I am retelling a pre-pandemic story.
There is a well known restaurant in Madison, CT where “Lucy” is one of its hostesses. Three years ago, she set up a meeting for career counseling. When she came in, I recognized her and said “don’t you work at X restaurant?”. She smiled but it was one with regret. She explained her pain. “I’ve been working there for 5 years. It was supposed to be my summer job after college. It then became my fall job. And, then my full year job. And, now it is my career.”
Lucy was 27. Hostessing was hardly her career. I explained that most of her generation will work until 70, at least. So, she had 43 years of a career ahead of her. The sooner she directed her energy into something she preferred to do, the sooner she would be happier. But… she had to engage in meaningful career exploratory work to find a career path.
I asked her what efforts she made during that year. “I thought about graduate school. But, I didn’t know what to study. I didn’t really apply to other jobs because I wanted to know what field to enter first.”
I appreciated that she avoided plunging into a career without thinking what would suit her. But, it was clear that she did not engage in any meaningful career exploration.
When we met, Lucy said she was coming for career counseling but then said she just wanted to focus on the GRE. “I know I need to go to grad school so I’ll need to take the GRE.” I urged her that she should do both: meaningful career exploration and prepare for the GRE. “I’m better at doing one thing at a time. Let me just take the GRE first.” I understood that Lucy had avoidance issues. She would get stressed thinking about her career. So, she would simply put it off. Lucy took a few GRE lessons. And, then stopped. She never took the GRE.
The mission of Career Counseling Connecticut is to ensure our clients…. change careers now.