I almost titled this post “What Job Am I Best Suited For?” But then I didn’t want someone to look at that and see the preposition at the end of the title and assume it was written by a complete moron. Don’t get me wrong, I leave prepositions hanging at the ends of sentences all the time. But if a future potential employer finds me based on my blog, I don’t want them to think I’m an idiot who isn’t worth their time based on a grammatically incorrect blog post title.

Let me be clear, I’m not trying to find a job based on this or any other blog post. I just pose the question because, as I feel I have a number of very intelligent regular readers, I’m interested in your opinions. Not that you necessarily have any clue what job I’d best be suited for based on the extra special glimpses into my life you get while reading my blog. But I’m always open to suggestions.

I do enjoy my work. In my current job, I work closely with elementary school kids, helping them with emotional and social issues. I help them set goals and, hopefully, reach those goals. Spending time with the kids and working in a school setting is great and I generally love my day to day. But there are things that I’m not so much loving these days. I could complain about the paperwork, because it is a legitimate complaint that just about everyone in this field complains about all the time at one time or another. But I won’t complain about it because it’s just a part of the job. I mean, it would be nice if there was less paperwork. But more than that, it’s the red tape that we have to deal with when trying to work with these kids. And, in recent months, I’ve discovered that a lot of this job becomes political. To excel, it depends on who you know and whose butt you can kiss. I do not like that aspect of my job.

More than these things, I’m tired of my commute. It takes me nearly an hour to get from my house to the school where I work. I know that doesn’t sound too horrible, considering folks in a lot of big cities have to sit in traffic for similar stretches of time. But I’m not in a big city. I live in a smallish college town and I work in a smallish rural elementary school. So my commute doesn’t involve sitting in traffic. It involves non-stop driving on winding back roads. The wear and tear on my car is enough to make me want a job that’s closer to home. If it weren’t for a recent drop in gas prices, I’d likely need to file bankruptcy.

I recently wrote about applying and interviewing for a job with a local department of social services. If you don’t want to go back and read that full post, it basically says that I applied and interviewed for the job and never heard back from the employer. I found out that they readvertised the position, so I reapplied on a whim, not expecting to hear back from them. But then they scheduled another interview. Well, after writing that post, I interviewed a second time for the same position. They asked me all the same questions. And I still didn’t get the job. I haven’t learned this from this particular social services department. I found this out through a friend who had some inside information letting me know that someone new would be starting in the position I had interviewed for. Since I never got a phone call offering me the job, I could only assume it wasn’t me.

But it makes me wonder, if I got a call for an interview (TWICE) based on the strength of my resume but did not get the job based on the interview (TWICE), is there something wrong with my interview process? Am I just one of those people who only looks good on paper?

So I put it out there, America. What do you think I could be good at? What career could I excel in? Obviously, if it involves the proper use of prepositions, I may not be able to do it. But I do love to write. I love to be creative. But my only experience with those things would be this blog and the minimal experience I’ve gotten working with my church over the last two years. The vast majority of my work experience has involved counseling to small children. Note: this is not counseling like those who are licensed therapists. Do I attempt to stay in this field (which really doesn’t pay much) or change career paths yet again? When I got out of banking, my hope was that I would be done changing careers. Yet, here we are.

What do you think, kids? This is my future we’re dealing with. Be gentle.