Choosing Your Career

[Nada.Leona]

How did you ladies go about choosing your career path? I am at a crossroads right now -- I've worked in retail for six years while DH was in school. Now that we're into the last stretch of his program, and will be able to find quality career choices for him, I am ready to make a move and decide what type of career would best suit me.

DH is taking a Bachlor of Education now, and I would really like to begin my own career once he's finished his second year (he's in his first). So I have roughly a year and a half to look at some career choices and make decisions. We've talked about what kind of learner I am, and the more I think about it, I'm not so much a "sitter and listener" -- sitting in a classroom listening to a person dictate information to me. I'm more of a "hands on" or "read instructions then put into practice" kind of person. If someone shows me how to do something, or gives me instructions, then I am much better able to learn it then if someone drones on to me about information that may or may not be pertinent to the career choice I am considering.

Having said that, I would be very interested to hear how any of you decided on your careers, what kind of education you took and weither you think you made the right decision or not.

Many thanks!

[canadian gardener]

hm, it was my only option available that I could afford and get out with a reasonable salary. I was terrified of the kind of life I'd have on the poverty line, and my educational choices were limited as there weren't a lot of loans for students back then. Nor did summer jobs pay enough especially for women to work my way thru.

Very different from what I would have liked, but on the whole not bad. I became an RN, not a Dr.

Originally I was planning to take a program after my RN, that Johns Hopkins offered in the States where I could work as an RN while trainging for my MD.

However I met dh a few months after becoming an RN, and my plans changed quite a bit. I'm not sorry I married and had kids, and the RN thing came in handy often.

Not sure my life would have held the husband I have, and the 2 kids I had if it had been any other way, and of all the careers I could have had, none could be better than George, Andrew and Sylvia.

If I knew then what I know now, I'd still take this course.

the way I figure it, Life hands us a set of options, not always ones we want, but in the long run it's a matter of choosing the best of what's available, not bruising the heart longing for the moon.

If I'd have kept longing for med school, I'd be bruising my heart for something that now I'm glad I didn't do.

I think with my fatigue problems, I'd have had to retire early, I don't think I had the stamina for being a mother and a doctor. And between those options, mothering my kids would always be my first and best.

[forestdale]

Nada, my path was a bit like Margery's. When I left school in the 1960s (I typed 1060s then, it feels like that sometimes ) nursing and teaching were the main choices for girls who didn't want to be secretaries or work in a bank or a shop.

I too wanted to be a doctor but my parents couldn't afford to send me to medical school, and it never occured to me to work my way through, so I did nursing. I'm glad I didn't do medicine as I don't repect what they do now.

When I was in my early 30s I married and had my babies. When they went to school I went back to university and retrained to be a writer/journalist. That choice was made because I'd started working at the local newspaper. Eventually I became its editor and then I went on to do technical writing for the mining industry. When I retired a couple of years ago, I'd been a writer for about 20 years.

I think you usually don't know what you want to do, you only know what you don't want. When I look back now, I had always been a writer. I enjoyed writing at school, I wrote poems and short stories for my friends, so I guess that interest eventually lead me to that career.

I'd advise you to think carefully about what your interests are. What jobs have you had in the past? Do they reflect your interests? Work our what you're good at and what you like to do and try to work in that field. I wonder if you could volunteer and work without pay for a short time to get an understanding of what a particular job is like.

Whatever it is you decide upon, I wish you good luck.

[SHOPGIRL]

Go to the library and check out the book, "Do What You Are...Discover the Perfect Career for you Through the Secrets of Personality Type." The authors are Paul D. Tieger and Barbara Barron-Tieger. It includes a personality test and it will help you narrow type some career paths. I found it very helpful.

[inneedofhope]

When I was younger and thinking about what I should do with my life, I spend gobs of time obsessing over it, taking personality tests, reading self help books, getting feedback from everyone, and ultimately not much of that was really useful. When people asked what I wanted to do.... that question really is more useful.

Think about what you want to do with your time, what kind of impact do you want to have on your community, Do you want to make/grow things, sell things, teach people, help people, take care of people?

My path to my current career came from first seeing children in my community and family being affected by the emotional health of their parents and wondering what could be done to help these kids. I played around with alot of ideas of differrent career paths working with children, for a long time I wanted to be a therapist. I went to college not really knowing what to major in, but I knew I wasn't interested in teaching. My first semester my counselor suggested I just pick electives in whatever I was interested in. I ended up a psych major, with lots of sociology and literature. I never formed a clear path, and always second guessed what I should do, alot of the time thinking about $$ and what jobs wopuld actually pay, but then I alsways ended up going with my heart. I've had some weird jobs along the way, and it took me a while to find my current place, in parenting education at a family resource center. I love working with families and plan to do so for the bulk of my working years, though I often wonder what it would be like to do something different and earn more money.

Best of luck on your journey. My advice is to listen to your heart and follow that path that most excites you.

[staceyy]

The book, "What Color IS My Parachute" is also an excellent book to help in choosing a career. I think the author's name is Bolles.

[Telephus44]

My career grew out of a summer job I had - I didn't actively seek it. I used to operate an envelope folding machine summers while I got my degree. I originally thought that I wanted to teach, but I got rejected when I applied to grad school. I had always thought of my time in the factory and how there were a million more ways to make it more efficient.

Now I'm a customer service rep for an envelope company, and I estimate a lot of pricing based on how and on what machines things are going to run. I really enjoy coming up with the most efficient ways to do it saving the company money (and winning orders because I quote the cheapest pricing!). I'm working with my boss to actually get more into scheduling. I'm good at the customer service end of it, but that's not where my passion lies.

[babymav]

My career just found me. I had no clue what I wanted to do prior to it. I am happy so I guess that means I am lucky. I can actually say I love my job

[Mojjo]

Well, I was a little unconventional...I got my grad degree and then decided I wanted to do non-traditional work. I also wanted stability, benefits, retirement, and a reasonable schedule because I knew family was going to be important to me when I had one.

I guess I figured out what I needed and then looked through what was left to see what I wanted.

[Newsnerd68]

I have had a long and varied work history. I started out waiting tables because I was a teen mom and needed money. For several years I worked in different retail stores and managed to land a job as a receptionist through help from a friend.
Decided to go to college for nursing and trained and worked as a CNA. Found out nursing was not the career for me, dropped out of college, but stayed a CNA. After a few years, the company I worked for started a CNA-training program at their facility and asked that I be a part of it. A BSN and I taught the class. Went back to university and got a paralegal degree, but couldn't find any jobs in our small, job-starved town. I was still working at a nursing facility, but the when company that owned it downsized, my job went right out.
We moved a few miles from our hometown (closer to where dh worked) and the local newspaper was looking for a reporter. I had excelled in research and legal writing at the university, so I sent in legal briefs I had drafted as a writing sample, never expecting to hear from them.

Long story short, I got the job, stayed for 3 years, moved 700 miles away, got a job at a bigger paper (first in advertising, then the newsroom), got promoted to copy editor and moved on to a bigger newspaper.

I guess the moral of this story is you never know where you path is going to lead you. But I have found that any experience can be useful and help you learn more about yourself.

Good luck! (and sorry this took so long to read. sheesh!)