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Do you feel that you're on the right career path for you?”

Asked by The Work It, Mom! Team on 22nd August 2007

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Comments so Far...

Absolutely! It doesn't mean I will do this forever. I expect my career to evolve as my interests and skills do but right now, I'm loving where I am at professionally!

Flag as inappropriate Posted by KathyHowe on 24th August 2007
Yes, I feel that I am on the right career path. I sell Medical Gas Pipeline items for new construction and up grades in hospitals. I also sell Medical equipment for inside the hospitals . The challenges are great. I feel that I am very blessed to do what love and to care for my family at the same time!

Flag as inappropriate Posted by Kim Begnaud on 24th August 2007
I don't know if I am on the "right" path but it is an interesting one. Settling in Istanbul at the age of 23, I pretty much wrote off having a career that I could compare against what I might think I should be doing. I am an academic editor at a leading university. I invented my position 12 years ago and now have opened a second office. My Style Guide is heavily plagiarized by other universities...

Flag as inappropriate Posted by KatieK on 23rd August 2007
Absolutely. My job has the perfect mix of interaction with co-workers, alone time, room for creativity, and no obvious career path. It has always been what I make of it. I've earned respect from all sides -- but I don't have to sit in on any management meetings.

At least that's how I felt before I took a nine-month parental leave. Ask me again next week, after my leave ends.

Flag as inappropriate Posted by alisa on 23rd August 2007
I feel like my job outside the home is perfect for me and while I love what I do, I also feel a lacking. I love to write and wish I could split my time between both talents, helping people hear better and writing!

Flag as inappropriate Posted by Dana on 23rd August 2007
Yes and no. I love what I do right now, I'm good at it, and it gives me a great deal of satisfaction. But I don't want to be doing it five years from now. Or even three. Or maybe not even two... It's time to make the change to the NEXT "right thing for me"!

Seems like Florinda and I are in a similar spot.

Flag as inappropriate Posted by MaryP on 23rd August 2007
Probably not. I've taken it about as far as I want to - I don't want the headaches that come with the next step up the ladder. I still like a lot of what I do, and I'm broadening my experience into management without losing touch with the details, which I'm happy with. But I've spent 20 years in a field that I went into mostly for job security - and it was a smart choice for that - and I've learned a lot here, but I've never loved it. However, I'm still here because I'm not sure what I'd rather do...yet.

Flag as inappropriate Posted by Florinda on 22nd August 2007
Yes, I do. A position recently opened at the university nearby. It's for a grants administrator, and that is basically what I do right now as a consultant, with probably more administration than I currently do, but the writing is the same. I have an excellent background for it, and probably more relevant experience than most local people who will apply. So, of course I had to look at the position and consider it. Just because it was there.

But I realized that a) I am not ready to work for someone else, especially to report to someone else, be it someone else in my office or a Vice President of Academic Affairs. b) I get a lot of respect from my current clients. That might not be true of faculty who have seen my face in town for years. c) I can't cram my life back into an 8 to 5 cubicle right now. I enjoy the flexibility of my current schedule too much-- and I visit my parents too often now to be told that I don't have enough vacation time built up to do so.

So, every once in awhile, it's good to take the temperature, I think, and just make sure that what you are doing is what you really want to be doing. And I am.

Flag as inappropriate Posted by Jenorama on 22nd August 2007