Optimist Under Siege

I have the first of my official “informational interviews” today, research for my potential new career as a career counselor. In fact, I’m already waiting at one of my favorite places, Starbucks, as my interviewee is due in about half an hour. I will say that I’ve been quite surprised and happily pleased at the responses I’ve gotten from people regarding setting up informational interviews, especially considering the fact that I’m asking for free interviews with career counselors. It could look to them like I’m trying to get them to work for me (ie. counsel me) for free. But I really am interested in hearing what THEY do.

I suppose I could also look at the general helpfulness and good will of the career counselors I have contacted as an indication that yes, career counseling might be a good field for me. I would definitely like to be surrounded by helpful, nice people! I mean, who wouldn’t?

The other happy thing so far is that the Starbucks I’m meeting this person at turns out to be a really nice one. If I were ever studying or working at Northeastern University, I might just spend some time here!

(Yes, Hello, My name is Holly…and I’m a Starbucks addict.)

(Which is funny considering that I still only order a “tall.” That’s just denial I guess!)

As I continue my career path introspection it’s hard to ignore the fact that I’d be a really amazing pastor. Except for that whole believing in god thing. I suppose that’s probably a deal breaker!

But I’d give awesome, dramatic sermons and I’d be so encouraging of everyone. And I would deliver weddings that would have people looking forward to the ceremony, not just the booze awaiting them afterward.

Maybe I’ll have to start my own non-god focused cult because, damn, I’d be an awesome spiritual figurehead.

This is my politically incorrect career thought for the day!

How can you be sure, or at least 95% sure, of what you want to do for a career before you do it? I had a great talk with a fabulous career counselor from my alma mater, Bates College, and feel like I’m making progress on finding the right career for me.

But what if my chosen career requires a masters degree? Now, as you may or may not know, I have NO problem with going back to school. I love being a student and learning and everything. If I could find a patron, like artists used to have during the renaissance era, who would sponsor me to be a career student for life, I’d probably do it! But considering that that particular path isn’t a realistic (or reasonable) option, I’m trying to find the right actual career.

And in fact, I already have a masters in French literature from back when I thought I wanted to be a French professor. But here’s the problem.

I promised myself that I would NOT go back to school unless I had a clear plan, intention, and career goal in mind. So I don’t want to go back to school until I’m as certain as possible that I have found a compatible career. Aggravating the situation further is the fact that people who know me know that I like school, know that I’ve switched careers a lot, and that in and of itself creates even more pressure for me NOT to go back to school.

I don’t want to mention my new plans and have my friends and family internally rolling their eyes that I’m going back to school AGAIN!

So I’m left with the question of how to get to know a career without actually doing it. My current plan is to do as much research as possible through books, the internet, professional associations, and talking to alumni who are actually in the careers I’m considering.

But will that actually help me to really know? I’m doing my best to make it so.

It’s funny. As I explore various possible new career paths I seem to have moments of complete clarity, knowing exactly which job is right for me. And then the next day comes and I have an equally enlightening flash of clarity, but unfortunately it tends to tell me something different from the previous day’s epiphany. It’s a funny process!

So here’s what I’m currently considering. Basically everything with the word “trainer” in the title seems about right. The theory is that one of my strongest talents (as well as one I quite enjoy exercising) is being a facilitator and a motivator (I’ll refrain from using the word “enabler” which sounds bad!). I’m good at cheering other people on. Rah Rah, Go Team! (And NO, I was NOT a cheerleader, thank you very much! No offense to any cheerleaders out there!)

The current “trainer” careers I’m researching and mulling over are: Corporate Trainer (gotta train those business execs!), Personal Fitness Trainer (just 200 more reps…yeah!), and Career Counselor (aka: career TRAINER…rah rah shish boom bah…get a job!).

And of course, I still think I’d be a kick ass flight attendant (the exits are located at the back of the plane).

Any other “trainer” career suggestions would be much appreciated, silly or serious. Hey, maybe I’ll give a prize to the person who correctly predicts my career choice (or who comes up with the funniest, semi-realistic one!). One in 50 may win…!

As you may have guessed from the occasional, but ever more frequent, whiny blog posts, I’m reevaluating what I “want to do” (career-wise). This will be about the millionth reevaluation. Yeah, I’m one of THOSE people, the kind who had trouble picking a major, a first job, an industry, a second job, third…etc. I’d call this the popular new buzz word, “quarter life crisis,” except that I already had that one a few years ago. So I guess this is the “a few years after quarter life crisis.” Catchy, no?

For the last year or so I’ve been building websites and doing affiliate marketing while working at home. I love the flexible schedule, but have been finding it less and less satisfying, which I’m sure is in large part because there are no other PEOPLE involved. I don’t deal much with people (except for a bit of blog camaraderie that I love and appreciate!).

So I’m rethinking once again, with the added brainstorming and support of my husband. Who knows where it may lead…?!

Do you think people become career counselors because they never figured out what they really wanted to do? I wonder.

That’s my deep thought for the day.

P.S. As I ruminate on possible new career choices it occurs to me that I’d make an excellent flight attendant. Don’t you think? Obviously my ideal profession is Queen, but I haven’t found any job openings for that lately!

Working for yourself can sometimes feel like you’re continuously banging your head against the same wall with no end in sight. You do a few things from column A, a few creative things from column B, but the result of all that work doesn’t necessarily change your rate of success.

I know that one is unlikely to be glamorously successful overnight (do you like the use of “glamorous” there?), but at what point do you change the plan completely and try something different? At what point should you realize that you’d rather do the dishes than your real work, and conclude that that is bad? Who likes doing dishes?!

Maybe everything will seem rosier tomorrow. I’ll just have to change over these glasses I’m wearing…

Well, I’m back to working on the cheese site again. I had a brief hiatus for various reasons, but it’s now time to get back to that chicken-egg SEO question: Do I spend time adding some cool new features and enhancing the site in order to make it better and thereby make it more attractive to visitors? Or do I work on SEO and networking to help visitors actually FIND the site in the first place, which then justifies spending time making the website better? Do features attract visitors (and links) for better SEO, or does better SEO attract visitors (and the site can be enhanced later)?

This week, or at least today, I’m working on a bunch of small site improvements, erring on the side of making a better site to help attract (and retain visitors). Right or wrong, that’s the plan of the moment.

I’m basically starting with making improvements to everything EXCEPT the home page. Now this may well seem counterintuitive, but there’s a method (or at least a justification?) for my madness. The home page really needs an overhaul and some serious TLC. I have some vague (and sometimes grandiose) notions of what I want to do with it, but it’s intimidating to me to actually sit down and concretely decide what to do. I guess it’s the problem that any “creator” has, how to take all of those pictures, words, concepts, innovations, and put them down on paper (so to speak). This is not, of course, to put me in too lofty of a category. I’m no web Davinci, but I muddle along okay most of the time.

For now I’m avoiding the home page since I’m SURE that will make it easier when the time comes that I really have to deal with it. Procrastination is awesome! (Hey, I’m self-deluded and happy about it. Don’t judge!)

If you work at home, and even if you don’t, it’s pretty safe to say that you have at one time or another been victim to (*dum dum dum*- scary music) Mental Tangents. You get some kind of idea in your head and you just can’t seem to drop it, even though the more rational part of you knows you should have given it up hours ago.

Case in point. Last night I came to the realization that this weekend is labor day weekend and hey, wouldn’t it be nice to go somewhere relaxing? So this morning I stumbled out of bed and headed straight to my computer (without passing Go, collecting $200, or brushing my teeth). I was determined to find a relaxing, low-key vacation house/hotel/motel/inn/whatever that didn’t cost too much, was easy to get to, and wasn’t already all booked up. At this point, I’m sure some of you are already rolling your eyes at me because of the outrageous criteria I set for myself (low cost and not booked already? yeah, right).

But remember, this is a mental tangent, and once you find yourself caught up in one, it’s not always easy to have a clear perspective and nearly impossible to tear yourself away.

So I spent, well, let’s just say a significant portion of what might have otherwise been a very productive morning surfing random spam-filled last minute vacation sites to find just what I was looking for.

Surprise news flash: I was unsuccessful! At some point I forced myself to get up, brush my teeth, pack up my laptop, and LEAVE THE HOUSE, thereby physically leaving my mental tangent behind me.

And here I am at Starbucks trying to make up for lost time. Like Aesop’s fables, let this be a lesson to you. Be wary of those mental tangents! They’re always out there just waiting to suck your time away!

I’m finally getting around to doing the preliminary set up of my new “holly and eric” site. As I’ve previously mentioned, the purpose of the site is to create an organized social hub in the Boston area that allows people to get together to do fun things and meet new people (but especially us!).

It’s basically supposed to be a cure for the post-college, post-grad-school, no kids, young professional problem of not being able to keep meeting new people and making new friends. I, of course, love all my old friends, but it’s fun and interesting to incorporate new people as well.

But where are you supposed to make new friends outside of a school context and with no kids? In a bar? At the supermarket? Now I know that a lot of people enjoy hanging out with their coworkers, but what if you end up in an office where everyone else is 20 years older or younger than you? And hey, let us not forget those of us who WORK AT HOME!! What are we supposed to do?

So I’m making a website. I should have something minimally functional by the end of the day (and will link to it once I do). I’m trying something a bit different (and potentially disastrous) on the website design for it. My plan is basically that of trial and error. I’m going to keep moving elements around and adjusting borders and colors and things until I like it. It probably won’t win any design awards this way, but we’ll see. I’m sure everyone will be waiting with bated breath (I don’t know why, but I just love that expression!) to see how it turns out. Stay tuned!