Career Is A 4-Letter Word

I don't know about you, renaissance man, but among the four-word combinations I hate the most in this World, "What do you do?" has to be right at the top.

What do you mean, what do I do?  You mean, for fun on the weekends?

No, of course not.  You mean, what do I do for a career, right?

Blah.

It's as if the answer to this question is meant to define the wholeness of who you are - as if someone will gain a great understanding into the depths of your very being because you have just told them that you are a technical writer for a software company that produces software designed specifically to organize and track product in hardware stores.  Ohhhhhh, you're one of those types of people, huh?

Let's face it: most careers are pretty boring, at least after a while.  No kid ever dreams of becoming an inside sales consultant for a large pharmaceutical company, except for maybe the kids of those inside sales consultants.  It's not exactly what you would want to be eulogized for, right?  So, why do we, as a society, put so much weight upon this question and its generally disappointing answer?  Is it because we want to feel better about ourselves?  Because we too have had exceedingly boring careers for far too long, and it's always nice to know that other people are miserable too?

Or, could it be that we are trying to confirm that the person we are about to have a potential conversation with is worth our time?  Yes, he's cute, but does he have a good job?  And by good job, she means one that pays reasonably well and isn't Burger King.  Who cares that it's making you a boring, frustrated asshole to be around for the next thirty years, as long as you are bringing home a steady, non-embarrassing paycheck right?  At least you're 'normal'.

OK, I should state unequivocally here that I'm not against careers for everyone.  Some people should definitely have careers.  Some people are born career people, and they are happy to be so.  They answer the 'what do you do' question proudly and without any pent-up angst, regret, or remorse.  They love the fact that their life is secure and they know exactly what they are going to be doing tomorrow, and they genuinely like their job.  They lust not for something 'other' than their status quo.  And, to be honest, the World needs those people.  It just might generally suck without them (Or it could be very fun; I don't know).  But, we're not talking about those people, are we, renaissance man?  No, we're talking about you, and to you, 'career' is a 4-letter word.  

Yes, you went to college, and you did get that degree, which you paid a lot of money for, and you really wouldn't want that to go to waste, right?  I mean, ever since your sophomore year in high school you've been groomed for this 'life path', this 'one thing'.  Yes, of course you will go to college.  Yes, of course you will major in Economics and eventually get your MBA.  Of course you will climb the corporate ladder and be at 'the top of your game', making a 'comfortable' living, in twenty or thirty years, as long as you keep your head down and don't piss off the wrong people. You might even retire 'early' when you are 55 or so.

If you are squirming right now, then you know you are a renaissance man.

It is interesting to note that the etymology of the word career, from the Latin, means 'race', as in race to the finish, or perhaps, rat race?  In any case, it can feel like a race sometimes.  From the moment they put you in that chariot in your early years of high school, the drumbeat of specialization throughout the arena begins.  Yes, you will be a doctor, a lawyer, a corporate manager.  Perhaps even a 'career counselor'.

In any case, I don't need to tell you that this is not for you because you already know this!  So, the idea here is to recognize this and own it.  Let go of the guilt and the pressure to become the average drone.  Let go of the feelings of dread when you look at the next twenty years of riding an office chair (or whatever).  There are other options, as difficult as they are to see sometimes.  Start planning your escape now.  You will need to plan carefully.  Try to contain your impulse to drop everything and run.  You've got plenty of time.  Relax.... relax.... relax....

It is some comfort to know that the 'career' idea, at least in the way that we have come to know it, is a fairly recent phenomenon.  The word was once much more all-encompassing, meaning something like 'all of that which you do productively throughout your life', which could even encompass your unpaid passions and schooling.  It has only relatively recently (within the last fifty or sixty years), and only in certain cultures, been narrowed down to this singularly specialized notion of 'the one job which you will have from now until you retire'.  Considering this, the notion of career historically was very probably something much more generalist in nature, and perhaps even polymathic.  Something the renaissance man could probably get with.

It should come as no surprise to you that I would be promoting the historical notion of career over the modern one.  Your career, renaissance man, should take many and varied forms.  You should have many, many careers.  I would even go so far as to tell you that you should be thinking about your next career as soon as you start your current one.  It might just take that much planning.  Obviously, there are financial and family considerations to be made.  Whether you like it or not, you will probably need to make at least a little bit of money doing something.  If you switch careers, it might mean taking a substantial pay cut, moving someplace else entirely, and perhaps even going back to school (or going to school if you haven't).

I'm not talking here about quitting your job and taking that trip around the World you've been dreaming about (that's for another post).  Rather, this is about the deep and thorough 'learning' of an entirely new trade.  Something that, once learned, will be a valuable arrow in your quiver of life.  Not only does this give you a greater depth of overall knowledge, allowing you to cross-pollinate your ideas to every part of your current life, but it also adds valuable diversification to your 'worth' portfolio.

Think about it: say you are a plumber.  You have spent many years apprenticing and eventually licensing yourself as a journeyman or even master plumber.  You are making pretty decent money, but you are getting the itch to try something new.  So, you begin taking evening computer science classes because you kind of like that field and are interested in learning something about it, anyway (let's pretend this is 1999).  Eventually, when the software companies are so desperate they'll hire anybody because the economy's on full-tilt, you land yourself an entry-level programming job.  Sure, it doesn't pay as well as plumbing, but then again, you're not changing out toilets anymore either.  Time to go back to mac n' cheese from the box for a while.  Soon enough, management recognizes that you are wonderfully diverse and able to think outside the mac n' cheese box, and it's showing up in your work, so you've earned yourself a raise.  Now things aren't quite as bad; you're making almost as much as you did while plumbing, you're happier because you aren't totally burnt out on it yet, and at the end of the day you're still pretty clean.

Next thing you know, the tech sector tanks along with the company you're working for, and you're out of a job.  Blammo!  No one is hiring programmers.  However, you've got an old co-worker buddy who's doing some plumbing for this contractor that's not so bad and they're looking.  So, you take the job.  You're getting your hands dirty again.  And you know what?  It doesn't feel half bad.  It feels pretty good to get out on the jobsite again and thread some pipe and work those muscles for a change.  You'd actually forgotten how not-bad it really is, actually.  Plus, it's nice to be getting a paycheck while all your specialist programmer peers are running out of unemployment, right?  Maybe you'll go for that mechanical engineering degree next.

You see what I mean?  It is a good thing to have more than one career, renaissance man.  It does not mean that you will be less 'valuable' over time.  In fact, it means the opposite.  Go ahead and take that job at that engineering firm in a few years, and see how much they appreciate your background in plumbing and in programming (trust me, they will).  It is not necessary to think that if you give up on specialization, you are giving up on being 'successful'.

And, as you already know, financial success is minor compared to your overall happiness, which you really can't put an income on, renaissance man.