When I was 7, I wanted to be a professional baseball player. I never missed a Braves game or a day throwing in the yard, even if it was high popups to myself.
When I was 11, I wanted to be a photographer. My dad gave me his Leica 35mm camera and I learned about manual focus and depth of field.
Before I got my first job, I had a list of careers I wanted to pursue. After I started working, I also had a list of careers I didn’t want to pursue. I think they call that the process of elimination.
When I was 15, I learned I didn’t want to be a landscaper. When I was 16, I learned I didn’t want to stock shelves or fill prescriptions. When I was 18, I learned I didn’t want to be a barista. And the lessons continued well into my late 20s, with each job honing my interests and building my skillsets.
I started working when I was 12, and in 32 years of employment, I’ve had 22 jobs.
Each one mattered.
Our experiences change us. As we try and do, we grow and learn, and that is especially true professionally. In the important pursuit of discovering our professional calling, there are few things as important as trying different things.
Here’s one hack – start trying early, when the stakes are almost nonexistent. I learned most of what I didn’t want to do by doing them, from the age of fifteen to twenty-one. That was before I owned a home, before I was married, or had any major responsibilities.
My First Big Purchase
My motivation to work started the day I saw a 1993 forest green GT mountain bike. It had 22-inch wheels, knobby tires, and a RockShox front suspension. As soon as my hidden stack of cash added up to $350, my dad took me to the local bike shop.
The work I did at 12 to buy that bike is not the same work I do today, but it planted the first entrepreneurial seed.
Here’s a look at my 32-year CV:
Middle School:
- Door to Door Salesman of car washes and homemade crafts
- Baseball card shop owner (above my garage)
High School:
- Landscaper
- Warehouse Stockboy
- Pharmacy Tech
College:
- Barista
- College Radio DJ
- Local Newspaper Journalist
- Fast Food Line Cook
- Fast Food Cashier
- Hotel Maintenance
After College:
- Marketing Coordinator at a Publishing Company
During Graduate School:
- Registrar Assistant
- Homeless Outreach Ministry Assistant
After Graduate School:
- Youth Ministry Intern
- Children’s Pastor
- Associate Pastor
- Social Worker in Counseling
- Blogger for Product Reviews
- Website Builder Platform
- Marketing Agency Co-Founder
- Adjunct Marketing Professor
I will likely retire doing jobs #21 and #22.
We all know our experiences shape us, but there is also a compounding effect of our experiences. They build momentum and lead to the next opportunity.
Each job has prepared me for what I do today. Whether it’s the creativity and freedom of being a young entrepreneur, the hard work and early rising of a landscaper, the focus on getting to the most important point as quickly as possible as a journalist, or the ability to serve and lead people through social work and ministry. Each role prepared me for what I do today.
5 Things I Learned While Working at a Young Age
When I think back on my childhood, I am so thankful my parents didn’t buy me that bike. We were middle class, and they could have financially supported my hobbies and my high school needs of eating out, putting gas in my truck, and paying for clothes and shoes. But they chose to put that responsibility on me, and it shaped who I am today.
Working my way through high school and college taught me so much.
- The overall value of money. I learned what things cost, how to prioritize purchases, how to save, and how to make my money last until the next paycheck.
- What I enjoy doing and what I don’t enjoy doing, including the actual job as well as the environment. While I liked landscaping, I didn’t like working outside for 12 hours in the 100-degree Georgia summer.
- How to balance school, work, and a social life. This has been invaluable as my responsibilities have grown. Learning to balance time when you have a few things on your plate is helpful for when that plate gets full. Think work, marriage, home ownership, and children.
- Learning what matters most – the pay or the duties. Early on, I had jobs I hated that paid well and I had jobs I loved that didn’t pay well. Working so many jobs at a young age taught me how to find the right balance, with the goal of finding a job I loved that also paid well.
- Hard work benefits you and your employer. I’ll be honest – I had jobs where I did not give anywhere close to 100%. As I look back, that was stealing from my employer, but it was also stealing from myself. As I matured and began taking pride in my work, I realized how satisfying and fulfilling it is to work hard at something and to go home each day satisfied with your effort.
Where Do You Start?
If you’re young in your career or currently raising a child who is nearing work-age, here are a few ways to get started on the path to discovering your career calling or helping them do the same.
- Work a job in high school – I know these are busy years with sports and social lives, but that makes this decision even more valuable and the lessons even richer.
- Volunteer at organizations that are important to you – you can’t always find a job that aligns with your interests, but you can get your foot in the door by volunteering.
- Seek out 2-3 internships while in college – this is a great time to seek out internships that relate to your major. One of two things will happen – you’ll learn you don’t want to do that as a career, or you’ll find that you love it, and you’ll gain great experience and improve your resume.
- Join industry-specific clubs – this is a great way to hear from leaders in your future industry, get to know college peers with the same career aspirations, and deepen your relationship with professors who may be able to assist you when it comes time to apply for jobs.
- Shadow industries you’re interested in – if you have a mild interest in a certain career field, start by shadowing. You won’t learn as much as you will by volunteering or interning, but it’s an easy way to learn more about the field.
- Talk to 5 people who do what you want to do – whether it’s a call or a visit to their office, this is a great way to learn what it’s like. You can see the environment, ask about their job satisfaction, and learn about their day-to-day responsibilities.
- Practice and get comfortable networking – the more practice you gain communicating with relative strangers in a professional environment, the more comfortable you’ll be. For most careers, some networking is required to advance.
- Earn industry-specific online certifications – there are a lot of great resources online that provide education and certifications. This is another way to further define your passions and improve your resume.
- Learn to set goals, starting with plans for 1, 5, and 10 years – this is an important practice for your professional and personal life. There are free tools online to assist with this, as well as planners and journals.
Finding your career calling is not a linear path. For most of us, you’ll have to work a handful of jobs you don’t love before you find it. During that journey, choose to learn from the jobs. Choose to view them as opportunities to become a better future employee, even if it’s a humbling, un-inspiring position.
I still remember cleaning vomit off the dining room floor of a McDonald’s in Daytona Beach, Florida and restocking feminine hygiene products while wearing a bright red vest at a K-Mart in my hometown of Macon, Georgia. Not my finest moments, but I wouldn’t trade them for anything.
So, get out there and try a few things!
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