The Creative Career

My mom works at a junior high and asked me to guest lecture a 7th grade computer class to teach them a bit more about technology beyond keyboarding, YouTube and Addicting Games. If these students are any representation of the rest of the 12-year-old world, I have just learned some interesting insights.

• 100% of 7th graders are sure they know exactly what they want to be when they grow up (despite the fact that many of them will most likely end up in careers that don’t yet exist).
• 7th graders own iPhones (ok, just one that I knew of—but seriously? I may have owned a giga pet when I was in 7th grade)
• 7th graders are the centers of their own universes. I had them play around with trends in Google Insights for Search. The most popular searches? Their own names.
• If you don’t know what Runescape is (pronounced “Rune-Scape”), you are behind the times.
• Top news sources: 1. Parents 2. TV 3. Mainstream news sites
• Pirates are definitely cooler than ninjas.
• 24-year-olds are so old.

I received an alert late Wednesday that I was tagged in a meme passed along by Amber of amber-rae.com . The task is to share seven things about myself. Easy enough. I know me pretty well. So here are seven things that made me who I am in today (in one way or another).

1. In middle school, I learned to ride a unicycle. I rode it in local parades.
2. I have always loved musicals. In high school I was in 7 musicals: Grease (chorus), Fame (dancer), Singin’ in the Rain (dancer), Pipin (lead dancer, and I somehow managed to ride my unicycle in the show), West Side Story (chorus), Les Miserables (Eponine understudy and lead whore, my proudest moment) and Footloose (Rusty).
3. I was a summer camp counselor and outdoor education instructor, where I spent two summers living in the woods without a television or Internet. I became a certified archery instructor when I worked there.



4. I cheered for Michigan State’s co-ed team for football and basketball. I competed in a national partner stunt competition in Vegas, as well as team nationals in Orlando.



5. I gave the commencement speech when I graduated from the College of Communication Arts & Sciences from Michigan State.
6. I was one of four U.S. students selected to attend the Roger Hatchuel Academy during the International Advertising Festival in Cannes, France in 2007. I took that opportunity to travel Europe by myself, which was incredibly scary, but also inspiring.



7. I started dating my boyfriend after we started working on a group project together in a class called "Scripting for Web 2.0." Very geek.

Hey, in my industry, it helps to have a diverse background.

Now it’s my turn to tag some folks.

• Andy
• Nicole
• Jessica
• Laura
• Jess
• Erin
• Angie

As I understand, if you choose to participate, these are the "rules."

1. Share seven facts about yourself in the post.
2. Link to your original tagger(s) and list these rules in your post.
3. Tag seven people at the end of your post by leaving their names and the links to their blogs.
4. Let them know they’ve been tagged.

As I’ve started mentoring through my own match in Mentorship Connection, I’ve been helping my mentee prepare a stand out resume. One of the points we worked on was making the resume unique by showing personal accomplishments, rather than listing points that sound like a generic job description. This morning I came across this video from Fox Business that makes many of the same points.

If you’re preparing a resume to land an internship or job, take a minute to check this out. You can also subscribe to the Fast Track podcast in iTunes.

I moved to Chicago in July, 2007, shortly after graduating from college. Trouble was, while I was starting my life over and transitioning into full time work, most of my friends were still finishing college, or at least living the college lifestyle while they looked for jobs. I would get phone calls from friends on their way out to the bar late on weekdays, reminders that I was pretty much alone amongst my friends in my new career-oriented lifestyle. I imagine many winter grads feel the same as they begin their careers while their friends finish up back at school.

For those who go to college, the 21-24 age range can be especially tricky. It’s the first time that age really ceases to define your stage in life. After years of following a somewhat guided path through education, always having at least some idea or say in what comes next, everyone is scattered to the wind and left to figure out for themselves what comes next. Some move to new cities to start work (like I did), some move home, some start businesses, some travel, some get married and many take more time to finish school.

Coping With the Change

I’ve found two ways to cope with the life stage rift amongst my friends, and both take time.

1. Get out there and meet people in the same life stage as you.
2. Give your friends some time—many of them will get to the same stage you’re in sooner or later, and when they get there, you can be there to help them adjust to the changes.

I would have given anything to go back and join my friends in college during those first few months in Chicago—but now, a year and a half later, many of them have joined me here to start their own careers. Just give it time.

Photo Source: Hello Serjiy, Creative Commons