August 18, 2008

What If We're Still Doing This When We're Fifty?

The movie Office Space changed my life!
Peter: What if we're still doing this when we're fifty?

Samir: It would be nice to have that kind of job security.


Actually, it wouldn't be fair to give the cult classic all the credit, but the film was a pretty good mirror of my own career at the time. I left college with a degree in Information Systems and got a cubicle job staring at a computer screen. Not a bad job; I just didn't want to still be doing it when I was fifty. :)

Now I'm teaching a career exploration class, and one thing I'll say about careers is that they have to fit the individual. Teaching certainly isn't for everyone. It requires a unique combination of talents. If you don't like kids, you won't like teaching. If you can't multitask, you won't like teaching. If you're indecisive, you'll have trouble teaching. My problem was that I was in a career that didn't really match my talents. Steve Pavlina has developed a simple system for choosing a career. He says that the luckiest people are those who can find a career that they enjoy, are good at, meets their financial needs, and makes a positive impact on society. It's easy to find a job that fills two or three of those criteria, but finding one that fills all four is difficult. For me, it's teaching. It might be the career for you too.

About Me
My home is in the upper Midwest. I did my student teaching at a suburban high school, and my first full time teaching job was at a rural high school. I taught there for one year. You'll read some journal entries that I wrote from both places. This year, I'm returning to the same suburban high school where I did my student teaching.

I've taught quite a variety of classes, including: computer programming, keyboarding, web site design, computer graphics & animation, computer applications, career exploration, workplace skills, investments, sales, marketing, and business law. I enjoy them all, but I'd have to say that the business law class was my favorite so far.

No comments: