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Career Day
Mar. 23rd, 2005 10:46 pmYesterday I went to a company-sponsored training class that's designed to make people think about managing your career. It's kind of light and fluffy, but it comes with a rather monster workbook that I took a long time on Monday working on. The workbook was filled with all sorts of personality questions, starting with the Myers-Briggs assessment. You may be surprised that I waiver between Introvert and Extrovert, being a E/INTP.
Of course all of that means is that I'm a wishy-washy lazy guy who likes to dream a lot, oh, and sleep on the job. At least that's what I got. Of course the idea of the homework was to find out what your style is so you can try to find a wonderfully imaginary fairy tale career like CEO of Apple Computer, Eccentric Millionaire or Playwright.
Really, what seemed to come along is that I want new and changing challenges over a repetitive job. I'd like to do something creative like write or draw or develop project plans, and I want to work independently when possible. This of course, is not surprising at all.
The actual class was taking all of the personality traits and trying to make you think of careers that might fit into the work style that you have discovered for yourself. This for me meant things like Journalist, Actor, Movie Producer, Public Relations, Marketing, Event planning and then a whole bunch of things I might have to go to school for. Actually, that's just the thing, a lot of potential careers, and things I'd like to do take training, and I'm not so sure about going back to school at this time.
The class was interesting as people discussed what was what they wanted, and what was keeping them back from getting them there. i know that I'm certainly uncertain of what I want to do at this point. Some of the things I'd like to do I feel I can no longer do at this point in my life without being much more financially secure. Perhaps I should play the lottery. Other things I still need help with. A few people seemed to know exactly where they were going.
As a part of the class we were asked to imagine, and then draw what we expected our career and life would look like five years from now. I thought it was ind of odd to have to draw it out, but I sat there doodling for a few minutes trying to come up with some things. We were then asked to share with the class what these drawings said. I realized that I really had some big gaps in the whole vision thing as some people had it down to the times of day what would be happening in their lives. They had appointments and conferences and meetings and all sorts of crazy things going on in their lives.
My picture involved Chris and I with Joey living in Dallas and traveling all around and singing in the chorale. Knowing that i needed to add something about work, I drew a little stick figure of me in front of a computer - it looked like me sitting here blogging, really. I wrote a few words to the side that really didn't mean anything. I worked on explaining this to the class, freely saying that i was with my partner.
When I got around to my career, I said truthfully, I didn't know what it would look like. The facilitator, a nice lady who's paid to be pleasant and nonjudgmental, said it was OK to not know, that's what we were here for, but truly, I think she was thinking that most of us would have more fully formed visions of what our future would be. I certainly understood what one side of my life looked like, I can definitely see what I want there, but I certainly don't value my career nearly as much. It isn't supposed to rule my life as it's done for the last several years of my life.
It was interesting that money was something that wasn't really emphasized in the course, but it was certainly the thing that was brought up by several of the attendees. i guess it's de-emphasized since the class is sponsored by the company and the idea of the course is to make sure there are internal candidates for jobs within the company. Unfortunately for them, all of the visions seemed to involved people leaving the company. The singles all wanted to move away from Houston, those who were married, mostly women, wanted to move to other careers. It didn't look good for the company.
I guess if there's one thing I should think about, it's maybe I should reconsider looking for a job that's still in my current field. It's not that I love it, but right now it's a means to an end, and the easiest way to stay at a similar salary grade. Still, there's just a big gap where I don't know how I'll get the life I want, but it's OK, I'm with millions of other people on that one.
Of course all of that means is that I'm a wishy-washy lazy guy who likes to dream a lot, oh, and sleep on the job. At least that's what I got. Of course the idea of the homework was to find out what your style is so you can try to find a wonderfully imaginary fairy tale career like CEO of Apple Computer, Eccentric Millionaire or Playwright.
Really, what seemed to come along is that I want new and changing challenges over a repetitive job. I'd like to do something creative like write or draw or develop project plans, and I want to work independently when possible. This of course, is not surprising at all.
The actual class was taking all of the personality traits and trying to make you think of careers that might fit into the work style that you have discovered for yourself. This for me meant things like Journalist, Actor, Movie Producer, Public Relations, Marketing, Event planning and then a whole bunch of things I might have to go to school for. Actually, that's just the thing, a lot of potential careers, and things I'd like to do take training, and I'm not so sure about going back to school at this time.
The class was interesting as people discussed what was what they wanted, and what was keeping them back from getting them there. i know that I'm certainly uncertain of what I want to do at this point. Some of the things I'd like to do I feel I can no longer do at this point in my life without being much more financially secure. Perhaps I should play the lottery. Other things I still need help with. A few people seemed to know exactly where they were going.
As a part of the class we were asked to imagine, and then draw what we expected our career and life would look like five years from now. I thought it was ind of odd to have to draw it out, but I sat there doodling for a few minutes trying to come up with some things. We were then asked to share with the class what these drawings said. I realized that I really had some big gaps in the whole vision thing as some people had it down to the times of day what would be happening in their lives. They had appointments and conferences and meetings and all sorts of crazy things going on in their lives.
My picture involved Chris and I with Joey living in Dallas and traveling all around and singing in the chorale. Knowing that i needed to add something about work, I drew a little stick figure of me in front of a computer - it looked like me sitting here blogging, really. I wrote a few words to the side that really didn't mean anything. I worked on explaining this to the class, freely saying that i was with my partner.
When I got around to my career, I said truthfully, I didn't know what it would look like. The facilitator, a nice lady who's paid to be pleasant and nonjudgmental, said it was OK to not know, that's what we were here for, but truly, I think she was thinking that most of us would have more fully formed visions of what our future would be. I certainly understood what one side of my life looked like, I can definitely see what I want there, but I certainly don't value my career nearly as much. It isn't supposed to rule my life as it's done for the last several years of my life.
It was interesting that money was something that wasn't really emphasized in the course, but it was certainly the thing that was brought up by several of the attendees. i guess it's de-emphasized since the class is sponsored by the company and the idea of the course is to make sure there are internal candidates for jobs within the company. Unfortunately for them, all of the visions seemed to involved people leaving the company. The singles all wanted to move away from Houston, those who were married, mostly women, wanted to move to other careers. It didn't look good for the company.
I guess if there's one thing I should think about, it's maybe I should reconsider looking for a job that's still in my current field. It's not that I love it, but right now it's a means to an end, and the easiest way to stay at a similar salary grade. Still, there's just a big gap where I don't know how I'll get the life I want, but it's OK, I'm with millions of other people on that one.
