Who am I and what am I doing??!!!
I guess you could say I am the quintessential Serial Career Changer. Is there such a thing? I can’t be the only one. But it’s not because I can’t find my niche – what I looove to do. It’s because I can’t stop wanting to try my hand at new things!
As a kid and teen, I was stressed by the questions. I dreaded every adult in my life asking the inevitable, “What do you want to be?” or “What are you going to major in?” I was an excellent student and people seemed to expect a lot, but I had no idea. I had to stop answering the questions. When you tell one aunt you want to be an architect and the next week you tell an uncle you’re going to be a doctor, you lose credibility pretty fast. I also learned that the answer, “I don’t know” is handled very poorly by adults.
I’ve made a living for myself throughout my life. It took into my early thirties to stop being stressed by the question of what I should “do” in terms of career.
Because, truthfully, you could say I’ve never found it.
I decided at the age of 35, while working on my Chemistry degree, that I would never “try to find” my next career opportunity again. Instead, I would leave my mind and doors open and actively follow the interesting paths that showed themselves to me. I recall a guest professor going around the classroom and asking the students about their career ambitions. When he got to me, I said, “I want to be happy”.
I did work for a while as an Analytical Chemist. Until I saw the opportunity to try on the manufacturing industry as a Process Engineer in telecommunications. I’ve been a Bookkeeper, a Manager, a Teacher, a Stay-at-home-Mom, a Configuration Specialist, an Entrepreneur, and other roles, in many different industries, and not necessarily in this order. I hold two starkly different master’s degrees and I am a Perpetual Student.
Even now I am jealous of the kids and adults who have always known what they wanted to do. They had a passion and they pursued it. I lacked that. I longed for it, but I never had it for myself. But I did get the next best thing, and it took a lot of hard work. Over the years I have built a resume and background that verily screams, “I can do anything! Let me try it, I won’t let you down!” I am super proud of this. I feel that I have built access to career options many do not have.
But I will never be the Expert on anything. I won’t be the Foremost Authority. I have to live with that.
So, what is my career field? It is the Search for Happiness.
I’m not trying to find it. I have found it. In many places. I search still.
Kas