:^) C H A P T E R 1

infinite amount of time left to work. If he doesn’t make a move soon, he might not be able to make a move at all. Joel never had a specific career passion. Early in his career, he wanted to be a professional, make some money, and feel secure. After 20-plus years following that gold-brick road, he now wants to do something that is more meaningful to him.

The initial emphasis that parents and their offspring place on money is quite reasonable. As a young adult, you are cast from the family womb without an apartment or a job or much of a bank account to sustain you. One important goal of young adulthood is to establish financial independence. Plus, society has another timetable in store for you. Aspiring professionals expect to graduate from college, get a job, get married, buy a house, and have kids.

And after “have kids”? Raise kids. Pay the bills. Save for college tuition. After that, your kids can do the same thing all over again: live your life, that is.

It’s all very predictable. It’s also unrealistic.

Every individual has to make his or her own way in the world. There’s no cookie-cutter formula that works for everyone. Behind every successful careerist is a process of self-discovery and a journey down a personally meaningful road, not a simple prescription for happiness that didn’t work then and doesn’t work now.

Take a Personal Career Interest Survey

Most people don’t know enough about all their available options to make informed career decisions. To remedy that deficit, you’ll need to do some market research:

1.Start by making a general list of your personal and professional interests. Don’t omit any options because of preconceived notions about a field or industry.

2.Write down your number one interest and then consider it carefully. What is it about that area that most fascinates you? For

18

C A R E E R C H O I C E :^)

example, a woman who loves cooking realized she’s particularly drawn to desserts because they appeal to both her sense of artistry and her sweet tooth.

3.Explore your interest more deeply, by researching the following:

■Companies that produce related products or services

■Schools that teach related skills

■Types of jobs related to your interest

■Names of specific people who work in the field

4.Set up an action plan—complete with realistic goals and timetables—to meet (or at least talk on the phone with) people who work in your targeted interest area. In your discussions, try to learn as much as possible about what these professionals are doing. Also ask for referrals to people working in related fields. After each meeting, take careful notes to consolidate your learning; then set new exploration goals.

5.When you’ve completed your research, listen to your gut. Does pursuing your targeted field still seem to be an exciting idea? If so, figure out what steps you’ll have to take to become a qualified candidate in that field.

6.If your answer is a more cautious “maybe,” determine what else you need to know to make an informed career decision. Then, make it your goal to get that data.

7.If you decide that your top interest doesn’t translate into viable career options, return to your list to determine your second, third, and even fourth choices. Then repeat the exploratory process until you find a promising direction.

8.If you’re still undecided after several rounds of this process, think more creatively about ways to combine your interests. The prospective pastry chef, for example, had a seemingly conflicting interest in weight management. By tying together her two interests, she developed a specialty in low-fat desserts.

19

:^) C H A P T E R 1

If you’re like many people, you might discover a latent desire to paint or write or act. You might want to build something beautiful, make a different contribution to our world, or perhaps leave an inspirational legacy. Let your imagination roam wild. You might be surprised at what you discover.

Many people who do this exercise find that they want to add something of value to the world. One wanted to build a golf course in the inner city. Another wanted to create a foundation to promote good works.

Others go for adventure and travel. In their imaginations, they became tour guides to the Orient, Middle East, or Africa. Or, combining adventure and service, they consider becoming a missionary in Peru, a public-health nurse in West Africa, or a teacher in Bosnia.

Freedom ranked high on the list of desires. Very few people expressed a desire to work for someone else, although many were interested in public service. Almost no one continued in the same line of work. Muriel and John James, the mother-son team who wrote Passion For Life (1991, Penguin Books), call these desires “a hunger of the soul searching for more.”

However liberating it would be, most of us will never clean up in the lottery. Still, I wonder if it’s really necessary, financial considerations notwithstanding, to live so far from the heart of your desires; to put moneymaking above all other needs and goals; to abandon the things you love and care about to make a living.

Hearkening back to Cheryl Heisler’s story, her experimentation with a variety of work roles and her willingness to learn from each experience enabled her to make a unique and meaningful career choice. To do the same, you might have to move beyond the things your parents wanted for you (and needed from you).

Self-knowledge can be elusive. But more than any objective inventory of skills and interests, the ability to learn from experience is the key to

20

C A R E E R C H O I C E :^)

self-knowledge. Putting a modern-day spin on Plato’s famous statement “The unexamined life is not worth living,” management theorist Warren Bennis says, “The unexamined life is impossible to live successfully.”

Perhaps it’s time to stop measuring success by external standards of performance and start measuring it in more qualitative terms— specifically, by your level of satisfaction and fulfillment. Time’s a-wastin’. So why not use it wisely? Take some chances on your own happiness. It might almost make you feel like a kid again.

Career Choice: What Do You Want to Be...

Now That You’re Grown Up?

Thought-Starter Worksheet

1.Do you remember having a first career dream? If so, what was it?

2.How did your parents respond to your dream?

3.How did you feel about your parents’ response?

4.Did your parents have a career ambition for you? If so, what was it?

(continues)

21

:^) C H A P T E R 1

(continued)

5.How did you feel about your parents’ career dream for you?

6.Do you feel that your parents’ career guidance was based on a good understanding of your skills and interests?

7.Do you feel that your parents’ career guidance was based on a good understanding of the job market?

8.Did your parents have careers? If so, what were they?

9.If your parents had careers, do you feel that they were satisfied with their own choices?

10.Can you identify any way in which your parents’ career choices influenced the choices they encouraged you to make?

11.If your parents were raised during the Depression, do you think that experience influenced their career advice to you? If so, how?

22

C A R E E R C H O I C E :^)

12.Did you follow your parents’ career recommendation? Why or why not?

13.If you followed your parents’ recommendation, how do you feel about your choice now?

14.If you could make your career choice all over again, what would you do differently?

23

CHAPTER 2

Do You Know the Secrets of

Career Success?

Nothing will ever be attempted, if all possible objections must be first overcome.

—Samuel Johnson

Times change. People change. Technology progresses and challenges everyone to adapt to new ways of living and working.

Suddenly, the phrase “24/7” has entered the collective psyche. Like convenience grocery stores, everyone is suddenly “on-call.” The corrugated carton salesman carries a pager. Employees interrupt their personal therapy sessions to respond to phone calls from the office. The woman standing in front of you at Starbucks holds up the line while she converses with her secretary and her nanny. Your date takes an order from his customer on his cell phone while you peruse the wine list. Even on vacation, you can’t help but overhear other people’s business or escape gluing yourself to your laptop computer lest you miss some urgent communication.

Yes, the world has gone crazy. In the blink of a workplace eyelash, the Internet economy mushroomed exponentially and then crashed. Everywhere we looked there were new young multimillionaires. Blink twice and you’re looking at a whole new generation of cynics and paupers.

One day the economy is growing; and seemingly overnight the experts are predicting (and hunkering down for) a recession. Blink again and

25