Finding Where You Fit
As the scope of the world continues to change, people are starting to veer away from the status quo and challenge the norm. One of the ways that people are doing this is through non-traditional routes after high school. More and more people are deviating from an idealized path of life (the house with the white picket fence analogy) and following their own journeys to success.
Life is not a predetermined timeline with deadlines and requirements; life is meant to be enjoyed and experienced every day.
This might be unsettling for some, but living on a constant schedule instead of living in the moment takes the enjoyment out of life.
What does this deep life revelation have to do with the Digital Corps at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana?
Everything.
Check this out: 40% of high school graduates do not apply to a university and instead take a gap year; and 90% of those gap year students go to college when they return. In fact, students that take a gap year are more likely to graduate with higher grade point averages than students who went straight to college, even if they had lower academic success in high school. You can find more information on this here.
Once you get to college, numbers from the National Center for Educational Statistics show that about 80% of students end up changing their major at least once. And what’s even more surprising? Students change their major up to three times over the course of their college career.
And for those that graduated and got a job, the U.S. Department of Labor reports that the average working person will change careers between five and seven times during their working life.
What do all of these numbers mean? All of us are indecisive about what we want to do. When other interests spark our attention there’s no need to feel uncertain about them. It’s up to us to make the decisions that best suit who we are as individuals.
But how do we do it? We asked some people for their insight.
Meet Corey
When you walk into the Digital Corps office, you can almost always find Design Team Specialist, Corey Halbert. Corey works with interactive and functional design at the Corps, so his artistic and creative mindset help him think of unique ideas. Corey, however, was not always a Digital Corps Designer. He started off as a Developer.
“I was originally on the development team because I was a computer science major and I like coding,” Corey said. “After my first semester of [work] and two semesters of computer science I just kept thinking like, is this what I want to do? Is this really what I want my career to be?”
After working closely with the staff at the Corps and completing the required Design Team training, Corey successfully made the switch and became a Design Team member.
“I think through the process I learned more about what I want to do with my career. When I first got hired I didn’t know what I wanted to do. I just knew I liked coding and I liked kind of figuring out how things are made,” Corey said.
“… Through [my] epiphany-slash-existential crisis I was like, Oh my god this is what I want to do! I haven’t had another one of those yet, so I think I chose the right path,” said Corey.
What does this mean? It is okay to change your field of interests on your journey to finding the best path for you. Sometimes our first intuitions about work aren’t always right. Changing your plans can be easier than you think, and for those of us that are college students, we can take proactive steps now to get it accomplished.
“You can customize your education to what you want to do with your life,” Corey said. “If you think about what you want to do and why you want to do that, there are routes you can take to make that happen.”
Meet Charity
If you graduated from college, or took gap years, you have all of your working years to learn, grow, and find something new or different that better suits your interests and talents. The career you start after graduation is not the career you have to do forever if you don’t enjoy it. But if you enjoy your job, stick with it!
Charity Coffman, the Assistant Director for the Academic Project Support Office of Ball State, did not begin her working career at the university. Charity worked for Muncie Community Schools for 14 years, teaching for 12 of those years and doing administrative work for the other two. Although she taught computer classes as a teacher, she did not have much previous experience with media production and technology.
Charity originally pursued education because she enjoys working with students and mentoring. After years in teaching, she realized she wanted to branch out and find a new career path.
“When I became an administrator, my job responsibilities shifted drastically and a lot of what I was doing was discipline …” Charity said. “It got to the point where I didn’t enjoy going to work every day. I didn’t feel like I was fostering positive relationships. It felt like it was very negative and punitive.”
That, along with long work days, was very draining for Charity and her family. When she had the opportunity to come to Ball State, she felt like it would be a good fit because it used the skills she used in teaching and administration, but in a totally different way.
Now on her fourth year of working for Ball State, Charity can attest that she has learned so much more about not only herself, but working in general.
“I’ve learned that skills can be adapted to fit different jobs. Those [educational] skills [I learned] are very transferrable to lots of different areas and you can excel in those areas more than you might think,” Charity said.
“It’s nice to know that as you get older and are further along in your career that you can still learn new things, adapt, and use your skills to help others learn those new things,” said Charity.
Meet Josh
Another staff member at the Corps — Designer, Josh Shaffer — took a non-traditional path after high school before getting his current design job with the university.
“I wanted to be an animator, but Ball State at the time didn’t [have] an animation program. There were not any local animation schools, so instead I just decided to go off, figure it out, and do it on my own,” Josh said.
After working as a freelance illustrator for about ten years, Josh met a designer. Josh took interest in typography and design after being exposed to the field and he taught himself how to code websites to show his work.
“Being able to do that sort of allowed me to fall into freelancing web design work for local businesses, accidentally. It sort of just fell into my lap,” Josh said.
Josh lived outside of the United States, in Nova Scotia, for a few years before coming back to get a degree in graphic design. Within his first few weeks as an undergraduate art student at Ball State, Josh was hired at the Digital Corps.
“I enjoyed the experience so much that once I graduated, coincidentally, this job opened up,” Josh said. “It didn’t really exist before, and so I just went ahead and applied for it because I had such a great experience working here as an undergrad.”
Now, Josh helps lead the Design Team. He assists Design students with projects and reviews, and helps guide them through a better learning experience.
When he isn’t doing Corps work, Josh handles other projects that come through the Academic Project Support Office. He also tends to liaison with other departments, like Marketing and Communication, and helps them with overflow. When they have too much work going on for them to handle, he assists with various University tasks.
I don’t belong here; I made a mistake…
There is never a mistake made when you are on your life journey. Life presents its own roadblocks on the path to success, but these roadblocks are intended to help us learn, adapt, and grow.
That being said, don’t be afraid to make a change or do something different! It is natural to feel insecure about yourself and what you are doing when jumping into unfamiliar territory. Everyone can attest to this.
“… When I first switched teams I was like Oh my god, all these other designers are way better than me. I suck. I had really bad imposter syndrome because a lot of the people on the team were art majors and getting formal training,” Corey said.
“I was really worried about [change] at first, but I sort of fell into this niche of a designer-developer thing and I feel a lot more confident now with that role on the team,” said Corey.
And Charity? Having some self-doubt and questioning yourself when starting something new is natural, even when you have been working for a while.
“I will say there are still moments where I think, Did I do that wrong? But I think that’s normal in any career no matter what you’re doing,” Charity said. “I feel like I have a good skill set that I now know could be used in lots of different ways, and it’s not just limited to teaching or administration or one specific role. It could be anything that I could learn or adjust to.”
Basically, the knowledge you gain from previous experiences won’t go to waste. You can use what you already know and apply it to any new task you’re undertaking.
Corey’s team shift at the Digital Corps is a great example of this.
“The field I want to go into, front-end web development, is a combination of design and development,” Corey explained. “Most front-end developers are expected to know how to do both, so I think that right off the bat knowing how to do both will give me an edge because it’s sort of expected in the workforce.”
Corey said that most designers complete school and then learn how to develop. However, coming in from the other side, from development to design, gives him a unique perspective in the industry.
Additionally, straying away from a traditional path and taking the time to challenge yourself in different ways will ultimately help you in the long run. Josh, who didn’t go to college right out of high school, was able to build a successful career through his own life experiences and teaching himself valuable industry skills.
You are far more capable than you may think.
I get all of this, but I just don’t know where to start.
If you are unsure of what to do with your life, sit down and think about it.
“I think if you’re not happy with what you’re doing… there’s probably a reason why you’re not happy with it,” Corey said. “… If you’re having those feelings you should definitely think about them, investigate them and why you’re feeling like that, and why you’re doubting yourself.”
Josh advises to eventually make that change if you are thinking about it.
“If you are unsure if you should change your profession, usually that means you should change your profession. If you weren’t unsure, you wouldn’t question it,” Josh said. If you were confident and loved what you did you wouldn’t have the questions. If you have that nagging what if, do it. Go for it,” Josh said.
Whether it’s work, college, or anything in between, there is no reason to stress about every detail and forget about the bigger picture: experiencing life on earth while you’re still on it.
“You have your entire life to work and the chances that you’re going to come out of college and go directly into what you’re going to be doing the rest of your life it’s just not good,” Charity said.
When students graduate, they feel like they have to have their dream job lined up and be ready to make a lot of money. The reality, however, is that very few people succeed with those plans right out of college.
Charity added that all of these unplanned scenarios are part of the learning journey. They teach you what you like and what you don’t so you can eventually land on a path that you truly enjoy.
“I think that it’s really important for people to realize that it is a journey and you’re going to travel it and there will be twists and turns, she said. “I would have never thought when I started teaching that I would do anything but teach my entire life, but you have to go where the path leads you and you’ll be happier because you do.”
So basically:
Whether you’re a Corey that plans to switch jobs within your current profession, a Charity that changes her career path after years of work, or a Josh that wants to figure it out independently, do it.
There is nothing wrong with being part of the 40% of high school graduates that take a gap year, or the 80% of students that change their college major at least once. If you’re already working, use those average five to seven career changes to find your passion.
It can be daunting to try something different or new, but the payoff will be worth the work it takes to make a change. All of us are indecisive about what we want to do. When other interests spark our attention there’s no need to feel uncertain about them. It’s up to us to make the decisions that best suit who we are as individuals.
“Either you’ll love [your change], you’ll enjoy it, or you’ll just [learn] some new things and go back to what you were doing before,” Josh said. “I don’t think you can lose by just going and exploring a different pathway in your life.”
