1/8/09 Aptitude Tests and Flextime For Serial Killers

I know you guys are absolutely drooling in anticipation of the next installment of "As my unemployed world turns", and want to hear all about my marathon sessions of reading things like What color is your parachute? and Do what you love, the money will follow, right?

I mean, what could be more enthralling than knowing that I spent most of the day today scouring the Internet, reading job search articles and taking free aptitude tests (some of which appear to be much better than others, let me tell you). Like that Career Explorer on Projectcareer.com is okay, even if they do make you fill out a profile and sneak in offers of online education programs before your results. Others, such as Livecareer.com, ask you to choose which career you would enjoy most and least out of a groups of three. That wouldn't be bad except that the choices are things like "Raise chickens, serial killer, or IRS auditor". Now, certainly no offense to chicken farmers and serial killers, and especially no offense to the IRS auditors (whom I hold in the highest regard possible so no need to even think about auditing me, thank you very much) but I don't really want to do any of those things. So you can see how difficult it is to mark one as most enjoyable.

Although now that I think about it, at least serial killer offers flexible hours. You can't underestimate these things.

Ignoring the chicken-raising-serial-killer-auditor option, most of the tests tend to agree that I should be in either marketing or some form of writing (most often journalism or technical writing). So off I went to the library to pick up roughly a bajillion titillating, edge-of-your-seat thrillers with titles like Careers in Marketing and So You Think You Want To Be A Technical Writer. (I also picked up So You Think You Can Write A Novel, because sure, part of me would love to write a book even though everybody wants to write a novel, and really, how many of us really ever do it, much less make a living out of it?) But I am not deterred, because somewhere out there is my dream job, and I'm going to find it. It may be marketing, it may be blogging, it may even be instruction manual writer for toaster ovens. I'm just not sure yet. But I'll find it, because life it too short to be stuck doing something you hate. I will find my passion.

Even if it turns out to be a chicken-raising-serial-killer-IRS auditor.