Discovering Your Future Career

At some point in your life, you may have been asked, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” Has that changed since the last time you were asked that? Are you doing what you said you would do? Or are you lost and unsure of what to do with your life?

In today’s episode, I’ll be sharing my journey so far and how you can discover your future career, or dare I say, your life’s calling.

Listen on Apple Podcasts & Spotify.
Follow on Instagram: @myofferingtoyou.
Logo Art by Ella Apuntar. 

Transcript

Arlan | 0:11
Hello and welcome to My Offering to You. I am your host, Arlan Mendiola. I share my stories and reflections about life, in the hopes that it creates a spark, provides clarity, or even new possibility.

Arlan | 0:27
So at some point in your life, you may have been asked, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” Has that changed since the last time you were asked that? Are you doing what you said you would do? Or are you lost and unsure of what to do with your life? In today’s episode, I’ll be sharing my journey so far and how you can discover your future career, or even, dare I say, your life’s calling.

Arlan | 1:06
It’s spring time! Which means that folks are about to graduate from college. I always enjoy having conversations with students about their journey into post-grad life and pursuing their careers and passions. It’s both an exciting and stressful time. When you think about it, attending school from kindergarten all the way to senior year in college, that’s 17 years of your life. 17 years, where year after year, you knew what was next - school. But what comes after you’re done? Practically, anything and everything. And I know, that’s scary to think about and face with. You no longer have that structure or assurance/confidence of what will come next. It’s like those choose your own adventure books, where you flip to page 12 and continue on with your story.

Arlan | 2:05
Along the way, you wonder if you’re making the right decisions, of what’s best for you, your career, and your life. You might compare your journey to someone else’s. Seeing their own milestones they achieved to the ones that you haven’t had quite yet - getting engaged, buying a house, having kids, getting into graduate school, or even getting promoted. Whatever it may be, you may find yourself wondering at times, am I where I need to be right now? I often found myself wondering about that too.

Arlan | 2:49
The earliest I could remember someone asking me, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” was in kindergarten. I remember one of our assignments was to create a poster that outlines that job that we wanted to be. I remember saying that I wanted to be a judge one day. When I told this to my older cousin, they mentioned that I had to read a lot of books in order to become a judge. "Books, I don't want to read books. I don't want to be a judge anymore." And so that was the first dream that I let go of.

Arlan | 3:28
When I was a freshman in high school, I remember taking a career aptitude test. The most notable profession that stood out was something along the lines of being a psychiatrist or psychologist. I remember being apprehensive when seeing that result, as my knowledge and understanding of those professions was very limited at that time. If anything, the main thing I took away was knowing that I wanted to help others. In what career field, I don’t know. Maybe in counseling? Maybe in health or medical?
 
Arlan | 4:07
Senior year in high school came around and it was time to work on college applications. The problem was though, I wasn’t quite sure of what to put down as my proposed major. I even remember having a meeting with the school counselor to talk about my college applications. They asked me where I wanted to apply to. The only university I could think of was UCSF. They then proceeded to tell me that that was a medical school and that I could consider majoring in something pre-medical at a college somewhere else. I was of course embarrassed when this was pointed out, as I was going to be the first in my family to attend college in the U.S. I didn’t know any better. My parents couldn’t help either because my mother’s college degree is from another country. So she didn’t have the experience or familiarity to help support and guide me in this college application process.

Arlan | 5:07
When I was in college, I ended up majoring in Molecular Biology. The thing was though, I wasn’t a stellar student. I wasn’t used to the difference in academic rigor from high school to college. In high school, I was earning A’s & B’s. In college, I was struggling to grasp the concepts let alone pass my major classes. I just couldn’t get why this was happening. Throughout my life, the peers that surrounded me fed into the model minority myth. “Oh Arlan is Asian. So he’s smart. That’s why he’s scoring high. Oh Arlan, promise me that you’ll be on Jeopardy one day.” Uh, excuse me? Because of this narrative, this stereotype, I felt ashamed to seek out help, let alone have the courage and curiosity to explore a major that I could enjoy and excel in. It wasn’t until  senior year I was able to unpack all of this and understand what my experiences have been growing up as both a Filipino and Asian American. I wouldn’t form good study habits and practices to engage with my education until senior year. And so I graduated from college with a 2.8 GPA.

Arlan | 6:33
It was hard to navigate what it meant to graduate with this GPA, let alone pursue a career in a field that I wasn’t quite sure in anymore. Sure, I gained a foundational skill set from being a leader within my organizations. Which is a whole another episode in and of itself. I just wasn’t sure of how to connect those leadership skills with the knowledge that I gained in the classroom and apply it to my future.

Arlan | 7:03
It was through the relationships that I built within my student organization that got me connected to my first job post grad, which was working at a non-profit organization that was dedicated in preparing first generation, middle school and high school students of color for college. Not quite related to my bachelors degree, but there were definitely transferable skills that I could incorporate into this work. And I loved working there. I enjoyed being a mentor and a role model for these youth. Believing in their potential and aspirations. Being invested in who they and their families were. Being a support and resource for them. I was doing good work and making a difference.

Arlan | 7:51
In the second year with the non-profit, I found myself exploring what could be next. For context, my position was a contracted position for a certain period of time. It wasn’t guaranteed if there was going to be a full time position for me. So I had to think, what were my options? I was unsure if graduate school could be an option for me, what with my low GPA. So it just stayed in the back of my mind. Then came an opportunity. I learned that there was going to be a graduate school fair happening in the city, free to attend. I thought, why not? It wouldn’t hurt as it wouldn’t cost me anything besides my time. But I do remember going into it thinking, “I just want to get information. I’m not going to commit to applying to any program. Even though some of these masters programs are like my dream program to be in, I’m not what they’re looking for.” Little did I know, I was who they were looking for.

Arlan | 8:55
After working at that non-profit and having powerful experiences as a student leader and working with amazing staff, I started to wonder if I could pursue a career in higher education. For the longest of time, I felt pursuing a career in higher education was my dirty little secret. I thought that because I majored in biology, I have to do something biology related. Once I found myself working at that non-profit, I started to wonder even more whether it was possible to have a career in education, let alone in higher education.

Arlan | 9:32
And so I decided at that graduate school fair, let’s talk to these different higher education graduate programs. Let’s learn more about what it means to be in this career field. Throughout all of my conversations with the different recruiters, I found myself sharing my story. What it meant to be a student leader, fighting for my community and winning our campaign. Of working in partnership with our staff advisors and gaining broad support from other student communities and senior level administrators. Of working with my middle school and high school students in their preparation and pursuits of higher education. In sharing all of these different pieces of my story and my life’s journey so far, I found myself being affirmed and validated for these experiences. That the path that I took, was perfect for a career in higher education. That even though I was a biology major, I could make this career change and make this jump. For the first time ever, I felt comfortable and empowered to admit that I wanted to pursue this.

Arlan | 10:42
And pursued it I did. For the next two years, I went to graduate school. Learned more about the field, gained experience in different areas of the university, and formed new connections and relationships within the field. At the time of this recording, this will make it 8 years working in higher education or 10 years working in education as whole. And did I mention, by the time that I graduated from my master’s program, I graduated with a 3.99? I only had one A minus. That's why it brought it down rather than a 4.0. 3.99.

Arlan | 11:21
There have been so many twists and turns in my life’s journey so far. And yet, there’s still so much more to live and experience. I’m barely scratching the surface of this career let alone I’m still in the process of discovering what my life’s work will be. If anything, I’m constantly reminding myself to keep on dreaming and keep on working towards realizing my dreams.

Arlan | 11:51
I often share this a lot to graduating seniors. We are no longer living in our parents or even grandparents’ generations, where they work with one or a few companies or organizations for their entire lives. That’s not necessarily the case anymore. So I started to think about it like this. If you graduate from college at the typical age of 22 and work until the retirement age of 65, that’s 4 decades of your life working. That’s 4 decades of your life that’s dedicated to pursuing your career, passions, and dreams. So are you going to tell me that you won’t have multiple interests and passions during those 4 decades? What I find exciting about this time in our lives is discovering what we’re truly meant to do. You can call that your career or even your life’s calling.

Arlan | 12:51
Now, here’s a thought. What if your future career, the one that you’re meant to do in this lifetime, is something that you can’t even name quite yet? That right now, in this current moment, you don’t even have the words or language to describe it. Through the course of your life’s journey, you'll reside in and occupy different spaces and communities. You’ll meet new people that will provide new insight on what’s possible and share new words that can help you to start realizing what this future career might be.

Arlan | 13:41
Right now, you can’t envision what this future career might be because you don’t have the words yet to describe it. You don’t know what it will look like until you see it, until you arrive. That’s why I also think that perhaps, your future career may not be created just yet. Through time and circumstance, as the world changes, things will be put into place that will give birth to your future career, your life’s work and calling.

Arlan | 14:14
If you asked me when I was in Kindergarten, what I wanted to be when I grew up, I would have said a judge. At that time, I wouldn’t have been able to say anything remotely close to the work that I do now, whether as a higher education professional, mentor, or content creator. It’s through experiencing life and sharing your life with others, that you will gain clarity on what it is that you’re meant to do.

Arlan | 14:46
Here’s one last thing I want to offer to you. Instead of only thinking about “what do I want to be when I grow up,” how about you ask yourself this: “What problems do I want to be solving?” Answering that question can open new ways in viewing what is possible. It’s no longer limited to just a single career field or profession. So in the course of your lifetime and your life’s work, what problems do you want to solve?

Arlan | 15:27
Thank you for tuning into My Offering to You. If you appreciated what you heard and found value in it, consider following on Instagram at myofferingtoyou or even subscribing on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.  Until the next time, this has been Arlan Mendiola, and I’ll catch you, at the next one.