudgingly accept. It’s not that I hate the idea of work. Not at all. I realise the necessity of it, otherwise I wouldn’t have a roof over my head or food in my belly. But there’s nothing worse than having a job you know you’re not enjoying or are not suited for. 

The reason this has become the focus of this entry is the way in which Final Fantasy III employs its central gameplay system, appropriately called the Job system. Unlike the previous two entries in the series, III gave you the option of switching out Jobs for your four-member party at will. You weren’t stuck with the roles selected at the start and could freely change them outside of battles. You can start out as a Warrior, but then swap to a Dark Knight or a Dragoon when the Jobs came into your possession. Your party member who excels in Black magic would be a perfect fit for becoming a Red Mage or even a Sage, balancing the use of all kinds of magic in the process. It’s the first entry in the series that allows you to be flexible in how you play, and more specifically what you play as. 

But then at certain points in the game, you are railroaded into a particular Job that will benefit you in a dungeon or quest. You have to shrink your party down to size in order to enter the Nepto Temple and then contest with a Giant Rat in miniature form, making your physical attacks completely ineffective and relying solely on magical attacks. Which sucks if you’ve spent all your time creating a physical-based party and now have to start from scratch to get your magical abilities up to snuff to take out a damn rat. The dreaded Garuda has a lightning attack that can wipe out your entire party, but it can be easily avoided as a Dragoon who can leap into the air to safety. That is if you’ve spent enough time levelling up your team of Dragoons so that they can defend themselves well in the first place. Monsters that dwell in the Cave of Shadow can swarm and multiply, overwhelming your team unless a Dark Knight can fell them in one swoop. As long as you remembered not to get rid of all the Dark Knight armour you never needed until right that very moment. As is par for the course with the early titles in the series, III doesn’t outright tell you that you have to have these Jobs equipped; you have to find out for yourself. You must find the best Job that suits at the time. 

It is for my money a very relatable experience. How one can go from job to job in different professions and fields, building up experience for one that will ultimately mean nothing for the other. How you can devote yourself to one role, become the expert or the go-to guy for that role, and then having to start over from scratch at the bottom of the pile when starting somewhere completely different. It made me think of my own job history. How I would continuously swap out job roles until I could find one that finally fit me right. And I can assure you that it took me an awfully long time to do this. 

For the sake of transparency, I will now present a list of the jobs I have had over my lifetime to illuminate this point. So this doesn’t become a longer list than it needs to be, some jobs have been left out as they posed no real significance or were barely worth mentioning in the first place.

Let’s review.

It's 2004. I am a cashier at a supermarket. This is my first ever job and it’s during my A-Level studies. It is not a demanding job by any stretch of the imagination, nor is it one that demanded much of my time what with it being a three-day schedule with 4-hour shifts. However, each of those shifts are during the closing hours of each day and attract some unusual and unsavoury customers to the store. Though my dealing with said customers only comes down to scanning their items through a barcode and telling them a total, sitting on my behind doing the same thing for 4 hours is as exhilarating as it sounds. Still, for a first job, I can’t complain. It gives me an idea of what to expect as I go beyond my A Level studies to university. Especially when I was not permitted time off for my grandfather’s 80th birthday and gave in my notice in response. 

It’s 2007. I’m an usher at a cinema. It is an ideal job to have at the time as I am studying film at university. The perks become immediately apparent. Seeing films for free, discount on the overpriced snacks and drinks, and watching movies days before they are officially released. It’s how I got to see 300 and Spider-Man 3 before everyone else. Unfortunately, the perks are immediately redundant when the actual job starts proper. This job magnified the fact that people are just the worst. Moaning about prices I have no control over, explaining how sitting in aisles at a fully packed screening is not possible because it’s a fire hazard. And worst, the cleaning after a screening. All that money spent on expensive buckets of popcorn only for it to be tossed onto the floor after a handful. Drinks spilt over the seats that leave behind a sticky, sweet-smelling residue that’s a nightmare to get out. On one occasion, a used nappy dumped under a seat in amongst the debris. All my love in the world for film was not worth it. The final straw was not being permitted to go home over summer to see my friends and family. Just like before, I gave my notice in response.

It’s 2008. I’m a customer sales assistant at Blockbuster. It is the most tenured job I’ve had so far. It’s a part-time role I took on whilst I was trying to get my foot in the film industry door. What I wouldn’t anticipate is how significant a part it plays in my life. The job itself is simple enough. If you know Blockbuster, you know what the job is likely to be. Plus the perks are a definite boon with free rentals and discounts on movies and games. Most importantly, it is through Blockbuster that I make some lifelong connections. I meet my best friends here, and I meet many more people through the years that help me grow and improve as a person. What’s more, I gain the confidence in knowing what I’m doing, such as proving to our district manager that Skyrim would be a profitable midnight release instead of Fifa or Call of Duty (which it was. We sold out all our stock bar two copies on PC). There was some level of comfort in the job that meant I stayed with Blockbuster right until the very end when it announced it went into administration, and I definitely do not miss the entitlement of some customers who didn’t understand how a rental worked. But I can’t deny that I look back at my time there with some degree of fondness. Those five years are definitely some I hold close. 

It’s 2013. I’m an optical assistant at a chain of opticians. After a two month break from work to try and find what to do next, I get an unexpected call for an interview at an opticians to join their team. A few weeks later, I start my training and am immediately daunted by the different workplace environment to the comparable Blockbuster. Hour lunch breaks, holiday entitlement that I MUST take, and a rigid work output make it difficult to adjust to initially. But I push through and make a concerted effort to do my best. The competitive nature of my colleagues, however, is something that I could never acclimate to. Whilst I begin making efforts to put some roots down in the workplace and begin learning about ophthalmology to earn some qualifications, it is decided by management that I am not suited for the work and am let go. And in retrospect, they were right. I was sad to leave on such terms, but it was eventually mutually agreed upon. However, there was a silver lining. Due to my tendency to rattle on about movies and games, it gives me the motivation to go back into education. My manager offered to write a reference to help in this, for which I will always be grateful for. 

It’s 2015. I’m a call centre worker. Having decided to go back into education and earn a Masters degree, I would need to work in the meantime to be able to afford the 1 hour plus travel to and from my London-based university. That’s where the call centre comes in. I can make no qualms about it, however. The job is rough. Very rough. The firm had a number of clients ranging from small local businesses who needed to have a message service to high-street retailers needing a dedicated line for online ordering. The call you received was at random, with numerous scripts to rehearse and tones to strike with each ones. Then there are the questionable clients that made me not want to answer the phones, such as a ministry who profited off of thousands of dollars or pounds from the vulnerable and easily coerced. Nevertheless, it keeps me afloat whilst I get my Masters degree and in an eerie coincidence, the company is closed and amalgamated into a rival call centre company months later. Luckily the experience I gained with this job helped me get my next one. 

It’s 2017. I’m working for an independent financial adviser. I initially enter the company working on the customer sales line, taking calls from existing clients and getting new clients into the fold. A carry over from the customer sales calls I would take at my previous job, it was wearing and exhausting having to deal with situations that weren’t my fault. It’s also during this time that my application for a PhD would be accepted but the cost would not be covered nor could I afford it. It’s during a week’s cover on a different department where I am chasing for information from different providers that the job would change. I would find something that I was good at and that I genuinely enjoyed. The investigations into transfer delays or incorrect information being provided, the ensuring that transfers went ahead smoothly and making a strong team are things I remember fondly. For a while, I’ve convinced myself that this is the right job for me at long last. 

It’s 2020. Covid. After a series of events that start to make me question my current position at the financial advisor, my concerns and worries are greatly impacted by the onset of the global pandemic. Forced to work at home in a rickety old house that barely stayed connected to the Internet on the best of days, the stress and anxieties reach a fever pitch as I start to question my own abilities. What I haven’t told anyone save for family and close friends is that I was awaiting the result of an interview for a teaching position in Japan. In the midst of this chaos, I receive an email confirming that I’ve been accepted. Cue a mixture of elation, relief and concern as I’ve no idea when I’ll be going due to said pandemic. When I finally get the go-ahead, I bid a fond farewell to my chasing team and set off around the world. 

It is now 2023. I’m an English teacher living and working in Japan. After the culture shock dissipates and the real nature of the job becomes apparent, I find myself actively making every effort to make this job work. Working with teachers and students whilst overcoming the shared language barrier is a daily challenge, as well as ensuring that English lessons are kept fun, interesting and memorable. More than that, the cultural exchange between Japan and myself as a UK citizen is something that occurs on a daily basis. It is without question the most challenging job I’ve ever had. 

And I absolutely love it.

I can’t really put a pin on exactly what I love most about this job, because there’d be so many pins to place. I can really only say that it’s a job that feels right for me. More so than that, I feel like I’m right for the job. It’s pushing me to be the best that I can be, and outside of the classroom, learning the language and culture of Japan never ceases to be fascinating. Tiring? For sure. But every day is always a fresh start. Much like the constant swapping of Jobs in III until you find the right one, it finally feels as if I have found the job for me. 

Until, perhaps inevitably, the next one comes along. 

I don’t know how long I’ll have this job, or if I want to keep doing it forever. I’m still in a transitional period of what it is I want to do. I’ve thought about keeping up with the teaching as it genuinely brings me pleasure. I’ve also thought about going back into education and perhaps teach at a higher level. Again, these are all things I’ve yet to fully explore. But if you’re like me and you’re not sure what to do with your life or when it will happen, let me try to assure you with an answer. You’ll find out. It’ll hit you like a bolt of lightning and suddenly everything will become clear. And it doesn’t matter when it’ll happen, either. I came into this job very late in the game and I’m still learning new things every day. Don’t be scared to take that leap based on your age or experience. But always be glad that you did.

That sounded almost motivational. I wonder if… 

No. Not now. One job at a time.