“I’m waiting to find something I’m passionate about.” Kim said as she relayed her days working retail in the Clinton outlets in Connecticut. Kim had graduated from Fairfield University four years prior to coming to Career Counseling Connecticut. Her “career” had consisted of an office assistant’s job at her Dad’s friend’s law firm in New Haven, a customer service job at a financial services company in Fairfield and now – after she quit both jobs – an assistant manager job at a shop. She was going to quit this job as well soon.
Kim thought that she would wake up one day and “fall in love” with a career. She never really thought too much about different career paths and never really explored the realities of work in different fields. Essentially, she had done almost no analysis related to (1) understanding herself in the context of work (2) understanding the work world sufficiently to see how she could match up and (3) talk with others – such as career counselors – about where she should explore.
Kim wanted passion to direct her. As someone who went towards a field of passion, I totally understand. We should be happy with our work. We can be happy with our work. We should figure out how to be happy with our work.
But happier careers do not “just happen”. You won’t walk out the door one morning and be handed a happy career. Much like those who wait for Mr. or Mrs. Right or even worse those who marry someone they have fallen in love with but have neither a friendship nor a viable life partner relationship, analysis – just like in arranged marriages which according to multiple research studies lead to happier long marriages – is the key to finding a happy career. That is where Career Counseling Connecticut can help.