Career Options 2009

Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Are you threatened by a potential job-loss? Recently I had an opportunity to speak with a woman who loss her job. She had been in the retail business most of her adult life and benefited from the base salary and the commissions received from sales. There was never any doubt that this would be her lot in life, until unemployment made her think, perhaps life would deliver an alternative.

I met this woman just after the demise of her job. She was still fairly hopeful and upbeat and wanted to look at another career field, but really did not know how to do about it. We met through a mutual friend and ran into each other at the Farmer’s Market. She asked if I had time for a cup of coffee and so we drove to a local coffee shop in Cary for a chat.

As we talked about her future and mine, she started to talk about all those dreams from yesterday. She wanted to be a nurse, then a designer, then she finally settled on cake decorating, something she thought she would be great at since taking a Wilton Cake Decorating class. We talked more about developing this cake decorating “business” so to speak, and she decided she would give it a try.

Last week I received a call from my cake decorating friend who started with customized Christmas cookies and miniature cakes. She sent me a photo of one of her cakes and it was beautiful. She is officially on her way to a promising future while collecting unemployment and looking for another job in retail.

I share this story because it may help someone struggling with finding their way in a most unpredictable economy. The woman I spoke of looked to her gifts, something we often take for granted. It might be carpentry, jewelry making, can you sew, paint, is pottery your thing? In this world of Internet searches, Wii and online gaming, it may be time to get back to the basics a turned to our natural God given gifts for answers to our economic and emotional well being. Share your gifts, it might just provided a way for you to earn some much needed extra income?