Advice Part 94- The career abyss (and finding a ladder out)

Of late, I have been experiencing what could best be described as "a bit of a career crisis." I have realised that I am not very satisfied with my job (there's the understatement of the millennium, but as we all know, I am now keeping my posts "friendly and upbeat" to avoid being told that I need to seek "urgent professional psychiatric assistance"- sorry, couldn't resist the snide comment), and that I don't want to spend the rest of my working life (a period which is looking like extending to the age of 70) getting up every morning and hating what I do.

Ugh.

In an effort to extricate myself from this situation, and actually find something I enjoy (!!!!), I decided to seek some help. This has been a most enlightening process, but my advice to young players is that in seeking such assistance, you might end up feeling even more confused than before.....

So, who did I ask for advice in escaping the career morass? And what did they say? Thank you for inquiring. I couldn't have thought up better questions myself (gee, funny that....).

Here's the answers.....

• Professional Careers Advisor. 

Approach: Spoke to me on the phone, got me to complete a questionnaire on the internet, and then met with me in person.
Recommendation: Community psychologist, organisational psychologist, teacher, or university lecturer. Definitely not clinical psychologist.
Cost: $170. And these were his "mates' rates"

• Myers-Briggs Type Test. 

Approach: An online psychology questionnaire, which purports to ascertain your personality "type", and makes career recommendations based on that. My type is INTJ. 
Recommendation: scientist, lawyer, or "areas requiring intensive intellectual efforts, presenting intellectual challenge, and creative approach." 
Cost: Free

• Psychologist. 

Approach: Typical counselling session. I've seen the same counsellor since I was in university, so he knows me pretty well. I have a lot of time for him and his advice (other USyd PhD graduates, you probably know the counsellor I mean, as it seems that pretty much everyone at USyd went to him when doing their PhD!)
Recommendation: Not clinical psychologist, not opening a bar (I lack the "street smarts"). Maybe being an English teacher overseas.
Cost: $100

• Facebook friends poll

Approach: Asking a general question on FB about what I should do, and letting people answer
Recommendation: Counsellor or writer.
Cost: Free

• Psychic Photo Reading (No, this is not a joke!!!! The photo reader is a good friend so please don't say anything unkind :-) )

Approach: I had to take along a photo of myself as a child, and the psychic photo reader asked me a number of questions about the picture and what I was feeling
Recommendation: Writer.
Cost: Free

So, there you have it. I don't know if I'm any closer to finding my way out of the career hole, but it's certainly been an interesting experiment. 

By the way, did you know that there is actually such a job as a Professional Owl Handler?!

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.