How does でも嫌でも続ける事は work here?

Question

I'm writing with a japanese penfriend on italki, and I've got a few problems with what she has written me in japanese ^^

For context: Amongst other things, I've written her that I've changed my profession. I successfully finished my studies to become a teacher, but I've changed into the IT-sector because in my country (germany, bavaria) there is no need for teachers on schools anymore for the subjects I've studied.

Now, I haven't written her this backgroundinformation and as far as I can understand, she tries to convince to go for it :D The problem is, as I said, that I don't understand everything she has written me.

So first, the full text: 仕事を始めるとき、最初の何年かはとても大変ですね。でも嫌でも続ける事は、何か自分に意味があります。そういうふうに、日本では言います。だから、本当に自分のしたい事が今できなくても、できるときがくるので、そのときまで粘ってください！かな？？？

Now, about the sentence in question: でも嫌でも続ける事は、何か自分に意味があります。 =>"However unpleasant continuation is/it is to continue, there is some meaning to oneself." Although this makeshift translation seems to work, I feel unsure about interpretation of 続ける事, and therefore also about my further interpretation of the second half. That's why I want to ask for confimation here.

Answer 1

Your understanding is basically correct. It's yet another example of "double subject" sentence which both uses は and が. AはBがある literally means "As for A, there is B", but you can simply translated it as "A has B."

Here, A is "嫌でも続ける事" and B is "(何か)意味". 嫌でも modifies 続ける. 自分に modifies あります and means "to you" or "for you".

でも{嫌でも続ける事}は、何か自分に意味があります。
However, {keep on doing it even though it's unpleasant} has some meaning to you.

Maybe she was thinking of this Japanese proverb.