My career path sort of meanders

This column was originally published in the News & Record on July 11, 2007

Despite a great deal of thought put into the answer, there is always one question that stumps me when meeting people: What do you do?

It is a straightforward enough question, I know. Many people even have a tidy one-word answer like “teacher” or “astronaut”. I don’t even have a single overarching theme – a fact that brings no end of confusion when attempting to answer the aforementioned question, and no end of enjoyment in my life.

Despite attempting the expected linear path from education to career to retirement, I have found myself as an unintentional practitioner of multiple income sources. People have written books about it, and some have made millions in their various endeavors. I stumbled across it while attempting to earn a few extra bucks during the start-up period of my first business, a personal chef service, then when transitioning from cooking to writing. I joke that I am a job collector, but the fact is that I have an automatic “yes” reflex when it comes to any experience from which I can learn something or work with people I enjoy. Working from home, often in pajamas (as is the state in which this very column is so often written) is the rhinestone bedazzling on the comfy sweat suit of my career.

These days, I’ve abandoned the common analogy of careers as paths in favor of stream imagery, with my career flowing at its own pace, guided by the landscape of opportunity rather than some predetermined set of goals (beyond extremely vague ones, like wanting work that doesn’t feel like work). Consequently, my working hours are divided into four primary occupations: writer, which includes this column and various freelance work and independent projects; co-founder (along with my husband, Rob) and CFO of Jones Computer and Networking, Inc.; copywriter for Lēde Public Relations; and, most recently, editor of Shalom Greensboro, the newspaper produced by the Greensboro Jewish Federation.

The upsides to embracing a career stream mentality are plentiful, including never being terribly dependent on a single means of earning money, exploring a variety of interests at one time, having greater control over who becomes a part of the circle of colleagues, employers and co-workers, and, hopefully, unearthing previously-hidden talents, interests and passions.

Of course, there are downsides as well. Juggling can be stressful and overwhelming when deadlines coincide or different loyalties seem to conflict, such as when I’m promoting clients for Lēde while also courting advertisers for Shalom Greensboro. Also, there is no passing of the buck; whether I am working as an employee at Lēde or as a primary at Jones CAN, it is ultimately up to me to not just complete my work, but to do so while meeting my own standards of quality.

Finally, there is the dreaded appearance of being a jack-of-all-trades but master-of-none. Besides my own desire to be an expert in at least one area (but having to keep my thumb on many), there is my need for those I work with to understand how very seriously I take each of my career streams. After all, in my stream, there is ample room for both serious dedication and the sheer pleasure of embracing opportunity.

Perhaps my forked stream will someday reunite into one, solid river, turning “What do you do?” into an easily answerable question rather than an existential conversation piece. I could wait and find out, or I could wade boldly to the center of my career stream and see where my skills and interests take me.