enfinblue's Bluey (credit to Fifi for the nickname!) Diaryland Diary

"I am seeking, I am striving, I am in it with all my heart." -Vinc3nt V@n Gogh

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Rome wasn't built in a day. That is FOR sure.

**This is going to be a very boring entry, about my career meeting.

Oh sigh.

Another good and productive day. Nonstop.

You just wouldn't want to know what I was trying to wrap my brain around today. It would be much easier if we didn't have 13 provincial and territorial lovernments that do everything differently. In other words, I was trying to model something complex, with thirteen variations.

That sounds like a Glenn Gould number. :)

The one benefit of today is that I had a good laugh with a social policy guy about the effective marginal tax rate social assistance wall of Chin@ in one of the regions. I mean, it's not the wall that is funny, but rather the approach to policy.

Soooooooo...something interesting.

I had my career counselling appointment today. VEEEEREEE interesting. As I suspected, farming was high on my list of interest areas. In fact, it was second after performing arts (who knew???) and just above visual arts and design and writing and communication. I spent a lot of time on my grandfather's farm, so I was pretty sure that this was the case. I also fell in love with a farmer when I was thirteen (lucky number!), but apparently that didn't take. Furthermore, I was incredibly happy when I spent six months moving from farm to farm in Australia in 1995. A forester would also be possible, because I love to be in the forest. It's like it's my homeland. I might have been a bear in another life!

Anyhow, since I don't have the land, capital or stock in John D33re required to start a farm, I'm pretty sure that I'm not going to become a farmer any time soon. Maybe M. can evade sufficient taxes in the next few years that he could buy me an olive farm.

I could be happy on an olive farm in Tuscany. That is for sure.

GAWD knows how much that would cost.

Interestingly, my number one specific occupation is physician. That was a bit of a surprise... but not. I've always been very good one on one with people and I have a very investigative mind. I am also fantastic in a crisis - much better, in fact, than I am in a *not* crisis.

My number one occupation category group was Artistic. Interestingly, music came out highest within that group, with visual art not far behind. I think that visual art dropped down a bit because I am not at all interested in graphic design or interior design or any of that stuff. I found the music thing interesting because I have never thought of being a musician. I play five instruments but I hardly ever play them anymore. I always loved music but HATED to perform. It makes me wonder if the problem was that I was always performing what my mother made me perform...hmmm...To be honest, I would most like to have studied ballet, which I did not. I think I would love to be a ballet dancer.

Medical illustrator was not far down the list of the best occupations, which interested me because I LOVE anatomical drawing. It was my favourite drawing course ever, and I think it's partly why I love Italian art so much.

That fitted very well with some of the other possibilities for me. Obviously, I am not likely to go back to school and study for as many years as would be required to become a doctor at this point. So that is out.

After Artistic, my second best occupation group was Investigative (and my third Social, or working with people). This basically means that I should be an academic or researcher or something, since this investigation is dominantly focused on theorizing. I'm not a very good researcher though because I don't enjoy the follow-through as much as the imagining! :) Well, that's probably a lie. I don't like the follow-through in economics because I don't care about it; I'm quite tenacious when something actually *matters* to me. Aren't we all?

Two other interesting things that come up high on the list are ESL teacher and technical writer. The ESL teacher thing was ranked third or fourth I think among my best occupations, and that is interesting because when I taught ESL in South Korea for a while I was really, really good at it. Like I have said, I'm a very good teacher, but only when it is one on one or in very small groups (otherwise people tire my introverted self out :)). What I do best is figure out what it is that is blocking people from understanding something. This ESL thing is also interesting because in theory I could get a TOESL certificate and go and teach in Italy, non? Of course I would make no money and would have no pension and all, but...

Corresponding to this, initially I turned my nose up at the idea of technical writer. But do you know, it occurred to me that if one were a good technical writer, one could define one's own terms and do it anywhere? Maybe not something to sneer at.

So...appearing in the top five or so in at least one of the category lists (I don't have the list with me), was librarian. Technically I am already a trained librarian. I just haven't used my degree. This is unfortunate, in a way, but again the problem with librarian for me these days is that the budget and work environments in Canada for librarians are not good. Librarians and teachers are exactly reversed in the U.S. and Canada: teachers are paid much more and have much better benefits and pensions in Canada than they do in the U.S. (strong unions, plus better funding of schools makes the job much easier); librarians fare far worse. Most of my friends in library school moved to the U.S.

Ah well, this is a bunch of babbling.

OK, got the paper...

My top ten strong occupations, with most of the artistic and investigative ones very close behind (difficult to explain, but all on a scale of points and divided into categories):

Physician
Musician
Psychologist (I don't even want to go there...)
ESL instructor
Editor
Geographer! (I like this one - I love maps)
Technical Writer
Translator
University Professor
Biologist

Here is the list of all of the jobs that strongly match my interests, divided into the three "dominant" category areas of interest to me. In other words, these are all jobs that I could realistically greatly enjoy doing. Some of the items I wonder about, but many I think are good picks.

Artistic category (creating or enjoying art, drama, music, writing) (all occupations with strong similarity to me):
Musician
ESL instructor (??)
Editor
Technical Writer
Translator
Librarian
Artist
Photographer
Medical Illustrator
Architect
Graphic Designer
Attorney???
English teacher
Urban and regional planner

Investigative category (researching, analyzing, inquiring):
Physician
Psychologist
Geographer
University Professor
Biologist
Veterinarian
Optometrist
Dentist
Software developer??
Chemist
Science teacher
Geologist
Sociologist
Dietitian
Pharmacist
Mathematician
R&D Manager
Physicist!

Social
Social Worker
College instructor
Registered Nurse
Occupational Therapist
Recreation Therapist
Rehabilitation Counselor
Minister
Foreign Language Teacher
Speech Pathologist

Unsurprisingly, the three occupation groups that did NOT match me were Realistic, Enterprising (business leaders and politician types fall in here) and Conventional!

Ha!

Reality is way overrated, anyhow, non?

So I still don't know what I'm going to do with myself, but maybe I should look into technical writing or an editor's course. I'm sure that both occupations pay shite and are impossible to get into, but nothing ventured nothing gained. Plus, then I'd have to learn how to write properly, which I've never bothered to do. :( What I could see myself doing is researching and writing history books. Equally, I could see myself doing medical illustration, oddly. Very oddly.

Not the kinds of things your high school guidance counselor would be saying to you...In fact, mine told me that I should be an economist. Almost makes me want to become a high school guidance counselor, in order to right all sorts of heinous wrongs that are no doubt being done. :)

Sigh.

:)

6:46 p.m. - 2008-12-18

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