Career Cruising

I've started graduate school classes again. You might not notice the excitement on my face. I assure you that it's not simply because this is through written communication on the internet.

The first class is a technology class. I may be young, I may have one of these newfangled weblogs, but technology scares me. Robots have been known to kill, but I digress. I am horrible at following instructions, so learning any sort of technological thing that does not come intuitively to me is pretty much out of the question. I simply can't follow steps - it's the same reason I still, after dozens of attempts, cannot figure out the Electric Slide. I have a couple fancy pieces of equipment in my classroom that will likely go unused all year simply because I am terrified to touch it.

As kind of a side note, my professor recommends a job website, Career Cruising, to show to our students to help them discover their paths in life. Because we were also given a temporary password, as soon as the professor is no longer looking, all of us disgruntled first year teachers who are already considering career changes went about filling out the survey. The first question is "Do you like working with children?" On a scale from one to five, five being the highest, I give it a firm two. From the get-go, I'm guessing "teacher" is not going to be my calling.

One of my graduate school peers explains a game ey plays with a couple of fellow teachers called, "In my other life." Basically, they spend their lunch periods imagining the jobs they'd rather be doing. I've been playing this game since before I started.

Some of the teachers have "teacher" appear as their top optimal career, with many others having it in their top three. In my list of forty career suggestions, teacher does not show up at all. Truthfully, I kind of feel relief. Maybe I'm not supposed to do this. Instead I could be:

1. Actor - Okay, having this as my top job is laughable. I'm pretty judgmental of aspiring actors and their pipe dreams. Still, after discovering that teaching requires me to put on one big act, I feel like I've had sufficient practice.
2. Criminologist - I might be twisted enough to get inside the head of a criminal. With a chain saw. Look, I'm already succeeding. Maybe I should just be a criminal.
3. Director of Photography - My media studies background seems so underused at this point, this idea seems swell.
4. Director - That's right, put me in charge of a situation where people are paid to listen to me rather than mildly encouraged to do so with little recourse otherwise.
5. Professor - Teaching to people who know how to shut up? People who are capable of having an intellectual conversation? Sign me up!
6. Comedian - I love that none of the questions on the quiz asked whether I have a sense of humor. How would they know if I'm funny enough to pull this off? Imagine the poor humorless saps who get the same result and drop everything to pursue it. That said, if someone is willing to pay me to be a comedian though, I'm all for it.
7. Casting Director - Sure. As a qualified actor, I'd know who should be filling roles.
8. Critic - Ohmguh, yes. I can be critical with the best of them. I've always wanted my opinion to matter.
9. Activist - Again, if I could be paid to champion various causes for which I'm passionate, I'd do it in a heartbeat. I want to be one of those figures who does something so significant that a national holiday is declared. And not one of those useless ones like arbor day, but a government-employees-get-it-off one like
10. Print Journalist - Why am I not doing this now? That would be awesome! Let me write!

Other highlights that were ridiculous:
16. Composer - I would have to have some sort of musical talent to do so, right?
18. Translator - For pig latin? I'm not so good with the foreign languages either.
21. Clergy - Perfect!
32. Computer Trainer - I think I've already explained why that can't happen.
35. Librarian - First of all, I refuse to use the word library. Secondly, I'm tired of shushing people.
36. Motivational Speaker - That would be a totally awesome career, but I would be totally facetious with it. I can only imagine the ways I'd convince people to improve their lives.

All in all, this turns out to be a great class. It has me thinking about teaching and, more importantly, not teaching. What job do you think I should pursue?