I took a career test that said this:
You would most enjoy a career that allows you to meet new people. You would also be happiest in a career that allows you to be free and flexible, and allows you to be extremely creative.
You are a great leader. You genuinely enjoy being around other people. Your relationships with others are very important to you. You love talking and meeting new people. You are very enthusiastic about work and about all that you do and have in your life. You love being the focus of attention. You enjoy a fast pace. You are very socially oriented. Therefore, you are much happier being with others than you are alone. You crave interaction with others.
You are very spontaneous and often act before you think. You are always quick to answer when you are asked a question, even if you aren’t sure of the answer. It is easier for you to improvise as you go along. You enjoy thinking out loud, and are most creative when brainstorming with friends or colleagues. You enjoy being involved in many activities.
You are very easy to read, and often wear your heart on your sleeve. You are never afraid to tell people what you think. You are very empathetic and genuine. You can sometimes be seen as over-emotional or too involved by others. But that is only because you tend to get so involved in the things you do that they become personal. You want to be adored, loved and appreciated. You like to please others and to make sure people are happy.
You trust your gut instincts. You are easily inspired and trust that inspiration. You are very innovative. You analyse things by looking at the big picture. You are concerned about how what you do affects others. You worry about your actions and the future. You tend to use a lot of metaphors and are very descriptive and colourful in your choice of language.
You are very creative, and get bored easily if you don’t get to express yourself. You like to learn new things. You don’t like the same old routine. You like to leave your options open.
If these things are true, and I am not sure they are, but if they are, what should I be?
Axé.
coldhearted scientist وداد 
I will say this: my idea of a great vacation would be a summer language workshop in a foreign country. I want to go to Faroese immersion, Icelandic immersion, German immersion, Russian immersion and Arabic immersion. That activity does in fact fit this description of preferences but I have no idea what sort of job it might translate to.
At that rate, translator might not be a bad attempt at covering those bases, but the real simultaneous-at-meetings stuff takes a long time to train up for.
That was what I thought in high school but my younger sister said no way, you are far too ambitious for that, you want to speak in your own words, and she was right.
As *trade,* simultaneous interpreter would be better for me than teacher, it is true. But what I want actually is to be a barrister and work on immigration, trade, and the global prison industrial complex!
No fair, if you had the answer already you shoulda said 🙂 But how to get there from here… Well, I suppose by working on immigration, trade etc. as your current research, in so far as that be possible.
Hahaha! Thanks for reading, anyway. My literary research is very sociological although immigration/trade wouldn’t relate to any literary fields I’m interested in. But yes, one of the strategies is, move your research in the direction of your fantasy degree.
But I still want a law degree and a job, because I want to litigate and write policy! 🙂 What I do now is great but I am not impassioned by it, don’t like sacrificing for it, etc.
I have been trying to figure out how to afford law school for years and have not yet succeeded. I’d need full funding (i.e. loans that would really cover the cost of education) but the FA offers I’ve gotten haven’t had it.
***** OK, I see how this fits: I would be a consultant / have solo or micro business advertising: translation, interpretation, NEGOTIATION. I’ve figured that out before.
***** And the other thing is, JOURNALISM — I have always wanted to be Pico Iyer: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pico_Iyer
Both of those things fit the personality. But don’t you see how the law degree would support them … and how they could both be done at once?
And how that could all happen while I was doing my real law job, the salaried one for the foundation I’d work for?
None of this is unrealistic although if I’m going to do it, I should really do it.
Wait, how many simultaneous jobs there? Are you sure about the unrealism? Maybe queue some of these ambitions so as not to run ragged chasing too many dreams at once? Or am I just being defeatist? (Or, is that you are not? If so that’s probably good? Yes more questions, sorry…)
OK, here’s how it works. If I were another person, without my background and interests, but with the personality above and the language skills I have,
the way to be a translator/interpreter that would hold my interest would be to be a NEGOTIATOR. This, I claim, could even be a consulting gig now, if I would stop being depressed and get business cards, put contacts out for it. It’s not something I’d love to do, but something I’d do for money. It is interesting in that it does fit the personality profile that came out, above.
Law/journalism. This is a classic combination in Latin America. One of my othr idols, for instance, because he has one of my fantasy jobs, is a law professor / legal researcher at UNAM who also works on the side writes in major periodicals, on issues of the day.
I don’t have anything to add to this discussion except I love Pico Iyer and always wanted his job. ‘Falling off the map’ is my favorite travel book! Good luck with your pursuits.
Stringer
I also want to be Pico – that is, have his situation. And to think, he was in my little brother’s swimming class when we were 10! 🙂
By the way, I found your blog through that thread at Clarissa’s. I’ve been looking around and came across a Professor Longhair song and some assorted mardi gras posts. You probably have heard of it but in case you haven’t, there’s this wonderful HBO show about New Orleans music culture that you might like. It’s called ‘Treme’ and it’s by David Simon, creator of ‘The Wire’, another show you might have heard of.
It’s probably not the right thing to do since you seem to have a lot of things eating up your time, but I had to mention it.
Can you believe it, I live in LA and have not seen Treme? It’s supposed to be great and I’ve been in person to a lot of the places in it — I should start watching Netflix (I don’t have TV) and catch up. I’m slightly afraid to watch due to the possibility of overwhelming nostalgia…
I think it’s pretty cool to be be connected like that to a great movie or TV show. Like you said, you get to recognize all the places you’ve been to, remember all the great food you ate and the music you listened to. Awesomeness all over!
You’re lucky. They film ‘real housewives of orange county’ where I live.
I’m from Santa Barbara. When I moved to Louisiana and all the shows on tv were the same as in [the rest of the US] I realized how weird my experience was, having the tv shows filmed more or less where you live. For me, tv always did have real life landscapes and I somehow expected each place to have its own shows!
Most attempts to capture Louisiana on film fail miserably. People don’t try — the accents are from Georgia, and parties in New Orleans are Cajun boucheries, and so on, it’s completely messed up. Treme is supposed to be better. I think, though, that I should watch it *in* New Orleans. Watch it until 10:30 or so and then go out. Back when I lived there and commuted up to these parts, I’d work up to the 10 PM news, see the news and then go out for the first set. If you leave after that you put a nice end to the workday and are still home early enough to get up in the morning.
It’ll be nice to have someone who’s local to the place comment on the show because sitting from where I am, the show looks pretty fucking authentic. I do have faith in David Simon, though.
OK, I’ll watch it so I can tell you what I think — I’m motivated now! From trailers and clips and so on it does seem seem quite real.