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I joined the Navy at the tender age of 18. The Navy recruiter gave me some tests, reviewed my high school records and told me there was only one area I should work in the Navy and that was ‘electronics.’ So I spent the next 4 years learning electronics and installing and repairing radar systems aboard an aircraft carrier. Those may have been the longest 4 years of my life. I was honorably discharged from the Navy and I applied for work as an electronic technician with IBM. They hired me and I soon realized I wanted to get a college education so I could play with the engineers. IBM said they would let me work part-time while I went to the University of Colorado on one condition – I get a degree in electrical engineering. So off I went to get my degree. I did change majors after 2 years to Mathematics and Computer Science with IBM’s blessing. Those may have been the longest 4 years of my life. The point of all this is I spent 8 years of my life learning and working at a profession I had no real desire to do. Does this sound familiar to you? Are you still working at a job that was chosen for you by an 18 or 19 year old kid? What criteria did this young man or woman use to set you on the path of your life’s work? Money? Electrical engineering and Computer Science are still in the top 3 highest paid degrees. Glamour? The way I saw it when I was 18 was I would be designing and building electronic equipment that would change the world. It didn’t work out that way because I lacked the underlying passion needed to rise to the top of the electrical engineering profession. Security? How many young people out there chose programming in the Information Technology sector, not because they had a passion for it, but because they were told it would be job security for life? Then along comes Outsourcing to India, Russia, etc. and several million IT programmers lost their jobs overnight. Now don’t get me wrong, we have all used our education and skills to earn an honest living. I’m eternally grateful for all the opportunities I have had. I simply wish I had followed my heart more and my bank account less. If the truth be told, I know I would have earned even more money over the years and had a much better time doing it. I’m finally doing exactly what I always wanted to do. I turned my career around by answering the 4 basic questions: What do I want to do? I hope you will take the time to answer these questions in detail also. There’s never been a better time to reinvent your career and change your life for the better.
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