Advice Part 4-Careers

(A big thanks to Anais for the idea of this post!)

My approach towards my "career" (if you can call it that) has been somewhat, err, shambolic. The idea of a 5 DAY plan, let alone a 5 YEAR plan, is enough to give me the horrors....

My advice to young players is.....it may be good to have SOME sort of plan for what you want to do. But if you don't, things can still turn out OK!

Case in point. How did I end up doing my PhD in philosophy?

• Did I have a fascination with the subject from the age of 3? Umm, no.
• Did I study the Mind and Morality unit for the HSC? Nope, 'fraid not.
• Did I read Aristotle's works for fun in high school (seriously, I know someone who did do this- although I must admit, I don't quite believe them)? No, no, no!
• Were my parents philosophy academics? Nope. Dad's a courier; mum's an accountant.

The way that I ended up in philosophy was much less romantic than that. Unfortunately.

I was enrolling in my BA, with the intention of becoming a psychologist. I had one spare first year unit, so I figured "What the hell?", and opted for philosophy. I liked the subject, but I was never AMAZING at it- I always did MUCH better in psych. It was only when I was doing psych Honours, and enduring lectures on such fascinating topics as multiple linear regression (trust me, it's as fun as it sounds....i.e. not very) that I realised that I missed philosophy.

I missed it terribly.

Really, really, REALLY terribly.

Such that my entire psych Honours year was spent planning my escape.

After that, I accepted that resistance was futile. Philosophy was "the go", so to speak.

And I don't regret it for a second.