Back to School

The last week has been interesting (and not just because of the 4 feet of snow). Between blizzards I went to meet with a career counselor. It wasn’t really what I expected and felt more like psychoanalysis than career research. I spent about 90 minutes discussing my background and trying to find out what new career path might be a good fit. The counselor asked me if I really wanted to abandon marketing. Oh boy, back to square one again!

I understand where he was coming from. If you look at my resume, you see that I have a BS in Marketing and an MBA in Marketing. On top of that, there is the last 12 years of experience in sales. But if I wanted to stay in marketing or sales, I wouldn’t have paid to get career suggestions. I asked for a list of hot careers and suggestions that might work and he suggested a government website. All in all it was a waste of time and money.

Here is what I “learned”… Applying for jobs online is useless. There are too many applicants to make it through the clutter. The only way to get a job now is to network and have the job before you apply. So, you need to make a full time job out of meeting people to find a job, while not telling them you want to work for them. Then hoping that when they have an opening that they’ll remember you. That just doesn’t sound like fun. But it’s the way things work now. I was also reminded that we are now expected to cycle through 9 different companies over our working lives.

I would probably have left very dejected, except that I had already scheduled my 2nd appointment of the day. When I finished grad school, I was very excited that my days as a college students were over. So, it was a little surreal returning to the Drexel campus. However, as I walked across the quad to the advising offices for the College of Education, it started to feel right. I met with my advisor and mapped out the classes I need to take to get my teaching certification. Between the 8 graduate and 8 undergraduate classes I need to take, I’m going to very busy for the next 16 months. It’s an aggressive schedule but if I want to be be able to get a teaching job for 2011-12 school year, I need to finish by then. All of that just earns me certification. To get a second Masters degree I’ll need to take 2 more classes, but I’ll do that after I get my certificate.

The big question remains, is this the right career move? There is no way to be sure, but I’ve been feeling boxed in and not sure why. One of my friends summed it up well saying that I’m too “overeducated & under-experienced” to start in a new field. It seems teaching may be the exception to this rule as they look for varied outside experience.

As you can tell by now, I’m planning to go forth and teach unless something else comes along to change my mind. One of the final confirmations was an aptitude test that I took. It listed the characteristics of my ideal job:

Lets you earn increasing levels of responsibility.

Gives you people to manage, and they respect your authority.

Provides you specific, measurable expectations.

Lets you work within a clear hierarchy.

Lets you work systematically.

Provides a secure, predictable career path.

Credits you for your experience.

I think that these match up fairly well with teaching. But we shall see. For now it’s time for me to hit the books (& the Financial Aid Office).
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This is by far my longest post to date, but I had a lot to say. I’ll try to keep it shorter in the future. This is why I want to teach math and not English

Bring Out Your Dead

So, I just attended a convention for my fraternity today. I was asked to sit on a panel of distinguished alumni and I facilitated another session.

I need to start with the mind blowing fact that I was on a panel of “distinguished” anything. I guess to a room full of college students, a 35 year old is viewed as old & experienced. This is evidenced by one question we were asked:  “Do you think that you’ve reached your peak of success?”

Wow! I think she was ready to cart me off. I wanted to yell “I’m not dead yet!” But I restrained myself & reframed the question in a more philosophical way. First, I challenged the definition of success. I explained that my definition at 22 is far different that it is now. I also stated that I don’t want to peak because once that happens what is your reason to get out of bed.

From Monty Python's Spamalot

There were other questions too that mostly focused on how to better run their chapters, how to communicate with alumni & other topics.

The best question in my eyes was “How & why do you volunteer?” This question also took me by surprise but in a much more positive sense. The how was easy, but I hadn’t ever really stepped back to ask myself the why. It wasn’t that I didn’t know because the answer flowed easily. It also caused a few students to come talk to me after the session to get more insight. However, answering that question helped me too.

What I told them is that I find it very rewarding. I received a lot from my collegiate fraternity experience & I want to help others to continue to have those positive experiences. There was a table of students from a chapter I helped to found 15 years ago & I commented that it was nice to see that something I did back then led to them being there.

As I inch ever closer to starting down my new career path, this was an important day. I am now almost certain that I’m going to become a teacher. I have a few more meetings this week to help me with a final decision. But, I enjoyed my time speaking in front of a group & I like the energy of the students. I’m not naïve. I know that there is a difference between high school & college kids. And a difference between speaking at a conference vs. conducting a daily lecture. However, I’m ready for the challenge… Because I’m not dead yet!