I've been thinking a lot about how one chooses a career. It's a tricky thing. I sort of backed into my legal career, because I needed a job. It took me years to really understand how much I love to write and how important it is to my life.
Most of my friends started out with one career and then changed course. Some of my friends have changed career paths numerous times. It's not like it was 50 years ago when someone finished school and went to work for a company and stayed there for 50 years until retirement. I know very few folks who have done that. (There's nothing wrong with it, but nowadays it's just atypical.)
One of my favorite jobs was working in a bookstore, but I never made any money because I spent my whole paycheck on books.
My point is, no job is perfect.
I am trying to help Michael understand different career options. Yes, there's a lot about that all over the web, but my thought was if I can interview different folks that I know personally, then if he thinks the career sounds interesting he can follow up with a phone call, and learn more.
I am going to start a new part of this blog called probably Career Spotlight, and I want to interview different folks about what they do. These are the questions:
- What do you do?
- How long have you been doing this?
- What made you choose this as a career?
- What type of schooling or training did you need to do your job?
- Describe some of the typical activities you do every day.
- What is your favorite part about this job?
- What is your least favorite part of the job?
- What would you say to a young person contemplating this career?
- If you had it to do all over again would you still choose this career?
- Why or why not?
- How do you see this career changing [if any] in the next ten years?
- What’s the best career advice anyone ever gave you?
I could answer all these questions, too, but my son has expressed very clearly that he has absolutely NO interest in ever being a writer. He hates writing. So it would not be a good use of my time.
I do think that the best advice I ever got was pretty simple: do what you love and you will never work a day in your life. The tricky part is figuring out what you love.
My dad was a "people person" and very devoted to his customers at the bank. Most of them adored him. He had a hard time with bosses, though, because he always felt like he could run everything himself. In first grade, his teacher caught him talking and said "Tony, would you like to come up here and teach the class?" and he said "Yes M'am!" and jumped up to go "teach." Many years later she came into the bank in Augusta and visited with him and reminded him of that. He laughed. I think it's such a telling anecdote because even at 6 his personality was pretty much set.
I am working from home right now, which has ups and downs. I don't always get as many hours as I'd like. OTOH, I wore a bathrobe for the first two hours I worked this morning, which is a nice perk.
Michael has a very good work ethic, and he's always earned praise from his bosses for being so conscientious. He gets really ticked off when he sees other employees goofing off, however.
I've told him, that happens everywhere. You have to just roll with it, not let it ruin your experience. It's life. I'd love to see him be his own boss somewhere.
In the meantime, I will be helping him explore different careers, to see what seems like a good fit...
He's a talented artist -- see below, which he did in 3rd grade...
