Some of you may have heard about my old career coach...the hard-won coach from THE ANONYMOUS COMPANY...the coach who suggested I forget about a career and focus on Plan B: having some babies. Ironically, Plan B in North America has everything to do with not having babies...
Ian and I both worked to get that coach fired, and for the right to pick another service provider, and we won the battle! Rian, Swiss Mister's coach from business school, does freelance work, and I am off to her offices in Lutry (just outside of Lausanne) for a Friday of grilling, goal-setting, mock-interviewing, and the like.
Some of the prep work has been surprisingly difficult. For example, "Make a list of 10 companies you would love to work for." Easy, right? Well, not really. I have never thought of my career search in a company-specific way before -- for the right job, I'd work in a widget company! The problem is that I'm not sure what the right job looks like; I'm still stuck on the right industry (publishing/media), and I'm having trouble thinking outside of the box on this one. Add to that the fact that I've been in an academic environment for the last twenty years, and that my dream job is actually staying at home and making up stories*, and you start to see the difficulty. But that's the point of the whole exercise -- taking me outside of my comfort zone, getting me to think about what really matters to me in a career, and helping to make that happen. In an international environment. That (at the moment) speaks German.
If it all gets too overwhelming, I'll crack into this other Plan B, thoughtfully purchased for us by Jess during her visit here.
Why am I the shakiest picture-taker ever? I blame the light meter on iPhone.Saturday is Swiss National Day, so stay tuned for a report concerning the best paddle-boating in Zug, and what happens when you get a group of business leaders of tomorrow trying to light fireworks.
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* Manuscript update:
The ms has been with ANONYMOUS PUBLISHER NO. 1 for almost a year now! That's both gratifying and incredibly frustrating. In the hopes of having more irons in the fire, I recently pitched the book to ANOTHER ANONYMOUS PUBLISHER, and the Fiction Editor called me three times the same day to ask for the full ms. A good sign, but... (always there must be the but!)
Dear Laura,
ReplyDeleteI have always had a deep and abiding distrust of the corporate world .Especially when they presume to advise the Arts Community. Your past advisor was testament to that abberation(sp?) By virtue of your chosen profession, you are already thinking "outside the box". By all means visit the Lausanne contact. At best she may uncover a nugget or two and at worst it will be an experience which will eventually make it's way to your pen and manuscript.
There are no real rules or formulas (except that there are no rules or formulas) in the work that you do. With all due respect to Ian, there are hundreds of millions of bright and talented people who can run the Corporate World. By comparison there are a scant handful of people who have been granted the talent you posses. As with all of us, you are a part of every person, place and thing that you have ever encountered and also every thought,emotion, or dream that you ever had, but unlike 99.9999% of the people on this planet, you have the incredible gift of being able to have it percolate up (artesian style) to create the amazing work that you pen. To describe your Art and Craft as "staying home and making up stories"is doing yourself a disservice. The power of your work is light years beyond that. Use it- and don't settle for less than your dreams.
I had "plan B"options shown to me when I wore a younger mans clothes. If I would have taken those safer choices, I would have stayed in my Railroad, Factory or Steelworkers job and probably always wondered"what if".
So, in my studied opinion which I now foist upon you, is... FORGET "Plan B". C,D,...Z. Take the road less travelled (please forgive that (hackneyed but in this case approprate phrase). Hold fast to this generous and fortuitous Boon that life has given you and continue to develop it and keep it bright and shining as Tennysons "Ulysses" did with his allegorical sword which he polished through use in his remarkable "Oddysey".
You are a writer of high caliber Laura. And this goes well beyond a Fathers' opinion.
Love always Dad.
Thanks for your post, Dad! Rest assured that Rian's job is to facilitate the writing, not to try to subvert it via corporate overlords! ;) What I like about Rian is that she knows that only I can make the decisions. In fact, if she does offer advice (rarely), it's usually something about how to focus MORE on the creative writing; I'm the one pushing the "corporate" agenda -- one cannot live on James Joyce alone.
ReplyDeleteSwiss Mister is infinitely supportive of the dream, as I am of his -- that's how we got into this mess in the first place! Hopefully, we'll both find our feet here, and then we both have Rian to thank.
xo,
LB