[Courses] [Careers] Michelle Murrain: Ch, Ch, Ch, Changes...

[Almut]

On Mon, Feb 21, 2005 at 10:21:03AM +1100, Mary wrote:
> A careers lesson from Michelle Murrain:
> 
> My career has been a strange one, in some ways, although it's pretty
> internally consistent if you know me. 
> (...)
>
> After doing technology consulting for 8 years, I've decided to do
> another change in career, in a completely different direction. At the
> same time as I was doing all of the research, programming, etc. I was on
> a meandering spiritual path, from being a religious fundamentalist, to a
> secular humanist, through paganism, settling in as a Buddhist and
> Unitarian Universalist. This path has, now, lead me to decide to enter
> the ministry. I'm going back to school in the fall to get my Masters in
> Divinity. It's way different, but it's also pretty consistent with who I
> am. I've always been committed to a life of service, and I'm deciding to
> be engaged in that in much more direct ways than I have been before.
> I'll always be a geek, but I'm ready for a life with more human
> interaction, more hands-on experience, and focus on the spiritual.


Be sure to let us know - after a few years have passed - in what ways
you have brought programming into this novel field of application :)

The step you've decided to take remotely reminds me of my then
wholeheartedly felt decision to fully switch to psychology, after
having spent my life as a rather hardcore techie up to that moment. 
I honestly had played with the idea of becoming a therapist...  but I
soon realised I wasn't really able to do this for a longer strech of
time, and that it would probably be wiser anyway to spare the world
from any attempts of mine at counseling ;)

But don't get me wrong -- I'm not intending to draw any implications
from the analogy.  I understand that there's an important difference
between us, in that you certainly have a clearer picture of what it
will be like, than I did have at the time...

Good luck!

Almut