We can’t all be architects!

Hi Informational Interviewers!

As a middle schooler I spent too many Friday nights watching Gilmore Girls, which left me convinced that I wanted to be a journalist like Rory. I still want to be a journalist like Rory, but I also have a more nuanced understanding of the world of work and work-roles now. 

So, today we’re talking about reductionistic work assumptions and the importance of exploring widely!

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Have you ever noticed how protagonists in romcoms always seem to have one of just a few types of jobs. You rarely (never?) get a romcom lead who is a wastewater engineer, but architects, florists, bakers and gallery owners abound.

Children’s books, too, convey a very specific vision of the world of work. I used to read a book to my little cousins that explains the way a city work. We identified firefighters (and fire trucks!), mailmen (and mail trucks!), garbagemen (and garbage trucks!), bus drivers (and school buses!). Each person was fully identified by their occupation, and their occupation was critical to the basic functioning of municipality. The result was a quaint if reductionistic picture of the occupational landscape.

Eventually we all need a more realistic mental model of the kinds of work people actually do in the world. Without additional information, we are all liable to make assumptions about what kinds of jobs are fun, lucrative, prestigious or worth doing. But these assumptions can trip you up when you’re looking for a job that will really work for you.

Here are some assumptions I’ve made about different types of jobs in the past:

1. Teacher: ugh exhausting, and low-paying, but fun and rewarding. kids are cute.

2. Firefighter: Decent pay, dangerous, potentially traumatic, potentially exhausting

3. Product Manager: ugh, boring but high-paying

4. Engineer: I could never, I just don’t have the right kind of brain

5. NGO Program Director: Yay! Sounds good. People will admire me for doing good, important sound work. Probably very low pay, though which sucks

6. Marketing Manager: ugh, I’d feel like such a sell-out, marketing is very people who aren’t smart enough for engineering or finance

In reality jobs are like this:

1. I lead a marketing team which means I work with a team of four really nice people, we meet primarily on Discord and Zoom and together we produce content, product collateral, and other marketing materials to promote DeFi products that we hope will change the world. My days consist of giving feedback to my team, meeting with them individually, responding to the requests of other stakeholders in the organization, and defining our marketing strategy. I make somewhere between $150,000 — $180,000 per year.

2. I’m a new therapist working under the supervision of a more experience licensed therapist. I have 27 clients which is a LOT! I’m super passionate about this very niche kind of highly-scientific therapy called ISTDP, so I’m focused on identifying practitioners of that modality who I can work with. I’m also intrigued by Ketamine, MDMA, and Psilocybin and other drug-assisted therapies. When I’m not meeting with clients, I am attending group supervision meetings, talking with my direct supervisor, having sessions with my own therapist, or doing some kind of professional development. I make somewhere between $140,000 — $160,000 a year

3. I’m a consultant to major renewable energy development projects. You may not know this, but most big renewable energy projects fail because of community opposition (environmentalists, NIMBYs and other special interest groups always find a reason to oppose!). My job is to work with communities to smooth the way for major solar and wind installations. I spend my time preparing educational materials, attending community meetings, working with local leaders and press, and basically just doing whatever it takes to make sure the project is approved. I truly believe in the importance of major renewable energy installations. And I love my job because I get to spend my time teaching, communicating creatively and connecting with people. I make $250,000 per year.

You get the idea. Jobs, as we conceptualize them in our head and in our society, are very different from jobs as we live them day to day. This is why informational interviewing with an open mind is so important. If you’re willing to explore widely in the professional world you can learn a lot about the nuances of particular types or roles, organizations and careers. You can find out what different types of work are really like, and what types work are going work for you.

The Art of the Informational Interview is free. But one way you can support my work is by sharing it with your friends, family and colleagues.

What I’m reading….

Caps and gowns but no career prospects for grads without connections ~ by Julia Freeland Fisher in The Boston Globe This piece is behind a paywall, but you can read it for free with Pocket.

Public schools have been made to answer for capitalism’s crimes ~ Nora de la Coer in Jacobin A good summary of why I never ended up becoming a teacher (some assumptions/stereotypes are based in reality, and teaching really truly is a challenging and underpaid profession)Men are returning to office faster than women ~ Michael Sasso in BloombergMore women are staying home and… you guessed it… doing housework while also trying to do their jobs.