An hour I'll never get back

I don't know why I expected anything different, but I decided this morning to go along to a seminar given by a person from the careers centre here at ANU. The talk was on strategies to develop your career, aimed specifically at research younglings like myself. In my experience, careers centres rarely have anything useful to tell me. To be blunt, I sometimes wonder just what sort of expertise people have that offer such careers advice. Bare in mind, this is a personal opinion, based solely on my own experiences. Judging from some of the nodding heads in the audience of this seminar, many in the room thought this information was relevant. I, however, found the talk to be one of the least inspiring talks I have heard on the subject.

Firstly, the speaker had no direct experience with my field (by this I mean Engineering). She seemed to have a very Arts/Humanities take on academia, which was exposed on a number of occasions. Secondly, she loved to talk about allocating time for everything - and I mean everything. I can't say I have ever thought to block off time in my week for "networking" activities, or for trawling through the on-line job advertisements. The way she was talking suggested if you weren't already doing these things, you might as well give up now and start practicing how to say "do you want fries with that" clearly. But the final nail in the coffin, and I couldn't help but sigh (a bit louder than I actually planned to), was when she mentioned the words "career goals and plans". She even mixed in a reference to the old cliche' "where do you see yourself in 10 years". Uninspired to say the least.

You might think I am being a little harsh, but I really am opposed to this as the basis of career development. I am not opposed to having career goals as such, but for me, career goals are not in the form of "I want to be a Professor" or "I want to be the highest publishing academic in my field" (as she would want it to be). To be completely honest, I have little ambition to climb ladders like this. This is not to say that I am opposed to doing so, just that I don't see that as a motivation for my career. My career goal is simple, I want to do something interesting, that contributes and pays the bills (with a little left over). If I spend my life doing jobs like this, I am tipping I will die a happy camper. So what I would love to see is a careers adviser who does not predict doom and gloom if your not doing every extra curricula activity or course, and not allocating "career planning time" each week. Rather, I would prefer to hear someone say something like: "do the things that interest you, and always keep an eye out for opportunities". I would also love to hear an adviser say something like: "never discount the possibility of change in your career", rather than the usual uninspired "career plan" crap. I may be young and naive, but my experiences since finishing my undergrad degree in 1999 have certainly not been what I ever really planned for .. and if I do end up working at MacDonald's, it will be because I choose to do so.
:)