For the last two weeks, I’ve shared with you my insights and reflections on this past year off of work. I looked at how I’ve explored the nine careers on my list and my updated thoughts on those potential paths. I also reviewed the various methods I used to explore these new fields and how effective I found them.
Well, enough of looking back. Let’s take a glimpse into the future!
And yes, there is a future for this sabbatical. As I’ve mentioned in many of my previous posts, the baby news immediately changed my plans. What was originally going to be just a year off to dedicate the majority of time, energy and focus to exploring new careers will now be an even longer period of time where I’ll need to balance this exploration with … oh, you know, keeping a tiny human being alive.
So, I’ll get something straight now: this post is not going to outline a strict and specific plan and schedule for the future of my sabbatical. That would be impossible!
It’s hard to know how the baby is going to affect my time, energy and mental capacity for career exploration. I may be able to balance the two easily. Or I may find that — for a while at least — I need to pause my exploration entirely to focus on the baby. And yes, I may even discover that for financial reasons, I have to put my sabbatical on hold to go back to work full-time for a little bit.
For now, I want to use this post to lay out the things I’d like to focus on in the upcoming months, but with the awareness that all of this could drastically change once the little guy comes into my life.
Revisiting the List
Since January, the majority of my career exploration time has been dedicated to interior design, with content creation being a close second. In fact, as I discussed two weeks ago, I’ve really only touched about half of the careers on my list.
Well, I think it’s time to move on and start exploring some of these other fields. The two I want to focus on are both related: theater administration and acting.
Theater Administration
I figure that starting with at least some theater administration experience is a good way to be exposed to the role of a Theater Executive or Managing Director. Whether it be paid or volunteer, the work would likely need to be part-time only and flexible with hours and location.
I could see myself easily being able to take on part-time marketing and fundraising work immediately, given my past jobs. Eventually, I would want to also get experience on the operations side of things (contracts, budgeting, etc.).
I’ll keep my eyes open for part-time and volunteer opportunities at my local theater companies.
Acting
As I’ve written about before, I continue to act for fun. But it’s time to really start treating this as a business. Some things I want to achieve in the upcoming year:
- Getting new headshots and finally building my acting website
- Talking to peers who have ‘gone Equity’ or regularly get commercial and other paid work
- Exploring resources and workshops on the business side of being an actor
- Researching the advantages and process of getting an agent
- Dedicating some of my audition and training time to paid work rather than just passion projects
Adding to the List
There may be some new careers I want to look into. Yes, that’s right. Despite the fact that I already have nine careers that I planned to explore, I may be adding to that list! To be fair, I’ve already all but eliminated some of the original nine.
And the thing with this type of exploration is that you never know what you might discover. It can open your eyes to paths you never thought of (such as podcasting) or it can uncover opportunities you forgot you had once considered.
Public Speaking Coaching
One career, in particular, that had once piqued my interest but that I had forgotten about was public speaking coaching.
When I worked at Facebook, I had the opportunity to attend a free, all-day workshop hosted by Own the Room, a company that provides communication and presentation training. I really enjoyed the workshop and remember thinking throughout the day that the coaches leading the training must have a really enjoyable job.
But, of course, this was at a time when I still had those pesky demons like Doubt and Pessimism whispering in my ear. I immediately talked myself out of pursuing this type of work with excuses like how the job would likely require a lot of out-of-town travel and thus conflict with my theater activities.
Now, in retrospect, it’s so silly that I didn’t pursue this type of work more. In my past jobs, when asked to list the elements of my role that I most enjoyed, I consistently identified presenting and training/teaching as the top tasks.
So, I’m adding this one to the list. I think I’ll start by researching companies that focus on this type of work and exploring their qualifications for being a coach. Then, it might be a matter of starting a conversation with people in the field.
The Road Ahead
As I look to the year ahead and possibly many years ahead, I need to remind myself of something that I said at the very beginning of this sabbatical: The plan will change.
Little did I know then how very true that statement would be. And I think having that mindset allowed me to be so flexible this past year with my exploration. I’m determined to keep this same mentality. I need to remember my destination — finding a professional path I’m passionate about — but know that the road (or roads) getting there will be winding and unpredictable.
