I’m Underemployed in a Joe Job. Help! You’re a salesclerk when you should be in the marketing department. Doing background research rather than writing the strategy. Being an assistant rather than a paralegal. Whatever it is, you’re in a job which not only doesn’t tax your skills but is downright boring. You are underemployed. You’d like to contribute at a higher level (with more money, of course). Unfortunately, early jobs in the work force often are well beneath your talents. This can also happen in summer jobs or short university job placements. How you do the job where you’re underemployed can make things worse The problem is sometimes exacerbated, however, by how people decide to do the job. Perhaps to signal their frustration, they choose to do one or all of the following: Do the work slowly or poorly; Do the report using the top page of the Google search rather than delving more deeply; Avoid checking the inventory by telling customers that everything is out on the floor; ‘Forget’ to do the menial tasks you’ve been assigned; Let co-workers pick up your slack; Communicate the work is beneath you; Talk about what you could do if the bosses weren’t…