Over the last 2 weeks at work, I've attended 2 training courses. One was dubbed a "Career Success Skills" training that was supposed to arm me with the skills I needed to move ahead in my career. I was supposed to "Gain self-awareness regarding values, capabilities, and interests to positively effect career choice and decisions" as well as "Identify and enhance skills, behaviors, and attitudes underlying career development success".
The other course I took (and it was why I hadn't blogged in a few days) was "Critical Thinking and Problem Solving". From this class, I was supposed to learn how to "Discover business problems and opportunities proactively", "Apply different types of thinking for improved analysis and problem solving" and "Generate innovative responses to business problems or opportunities".
I actually enjoyed both courses. I generally view a lot of the company's training courses as a big joke but these 2 really managed to get through to me.
The problem? They solidified the fact that I don't like what I do for a living. That was probably not the intention of the training but the message my conscience screamed at me was loud and clear. GET OUT BEFORE YOU BECOME TOTALLY MISERABLE.
For the Career Success Skills class, we had to take a quiz to determine our "career anchors". An anchor represents a person's "self-concept" and is something that they will not give up even in the face of difficult choices. Being in IT, I assumed I would have scored off the charts for "Technical/Functional Competenence" or maybe even "Security/Stability" since I'm so afraid of change.
Nope. Not even close. My career anchor is "Service/Dedication to a Cause".
You want to pursue work that achieves something of value, such as making the world a better place to live, solving environmental problems, improving harmony among people, helping others, improving people's safety, curing diseases through new products, and so on. You pursue opportunities even if it means changing organizations, and you do not accept transfer or promotions that would take you out of work that fulfills those values."
WTF?
I guess it's not entirely surprising to most people but being that I was in a career class for my IT job, it just wasn't something I was expecting.
Over the last couple of years, my viewpoints on a lot of things have shifted. And yes, people want to call me out on hypocrisy or whatever and that's fine. I have and will never claim to be perfect. But what I always thought was a selfish and dead-on-the-inside personality has become something filled with compassion. Don't get me wrong, I'm still sarcastic, irritable, and a little selfish... but now all of a sudden I get weepy at commercials about dog shelters, or anything to do with animal cruelty. Don't even get me started on the shelter that was featured on Oprah awhile ago (Angel's Gate). I was wrecked after watching it.
Who the hell have I become?
This post could easily end up being much much longer but for the sake of everyone's attention span, I'll split this up.
And now onto something completely random and ridiculous. My presentation partner in one of my classes (a PhD candidate!) picks his nose and eats his boogers. I didn't think grown-ups still did this sort of thing. Could he have really been that hungry? And what is appetizing about a booger? I was never into that as a kid... I just picked my nose and wiped it on the back of the sofa.
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8 comments:
I had that same revelation a few months ago - I'm in a very logical positon and during a similiar course all signs pointed to everything but! I had to stand on the opposite side of the room from my coworkers and was labeled a "bleeding heart!"
Well, long story short, today is my last day at my job (gasp!) and in two weeks I start working for a non profit organization working to help those with intellectual and developmental disabilites get the rights and services they need!
Sometimes you just have to follow your heart - bleeding or not!
I just don't like being labeled. I'm very uncomfortable with it. Which is probably why I'm so middle of the road about everything!
And I start crying during kodak commercials...that's sad :)
I wanted to kill myself while reading this. See, IBM has those courses too. It's called brainwashing you into thinking 1 - you're not good enough, so get there (I'm trade marking that, so don't take it) and 2 - how to bully, brow beat, and buttfuck your way to the top.
Oh and 3 - we'll demoralize you even though you're super talented so that you don't think you can leave.
watch out for those courses.
love the boogers.
The throw up part is me knowing you'll realize that classes aren't meant for you if they're work sponsored. They're meant for THEM.
THEM!!!!
muwahhahahahha
but boogers are SOOOOOO yummy! (gag)
And good luck figuring out the job stuff - all I can add is, when you stop evolving and changing, THAT is when something is wrong. It's good to stop and take stock every once in awhile to see how far you have come, and what the "new you" wants and needs
Okay so he does that, like, in front of people? No, that's too disgusting to even believe.
I made a similar transition. It's so strange to look back at yourself and say 'what the heck happened there?'
I like me better now, but it's still weird.
You need to stop that guy. Not just for you, but for all mankind.
Booger eating is not okay once you're past 7.
It's a bitter pill to swallow when you realize that everything you've done for the past decade and everything you've worked tirelessly to pursue is essentially meaningless to you personally. I keep waiting to have the guts to pull the cord on it myself; but the golden handcuffs are hard to break.
Oh, and with the booger guy, if he is a PhD candidate in IT, he probably has the social capacity of a 4-year-old.
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