As some of you know, my life is currently a hodgepodge of various elements, pursuits and activities. By day I work on marketing and outreach for a small nonprofit organization. By night I teach and dance West Coast Swing. My training is in conservation biology, for which I received a master's degree, and I have a strong interest and passion for conservation and environmental issues in general. I've dabbled in stand-up comedy, spent several years through high school and college acting in the theatre world, briefly ran my own venture in conservation education for high school students and adults, and even tried my hand at political campaigns (and to this day remain a CNN junkie). My interests range from green living and international conservation to cooking and traveling to reading and writing to philosophy and religions to social psychology and communications to movies, television, and theatre. There's little that doesn't interest me, except certain periods of history, country music, heavy metal, rap, and whatever the angry people on the Fox "News" Channel are spewing.
I've been bouncing around the job market for several years (with time off for graduate studies) and while I feel that my diversity of experiences has been useful, I'm getting to a point where having a direction and a path - and the comfort, satisfaction and security that come with that - is increasingly appealing. I'm interested in the pursuit of personal enrichment, of a job that makes me feel good, is intellectually and emotionally stimulating, that gives me a sense of purpose, that responds to my personality, that satisfies my deeper passions and listens to my heart.
And I feel like now is the time to start pursuing that path - whatever it may be. I'm in a good position - financially, socially, personally - to consider the options and use some of my free time (limited though it may be) to move in a new direction.
Why did you choose your current path? Is the path you're on the one you really want? Does it satisfy your soul? Is it temporary or for the long-term? And have you ever switched careers? How did you make the move? And what advice would you give to someone trying to figure out the right course?
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I got into a technical field because my mom basically told me I needed to make money, and the choices she gave me were lawyer or computer science. Having limited options at the time, I decided the latter sounded more interesting. Having started out as a programmer (which I hated) and having dabbled with the idea of dropping it all to study literature and creative writing, I happened to stumble upon technical writing, which helped merge my mom's interest with a true interest. After doing that for awhile, I returned to the aspect of technology that actually engaged me (designing web sites and applications). Is it satisfying my soul? Nope. What is great today is gone tomorrow. My legacy is nil. I think someday if I were to work for a company that focused on more environmental concerns, that would at least feel like it was tangentially doing some good for the world. At some point in my life, I think I will have to make a career switch. Not now, but years from now. And I've already started by making a list. A list of things that interest me, or that I think I'm good at. I need to prioritize that list and find out how to investigate the viability of each career, but that's later. I can say that I think one of the most important advice I could offer to you to figure out the right course would be to take a good look and identify what your personal values are. There are lots of ways to do this, and I've done it (ask me if you're interested). A career that you will be most happy in, I believe, is one that matches most closely with those values. You need to know what they are, and then, how to evaluate whether an opportunity matches enough to make you happy. Just my $0.02. :-)
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