Deciding on a Path
The question of, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” is one that has been asked to me since as early as kindergarten. It was one that was funny to ask a five-year old, but when asking me today, the reality of actually needing an answer becomes frightening.
I have a passion for sports. I had initially wanted to study communications in order to become a sports journalist in the future. It was something I was truly interested in and something that I could picture myself enjoying for the rest of my life.
As I have gone through college, I realized now that this is not entirely what I want to do. While still wanting a career in sports, my internship has turned me to a new path, working in athletic communications. It gives me the enjoyment of writing about sports, but also to work with live video production, which can propel me to work for a company like ESPN as well.
This decision to change my career path was surprisingly not a difficult one. I think this has to do with how similar the two jobs are to each other. Seeing the increased opportunity through my internship made the decision to change a pretty obvious one to me. I have no doubts that a more drastic change, like changing from a STEM major to a Media and Communications major, would be much more difficult to weigh, as those two fields have such big differences.
Focusing on the future while trying to figure everything out now has been one of the most stressful things I have done in my short life. Getting through the “today” while also looking to the “tomorrow” is neither easy nor fun. While thinking of the days where I have a full-time job with everything figured out is great, there are always the thoughts of “what if.” What if this career path does not work out? What if I cannot find a job? What if I realize this is not what I want to do with my life? These thoughts are extremely stressful, as this is my future I am trying to figure out.
Illana Gershon recognizes some of these fears in her book Down and Out in the New Economy. She says, “There is no way to tell someone how to get a specific job. There are only suggestions I and others can make about how to avoid doing certain things that will prevent someone from getting a job,” (Gershon 61). This can raise more uncertainty for someone looking for a job, as she says that there is no real, sure-fire way to get that dream job.
Gershon goes on to say, “Knowing about the advice is handy not because it is always such excellent advice, but because everyone else hiring and being hired has heard many of the same guidelines,” (Gershon 61–62). This statement shows how we all are sort of on the same playing field when it comes to being what she calls a “competent applicant,” as we all will have the same general format to how we present and sell ourselves.
To go further on this point, in Lindsay Pollack’s Getting from College to Career, we are all given general guidelines on how to present ourselves. Pollack gives her audience, college students on the verge of entering the work force, a general idea of how a LinkedIn page should look, and what should be shared on there (Pollack 41). This includes guidelines of how to write our professional statement, and while this is great advice, everyone will now have similar LinkedIn profiles, so the real issue is how do we stand out from the crowd?
Gershon says the way to do that is to violate the common rule on how to apply for a job. How should we do this? “You simply have to violate the rule in the right fashion. What is the right fashion? It depends on the context, on that particular workplace,” (Gershon 62). This is where we can stand out, as long as it is done in a tasteful manner. In my opinion, this would come down to finding a company that fits your mindset.
I believe I have set myself up for success after graduation through my internship, and hope that I have what it takes to separate myself from the others that have the same information as myself. While not knowing for sure is stressful, I am also excited to get my career on its path and see if I made the right choices for myself.
