After 40 years it’s nice to finally discover what I want to do with my life. I’ve gone back to school to become a minister/chaplain. The problem with that is getting a BA, then getting a masters degree and then completing an internship will probably take 10 years or more before I finally get a job. Being a man approaching his 50th birthday, I just don’t know if that is practical. I have retirement to be concerned with. Do I, or should I, wait to get a job when I’m 60 – 65 years old? I don’t want to end up being a Wal-Mart greeter ’til the day I die.
I took an online assessment which helps determine the right jobs for you and the wrong jobs for you. The results are pretty much in line with similar tests I’ve taken in the past so I do think it’s valid. If you are interested here’s the link to MAPP Assessment
Wanting to be a minister, I was pleased to see it was at the top of my list. Thinking It may be wiser to choose something else, I looked at the other jobs it recommended for me. Sadly I’m not too thrilled with the other options. Here, in no particular order, are some of the jobs that the MAPP Assessment determined were good jobs for me:
MINISTER
SECRETARY
MODEL
FASHION DESIGNER
BUS DRIVER
USHER
BIKE COURIER
TAXI DRIVER
TRAIN ENGINEER
VOLUNTEER SOCIAL SERVICE
LIMOUSINE DRIVER
DATA ENTRY
So there’s a partial list. Between driving a bus, riding a bike, a train engineer, driving a taxi, or driving a limousine, it seems to think I like being on the road. And why the hell does it think I want to volunteer for Social Services, rather than getting a paid position? I will admit I’d love to be a model if I looked like that guy. Oh hell, even if I wasn’t a model I’d still love to look like that guy.
Needless to say, I am not thrilled with any of these jobs, whatsoever, other than the ministry. This is not a decision I absolutely need to make right away because I am only working towards an AA degree to then transfer to a four year college. However, there are benefits to stating a job goal due to assistance I would receive from LA County. The amount of assistance I would receive would be based on what job goal I’m striving for and whether or not they determine if there is a need.
For now, I’ll just stay the course and will continue to work towards my AA degree. As I stated last week, my doctor has only approved, for now, for me to take one class each semester. Hopefully I’ll reach the point that he’ll allow me to go full time within the next year. Otherwise, it’s going to be a long haul to graduate by taking only one class at a time.
Maybe I can be a taxi driving minister. I could conduct service while I drive people to the airport. I could even officiate weddings along the way. It may sound silly, but at least I’m thinking outside the box.
Are you working your dream job? If not, what would you rather do?
Congrats, on working towards your dream job! When i was in high school my dream job was to be veternarian (spelling?) but i was told by my guidance counselor i wasn’t smart enough to go to college. So i went to tech college studying to become an electrical engineer, but i got sick and had to drop out 3 or 4 courses short of graduating for my associates.
Your guidance counselor told you that you weren’t smart enough? What a horrible thing t say. Are you working now? I’ve been on disability for several years now.
No unfortunately i’m not working now, i wish i was to be honest. I’m on disability too. I’ve been getting pressured from my partner’s father for me to get back to work, so i’ve been looking but i don’t honestly think i’m ready.
I understand, Cassie, Fortunately I’m not being pressured to go back to work, but I’m honestly not ready yet. Both my therapist and my pdoc agree. I hope you find a way to get him to stop pressuring you. Maybe a NAMI workshop would help.
Career is never something that I could settle on. But I do have a job that I don’t mind in circumstances mainly under my control, and that’s the bestest. 😀
When circumstances are that you are left alone to do your job is a nice luxury.
And don’t I know it, especially after the cubicle farm that I was in before that! I’m not sure I’ll ever recover an ability to be near phones after that. ><
Bradley, that’s quite a broad and diverse spectrum of possibilities.. I’d stick to the minister idea. Both your heart and the test seem to agree on that one.
Yeah, my heart is telling me one thing and my head is telling me another. Today my heart is speaking the loudest.
Minister/chaplain sounds like a pretty good job to me. I don’t imagine the pay is great unless you’re a star televangelist, but you don’t have to deal with the drudgery of an assembly line. If you get an assignment in one of those grand, old churches the workplace can be visually stunning. And the job isn’t dangerous unless you’re confronted by a radical, fundamentalist atheist terrorist, but there aren’t too many of us around.
Maybe I should look into it. Just one question: Do you have to believe in God to be a minister or are the people in charge bigots who will hold my atheism against me?
Nope. You don’t have to believe in God to be a minister. I’m a Unitarian Universalist. We have two ministers at my church. One is an atheist and the other considers himself to be a mystic, which means he believes there’s something out there, but he’s not sure what.
Me, personally, I’m Buddhist, but have no interest in being a monk. lol
If I’ve totally confused you, here’s a recent post I did regarding being a UU:
http://www.howisbradley.com/what-i-believe-unitarian-universalism/
Thanks for the explanation via the link. I knew nothing about Unitarian Universalism. I, in principle, agree with its seven principles, although I still can’t see myself joining any church, not even one that doesn’t require that I believe in a god or gods.
Huh. The concept of an atheist minister of a church sounded so totally foreign to me that I was convinced I was joking. I guess I wasn’t.
Brad, I think committing to working on something for 10 years is totally cool. Admirable. I think starting a new career in ones 60s is cool too. Having just turned 50 what I can say is that I find really sad the idea of not working on what makes your soul sing NOW, or really darn soon. There are a lot of ways to minister to people. I’m betting your PUC friends could help you think of a number of avenues. Would you consider thinking outside the degree? Having just turned 50 this summer I’ve been thinking a lot about the nature of doing things “later” and frankly it just sounds crazy to wait and do something important to you.
You’ve brought this up before, Lora, and I must say I agree. Not an excuse, but it is hard for me to focus on a class and focus on other things at the same time. I’ve been involved in pastoral care at church and I could tell the Rev that I’d like to be again. There is also AA which I have not been involved as much as I should over the past few years. Helping a person to stay sober certainly falls under ministry as well.
It’s a lot to take in…and I will. This week I’m focusing on my speech class. Have a speech to do and then finals this week. I’ll be reflecting on things, of course, but this week it’s all about getting through Thursday.
Thank you, my friend.
Go for it!!! Srsly…just do it. I know it sounds cliche but follow that awesome heart of yours. <3
Thanks, Joonie, right now I am leaning towards my heart rather than my head.
Train engineer sounds awesome!
Part of my classes studying electrical engineering covered traction and more or less how to keep the trains running.
For example, in the whole normal power grid that we plug stuff into every day there is 50hz (at least in Sweden) but our railway system runs on 16 and ⅔ hz, which are accomplished by having a rotating transformer.
It was wicked cool class to take!
As a kid I really wanted to be a train engineer. It’s pretty high on my list of jobs I want, but it’s not the pinnacle.
My current job as a postman isn’t my dream job, That said it’s probably the best job I’ve had. I certainly find it conducive with my bipolar. I get exercise on the job & it’s outdoors. I found being cooped up in an office environment was not good for my mental illness. It took me 13 or so years to figure that out.
I could be a postman. I certainly wouldn’t hate it. I’d love to be outdoors all day.
I have no idea what I would rather do. I better take that assessment!!
As much as I don’t like the results, I think it is an excellent tool. I shouldn’t be shocked about the results because I’ve always worked in the service industry.