I am experiencing yet another milestone in my life…my
youngest, my baby girl now has a real “grown-up” job (as she describes it). She
was having doubts about her life, the direction she had chosen, and came to
Lori and me for advice over Christmas break. As a junior at the local
university, she felt (and we agreed) that she should have an idea of her future
career. She didn’t have any idea and that thought panicked her a little. She
had doubts about her major and where that was leading. She didn’t feel passionate
about anything besides marching band, and realized there are limitations to
making a living in a marching band. We didn’t resolve these issues for her
easily or quickly. We had many sessions, discussions, emails and phone calls. Sometimes those sessions were calm, quiet,
pensive, and other sessions were agitated, emotional, and painful. But in the
end she had a plan that she could execute, and that calmed her heart a lot.
Our first piece of advice was to drop out of the University
while she figured things out. This was purely an economic move as she was
costing us over a grand a month pursuing a degree that she didn’t want. She
felt she wanted to work in the food industry somehow, so I encouraged her to
get a full time job in the food industry to see if it was a real attraction for
her. She could earn some dough and at the same time “interview” the industry. The
other option was to get a job in the pool servicing industry. This is her other
passion. She loves working on pool equipment. She has a natural knack for the
mechanics, and she can keep a pool sparkling. Find a job with a pool company
and decide later on your future was my advice. Part 1 of her plan: find a full
time job to pay her bills.
I had always thought she had the food gene, though. Her
interests were always in what cool things I was working on. She loved coming to
my office when she was younger. She loved the smells that come from the
production of food and beverage products, and she has a very discerning sense
of smell and taste. As a young child her keen sense of smell always amazed me.
She could smell things and describe them to me. That is an innate skill with
her. And she loves food. Why not let it make some money for her? If she enjoys
the work, she can always go back to school for a degree in food science,
chemical engineering, or microbiology. But those degrees are so far from the
music degree she had started on. She would have a ton of catch-up coursework to
do in the basic sciences. So part 2 of her plan: get her leveling coursework
done at a community college. This almost killed her. She felt it was
humiliating to drop out of the prestigious university and attend the local
community college. We told her it is so different now, but after talking it
over with friends she trusts (not us); she got over that pretty quickly.
I am proud of her for developing a realistic, sensible plan
and then executing it. She applied for food industry jobs through connections I
had and landed one. She will be a customer service representative at a small
food ingredients broker. She will have to work two sides of the value chain.
Their principals expect new sales opportunities for their ingredients, and the
end customers expect full service sales and technical support for the dozens of
companies they represent. She will learn a ton about the industry and the
language used in it. I hope she sticks with it. The opportunities will be there
if she does a good job.
Her plan will always require “tweaking”, but the main parts
will always give her something to work from. Maybe one of my progeny will
follow me down the path of developing innovative food and beverage products for
an industry that has been very, very good to me. After 3 days of her new job, I
am swelling with pride.
Chow!
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