Career advice

Ed, a very thought-provoking and challenging post.  Not having any living children, I’ve never really had to consider what career advice that I would give someone.  I regularly give Navy career advice to junior personnel, but they are already contractually committed to the Navy at that point, so it’s not really the same as talking to a high schooler that has the whole world in front of them.

To this day, I tell people that I never liked being a linguist, which seems a bit odd considering that I was a linguist by profession for 20 years.  You may have to endure some of this again if you come to my Navy retirement in a few years, but using one of your examples, Ed, I just kind of fell into being a linguist.  

If you look back at my school scrapbook, I grew up wanting to be a policeman.  Thanks to Tom Clancy, that morphed into a desire to be in the CIA or the FBI by the time I graduated high school.  Aunt Jane was nice enough to ask an FBI recruiter that she knew what the best path was if I wasn’t going to college.  He said, “Join the military and get a job with a high security clearance.”

So when I went to the Navy recruiter, I said, “I want a job with a high security clearance.”  After asking for an explanation to ensure that I wasn’t a KGB plant, the recruiter looked at my entrance test score and flipped through the job list.

“Do you speak a foreign language?”

“No.”

“Do you want to learn to speak a foreign language?”

“How long is the school to do that?”

“About 18 months.”

“Okay, sounds good.”

The “get an education” advice from Mom and Dad that you mentioned also applied to the start of my Navy career.  Dad told me, “Whatever it is that you do in the Navy, make sure the rate (job) is guaranteed in your contract, and the longer the school is for that rate, the better.”  

And so here I am, about 28 years after that interaction, wearing a Navy uniform.  I don’t remember ever thinking to myself, “This is what I’m going to do for the rest of my life.”  The thought never crossed my mind.  

You guys know that I got out of the Navy after my first term because I had an idea that I was going to be a missionary.  In those two years at Moody Bible Institute, however, I slowly figured out that it wasn’t for me.  Could I have done it?  Yeah, probably.  But who knows.

It’s a good thing that I didn’t choose writing as a career, because I’ve typed a whole lot of words, and I’ve already forgotten where the hell that I’m supposed to be going with all of this.

I have a hard time with the concept “Do what you love.”  I get it, and yes, there is a sliver of the population that is fortunate enough to get paid to do what they love.  Those are the people that we all envy.  I just think that you have to be cautious with that advice.  First, there are a lot of important jobs in the world that it’s hard for me to imagine that someone is doing because they love it.  There is a really weird mix here of that concept of service, self-denial, and sometimes just doing what you need to do to pay the bills.  I think that our “dreamer” culture overlooks the beauty of diligence, responsibility, selflessness, and faithfulness.  I don’t think there is anything wrong with going to work every day and faithfully doing a job that you don’t love.  In fact, I think it’s awesome.  Going to work every day and doing what you love?  Seems pretty easy to me.  On the other hand, I also admire people who ARE doing what they love, even though they’ll never get rich doing it, will always struggle to pay bills, etc.  

Part of all of this comes from my admitted bias against the Christian concept that everyone was made for a particular purpose.  It’s the idea that when you find it, there is an “ah ha” moment, a host of angels appears in the heavens, a bright beam of light shines on you, and Jesus does this:

First, for those who have never had a moment like that, it’s totally discouraging to believe that.  I’m 45, so when exactly am I supposed to figure this out?  Second, even if you think you have found your “calling,” you would think that everything should be hunky dory at that point.  “If this is my calling, why is this so hard??”  So in general, I don’t think the idea of calling is a very encouraging concept for anybody.

So what’s the answer?  I don’t know, but I think our culture has a warped sense of “happiness.”  For me, my employment is just a part of my being - my employment really doesn’t define me.  For me, that takes a WHOLE lot of pressure off the concept of career advice.  Our culture puts an inordinate amount of value of how much money that you have, and I think a proper view of money relieves some of the pressure as well.  Okay, so here’s my short list, if I was forced to talk to some high school kids:

- Relax.  The decisions that you make today don’t have to define the rest of your life.  You don’t have to know what you want to do with your whole life right now.  Invest in yourself (just like my brother said!)

- You can love something and do something without it being your occupation.  Maybe you’ll figure out a way to do it as an occupation some day, but in the mean time, it doesn’t mean it’s lost.  Don’t be limited by your job.

- Find self-worth in things other than your job.  When you find value in relationships and things other than your job, you don’t lose your identity if you happen to be out of work.  A job is part of life, but it should never be your whole life.

- Don’t listen to our culture tell you that you’re not good enough, that you shouldn’t be happy, that you’re missing out, or that everyone else is okay, but you’re not.  It’s all a lie.  Finding contentment, whatever your situation in life, is the key to happiness.

I think this is why I'll never be invited to talk to high schoolers!