Career Profiles

Reading career profiles of employees and entrepreneurs is a good way to explore vocations, especially if the person describing their work is willing to be candid about both the good and the bad things about their chosen path. If you are researching different fields and choices as part of a decision-making process to choose a new type of work, some questions to ask yourself when reading these interviews are:

  1. Am I willing to pay the dues required for entry into this field?
  2. Do I share the values of the people in this type of work?
  3. Will I like the type of people in this industry and/or area of functional expertise enough to spend many hours of my life with them?
  4. Are my interests, personality, and strengths a good fit with this choice?
  5. What would be the first steps required for me to choose or transition into this path?

I love talking to people about their work lives, so this page will feature the stories of people who love how they make a living.

 Interviews:

In addition to the career profiles above, I also wrote two series of articles that included career profiles:

1. I conducted a series of interviews with reluctant entrepreneurs who started successful companies after failed job searches. See Career Profiles of Reluctant Entrepreneurs.

2. For my “Ask A Career Coach” column, I responded to a reader who inquired about franchise ownership. I interviewed and profiled 11 happy franchise owners.