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comment by TheGreatAbider16
TheGreatAbider16  ·  3212 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Do you use your powers for good or evil?

At first I thought this thread was going to vague question from Pablo! I plan to use my skills for what I would call good.

My skills are writing, rhetoric, and people skills. I'm finishing a degree in English and professional writing, and it probably goes without saying that I love to read and write.

I tried my hand at a professional writing position and spent a summer working for a marketing company. I was writing company blogs, product descriptions, social media posts, and filler text designed for SEO. I made good money there, and they offered me a full time position after graduation if I would keep the part-time job for the rest of my degree, but I declined. I learned that everything about marketing, sales, networking, and, to be honest, capitalism in general, feels slimy to me. I got to do a fair amount of networking and meeting with current and potential clients. I'm a very outgoing person, and I make friends everywhere I go. I thought that I would have no trouble applying to people skills to networking and business, but I was wrong. It all felt like such a charade in which everyone was just trying to turn everyone else into dollar signs. I found that while I'm great with people and love socializing, I have difficulty faking a genuine conversation if I'm not sincerely engaged. Nobody was getting hurt, and we did honest work helping the businesses (most of which were pretty local) expand their web presence and grow into bigger markets. But still, I couldn't get over the feeling that everything, at the end of the day, was about money. It felt terribly un-fulfilling and, to my taste, maybe a little bit evil.

So I am now training to be a teacher, and I'll be starting my official student teaching within a year. I am a private tutor to high school and middle school students on the weekend, and I work in the writing center as a consultant and teaching assistant at my university. It is very fulfilling work, and I believe in my ability to make a lasting difference in the lives of individuals, even though I know I'm signing up for a lifetime of underpayment and under-appreciation. I don't think I'll ever feel comfortable working for a corporation. A lot of people are perfectly comfortable working in that kind of setting, doing what they love, and making great money. More power to them! I kind of wish that I had the attitude. But since I don't, it's nice to not have a nagging feeling that I might be selling my soul, screwing someone over, or doing meaningless work.