Thursday, July 26, 2007

Career Opportunities

Last weekend, the Professor, Charlie and I headed to Atlanta to visit the Professor’s sister, Robyn, and her husband Seb. They recently moved to Atlanta and are now living together in the same house, in the same city for the first time in their married life, something like 3 years. It’s a long story, but basically, they decided to get married the summer after Robyn started vet school in Indiana. At the same time, Seb was in San Diego working on his PhD. And now, alas, they are both finished with school! Robyn is now Dr. Robyn and working as a vet in Atlanta, and Seb is now Dr. Seb and working on a post-doc at an Atlanta university. Yea for them!

It was great spending time with them in their home. We enjoyed a weekend of playing with Charlie, enjoying each of their 5 pets (especially Moe, the bearded dragon), drinking at least 13 bottles of wine in a 2 day period, visiting the Georgia Aquarium, and simply relaxing and enjoying each other’s company.

I must say that I am a little envious of these two. They seem to be where they want to be. They are confident, successful, and positive about the future. Although I can’t say I would ever be willing to be separated from Neal for 3 years, I would love to have that drive that they both have that led them toward their decision to go to school in different parts of the country. Before they married, they both knew what they wanted and went for it, knowing that it would cause them a lot of heartache to be apart. They knew, though, that end the end, it would pay off. And they were right. It has. They are now together and doing what they want to do, and as far as I can tell, they are loving it!

So, since I’ve been back at home and back at work after having spent time with the in-laws who seem to have it all together, I’ve been agonizing over this whole job/career thing. Now that I have finally come to terms with the fact that I must work, I am constantly thinking about what I want to be when I grow up. My thoughts shift from one career to another, and most of my ideas would require more school. I am reluctant to dive into anything for fear that it will turn out to not be the right thing, putting me right back at the beginning again. It's a frustrating place to be, and I often feel trapped here, stagnant.

Recently, my boss told me about a "department" retreat that I am required to participate in. The goal of this retreat is determine the strengths of everyone in the division and work toward being a group that focuses on building on strengths rather than trying to repair or improve everyone's weaknesses. I like the concept, but it makes me a bit uncomfortable. When I took the strengths test, I kept wondering if it would be blatantly obvious that I am miserable in my job. I wondered if my bosses would look at my strengths and only see how they would benefit them, completely negating the point of the whole exercise.

I finally thought to myself, though, that this might be a good thing! Maybe this strengths thing will help lead me toward figuring out what the hell I need to be doing with my life. I suddenly felt energized to get to know myself better and understand where I best fit in the career world. And I hoped that this "test" would give me a better clue. So, out of 34 themes, my strongest themes are as follows:

Input: People strong in the Input theme have a craving to know more. Often they like to collect and archive all kinds of information.

Harmony: People strong in the Harmony theme look for consensus. They don't enjoy conflict; rather, they seek areas of agreement.

Adaptability: People strong in the Adaptability theme prefer to "go with the flow." They tend to be "now" people who take things as they come and discover the future one day at a time.

Restorative: People strong in the Restorative theme are adept at dealing with problems. They are good at figuring out what is wrong and resolving it.

Intellection: People strong in the Intellection theme are characterized by their intellectual activity. They are introspective and appreciate intellectual discussions.

I'm a little concerned about Harmony, but the others seem spot on. I am hoping that as I continue to analyze my strengths and career possibilities that I will eventually figure it all out. Who knows, maybe one day I'll end up being Dr. C-Dog Mama, but plain C-Dog Mama will be just fine, too.

1 comment:

Stephanie said...

I just discovered my strengths too!My strongest areas are "Watching TV" and "Drinking Wine." Seriously though, my #1 was "Winning Others Over." Apparently I like to talk to people. I thought it was a fun test to take! I hope it helps you along your journey.