What is your career plan?

I don’t think I’ve ever truly had one. I have, more or less, just kind of fallen into whatever I stumble into or the odd opportunities that have come to me.

Unless I’m mistaken, most colleges offer some kind of career counseling where they help you, you know, PLAN and even maybe track down opportunities related to your degree path. My particular experience with that was very disappointing and underwhelming. Prior to graduating I met with a “career counselor” at most twice before they started to cancel meetings with students. Post graduation, the only support these folks gave was a weekly email of job listings in a table format with related degrees listed next to each item. That was several months after graduation, and I was immediately suspicious because I had no further contact with them prior, so I dug in a bit. Looking at the jobs listed in the email, I compared the list to the local news employee ad section. Sure enough, it was the same. So much for that job hunting assistance and career planning.

Outside of that terrible experience, I didn’t look particularly hard. I just needed to get my foot in the door somewhere and then I could (hopefully) start working my way up and deciding an actual plan. I would occasionally check that email because it served as a reminder to look, then I’d also look on Indeed.

So, beyond all of that, I never really had a “career plan” and really still don’t. That’s part of why I’ve stayed in my current job for the last eight years or so.

Maybe I could consider the writing/authorship desire to be a “plan” but I don’t have a solid timeline for trying to achieve any major goals. I’ll just get there when I get there.