Reinvent Yourself! Part I

Stuck in a Rut

When you were a kid did you think, "When I'm a grown-up I'm going to waste every Sunday evening feeling depressed about spending another week in an airless cubicle staring at a computer screen all day!  Woohoo!"  I'm guessing you didn't.  My 9-year-old daughter thinks she might want to be an artist or a veterinarian or a comedian.  My neighbor's daughter wants to be a diplomat.   If you were like me you might have fantasized about being a writer, teacher, or scientist.  My best friends wanted to be spies, marine biologists, and actors.

You might even have practiced your chosen field.  I got a tiny microscope from the Sears catalog for Christmas one year and spent all summer examining the local plant life up close.  My friend David made spy badges for us so we could practice spying on the other kids at recess.  I wrote constantly.  I still remember my first book, written when I was five years old, about a lazy polliwog.  It was called "Log the Polliwog."  So why did we stop dreaming about what we really wanted and settle for a dreary 9-to-5 existence?

Letting the Days Go By

Sometimes we don't know what we want.  Sometimes we do, but it seems too impractical, or it doesn't measure up to others' expectations.  Or maybe you tried out your dream job and it wasn't all you thought it would be.

That's what happened to me.  Twice.

First, I had always wanted to be a college professor.  It combined my loves of teaching, reading, and writing, and I was in love with the romantic vision of academia I had gained from my undergraduate experience at a small, private, liberal arts school.  I started out by getting my master's degree in English from Ohio University in Athens, Ohio.  I loved the school, the students, and the professors.  I loved teaching there and felt truly nurtured and encouraged as an academic and could picture myself in a rosy future as an intellectual.

Then I began work on my PhD in English at another, more elite institution, and the magic seemed to wear off.  I wasn't enjoying the teaching there, and my classes were uninspiring.   I also realized that my chances of getting a tenure-track job were poor, and, if I did get such a job, I would have little choice about where in the country I lived; I would have to go wherever I could get a job.  In the end, I felt like my education was killing my will to live.  After three semesters in my PhD program I took a leave of absence and never returned.  A few months after I left my PhD program sent me a master's in the mail for "time served."

My second career 

My second career has lasted 16 years.  I took what many considered a 180 from my career as an English PhD student and entered the field of Information Technology.  I got another master's degree in Information Systems and have held positions variously as a web developer, systems analyst, project manager, department manager, and business intelligence analyst.  As long as I was learning and being challenged I was happy.

My next career?

After 16 years in IT I find myself burnt out, fed up with corporate culture, and ready for a new challenge.  What will it be?

Discover how you can find your next career in part 2 of this post, coming soon!