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The unexamined life. Part II

2007-12-20 - 10:21 a.m.

Note: this is a continuation of my previous post, since it got WAY too long for one entry. You really should read it first. Go on, I�ll wait� back? Good.

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... This is all much more on my mind these days because I�m looking at going on what will probably be my last maternity leave from my job. The job with the fantastic 93% top-up of my salary for the entire 52 weeks of maternity and parental leave I�m entitled to. I�ve always said that I�d stay with this organization until I finished taking advantage of the maternity benefits and, well, that�s now looming. Additionally, I can take (believe it or not) up to 5 years of unpaid leave to care for my children, and still have a job to come back to. If ever I was going to try to find something else to do, something that was perhaps a bit more flexible and allowed me greater freedom to balance family and work, the time is nigh. It�s a great opportunity to dip my toes in something else, but still be able to flee back to the stability of my current career if I decide that would be the best thing to do.

So, here�s a grocery list of what I�ve come up with that would be aspects of my dream job. I don�t expect any one job to fulfill all of these things, but I�m hoping that writing this down might be useful to at least give me some focus or, hey, maybe you know of a job that would fit the personality you see emerge behind these ideas. Maybe I sound just like someone you know who does X and loves it, and hey, have I considered doing this for a living?

I love:

  • Good design. I think I�m talking more about the crossroads of function and aesthetics than just visual. I enjoy my photography, but can�t picture making a living at it. I could get good, but I�m not sure I could get extraordinary, which I�d want to be in a field like that. In fact, I�d need to be, in order to actually make enough money to live on.

  • A chance to be creative, but within limits. I don�t think I could be an artist or graphic designer, for instance, but I do like using my eye and my mind to create something, or come up with a novel solution to a problem, or to make something that just looks good.

  • Writing and editing. Not only do I like finding the perfect word or phrase to express myself, I relish getting out the red pen to do some good old fashioned quality control on documents that flow through my office.

  • Good causes. Environmental sustainability. Global warming. Preservation of endangered species. Women�s rights. Global water issues. Literacy. Rights to making informed health choices, including sexual health. Cessation of smoking. Education of the young or illiterate. If it�s for the betterment of the planet or society, I could get behind it and feel like I�m making a difference.

  • Money. I don�t think I need to make oodles of it to be happy, but I wouldn�t be happy living a precarious monetary existence either and I like to �save for a rainy day� and am most comfortable with a cushion. A balance would need to be struck.

  • Making lists, checking them twice, crossing stuff off. Too bad �Santa Claus� is taken. But seriously, I�m good at keeping track of minutiae and like making colour-coded spreadsheets to do just that.

  • Feeling appreciated. I know, who doesn�t? But the best part of my current job (which, I have to admit, I don�t find particularly challenging), is the fact that my coworkers and bosses � who are great to work for and with � seem to think I�m fantastic. I can work independently, but not in isolation. Even a vocation where I do everything myself is fine, but at the end of the day it really keeps me going if someone says they like what I�ve done.

  • Managing people. I really do like mentoring, delegating, and tapping the unique skills of people to help them bring their �A game� to the table. This one I probably have a slightly rose-coloured view of, since everyone I�ve been the boss of has been a great employee � some occasionally required a bit more attention and special handling, but they�ve always been more than capable of producing the results I needed from them. It�s easy to be a good manager of good people.
Some things I think I�d be really good at and enjoy:

Residential real estate developer
This is my dream job. I did a small infill project (2 units on a small lot in downtown Ottawa) in my late 20s and I loved it. I loved designing the building to maximize passive solar gain in the winter and the use and flow of the small spaces. I loved bringing my �team� of contractor, engineer, banker, lawyer, and other interested parties, into my vision to get the funding and the end product that I wanted. If I could do this on a large scale I might not make as much profit as the big builders, but I would build neighbourhoods that people wanted to live in, and consisted of homes that were well-sited, interesting to look at, and incorporated as many sustainable design features as were feasible. One look at the books that I own give away the fact that this is a big passion of mine. What�s holding me back? Money. If I won a couple of million dollars though, you can bet that I wouldn�t retire, I�d buy some land and start doing this.

Writer
I think it may be time to admit to myself that I�m probably not fiction-novel-writer material. I�m not sure I have the discipline to sustain a single story through several hundred pages. What I�m good at are things like short stories if I go the fiction route. What I�m probably better at is researching and writing one-off articles, but in an ideal world this would be a steady gig rather than something I�d have to constantly market or submit for consideration, given both the lack of discipline I�d need to freelance and how easily I�d probably be discouraged if I got a lot of rejections right off the bat. I am, however, particularly good writing about subjects like food (a big influence in my life) and travel, and taking any technical or science-based issue and making it interesting and comprehensible. I�d bet too that, given the right subject matter, I�d be a mean writer of ad copy. One of my favourite ways to torment hapless car-owning roommates in university was to get them drooling for certain foods to the point that they�d say �Get in the car! We�re going to get X!� and I�d then be able to get a ride with them. Score!

Teacher
I�d be damn good at this and would consider it more seriously if it didn�t involve going back to school. Teaching labs was the best part of my M.Sc. In fact, it was the ONLY part that I liked, but I really, really liked it. I loved explaining things and seeing people �get� it. I indulge this side of me now by teaching fitness classes, but would enjoy teaching something like science even more, preferably to high school or higher.

Architect
This is along the same lines as real estate developer and teacher; the former in that this is something I�m VERY interested in, and the latter in that I know it would involve way too much time and money going back to school. If I could go back in time I�d skip doing the M.Sc. and do this or teacher�s college instead.

Running my own business (???)
This one�s a big maybe because I think I�d be good at it and have to potential to make money doing it, but am not sure I�d be comfortable with the initial lack of job security or steady pay. The fact is, I�m the main breadwinner in the family, plus I�m the one with all the benefits. You know, the ones that pay for our trips to the dentist, our travel health insurance, and our prescription medications? Yeah, those. If my husband stopped running his own business and got a job with more pay and with benefits to cover the family though, this�d be much more feasible. I figure we exist pretty well on our combined income so my salary can go down by as much as his goes up and it�d be a good trade-off if we both found something we liked to do.

Any other ideas that you think would suit me? Help clear the tumbleweeds from the comments section and fire �em off.

Before - After


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