The Career Clinic Blog

"Sally, get in the truck," my superintendent said late one afternoon the summer I worked construction, using the nickname I'd been assigned--though I still don't know why. The look on my super's face was...not good...as he continued: "We're going for a ride."

I'd been driving "the truck" that day, the truck we used to lay tape for a double center line, so one side of the highway could accommodate both directions of traffic while we worked on the other side. There was some contraption that fed both lines of tape off the back of the truck as it rolled slowly down the road. My job was to drive, while leaning out of the window (slightly) and keeping the guide directly over the center of the highway. Trouble was, it was windy that day. I knew when the wind blew the guide one way, I should compensate the other way a little bit. But the wind kept blowing, and I kept compensating--or rather, overcompensating.

I thought the result would be a little wavy, but I was wrong. It was a lot wavy. It was eerie, how consistently wavy it was. It actually turned out to be more of a perfect zigzag, for that entire stretch of highway. Five. Whole. Miles.

The superintendent, I'd been told, didn't like me being on the crew. He supposedly thought I was out there trying to get dates. I wanted to ask him if he thought I needed to shovel concrete twelve hours a day--what my job description soon became--to get dates, but I was afraid of him.

I was going to be fired. I was sure of it.

So this was a very long ride. He didn't say a word. Not during the first mile, and not during the second. The third mile went by, and...nothing. Finally, and I think we were almost to the five-mile mark by now, he burst out laughing. He just couldn't contain himself. He was laughing, so I started laughing. And we were pals after that.

Here's the thing. I was doing my best that day. I was new to the crew, eager to make a good impression, and trying so hard to do a good job to keep the guide right over the center line that I tried too hard and messed everything up.

I was doing my best, and it sucked. But I was forgiven, and I doubt I'm the only person still laughing about this one.

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You owe it to yourself to find out as much as you can about the job you're going after before you go after it. One of the best ways to do that is to talk to someone in the same career.

Please don't think of yourself as an imposition. Take it from someone who's constantly interviewing people about their work. The more they love it, the more they love talking about it. Their families and friends have heard these stories before. You're a new audience. They'll appreciate the reminder of how much they've pulled off.

Remember to ask them what they don't like, as well. Brian Kurth of VocationVacations says you may decide to pick a new dream: "Isn't being an innkeeper just the most romantic-sounding thing...until you're scrubbing toilets? Being a winemaker is dreamy, too, until you're schlepping case after case of wine into a shipment truck. And owning a bakery? I hope you like getting up at three in the morning."

It's an acid test. Can you handle the drudgery that's part of even the most glamorous jobs? Will you do that happily, and consider it a small price, for your dreams?

Hired!

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I worked at a little pastry shop called Dippy Donut the summer after my freshman year in college. I was by myself on the four-to-midnight shift, and one night a customer lingered while I closed up. He scared me. So I did what the manager had suggested. I called the guy at the convenience store next door and asked him to bring me over a pack of cigarettes. He'd know what to do, how to encourage this customer to be on his way.

Wrong.

The guy next door was new to his job, and no one had told him about this arrangement. He brought over a pack of cigarettes and a book of matches, laid them on the counter, and left before I could even say hello.

My customer just sat there with the same gaze that had so unnerved me. Now what? Time for that smoke, I decided. But I'd never even opened a pack of cigarettes! I had as much trouble getting the cellophane off as I would many years later, unwrapping CDs. I kept my back to the customer as I fumbled, hoping my nervousness would play into my new role as chain smoker. Getting the cigarette out of the package was nothing compared with trying to keep it lit--I had never inhaled, after all--or puffing away without giving myself a headache from coughing.

The next time I turned around, the man was gone. Grossed out, probably. The plan worked!

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So you're right smack-dab in the middle of middle age, and you have a good job. You like it, you're paid well, it doesn't leave you much time for family and friends and fun, but you tell yourself nothing's perfect--and ride it out. Or do you?

Gary Nansen, a civil engineer, didn't.

Gary had agreed to help find candidates for a teaching position at a nearby community college, but the perfect candidate turned out to be him. He's one month into his new career as a civil technology instructor, and on the most recent edition of The Career Clinic he shared how it's going. I'm inspired by Gary, and you might be, too. You can see the first part of that interview by clicking on "Watch the Talk Show" on the home page of thecareerclinic.com--and that video clip will be up for about a week. A few weeks from now you can hear the podcast of the entire program courtesy of our flagship radio station, AM 1100, and that link will be up for a few months.

Gary and I have at least two other things in common. We both moved to our hometown of Detroit Lakes, Minnesota, under protest...and we're both runners. Some observations about each, in the next few posts.

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In his book, The Star Thrower, Loren Eiseley talks about the day he walked along a sandy beach where thousands of starfish had been washed up on the shore. He noticed a boy picking up the starfish one by one and throwing them back into the sea. Eiseley watched him for a few minutes and then he asked him what he was doing. “I am returning the starfish to the sea," the boy answered. "Otherwise they will die.” Eiseley then asked how saving a few starfish would make any difference, since so many of them would eventually die. The boy picked up another starfish and as he threw it back into the water he said, “It’ll make a lot of difference to that one.”

I feel like a star thrower when I’m hosting The Career Clinic. If we can help people be happier at work, they’ll be happier at home, their kids will learn how to be happy by watching, and the ripples will keep on spreading.

That’s the goal.

But you know what’s really fun about doing the show? It’s when the producers talk to me in my headphones! Maybe I spent too many hours camped out on the couch watching Peter Jennings juggle his many inputs, but that always seemed like a cool part of the job description. Now granted what I’m told isn’t usually very distracting. “You have a caller.” Or, “Turn Darrell’s microphone up a little bit.” Still, I love it. I love it in a way that defies reason. I love it the way a toddler has more fun playing with the wrapping paper than the actual present. It’s just a really fun part of the job.

Now, about those producers. Dustin Moore is the first one I met--at “new talk show host orientation,” and doesn’t that sound like a blast--and continues to be my point man at the station. He has a great crew, and each and every person treats us like royalty. The people we’ve met at AM 1100 love their work. They keep their word, they keep us posted, and they keep us inspired. They make us feel appreciated for what we bring to the Saturday afternoon lineup. We couldn’t do it without their professionalism. And why would we want to? They make it fun.

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