3 Steps to Career Zen
I’ve stated a couple times - I’m a student. Yes, I’m a salaried web designer/developer, but it’s *definitely* not something I’m interested in doing forever. I’m 100% aware of how fortunate I have a job in this industry (especially without a degree). I studied art/design in high school and when I first attended college - I thought Design was cool, and I liked seeing my work displayed. Now what I do is considered “IT” and I am beginning to dislike IT work.
The problem wasn’t the pay, it was the *satisfaction.*
I don’t help anyone. Especially in my past two roles - the majority of my work is not viewable to the public. It’s internal or agent-only, or it’s coding - the coolest thing that I felt smug about was figuring out a bug IE7 had with displaying CSS and Javascript in drop down menus - I was the only person on the net that posted about it. So I posted everywhere about it - it was my little discovery, and now you can find a number of blogs talking about how they discovered it (maybe it’s a Renaissance thing?)
Point is - my little discovery is pretty useless for everyone I know.
So I researched my hopes and desires - what do I want to do? Where to focus my life?
Well, I based it on a couple principals that I’ll post about (thanks to Queer Cents for getting me dwelling on it) and a google search I came across this article:
Three Steps to Employment Zen
- Discover what you are designed to do.
- Do it.
- Minimize everything else.
1. I was good at art and great at math. I hated math, so I chose art in college. Wasn’t really happy. I liked designing, but I hated compromise with teachers/people about what “art” should be.
2. I took classes for art and design - now I’m taking finance classes. It’s progress. If I can transition to a new job, I will!
3. Everything else is now a hobby. Web Design will go on the back burner, as will art and writing (well, creative writing - this blog is a continuing education tool).
What helped me get to this point? What mattered to me?
I thought I wanted money, after my failed stint with art. Did you know Lawyers (despite some making insane amounts of cash *cough*ambulancechaser*cough*) have an incredibly low satisfaction rate? Albeit I came across a law blog - Legal Andrew talking about going into the Public Service - less money, higher satisfaction! I considered this route. Oddly enough, I wrote on a personal blog (which I keep separate) and got a note from an old friend in Indiana that works with Americorps and freelances for InTake Weekly - basically stating that he may make less money than me, but that giving something back to people was a helluva satisfying feeling.
Because of my art-intensive history, I considered marketing/advertising. I read it is highly competitive (which leads to a lot of burn out) and lots of low pay work at first. Depending where you end up, you can be rich or always stressing. Next big thing. Sell sell sell. Make it look good. Turn a bad product into the next hot thing. Basically, I should be a lawyer, at least people expect the sheisty-ness then.
Then I came across an idea while perusing all these great personal finance blogs (look to the right for a start - it’ll grow, and I plan on adding a “friends” section to people that aren’t personal finance sites). I thought to myself - I’ve always been great at math (which I’ve hated) and here is a profession that is satisfying (I know, I know, lies, damned lies, and statistics, but bear with me).
The thing that gets me is - I can work at a major company and make good money. Once I get enough experience (and maybe a name) I can start my own business. In starting my own business, I’ll get to flex my marketing and design skills enough to utilize them. Long-term goal, I know, but I really do have a path that lead me to start this blog - to show my current screw up in finances (I’ll have my NetWorth posted by the end of today) and my journey to turn that around. From “Rags to Moderate Riches™” as it were. It’s also a great indicator that if I become a Financial Advisor I’ll be living proof of my abilities, and I’ll get to interact with people and show them how I can help them - and I mean, really help them.
I guess a turning point was in talking about the company’s 401k plan - discussing the before/after tax savings, Explaining to a friend that not getting the company match in 401k is losing free money - I was connecting and saying something that could affect their lives for the better - but it was up to them to take the advice.
Not Rich Dad, Poor Dad. But Effectively. Efficiently. In ways that matter.
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