Career 3.0

When I went back to school, it was in preparation for a career change of sorts. When I was in High School, I was taking some Business courses since it interestd me. Adding a DECA membership to that, I found that I was even pretty good, qualifying to compete at the State level in Merchandising. I always felt that I'd be a pretty good fit in a Marketing capacity.

Turns out that I was always naturally good with computers, something about the way computers work is instinctual for me, and I ended up getting a job doing support for Windows 95 almost right out of High School. A few years later, and my career sort of got away from me. As an extension of my computer skills, I started in web development, and that evolved into a second career path, but still not quite what I'd originally seen myself doing.

At the UW, I've selected a total of three concentrations within the Business program, one of which is Marketing (the others are Management and Technology & Innovation Management, if you were curious). Last quarter we got a notice that a Kirkland-area marketing company was looking for an intern, and I decided to apply, since I needed a job with more flexible hours. It was only a 90 day internship, but I decided that maybe it would be work exploring the "path not taken".

So far, I absolutely love it, and since the company is small, I'm getting hands-on experience doing a lot of stuff that lets me explore my creative side. Their on-demand marketing solution has a lot of potential, which helps as well. They've offered to let me stay on through the summer, and while I don't know if this is going to end up being my next full-time job, I'm very pleased so far, and they seem pleased with my work.

So it looks like I might be embarking on a third career path. Will I ever end up in games again, which was my original goal when I decided to go back to school? Hard to say at this point, but I'm just trying to keep my options open, even if that's what derailed me to begin with.