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I thought I had gotten off to a good start.
I rocked my red pumps (the female equivalent of a power tie), my pencil skirt, and my perfectly pressed white shirt. I greeted everyone who came within a first down marker of me. I said the right things during my meetings and introduced myself to the right people during my down time.
Perhaps this getting back to work thing would be not as difficult as I imagined.
This perspective changed quickly, though, towards the end of my second day when I was hit with the question. Yep, the question.
“We were wondering,” the most vocal member of a group of women who were getting ready to call it a day said to me, “What do you actually do?”
There were many things that I was hoping to hear from this group of women. “We are glad to have you on board.” “We are excited to have your skills on our team.” “We cannot wait to work with you further.” These all would have fit the bill.
“What do actually you do?” does not have quite the same ring to it. The irony, of course, is that I thought re-joining the workforce would answer this question, not perpetuate it.
Joining an organization or holding a title, I quickly learned, does not mean that your purpose or your goals instantly become clear. A job does not define a person. A person defines a job.
As many of us begin new jobs or begin second careers, it is important not to lose sight of this key difference. If you do not know what you actually do (or what you actually want to do), that is okay, and you are certainly not alone. Keep on doing something. And, even more importantly, keep on contemplating the question of what you want to do until you come up with something good.
The question the women posed to me is a fair one – what do you actually do?
And, I answered as truthfully as possible. “To be honest,” I said, “I am still trying to figure that out.”
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Comments
01.22.10
That's quite a pertinent issue, what with the job scene now being remodeled post-recession - that one needs to be aware of what one WANTS to do, and whether one is doing it at all. Ignorance could be bliss if you think your own answer is going to bog you down, but it is also important because then the job has some meaning to it. Nice post!
01.23.10
I always feel like the answer of what I'm doing is more boring than my answer of what I WANT to do. I'd much rather talk about my dreams than how I earn a living.. I guess it's just something we all have to do, right?
01.25.10
Thanks for your response, Mukundh. Sometimes ignorance can be bliss, but, in the long term, I would agree that only if you are aware of the disconnect between what you are currently doing and what you want to do, can you begin to make changes to get closer to your "want to do."
01.25.10
JR, I suppose we all hope for a time when when how we earn a living is exciting enough to discuss with friends without putting them to sleep. I agree, though, that for many of us that time is not now. However, having an idea of what your dream job would be is a step towards understanding what types of work may get you closer to the group of people who "love their job" and further away from the group that simply "makes a living" doing one thing or another.
I have to ask, what would you want to do? Astronaut, Professional Athlete, Actor, Brain Surgeon? :)
01.25.10
I thought you'd never ask!! ;-p
1) I want to be a fiction novelist
2) Executive Director of my own human services non-profit that either provides housing and social services to the elderly OR to help city youth discover career paths and figure out how to pay for college without over burdening themselves with debt
3) Branding and Marketing Consultant for emerging sustainable technology companies.
Throughout all this, I want to keep doing the type of things that I'm doing at Brazen Careerist which is talking to people about their dreams, what they want from themselves and helping them get there.
Yeah, that pretty much wraps everything up!
...and what about you Lindsey?!!?
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