OT: Your Work Status: Apocolypse Now/Heart of Darkness

[Dr. Doofus]

doof got to thinkin today

doof had some hopes comin into this school -- get the IB position, get Teacher of the Year, be a player

didn't turn out

doof is not really prime material here -- if you're nice you call him a talented curmudgeon, if you're truthful you call him an arrogant a-hole.

not really with the team program. comes to the boss with ideas. here, the ideas are supposed to come to you.

so

just taught Heart of Darkness, just watched Apocalypse Now.

it all made sense

doof isn't the guy you want representing the school as teacher of the year;

doof is the guy you send up river to off the errant middle school principal.

so who are you?

[Serpico]

the documentary Hearts of Darkness (which chronicles the making of Apocalypse Now) is almost as good as the film itself--never read the Conrad book myself

[Ginger]

I've been contemplating this myself lately...No, Not about you doof.

Have I noticed correctly that every year or so we get a job dissatisfaction "what am I doing with my life" thread going? How many people have picked up any of the information and worked with it at all? Any improvement? Any major changes? Any sucess?



leave spelling for the editors.

[Dr. Doofus]

doof is satisfied

doof would be like this anywhere

he's just a ghengis madeline khan kind of guy

[Moveitfred]

Moveitfred is the narrator: an insignificant framing device.

[Bill Bove]

I saw the movie while TDY with the First Cav. It was wierd.


Charley Don't Surf!!!!

[mdeeds71]

Actually was one of those that go up the river with a 12 man team to off some target...Now I just fly an airplane and try not to off myself and passengers.

[dbrk]

Let's start with the fact that I have, according to Money Magazine, the second best job in America. Yes, I am a tenured professor (beyond promotion) at a private research University and have been there for twenty years. I've done everything they've asked, passed the publish or perish litmus tests, and won their teaching awards. I _know_ I am a fortunate guy. After all, this has been going on a long time. As I have said, I thank my lucky stars that I don't have the best job in America because that would be just too much to live up to, I couldn't stand it. You mean THIS is it? Happy to be second best...

But here's the rub. About ten years back I realized that This Really Is It. All There Is. If I wanted something better, more, different, or other I had to create it. Moving to a more "prestigious" job inside the University or at another place is not More except hassle and time. No one should ever confuse working MORE with working Better. So I changed everything about my career. I got involved with adult learners in the yoga community and this weekend, for example, I'm in California teaching a seminar to grown ups who want to learn. I co-founded a new journal this past year (try this: matrikayoga.com) and finally I wrote a book (now in press) for more than me and the five folks who have read the originals in Sanskrit. In short, I have ticked off my colleagues but made myself a new and interesting second career. (And a third if you allow me what roll I play in conceiving some bikes for Tournesol and writing webcopy and other stuff in the bike industry, but that's not for money, just for love...) The reason my "straight" academic colleagues are not too pleased (though they say nothing really to my face and can do absolutely nothing about it) is because I am having a blast, writing, thinking, and using my scholarship to broaden the definitions of "worthwhile contributions" and I make an extra nickel doing it. Many traditional academics think that if you make any money (and really it's not that much) doing anything other than "serious scholarship" you have sold your soul and are no longer a real player. This is certainly what historians think/thought about folks like Ambrose, Tuchman, and others who wrote "popular" histories. So because I have taken what little I know about yoga and its sources and have tried to bring that to more than an academic audience I am a "sell out" and the work is not "as serious" as it "should be." But for me it's not the money (though I don't dislike a bit more, why should anyone?), it's that I'm far happier doing this more creative work and it has made the usual academic work of the University (classes, committees, and scholarship) actually much, much better.

So to doof I say, brother, find something you love _inside_ the realms of your already cultivated talents. Having realized that my job was losing interest, I took my interests into another realm where they might be used differently. We don't necessarily need another or different career (though that's fine too) so much as we might take what we know we love to do and find a way to apply it elsewhere.

Just a too long as usual thought.

dbrk

[eddief]

my career attention span is about 4 years. so i've had a number of sort of related careers:

BA Environmental Studies
Elementary Teaching Credential
Bar Tending Certificate
Sold mirco computers to small business
installed them, taught people how to use them
managed a technical support staff
dealt with big tech vendors for computerland corporation
did a switcheroo to become a training and develpment specialist (soft skills)
got a Masters in Management
got out of corporate life
became a certified life coach (whatever that is)
became a self employed career consultant
taught doctors how to use a computerized medical records system for big HMO
this week became the practice manager for 100 year old 60 person veterinary hospital
I am up to my butt in aligatore at my new job. Fortunately I have no children and no ex wives to support so if this does not work out I know I have the skills to do something else or could be quite skilled at retirement.

So much money and customer service leaking out of the vet practice there is nowhere to go but positive. And it will be interesting to see if all the previous things will allow me to be successful.

The commute is the shortest ever and the animals and their owners need us so badly. Like dbrk I have no colleagues about whom I give a crap. This is simply my gig to win lose draw.

[Bud]

I think you can be the guy they send up the river to take care of the unmentionable business and still be recognized in other facets (such as teacher of the year, etc.) At the risk of sounding like a self-promoter (what is there to promote- I'm a damn grad student at the age of 35!), in my last teaching job before entering the doc program, I was the AP physics teacher, department head and teacher of the year. I took chances. I bucked the much more senior folks (often dead weight, imho) in order to get stuff done. But I did it in such a manner that it went unnoticed by many (purposefully).

I see my academic career much the same way. Dbrk's post got me thinking about that. I don't see my work outside of the accepted currency (publishing in top tier journals) as a fully separate identity. I think you can be Kilgore and Willard if you want. Certainly one identity will predominately be seen by others, but you can make what you want of your other identities.

I voted Willard in the poll- perhaps that's what I want to be seen as. However, my outwardly visible identity is probably more akin to Kilgore.

The bottom line is that I'm quite happy with my position in life right now, no matter what my identity is perceived as.

btw- everyone should read Heart of Darkness before watching Apocalypse Now (which is my favorite movie). Conrad is a great author.

[Ozz]

...Conrad is a great author.
wasn't english his second language?

[xlbs]

English was his second language.

He also had his wife chain him to his desk for his writing day so that he would work...Perhaps that would help me to do my job, since this thread is also about working.

This is my 7th career, and looks like it will stick.

[Kirk Pacenti]

summed this up nicely for me.

"Well you're in your little room
and you're working on something good
but if it's really good
you're gonna need a bigger room
and when you're in the bigger room
you might not know what to do
you might have to think of
how you got started in your little room"

[PBWrench]

Arrogance is sometimes underated as a survival skill.

[Larry8]

Decent movie better novella. Turn off the TV, go for a bike ride then read a book. Just my 2 cents.

Larry8