Lately I’ve been joking (or maybe not joking) that I don’t know what I want to do when I grow up. I suppose that has a bit of irony, considering that even today I am working out times to chat with someone looking for career advice from me, but then again, perhaps the exploration is part of who I am.
If you look at any of my official bios scattered about the web, it can appear that I have followed a reasonably straightforward path that led to where I am now, but the truth is that path was fairly meandering. I went to college thinking I’d study biology, but instead landed in Social Anthropology. My interest in museums led to jobs that focused me on archaeology, where I settled in for grad school and wrote a dissertation on pilgrimage in 14-16th century India. Instead of staying in academia, I went to work for a design firm and did some consulting on the side, before becoming a corporate anthropologist, and for the last few years I’ve been in GovTech. Along the way I have dipped my toes back into academia, teaching business, and advising entrepreneurial venture teams.
A recent conversation with a colleague (who has his own very interesting background) led to him saying “oh, you’re a learner!” which gave me a great label to put on myself--I do find joy in learning new things and stretching myself in new ways, which is probably why the proverbial “end goal” of all of this is still not clear, and a reminder that it’s OK because I am an explorer.
I have a huge amount of respect for the self-knowledge I encounter in others. It’s a great reminder of our diversity, and the importance of following your own path (straight or windy) versus what others may think of as “success.”
We recently spent time with a friend who started volunteering at a local children’s hospital after retiring from a civil service job. After a while they offered him a part-time paid job in the gift shop, which often ends up being nearly 40 hours a week. He said “it probably seems crazy that I get so excited to go work in a gift shop” -- to which I immediately responded “no, it seems like you are finding joy in your life.”
It doesn’t take until retirement to figure yourself out--I’ve been having these conversations with plenty of other folks who are “officially” working full time or on the search. One recent college graduate in her first job is in a role that is utilizing her degree, but is also a very small firm of introverts and mostly remote. It’s helped her realize how much she wants to be around, and interacting with, other people in her day to day (by contrast I know plenty of people who are perfectly happy in the quiet of their own space),
The list goes on--folks who are leaving jobs because they see they cannot be their full selves or achieve their own goals. A friend who is a business owner who readily admits that although it has been a rocky road, the frustrations, risks, and challenges are a better fit than being someone else’s employee.
It can still be hard for me to remember that I don’t need to be looking for goalposts to cross--but maybe it is because I am not that kind of an athlete. Perhaps as a lover of the outdoors it is easier for me to keep in mind how much I love wandering along a trail, spotting the plants and wildlife (and occasionally wandering down a side trail), whether or not there is a mountaintop view at the end.