CareerAsRole

When I was a kid in elementary school, I was taught different careers such as a firefighter, police officer, doctor, nurse, teacher, carpenter, plumber, stay-at-home parent, entrepreneur and so on.

Often the implication was that people's careers were their roles in society, that their work defined them in some meaningful way. You can see this when you ask someone, "So, what do you do?" and they respond with their business title. And we all know that titles are important.

Also, I was taught that different careers didn't overlap; they were well defined, delineated each other. A doctor does this, a nurse does that. But now, it isn't clear what a doctor should do and what a nurse should do. There's talk of giving nurses the right to prescribe drugs in Canada.

Naturally, things were simplified for us as children, but even in high school when we had to "start planning our careers" we were given very generalized, striated roles to choose from. In university, things got a little muddier, but at least we have our faculties/departments/streams to identify ourselves. After university, though, many people's career paths bend away from the text on their degrees.

Now, as developed countries economies become more and more service/information oriented, work is getting more and more specialized and more and more quantized. People are hired for relatively short term contracts (< 3 years). And because companies no longer need to keep people for longer, they can always hire the "best fit" employee for the task at hand.

And people are generally enjoying the new flexibilty. It's easy to move to another job when you feel bored or unchallenged or stressed. It's also easier to move to different cities, countries, continents.

It's also been common to switch "careers"--in the traditional sense--midway through your life. Or, several times in your life. Some people change the definition what they do with every new challenge.

Indeed, I think it's very Occidental to use business titles to define people. Rampant categorization, classification. Cutting up the world into a game of Scrabble. I'd rather place my role as who I am to others, a very undescribable quality.

So, when people ask me where I see myself in ten years I honestly can't give them an answer. I can't see myself in two years, let alone ten. People ask me what I do and I don't know what really to say. I say I work for Such&Such Co. working on This-n-That, but that isn't how I define myself. In fact, I don't define myself at all. Too hard, too limiting.

But I think this perspective is new to the world in the last few years. Am I right?

-- SunirShah

This is completely off the wall and also to trivialize all of this, I had the same experience trying out White Wolf RPGs after being mostly exposed to Palladium RPGs. The CareerAsRole defines your responsibilities and the skills you need to know which means you don't have to think about it. When you're given freedom, then you feel somewhat overwhelmed and afraid that you'll take the wrong responsibilities or focus on the wrong skills. And then you get over it and just play. --JasonYip

Rereading this, I suppose I have RealWorld fame (or not) and net.fame. Is my role dichotomous between the two domains, or I am really one person and one projection? -- SunirShah

My role is not my job title. But if I need a soundbyte, what do I give? Do I say "SysAdmin", when my title is "System Engineer", because more people relate to the first than the second? I do. But is that my role? Who I am? No.

But if I tell people who/what I am it takes too long for normal conversational use. What to do?

Casual conversation requires shorthand. Language is shorthand for reality, titles are shorthand for jobs. My full name is shorthand for me. "Doctor", "Nurse", "Fireman" - is a "Fireman" the guy who goes through the door with an axe, while wearing asbestos? Or is he the guy that supervises and coordinates those who do? Is this person a professional or a volunteer?

I don't have answers. But a job title (or close approximation thereof) is a useful shorthand for a single aspect of myself. It lets people pretend they know me.

Another reason why careers are so important in conversation is that "what do you do?" is one of the few significant questions you can "safely" ask a stranger. One doesn't really get to ask people "what are your deeply-held beliefs", but one's career can give quite a bit of insight into a person. For instance, suppose the other person says "I'm a lawyer"--it indicates many possible ideas and beliefs. (It is especially helpful if the person is more specific, like "I'm a public defender", or "I'm a lawyer for Big-Evil-Corp".) One's choice of career is often an excellent indicator of one's values, especially for professional careers requiring years of dedicated training.

A good next question is "how/why did you get into <that profession>?" The other person can take the reply as shallowly or as deeply as they like, from "I wanted to earn a good living" all the way to "I've always wanted to help people because..." Most people really enjoy a chance to explain their work to people who listen carefully.

I agree that a person's career can make a good starting point for conversation. But does it, in and of itself, really tell you very much?

It can certainly give you insights, but in my experience it is more likely to mislead. I have run into very few people who feel they are in a job that perfectly matches up with who they are. Most seem to be in some degree of discomfort relative to their job, whether it be the right job, wrong company, or wrong job, right company/coworkers. I find that I am mislead more often by this bit of information than I am enlightened.

Of course, a good conversation following the question/answer will usually go a good ways towards correcting misconceptions (hence the importance of your followups).

But that still doesn't change the way we use careers as labels, while speaking of people in the third person. It's quick, easy, and frequently inaccurate.

Did people ever allow themselves to live in the prescribed boxes delineated by their "careers" or "roles"? Was there ever in the past someone who was truly a /fireman/, and not a person working as a fireman who really enjoyed playing bass in his band? Or an aspiring entrepreneur saving up for that dream of owning a barbecue shop? Is this notion just a view of the past through rose tinted glasses?

I agree with the other writers, here. Careers are just labels. Help other people relate. Help them start the small-talk. And I have no difficulties with. Today I am a system engineer. Tomorrow a project leader. Next product manager. Or gardener. Or Emacs developper. Who knows? And who cares? Use job labels as something for the here and now. --AlexSchroeder

As to the small-talk -- I really like to ask people: What do you do in your free time? You know, when you are not working. Photography? Dance Salsa? Drive their new car around? TV? Quake? Night school? Kids? I love this question. --AlexSchroeder

This is a fairly difficult thing to measure, but I don't know if I'd use the word generally here. Yes, there are definitely advantages to this kind of career path (it's the kind I've got, and I'm mostly happy with it). But there's a downside, which is: As the necessary information changes at faster and faster rates, won't people have to keep learning and adapting faster in order to simply make a living? I happen to enjoy this kind of process, and I might just keep enjoy it for the rest of my life. But I know a lot of people who don't enjoy it nearly as much. -- FrancisHwang

I answer the what-do-you-do question, "I take care of mice."

People usually then ask, "How do you do that?"

I respond, "I make sure they have food to eat and water to drink. Sometimes I pick them up and move them from one box to another."

I find this very satisfying because it becomes obvious to the questioner that I am not easily defined by the role I play at work. Or, if it does not, the questioner disappears and I never think of it again. ---JohnDuncan