Career Unclear: Finding Your Own Way
Some of us just weren’t made for a traditional career path. If you’re unsure where yours is leading, we’re here to tell you that it’s okay. In fact – it’s exciting! You can’t even imagine the life that’s about to unfold for you, because no two routes are the same. You may have to make many turns before finding clarity, but once you do, you’ll look back fondly on what it took to get there. In the meantime, we wanted to share our paths thus far, in case they may prove helpful.
Who are we? We are Tria & Justine, two writing majors from Carnegie Mellon University whose entrances into the real world coincided with the Global Financial Crisis. Super Fun Times. Over the past few years, we’ve worked hard to find our place in this economy, and are happy to say that we’re now both at points of enthusiasm about our careers. When you decide to make your own way, the possibilities are endless. Here are just two approaches. Read Justine’s here, and Tria’s below.
Tria’s Story:
All the women who independent, throw your hands up at me.
I’ve always been a bit of a misfit. I preferred being lost in my imagination to playdates and parties, and spent my childhood daydreaming about what I might become. So many things caught my interest that my very heartfelt list of “things I want to be” ranged from film director (blame Hitchcock) to maid (blame Cinderella).
When I arrived on Carnegie Mellon’s campus, I was wide-eyed as ever. Everything that everyone was doing was so amazing! I went in with hopes to major in Creative Writing and minor in Drama, but soon noticed that the majority of my friends were stepping onto much more mapped-out paths. While I was writing poetry and recording how it felt to be human and twenty, they were talking about internships with famous companies and future salaries that I couldn’t wrap my brain around.
Ohhh I get it…I’m supposed to think about money! Okay…let me give it a whirl.
My version of becoming practical was to change my Creative Writing major to Professional Writing. I wanted to be able to communicate visually too, so I also applied to the Design program. My degree was called a BHA: Bachelor of Humanities and Arts.
So You Have A BHA…Now What…The Fuck…
I graduated in 2007 with this funny degree that no one understood, but I wasn’t worried because so many of the CMU alumni who had ventured out before me had gone straight to great companies. I hoped that once I joined the workforce I’d be similarly attached, so the best time to have a no-obligations-to-bosses-or-babies adventure was right after college. So off I went to Japan to teach English for a year.
I naively thought, “All the employers will be super excited when I return!”
But it was 2008, and no one gave a fuck.
Nothing humbles you like rejections from positions you feel overqualified for, and I soon felt confusion setting in. I wasn’t sure how to position myself: I wasn’t a pure designer or a pure writer. I started to wonder if any company would ever know what to do with me.
I ended up taking an internship at the Washington D.C. branch of Edelman, and was fortunate enough to work with a fantastic digital PR team. At first the allure of a glossy office had me hooked. I started to realize though, not only were my current tasks not the best use of my skills, even when I looked far up the ladder the work didn’t resonate with me. I felt misfit again, so when they offered to extend my employment past my internship end-date, though honored, I had to decline. Adventure was calling again.
This time it was a cross-country drive to California.
I’m a hustler baby, I just want you to know.
I rolled into the Bay Area in an old minivan with no job and a very fuzzy plan. Again though, I wasn’t worried. I knew how to hustle. I didn’t grow up with a lot of money, so I always had odd jobs on the side. In high school it was Starbucks and teaching art & creative writing. In college I wrote articles for inflight magazines and tutored other CMU students in writing. I felt confident I could scrape together an income, and in the meantime I was in Silicon Valley, a place teeming with creativity and entrepreneurship.
I took the first job I could get: education consultant. The company was a growing startup, so I also ended up being their in-house designer. I learned how to keep 50 clients happy at once, and how to make people’s stories compelling enough to get them into competitive universities. On the side I did freelance writing and design work, and tried to start an editing business with a couple other people. The freelancing was more fulfilling than my day-job, but it wasn’t steady.
I found myself dreaming about one day working for myself…
Dunn Dunn DunDun!
(That’s the Wedding March, In Case You Couldn’t Tell)
In 2009, I found myself planning my own wedding. I was never the little girl who dreamed about my wedding day, but as I searched for vendors, I noticed something:
Most of the big players were women who owned businesses.
This was revelatory: a creative industry full of female entrepreneurs! I saw opportunity and wanted to be a part of it. I geared all of my design offerings towards weddings, built my brand, quit my day-job, and started to sign clients.
During my engagement, I had a friend who was concurrently planning her big day. We coordinated each other’s weddings and in 2012, she joined me full-time, and we became Honey & Twine.
Life Doesn’t Always Go According To Plan
Our business partnership was a dream. I did all things creative and she handled logistics and operations. We gushed at each other every day about how much we loved each other and the work we were doing.
But life happens. We both had tough years, ended up becoming divorced wedding planners, and she got an offer from Apple she couldn’t refuse. I rolled with the punches (more like body-slams), and adapted.
At first the stress of taking over the business on my own had me fantasizing about a normal job. Remember getting a regular paycheck? That was fun. And wouldn’t it be nice if I weren’t solely responsible for everything? Wouldn’t I be happier at a big company like my former business partner and classmates? I seriously questioned this unpredictable path I had gone down, and started looking at job postings. But after reading many job descriptions and having countless conversations with peers, clarity returned. I’m a stubborn-ass misfit. I don’t want to be a tiny cog in a huge machine. I don’t want a job that anyone can do. I want a job that I feel needs my particular perspective. I want to spend my time breathing life into things I believe in wholeheartedly.
Instead of abandoning Honey & Twine, I re-focused on it with renewed energy. I started to build a team, and in doing so discovered further skills and passions.
What’s Next?
If Honey & Twine is my baby, she is in High School now, and I’m getting ready to send her to college. I’m developing so much faith in my growing team, that I feel they’ll be able to handle most of the business in the near future.
I’ve learned that what excites me most is creating and collaborating. I want to continue to work with others to form entities that enhance the lives of their users, offer a happy workplace to their employees, and take on lives of their own. I’m currently researching my next project and working on side collaborations with people who inspire me. I can barely sleep at night because I’m so excited about life! Through all the challenges, I’m still that little girl who wanted to grow up to be Cinderella Hitchcock.
What I’ve Learned
1. Trust Life
Life doesn’t always go according to plan. Trust it anyway. Had I never gotten married I wouldn’t have discovered the wedding industry. Had I stayed married, I wouldn’t have depended solely on H&T for income, so I wouldn’t have had the necessity to push as hard. Had my business partner stayed, I would have been satisfied with a partnership, rather than discovering the joys of nurturing a team.
Listen to life. It has a lot to tell you.
2. Soft Skills Are Still Skills
The financial compensation for Humanities-related jobs almost had me believing that my skills weren’t worth much. Don’t let another’s value system dictate how you value your attributes. Your skills are unique, and therefore worth a lot. Treat them accordingly.
3. Get To Know Yourself
Pay attention to what inspires you and what dampens your spirit. Don’t want things just because you don’t have them. I envied peers in more mainstream jobs simply because I felt like I didn’t fit in with the mainstream. But I’ve always been a misfit because, to be honest, I like it that way. Things that are a little different inspire me, and being conventional dampens my spirit. By learning this about myself and embracing it, I’ve been able to construct a path that actually makes me happy, rather than one that just looks good on paper.
That’s my story. What’s yours?
There were certainly days when Justine and I felt lost, and that our explorations were a waste of time. What we took heart in were the stories of others who were carving out nontraditional careers, and we’d love to see more of these. We encourage others out there to share their paths with us. Link to us, add to our collection, or #careerUnclear. And when you share, invite a friend to as well. Let’s keep the stories coming.
