Monday, March 22, 2010

Are you the "Romantic" career type?

Growing up, Cherie received much praise for her intellect. When she graduated from college with a B.S. in computer science she was recruited into a rotational program in a reputable software company with a good paycheck. After working there six months, she attended a workshop about the “Career Within” given by Elizabeth Wagele and Ingrid Stabb in which she discovered the nine career types. She determined that hers was the “Romantic,” the person who loves authenticity and self-expression above all. Over the next few days she had trouble concentrating at work. She kept thinking about the part of herself that was artistically creative and began to long for a way to express herself in her work. At the end of the week she called her best friend to tell her she was starting to feel depressed. Her role within information technology seemed to lack meaning and she needed to talk about it. That Friday she couldn’t make herself go to work. Instead she made the chocolates that had become her passion to create and that she loved to give to everyone on birthdays and holidays. This cheered her up and brought her back to a sense of feeling alive.

In the career workshop she had learned that Romantics can be fearless in pursuing their hearts’ desires. Among their greatest strengths are their aesthetic sense and their imagination. Cherie realized she wasn’t expressing herself sufficiently. While she did use creativity as a software developer, she couldn’t make use of her excellent aesthetic sense in the way she would have liked. Cherie felt most happy when she was creating new chocolates. On weekends she invented imaginatively shaped candies and new recipes, tried them out on friends, and did research about how to start a small business. Eventually Cherie started selling her chocolates at the local farmer’s market on weekends. Business boomed from there to specialty grocers. Then she sold her confections on-line, using her web development abilities to further her marketing. Since then Cherie has quit her job. Now she is so successful she makes more money making chocolates and expressing her creativity.

Sound career advice for Cherie might be completely different from appropriate advice for you. Cherie was a Romantic, but what are the other choices? What career type are you? Check out a free career type quiz at www.careerwithinyou.com

1 comment:

  1. Wow... Thanks for joining. Never thought I would go from reviewing your book to you becoming a contributer to the blog. Welcome. Hope you enjoy being a part of what we are trying to do here.

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