Quo Vadimus
In an unpacked box somewhere in my apartment, sits two little pieces of paper that confers onto me degrees from an institution of higher education. I took a bunch of classes in subjects related to the degree’s subject and got a lot of student loan debt to prove I was there. Thanks to my current workplace making a few “changes”, I now get to spent plenty of time deciding the Quo Vadimus (where are we going) question about my life and career.
My current job is not related to either of my degrees, I could easily do this job without ever stepping foot at college. In fact, I did the job during the last part of getting my masters degree. It paid decent thanks to lots of overtime and gave my some breathing room to pay my student loan bills while I applied for areas in my degree field. It was a little bit of a curse though career wise, it was easy to get a little comfortable and not rush as much about looking for a “better” job thanks to the pay and mindless ease of the job.
I guess my biggest problem (I know I am rationalizing so hang with me) is facing the question of meaning vs. pay. In my degree field, the jobs are not known for being exactly high paying until you really start getting up the organizational ladder and even that is no guarantee. The upside though would be having a lot less trouble telling people what I do for a living. One classmate of mine is doing fundraising at Yale, another got a little write-up in the local newspaper and so on, and I know several have gone onto nice jobs or promotions since we graduated. In my case though, I get the “…you have those degrees, so what are you still doing in that job” question. I rationalize the pay aspect, but it only holds so much water.
I can think of so many things I wish I had done differently career wise so far, maybe I will learn from a few going forward.