goal orientation

Child quit his job at Target, mostly due to a.) being interviewed and hired for lead position but them not giving it and b.) the new manager.

To give context, Child's worked there almost since he graduated high school (about three years) and he abruptly came to talk to me for the first time about quitting a month ago.

Me: Oh thank God. Go to school.
Him: ...not what I expected.



Here's the thing: Child's like me when it comes to many things, and this is one of them. We tend to find something we like enough and plug along at it, and this is really true when it comes to jobs. I say that as someone who worked fast food and retail; left to ourselves, we'll only move on when we find something better because there's almost always something interesting about it that we can like doing. It takes a lot to make us quit; the three times total I quit a job (retail, fast food) was literally moving to a different city and once was a weird confluence of events that have nothing to do with the job.

(It's the one thing I did get nailed into Child; do not, for the love of God, ever mistake work for anything but work. Find something you like and go for it. Then again, I have a very dim view of combining your passion and work; program testing/QA/QC is as close as I'm willing to get to my favorite things to do. I love coding, I love writing, I love building computers, I love many things, but that would not survive worrying about whether I can pay the bills or worrying about deadlines. They're my life, they're for me; they're fun.)

The fact that after we talked, he turned in his two week notice says a lot. I knew he didn't like the new manager, but wow.

So I'm pleased; next job, get him to forget 'what do I need for a future job' and do the 'take random classes that are interesting to find out what you want to do/like/are good at' alongside core requirements. The emphasis on 'college to your job' really isn't doing some students any favors and I don't like the effect it's had on him and his friends. Take Drawing I and II; major in Greek Sculpture if that's your thing; take photography and French Lit and painting and computer animation, and I'll be fucked if you're taking four core classes; choose a science and maybe a math, but one of the other two better be fucking fun.

Now, next job: how to pay his tuition for this semester. There's no time for financial aid, so I may need to look into payment plans to cover it. Luckily, it's the local community college, but I am learning to hate math.

Comments

[malkingrey]

Take Drawing I and II; major in Greek Sculpture if that's your thing; take photography and French Lit and painting and computer animation, and I'll be fucked if you're taking four core classes; choose a science and maybe a math, but one of the other two better be fucking fun.

The liberal arts have been getting dissed for being impractical for as long as I can remember, but that's a shortsighted way of looking at things. A degree in, say, English Lit may not get you a high-paying job right out of the gate, but twenty years down the pike, it won't be obsolete, either, and you'll have learned how to learn whatever else you need to know.

(Random trivia fact, courtesy of the Elder Son's Vanderbilt alumni mag -- the first woman to command a US Navy carrier battle group was a Vandy Naval ROTC grad, but she was also an English major.)

[amalthia]

That's some good advice. I met someone recently who graduated from grad school at 23 and has 0 hobbies and doesn't know what she likes because she spent her entire school working and doing school stuff to graduate. Nothing fun. :( I get why she sped through school for her degrees, it's expensive to go to college but I think this method of going to school misses the point of college? Which to me is to explore and learn new things.

[out_there]

*shrugs* Eh, I came from the opposite end of the spectrum. What was my easiest subject at school (accounting), what degrees feature that heavily and have a good post-degree employment rate (in this case, Bachelor of Business - Accountancy), go for that.


And then really, really enjoy the very few non-business electives you get to choose over 4 years (for the record, 7 units, although three of them were like mini-courses that you took concurrently for 4 hrs each a week and only counted as a third of a unit, so sort of 5 if you look at it that way... and that was only because they changed the syllabus by my final year so non-business units were allowed for those final 4 electives -- creative writing and film interpretation and photoshop and...hmmm. I've forgotten the last one, but boy was I thrilled that it wasn't law/economics/accounting/marketing/management).

A less structured Bachelor of Arts always looked like a lot more fun, but less practical at the end of the day. Then again, I'm kind of goal focused when it comes to education and work (I want to know why I'm doing it and then I'll work towards that goal), so it worked for me.

[mezzo_cammin]

You're an inspiration! My daughter is going back to school soon, as well, and I'm going to borrow your advice for her! Take some core classes and then experiment with electives. Thank goodness she'll qualify for FAFSA. Yay! I switched majors a couple of times in college, and ended up with a BS in horticulture and minor in English Lit, and ended up working for a veterinarian a while, then in graphic arts for 15 years before medical transcription. I've had fun, though, and I can grow a lovely cottage garden! :)

[archaeologist_d]

I tried to get a job with my first passion, archaeology, and ended up just doing it for fun and being a chemist to pay the bills. That I liked chemistry was a plus.

Good luck with Child and school or the next job. At least community college is still affordable.

[bonibaru]

"do not, for the love of God, ever mistake work for anything but work" truer words have never been spoken.

[shrewreader]

It is worth asking FA office if they can do anything anyway - worst they can say is 'no,' and you're no worse off than you are now. Sometimes - esp. at community colleges - they have funds available for those who have had changes in employment status that were unexpected.