Backup Plans
This past week was a little rough at work. In an effort to deal with the stress, I allowed myself to ponder what I could be doing if I had made different life choices.
Is there a perfect career out there for me? I don't know. My gut feeling is that there is not. Nonetheless, here are some other jobs I have considered:
I frequently wonder if I missed my calling by not choosing to write for a living. My most influential English teacher encouraged me to write; even one of my history teachers called me for a meeting one morning to ask about my future plans. Based on the quality of my papers, she said it would be a shame if I gave up writing completely. In middle school I did think I would write, but ultimately I was too afraid of deadlines, criticism, and stiff competition to pursue that path. Those are probably still reasonable concerns, but sometimes I daydream about writing science nonfiction books or articles for magazines.
By now it's obvious that I love sharing knowledge. I am passionate about information and community access to resources. Because of that, I often think I should have been a librarian. The job would also incorporate my love of books, but today's libraries provide so many more resources beyond traditional print media. It would be a fun challenge to keep up with emerging technologies and needs of the community. Unfortunately, graduate school is expensive, and the pay often doesn't make up for the increased educational requirements.
If I stuck with my science degree, I find the field of genetics very interesting. Even in college, I considered becoming a genetic counselor. I didn't pursue that field for a couple reasons. First of all, my city doesn't have any genetic counselors I could have interviewed. I found a couple in a nearby larger city and contacted them to try to set up an interview or job shadowing experience. They never replied. Secondly, I was concerned about the emotional investment of the career. Adults could be struggling with a devastating diagnosis. New parents could learn their unborn child has a genetic condition and opt to terminate the pregnancy - a decision that would leave me heartbroken. However, new fields are opening up that are less serious; companies will analyze your DNA and tell you how likely you are to be lactose intolerant, for example, or what your ancestry is. I still find those topics fascinating. Grad school is, again, expensive and not local. In the case of genetic counseling, it's also difficult to gain admission to the programs.
I'm a restless person by nature, so I'm always thinking about "what else is out there." This list is by no means exhaustive - I could fill multiple blog posts with all my career deliberations - but these are some of the ones I have come back to most frequently.
Is there a perfect career out there for me? I don't know. My gut feeling is that there is not. Nonetheless, here are some other jobs I have considered:
I frequently wonder if I missed my calling by not choosing to write for a living. My most influential English teacher encouraged me to write; even one of my history teachers called me for a meeting one morning to ask about my future plans. Based on the quality of my papers, she said it would be a shame if I gave up writing completely. In middle school I did think I would write, but ultimately I was too afraid of deadlines, criticism, and stiff competition to pursue that path. Those are probably still reasonable concerns, but sometimes I daydream about writing science nonfiction books or articles for magazines.
By now it's obvious that I love sharing knowledge. I am passionate about information and community access to resources. Because of that, I often think I should have been a librarian. The job would also incorporate my love of books, but today's libraries provide so many more resources beyond traditional print media. It would be a fun challenge to keep up with emerging technologies and needs of the community. Unfortunately, graduate school is expensive, and the pay often doesn't make up for the increased educational requirements.
If I stuck with my science degree, I find the field of genetics very interesting. Even in college, I considered becoming a genetic counselor. I didn't pursue that field for a couple reasons. First of all, my city doesn't have any genetic counselors I could have interviewed. I found a couple in a nearby larger city and contacted them to try to set up an interview or job shadowing experience. They never replied. Secondly, I was concerned about the emotional investment of the career. Adults could be struggling with a devastating diagnosis. New parents could learn their unborn child has a genetic condition and opt to terminate the pregnancy - a decision that would leave me heartbroken. However, new fields are opening up that are less serious; companies will analyze your DNA and tell you how likely you are to be lactose intolerant, for example, or what your ancestry is. I still find those topics fascinating. Grad school is, again, expensive and not local. In the case of genetic counseling, it's also difficult to gain admission to the programs.
I'm a restless person by nature, so I'm always thinking about "what else is out there." This list is by no means exhaustive - I could fill multiple blog posts with all my career deliberations - but these are some of the ones I have come back to most frequently.
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