Thursday, February 10, 2011

Career

I don't think I've ever had a career, as such, except for that kind of one where you are rushing down a hill out of control. That would pretty much describe lots of my life, with periods of finding myself in some kind of ledge or trench and stuck for a while in between the lurches. There's a Judy Horacek cartoon about being stuck in a rut that two friends used to say described me very well (I think they were my friends) but now I can say with dignity that I have been stuck in quite a lot of different ruts, actually, thank you very much.

At the moment, though, I am not stuck in a rut at work but am quite doing something I think is useful and important with people I like and that I am quite good at.

My new boss, who is one of my old bosses (twice in different jobs) thinks I need a career (you know, the kind of one where you have an orderly and planned progression to ever more high-paying and responsible jobs).

Have any of you had careers, of one kind or another?

4 comments:

kazari said...

I've never had a career path, but I think i've had a lot of career opportunities.
I prefer to think about it like that. I try to do work that is interesting and meaningful to me, and eventually something else will come along which goes off on a tangent, which i follow... and then another one... and another...
and lo and behold i have had a career of sorts! and i have experience! and a skill set!

but i've never had a plan.

Anonymous said...

No. But I'm going on a training course this year that's supposed to get me a career. As I cannot manage to even send this comment from my Google Account effectively, I'm not sure how successful the course will be.

mimbles said...

Never had one and don't want one. Which was something that caused a great deal of angst for some years until I realised that it wasn't actually necessary for me to have one. (A situation made possible by a husband who most definitely does have one.)

Though, I don't know...does it count as a career if no-one pays you? 'Cause I'm developing a pretty good volunteering portfolio...

Penthe said...

Yes, I reckon it counts as a career if no one pays you. What always surprises me is that so many people spend time planning their careers. My approach has been pretty much to see something interesting and think 'oh, shiny, I wants me one of those' and go and get the job. Or not. Anonymous, I too am being sent on such a training course? I wonder if it will be the same one?