success

Combining Careers and Interests: What Do You Make?

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Previous: Doing what you like.

Are you making something you care about?  Does your job or career produce the books you love, the services you care about, the games you like?  Does your job make things meaningful to your geeky or fannish heart, even if what you do may not seem like something a raging fan, nerd, geek, or otaku would do?

If so, then you've had a valuable lesson – that sometimes you can find fulfillment in being a profane not by what you do directly, but by the results of that action.

If you don't have this situation . . . then read on

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Combining Careers and Interests: What You Do?

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(This is a launch of anew series on ways people can reconcile their interests, hobbies, fandom, and geekery with their careers.  In it I will explore the different options we have to turn what we love into what we make a living at).

One of the surest ways to combine what you like to do with how you make money is this:

Do something you enjoy doing for a living skill-wise.

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You’ll Never Get It Together

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"Once I get it together, I'll launch my career!"

If you think this way, you're never going have a career.

The truth about careers (and life in general) is you'll never truly have it together.  There will always be something not quite right.  There will always be something a bit off.  Even if you get to your supposed perfect point, you'll re-evaluate it and discover it's not as perfect as you thought.

So you might as well start your career now.  Take that class.  Read that book.  Do that research.  Practice Flash animation or whatever.  You're never going to have it together enough to start, so wade on it.

"Once I get these things together, my career will be perfect."

If you think this way, you'll be waiting forever.

Careers are evolving, unpredictable beasts.  You can set a direction into the future, but you can expect quite a few twists and turns as you head towards where you want to go.  Along the way you may decide where you want to go is something differently entirely.

Want to be happy in your career?  Start as soon as possible, throw yourself into it, and enjoy the ride.  Accept the crazy, chaotic nature of what you'll face.  Enjoy the experience of the changes.

There's never a time it'll be all together.

But it can be pretty exciting!

– Steven Savage