What are the Considerations when Choosing a Career?
I have been thinking about this question: What are the Considerations when Choosing a Career?
All my career choices have been kinda of random. I joined my current company mostly due to the fact I know the CEO from my previous job. But I have been relatively lucky and it turns out to be OK or quite good I may say (at least so far).
So I wanted to be a scientist like my parents when I was a kid. I dreamed often about Nobel Prize:-) So I decided to study Material Science when I went to college. Upon graduation, I enrolled in a Phd program to study "Advanced Physics". Look back, what a mis-match. Despite I was pretty good at math and chemistry, I was not good at physics even in high school! Actually in high school, my most favourite subjects were "chemistry" and "literature". I won a national prize for essay writing when I was 15.
Long story short, I quit Phd program within 1 year and found a job with an American company based in Shanghai by chance the following week. A few years later, I visited US for the 1st time on a business trip. When I was visiting Stanford University on that business trip, I saw palm trees for the 1st time ever in my life and I told myself that I will be here one day. Here I am, living in San Francisco and it has been 15 years since that visit. It was just like yesterday. In between, I lived in different parts of US and travelled a lot (comparing to someone who has 8-5 type of job, not comparing to my pilot who has been to more than 80 countries even before he became a pilot!) for business and pleasure. I went to business school, found my 1st job from an ad at Wall Street Journal after graduation... Did not intend to stay with that company for long, but ended up staying for 7.5 years with 5 different positions incl. travelling to Latin America and Europe often and 3 years gig in Asia as well. I am not complaining at all, but looking back, I could have done something different and better with more careful planning.
I am thinking about airline pilot's career now as I have been reading a bit in the past months. It is quite different from my work and profession. After 9/11, everything is so unpredicable. The only thing certain is things will change. So I am relatively certain that making a choice based soley upon bases, current payscales (to a degree), etc. is not a good recipe without considering growth stategy, business model, company culture, and of course upgrade potential, etc. But I am not an airline pilot, it is just my 2 cents:-)
All my career choices have been kinda of random. I joined my current company mostly due to the fact I know the CEO from my previous job. But I have been relatively lucky and it turns out to be OK or quite good I may say (at least so far).
So I wanted to be a scientist like my parents when I was a kid. I dreamed often about Nobel Prize:-) So I decided to study Material Science when I went to college. Upon graduation, I enrolled in a Phd program to study "Advanced Physics". Look back, what a mis-match. Despite I was pretty good at math and chemistry, I was not good at physics even in high school! Actually in high school, my most favourite subjects were "chemistry" and "literature". I won a national prize for essay writing when I was 15.
Long story short, I quit Phd program within 1 year and found a job with an American company based in Shanghai by chance the following week. A few years later, I visited US for the 1st time on a business trip. When I was visiting Stanford University on that business trip, I saw palm trees for the 1st time ever in my life and I told myself that I will be here one day. Here I am, living in San Francisco and it has been 15 years since that visit. It was just like yesterday. In between, I lived in different parts of US and travelled a lot (comparing to someone who has 8-5 type of job, not comparing to my pilot who has been to more than 80 countries even before he became a pilot!) for business and pleasure. I went to business school, found my 1st job from an ad at Wall Street Journal after graduation... Did not intend to stay with that company for long, but ended up staying for 7.5 years with 5 different positions incl. travelling to Latin America and Europe often and 3 years gig in Asia as well. I am not complaining at all, but looking back, I could have done something different and better with more careful planning.
I am thinking about airline pilot's career now as I have been reading a bit in the past months. It is quite different from my work and profession. After 9/11, everything is so unpredicable. The only thing certain is things will change. So I am relatively certain that making a choice based soley upon bases, current payscales (to a degree), etc. is not a good recipe without considering growth stategy, business model, company culture, and of course upgrade potential, etc. But I am not an airline pilot, it is just my 2 cents:-)
posted by Jane @ 4:03 PM
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