Thursday, July 10, 2008

When I grow up . . .

As some of you may be aware, any day, week or month here I am going to lose my job. It seems to be an epidemic for many families, and now it has come to ours. I am in the process of training Replacement Programmer who appearantly will do my job for a much smaller price in another country. Until Replacement is trained properly, I am somewhat being held hostage by the severance package I will receive once Replacement is trained. My departure date seems to change constantly. Currently, it is set for November.
I have started to think about what I want to be now. What do I want to be in this next phase of life? Do I want to continue to be a computer programmer? Do I want to take this chance to explore other options? I would really like to do something with people for people in this phase of my life. I really want God to direct me to my next job. And when I say direct, I mean I would really like Him to point right at the job I am to have. I am all about wanting burning bushes in my life to reveal exactly what God wants me to do. I so love it when he is obvious in our lives. When it is evident that HE is in control.
As I have begun to explore other options, I believe that God is leading me in a unique direction. I have started talking to a friend of ours who sells insurance. While at first thought, it doesn't sound like the woo-hoo life changing experiece I am after. It really is. This friend has set up his agency in a way that it will give back to our community. And while I will be selling things to people, insurance also helps them. I will also be able to share my faith with all the new people I will come into contact. I can live my faith out daily in front of those contacts I make. Currently, I sit in my house for work for 8-9 hours a day. The folks I see outside of my house are my dear friends and family. I don't really have a lot of stranger run-ins.
Anyway, as part of this exploration, this friend asked me to take an assesment that would show if I had what it takes to be a good salesperson. Yikes, this assesment was something else. The first section was about 150 words where you had to guage from 1-5 how much the word applied to you. It was one of those trick things though because they basically gave you the basic words - outgoing, cooperative, patient, etc - and then as the list went on they just used multiple synonoms of those words to see if you kept agreeing to who you were. I was to the point of not being sure who I was and was convinced that all this assesment would tell them was that I had multiple personality disorder and wasn't qualified to be anything more than a circus clown (which might be fun except for the traveling with my four clown kids in tow).
The second section was the statement section. They give you the positive of the statment, such as I work well in large groups, and then about 10-20 statements later you see the mix of the statement - such as I don't work well in small groups. Another section to prove that I am out of my mind and have no idea who I really am. Now honestly, I did not need an assesment to tell me that I am confused. I know this. This is one thing I can be positive about. Anyway, in the end, the assesment somehow came back to say that I might do well as a sales person. WOW!
I continue to pray for God's obvious direction for me of what I should be when I grow up. I know He will show me the path, I only hope that I am not standing off somewhere confused, trying to find my own way, and miss His directions. Because as the Book tells me . .. He knows what is best for me!

1 comment:

Big Nanny said...

I didn't know any of this. I'll be praying that the right job comes along for you at just the right time. Thanks for helping me this weekend. Have fun!